1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [72]
Kovic, Ron (1946– ) Kovic was a decorated U.S. Marine, who served two tours in Vietnam and was wounded on January 20, 1968, sustaining a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Returned to the United States, he became a vocal antiwar activist, who was arrested a dozen times for political protest. In 1974 he completed a memoir, Born on the Fourth of July, which (using a screenplay cowritten by Kovic) became a movie in 1989, directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.
Kristol, Irving (1920– ) Kristol once described himself as a “liberal mugged by reality.” He was managing editor of Commentary (1947–1952) and was active in other liberal political journals as well as book publishing before becoming professor of social thought at the New York University Graduate School of Business (1969–1988). His political thought evolved during the 1960s into advocacy of a hawkish approach to the Cold War and a reduction of the welfare state. Most importantly, in contrast to earlier American conservatism, his neoconservative philosophy called for the active assertion of U.S. military power in foreign affairs. Neoconservatism has greatly influenced U.S. political policy, from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, who, in July 2002, presented Kristol with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Kroc, Ray (1902–1984) Kroc was a salesman and exclusive distributor for the “multimixer” milk shake blender. In 1954, he visited a multimixer client, a San Bernardino, California, hamburger joint owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald. The brothers developed an assembly-line method to make and sell a large volume of hamburgers, fries, and shakes. Impressed, Kroc licensed the McDonald format and name and, on April 15, 1955, opened the first of a planned chain of restaurants in Des Plaines, Illinois. By Kroc’s death in 1984, there were 7,500 McDonald’s restaurants—which had become an icon of “fast food” not only in the United States, but worldwide.
Lafayette, Marquis de (1757–1834) Eager to win glory as a soldier in a noble cause, Lafayette left his native France and arrived in Philadelphia in July 1777 to fight for American liberty. He was commissioned a major general in the Continental Army and established a close bond with General George Washington. He performed heroically at the Battle of Brandywine (September 11, 1777), returned to France and persuaded Louis XVI to send 6,000 men to fight immediately, then came back to America in April 1780 to take command of an army in Virginia. Lafayette was instrumental in bottling up Charles Cornwallis and his army on the Yorktown peninsula in late July 1780, which set Cornwallis up for the defeat that effectively ended the American Revolution.
Laffer, Arthur B. (1940– ) While serving as chief economist for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during 1970–1972, Laffer developed the idea that lowering tax rates would actually increase tax revenues by stimulating investment. He illustrated this with the famous “Laffer Curve,” a foundation of Reagan-era supply-side economics, which held that reductions in federal taxes on businesses and individuals would lead to increased economic growth. As for the reduction in social welfare programs such tax cuts might necessitate, supply-side economics held that the economic benefits to business and the wealthy would “trickle down” to the middle and lower classes as well.
Lafitte, Jean (1780?–1825?) Born in France, Lafitte settled in New Orleans, from which he operated as a smuggler and pirate, preying on Spanish shipping. Seeking a pardon for his illicit activities, Lafitte offered the services of himself and his men to General Andrew Jackson in defense of New Orleans during the War of 1812. Lafitte fought brilliantly, and the Battle of New Orleans (December 1814–January 1815) was a great American victory. He and his men were pardoned by President James Madison.
La Follette, Robert M. (1855–1925) Governor of Wisconsin (1901–1906) and U.S. senator (1906–1925), La Follette led the Progressive Movement, an effort to bring about large-scale