Benign Neglect Reconsidered

Abstract

My theme for discussing Professor Cooper's paper is prompted by the impending retirement of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Many may recall how he first came to broad public attention. In January1969, as an advisor to President-elect Richard Nixon, Moynihan wrote a memorandum concerning the course the new President should adopt toward race relations in the wake of the civil rights activism of the 1960s. Borrowing the Earl of Durham's 1839 suggestion for the British attitude toward Canada, Moynihan recommended that the new administration pursue a policy of "benign neglect."