''Ramparts'' was a glossy illustrated American political and literary magazine, published from 1962 to 1975 and closely associated with the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
political movement. Unlike most of the radical magazines of the day, ''Ramparts'' was expensively produced and graphically sophisticated.
Establishment
''Ramparts'' was established in June 1962 by
Edward Michael Keating Sr. in
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...
, as a "showcase for the creative writer and as a forum for the mature American
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
".
The magazine declared its intent to publish "fiction, poetry, art, criticism and essays of distinction, reflecting those positive principles of the Hellenic-Christian tradition which have shaped and sustained our civilization for the past two thousand years, and which are needed still to guide us in an age grown increasingly secular, bewildered, and afraid".
The founding location was an office space at 1182 Chestnut Street, Menlo Park, California. Edward Keating and his wife Helen (née English) personally financed the magazine. The early magazine included pieces by
Thomas Merton and
John Howard Griffin, but one observer compared its design to "the poetry annual of a Midwestern girls school".
Under editor
Warren Hinckle, the magazine upgraded its look, converted to a monthly news magazine, and moved to
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. It once occupied the historic
Colombo Building.
Robert Scheer became
managing editor
A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication.
United States
In the United States, a managing edi ...
, and Dugald Stermer was hired as art director.
Activities
''Ramparts'' was an early
opponent of the Vietnam War. Its April 1966 cover article concerned the
Michigan State University Group, a technical assistance program in South Vietnam that ''Ramparts'' claimed was a front for
CIA covert operations. For that story, ''Ramparts'' won the
George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. In August 1966, managing editor
James F. Colaianni wrote the first national article denouncing the US use of
napalm in that conflict. "The Children of Vietnam", a January 1967
photo-essay by
William F. Pepper, depicted some of the injuries inflicted on Vietnamese children by U.S. attacks. That piece led Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. to oppose the war publicly for the first time, and he offered ''Ramparts'' the sole rights to publish the text of his speech.
In March 1967, ''Ramparts'' revealed links between the CIA and the
National Student Association (NSA), raising concerns about CIA involvement in domestic issues. The CIA knew about the revelations in advance, and tried their best to limit the extent of the scandal. Nevertheless, financial clues led to further stories by the press, revealing CIA ties to groups like
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...
,
Radio Liberty and the
Asia Foundation. In the estimation of historian John Prados, the ensuing scandal "marked a sea change for the agency".
One of the magazine's most controversial covers depicted the hands of four of its editors holding
burning draft cards, with their names clearly visible. ''Ramparts'' also covered conspiracy theories about the
Kennedy assassination. The magazine published
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...
's diaries, with an introduction by
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
, and the prison diaries of
Eldridge Cleaver, later republished as ''
Soul on Ice.'' Upon his release from prison, Cleaver became a ''Ramparts'' staff writer.
The magazine's size and influence grew dramatically over these years. Moving to monthly production, combined subscriptions and newsstand sales increased from just under 100,000 at the end of 1966 to nearly 250,000 in 1968, a figure more than double that of the liberal weekly, ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
''.
Beginning in 1966, American authorities began investigating the magazine's funding, suspecting
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
financial connections. CIA Director
William Raborn asked for a report, and files were gathered on many of the editors and writers.
According to a book published in 2008, it was the first time the CIA had targeted a US publication, a violation of the
National Security Act of 1947.
[ The CIA failed to find communist ties.
The magazine also published articles written by Anthony Russo, one of the men involved in the leaking of the '' Pentagon Papers'', about the ]RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...
.
Decline
Despite its impressive circulation figures, high production and promotional costs made ''Ramparts'' operate at a heavy financial loss during the last years of the 1960s, with its operating deficit topping $500,000 a year in both 1967 and 1968. Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...
and a temporary cessation of production followed.[ The magazine's temporary shift to a biweekly format and an expensive trip to cover the ]1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...
led to financial instability, as did a drop in subscriptions. With a reduced budget and a smaller staff, ''Ramparts'' continued publication.
In 1970, ''Ramparts'' contributor Susan Lydon wrote "The Politics of Orgasm". The male editorial board first laughed at Lydon's proposed article, but she persisted. Upon publication, the article sparked widespread discussion of the fake orgasm, and it was later brought into the scholarly literature about women's sexuality. ''Ramparts'' editor Robert Scheer acknowledged "The Politics of Orgasm" as "one of our great articles."
In June 1972, the magazine printed the wiring schematics necessary to create a mute box (a variant of the blue box
A blue box is an Electronics, electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voi ...
). All sold issues were recalled or seized from newsstands by police and officials of Pacific Bell, causing financial loss to the magazine. The magazine ceased operations for good in 1975.
Legacy
Several former staffers went on to found their own magazines. Jann Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason founded ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' in 1967. Adam Hochschild, Richard Parker, and Paul Jacobs created '' Mother Jones'' in 1976. At '' Scanlan's Monthly'', editor Warren Hinckle paired Hunter S. Thompson and illustrator Ralph Steadman for what is widely regarded as the first example of Gonzo journalism. Robert Scheer later became a featured columnist in the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', edited the Truthdig website, and appeared on the NPR program '' Left, Right and Center''. Another ''Ramparts'' editor, James Ridgeway, was a senior correspondent in the Washington, D.C. bureau of ''Mother Jones''.
James F. Colaianni later represented the radical Catholic perspective with the books ''Married Priests & Married Nuns'' and ''The Catholic Left''. Three editors, David Horowitz, Sol Stern and Peter Collier, later denounced the left and became critics of liberal progressivism. For a brief time, the magazine's Washington correspondent was Brit Hume, now working for Fox News
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
. Former correspondent Eldridge Cleaver would continue his advocacy of black nationalism until his return to America from exile; from then on, Cleaver identified himself as a conservative Republican and Mormon. Sandra Levinson became a co-founder and executive director of the Center for Cuban Studies, and the founder and curator of the Cuban Art Space gallery.
In popular culture
* The magazine is mentioned in the 1999 film '' The Insider''. In the movie, Lowell Bergman, a former radical journalist with ''Ramparts'' magazine who later started working for the CBS, was played by Al Pacino.
See also
* List of underground newspapers of the 1960s counterculture
References
Sources
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External links
* Pam Black
''Ramparts''
''Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management,'' April 1, 2004.
* James DiEugenio
Warren Hinckle and the Glory that was Ramparts
''Kennedys and King'', September 6, 2016
* Daniel McCarthy
"A Fistful of Dynamite,"
''The American Conservative'', January 1, 2010.
* Jack Shafer
''New York Times Sunday Review of Books,'' October 8, 2009.
* Video
Ramparts Editors on CIA Activities
(aired February 14, 1967, KPIX)
{{Authority control
1962 establishments in California
1975 disestablishments in California
Defunct literary magazines published in the United States
Defunct political magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1962
Magazines disestablished in 1975
Magazines published in the San Francisco Bay Area
Monthly magazines published in the United States
New Left