After refusing to let the KKK pocket US Treasury funds meant for the Stone Mountain memorial, Borglum was fired, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he fled through the Georgian night to cross state lines. Within six months of that escape, he was standing atop Mount Rushmore for its first dedication — bringing all his ambitions and contradictions with him.
Where this was said
At 36:20 · chapter starts 33:20
The question of whether Borglum was a white supremacist is one Davis handles with scholarly care. The letters are damning: virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Jewish rhetoric runs throughout. He was giving KKK leaders introductions to national politicians and advising on Klan policy. His friendship with D.C. Stevenson — the Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and the most powerful Klan figure in the US, later convicted of rape and murder — produced letters that Davis describes as 'terrible reading.' Davis's conclusion: Borglum was not an official KKK member and no evidence places him in a hood at a rally, but he was unquestionably sympathetic to the Klan's worldview and actively helped them achieve their political goals. Most damningly, his close relationship with Stevenson is entirely absent from Mount Rushmore's official narrative — as if those ten years of his life never existed.
Gutzon Borglum had a close relationship with D.C. Stevenson, the Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and most powerful KKK figure in the US at the time, writing him letters described as 'terrible reading' from a modern perspective.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
We use essential and analytics cookies to run Vuci. To understand how the site is used: Privacy Policy.
Install Vuci on your phone
Add it to your home screen for a faster, app-like experience.
Install Vuci on your phone
Tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”.
A new version is available
Reload to get the latest Vuci.