On Tuesday, longtime conservative activist M. Stanton Evans died at the age of 80. For some 60 years, Evans was at the forefront of the conservative moment. His first piece was published in 1956. He was the author of the 1960 Sharon Statement of conservative principles drafted at the home of William F. Buckley.
He later played a key role in the creation of Young Americans for Freedom, served as head of the American Conservative Union, founded the National Journalism Center and the Education and Research Institute. He has been credited for reviving Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign which made a 1980 campaign possible.
Stan Evans was also a prolific writer. In the 1960s, he took on the growing concern of liberal indoctrination of college campuses “Revolt on the Campus.” In the 1990s, his book, “The Theme is Freedom” documented how political and personal freedoms are inseparable from freedom of religion and a society valuing virtue and morality.
However, one of his greatest passions was the fight against communism and telling the truth about the McCarthy era and the years that preceded it. His final two books focused on those topics.
In 2008, Evans published “Blacklisted By History,” where he endeavored to set the record straight on the red scare and the threat posed by communists within the U.S. Government before, during and after World War II. Below is my interview with Evans, shortly after “Blacklisted by History” was released.