Herschensohn: a Blunt-Speaking Senate Hopeful

One thing about Bruce Herschensohn, you know where he stands.

Reading that some Democrats in Congress had labeled the Philippine election a fraud even before the votes were counted, Herschensohn fired away at a forum in Orange County:

“So what if it was a fraud? Most elections in the world are. The last election in Mexico was a fraud. The opposition party never had a chance.”

More important, he says, is whether the Philippines--or any other country--is friendly to the United States.

Herschensohn was furious when Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston urged recently that the United States end military aid to Panama and Pakistan because they are military dictatorships:

“When Alan Cranston wanted us to drop support of President Thieu in South Vietnam, who did he think was waiting in the wings? Thomas Jefferson? No, it was President Thang, and now Vietnam is a chain of concentration camps.”

Life on the campaign trail with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn is never dull. But then, Herschensohn cannot remember ever having a dull day.

He says he found out in the fifth grade that his IQ was 203--and he’s been cruising at 100 m.p.h. ever since. Film maker, adviser to former President Nixon, popular public speaker and--more recently--commentator for KABC television and radio in Los Angeles, Herschensohn, 53, is a proud conservative whose serious, often scowling face disguises a man who can be very charming and who counts liberals among his best friends.

“Bruce is a highly intelligent man and a very hard worker,” said his good friend, former Democratic Sen. John V. Tunney, who used to debate Herschensohn weekly on KABC-TV. “We differ on a number of issues, but on a personal basis I think he is one of the most decent people you could ever find.”

Obsessed with facts--especially about foreign policy--Herschensohn has an elaborate, color-coded note-taking system that over the years has filled huge volumes in his Hollywood apartment.

“Every policy I have ever talked about in the past 20 years is in these books,” he said. “If there is a coup in South Yemen and I want to brush up on it, I go to my ‘Y’ book and it has all the stuff I wrote on Yemen--both opinion and fact.”

There is a pause before Herschensohn’s scowl breaks into a grin: “Of course, the facts and my opinion are usually the same thing.”

Most U.S. Senate candidates would probably have trouble telling you how many countries there are on the African continent. Herschensohn not only knows that there are 51 countries, he knows the names of their leaders. He also knows that only four of them are democracies, but that worries him less than where they stand regarding the United States.

“The bottom line,” he said as he campaigned around California, “is the preservation of the United States of America. . . . The question is not whether a government is right or left. The question is whether it is a friend of the United States.”

“Loyalty to friends--and to ideas--is very important with Bruce,” said longtime friend Kenneth L. Khachigian, a speech writer for President Reagan and Gov. George Deukmejian.

“If I wanted Bruce to join me in a political battle,” Khachigian said, “he would never weigh the consequences or ask why. He would just do it. He is exceptionally loyal.”

Credits His Parents

Herschensohn says the importance of loyalty was instilled by his parents. Born in Milwaukee, he grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a doctor. He lovingly recalls his parents buying him a typewriter and a movie camera and urging him “to be creative.”

After serving as a medic in the Air Force in 1951-52, Herschensohn chose to pursue a career as a documentary film maker rather than go to college. A strong supporter of the early civil rights movement, he made his first feature-length documentary, “God in a Strange Place,” about the events in the South.

He married his secretary, Bunny Domenic, in 1963, but they have been separated for years.

“She knew I am basically married to my work,” Herschensohn said of his wife, who lives in Washington and remains a close friend.

Dressed Up for Show

From 1978 until this year, Herschensohn got up at 4:30 every morning to begin preparing his commentaries for KABC television and radio. A special hookup with the radio station allowed him to deliver his morning commentary without leaving his apartment. Still, he says, he always shaved and put on a three-piece suit.

A wire-service machine clacked away in his apartment 24 hours a day.

“I had to muffle the bell so I could sleep,” he says, chuckling. “I’d be waked up by the bell and rush in there and think, ‘Oh my, a coup somewhere.’ But no, it was a storm in Kansas.”

Before resigning Jan. 23 to run for the Senate, Herschensohn delivered two commentaries a day for KABC-TV, enraging liberals and causing conservatives to deluge him with fan mail.

Fun for Liberal Critics

In a kind of perverse fascination, Herschensohn’s liberal critics love to cite their most loathed commentaries, including one delivered last August in which he assailed the imposition of sanctions against the South African government because of its apartheid policy.

“The Republic of South Africa is one of 47 governments on the African continent that is ruled by a minority government. . . .,” Herschensohn told his viewers. “What makes it unique is that we can see the minority with our eyes. Have you ever seen a demonstration against the embassy of Mauritania? Why should there be? One reason is that there are some 100,000 slaves in Mauritania. The reason the world doesn’t care about them is that although those slaves are black, their masters are not white. . . . It’s only ‘in’ to show outrage at something that has a clear black and white visibility. . . .”

John Severino, president and general manager of KABC-TV, said that Herschensohn’s ratings were “extremely high . . . and we are desperately trying to replace him.”

KABC and Herschensohn were criticized last year when Herschensohn remained on the air after he created an exploratory committee to consider the Senate race.

Like Other Candidates

Herschensohn responded that all the other potential Senate candidates were keeping their jobs, and he felt it would be unfair to say that only members of the media must give up their livelihood if they are considering running for public office.

Careful to describe himself as a commentator, not a reporter, Herschensohn often assails the news media, which he thinks is so liberal it cannot provide fair coverage of national and foreign events.

Herschensohn still blames the press for hounding Nixon out of office after looking the other way during transgressions by Nixon’s predecessor, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. Herschensohn was an assistant to Nixon from 1972 to 1974 and helped rally support for the President in the months before he resigned in August, 1974.

Another of Herschensohn’s favorite targets is the Soviet Union, which he describes as a backward country with nuclear weapons.

“Take away those weapons,” he says, “and a summit conference between President Reagan and Secretary Gorbachev would be as interesting as a summit between Reagan and the president of Botswana.”

So why, he insists, should anyone expect the Soviets to seek significant arms reduction?

‘Master of Propaganda’

Easily the best public speaker in the Republican Senate race, Herschensohn has been described by both admirers and critics as “a master of propaganda.”

It is a description that he gladly accepts when it comes to promoting the United States, which he did in the 1960s as director of the motion picture division of the U.S. Information Agency. He quit in 1972 after he set off a furor by calling former Sen. J. W. Fulbright’s foreign policy views “naive and stupid.”

Before joining the Information Agency, Herschensohn made a highly acclaimed film for the agency, “Years of Lightning, Day of Drums,” which was about President John F. Kennedy’s Administration and assassination.

Kennedy remains in Herschensohn’s pantheon of heroes, along with Nixon and Reagan. These men projected vision and strength, he explained in a recent interview.

Has Things to Do

Herschensohn says he has a vision too, and if he is elected to the Senate, “I have 23 points, 23 things I want to do.”

In the realm of foreign affairs, these include separating military appropriations from the rest of the budget process “so that national defense isn’t compared with Amtrak,” and repealing the War Powers Act because it forces the President to consult Congress before committing U.S. troops and, in Herschensohn’s view, puts the country at a disadvantage.

Herschensohn also wants “the United States out of the United Nations and the U.N. out of the U.S.,” because he is tired of watching Third World countries “gang up” on the United States.

“The U.N.,” he said recently, “was once described as a fire station on the world stage. Well, the fire station has been taken over by the arsonists.”

Sticks to His Guns

Although such statements may be a bit blunt for some Republicans, Herschensohn makes no apologies as he campaigns for his party’s Senate nomination.

“The one thing I want to have, above all, is a clear conscience that I haven’t conned anybody when I get to Washington,” he said over lunch at his favorite haunt, Musso and Frank’s grill in Hollywood. “I want to be sure that anybody who voted for me knew what I was going to do.”

While some of his rival candidates are dazzled by Herschensohn’s range on foreign policy issues, they charge that he has not thought out some of his domestic positions. Cited most often is his call for tax reforms, including revision of IRS forms that will “let you do your taxes in 30 seconds on April 15.”

Cranston Record Cited

Reminded recently that Cranston has trounced ultraconservative Republicans in the past, Herschensohn was asked if he too might not be clobbered if GOP voters pick him to run against the three-term Democrat in November.

“No, the United States has changed and so has California,” he replied. “California voted for President Reagan and Gov. Deukmejian and there is a whole new mood out there.”

Herschensohn has led some polls in Southern California and he is considered to be especially strong in Orange County, where Nixon will attend a fund-raiser for him Tuesday. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) has also helped him raise money.

Federal reports show that Herschensohn had raised $416,000 as of March 31 and had $57,000 cash on hand. He has spent $85,000 on radio commercials and hopes to air TV commercials late in the campaign. Herschensohn is his own biggest benefactor; he’s given his campaign $90,000.

Popular in Southland

Although he is virtually unknown in Northern California, Herschensohn is often swamped by admirers at Senate forums in the south. He smiles bashfully, signs autographs and listens to people tell him how much they miss his television commentaries.

“If you think you are an important personage, you never want to be around Bruce in a crowded room or an airline terminal,” Khachigian said. “I am fairly well known in the Armenian community and there were a lot of Armenians at Deukmejian’s inaugural back in 1983. I was standing beside Bruce and they started coming over. I thought it was to see me. But it was Bruce they wanted to talk to. They’d seen him on television.”

And if Herschensohn’s quest for the Senate fails, there is always KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

“We’d take him back in a minute,” Severino said.