Leonard Cohen Interview, October 4, 2019

INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:00:00.690 --> 00:03:04.800 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Haley Steinhilber interviews Leonard Cohen on the AU campus during the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969 on October 4, 2019. In this clip, Leonard Cohen introduces herself and shares his insights about majoring in political science and having a career in sales. SUBJECTS: 2019 Golden Eagles Reunion; Class of 1969

Alright, so today is October 4, 2019 and we're here at the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969. It's the 50th. And I'm here with ... would you please say your name?

Leonard Cohen.

Leonard? Hi Leonard. So would you mind just telling us about a memory that you have from the year 1969?

Sure. I'm really glad I went to American University. It was very good for my whole life basically. I studied political science. And I could summarize four years of political science with three words, "follow the money," because that's what it's all about. Who's paying for what just like Deep Throat and Watergate. Follow the money. It's always the money that's behind everything. Everything. The thug, Rush Limbaugh, the creepy cretin for the right. He's not that powerful. It's all the millions of dollars in back of him by right-wing facists that really is what's going on here. Without them he's a piece of dirt on the street that should be stepped on like a piece of dog shit. Anyway, so my education was very good political science and it came in very handy in my career.

Now my career was in sales. And you might say, well what does political science have to do with sales? Well, political science taught me to study, to understand things to study the right things, and to learn how to deal with people. That's the most important thing. Learn how to deal with people. I pride myself in that I could talk to anybody from almost any race, any ethnic background, any group, any color, any anything, and get along with them just swell. I get along with most people, mostly strangers, mostly. Strangers are the most interested, like, I can tell an interesting story, some of my friends, and if there's an interruption, like the phone rings. I used to just resume the chat after the interruption. And then I said, Well, what if I don't? What if I wait for them to ask me? Then what happened? They never do. You try it your... 95% of the time. Which means they don't really give a damn, they're not paying attention. What's important to you is not important to them. That's important to understand. Now, strangers on the other hand, are varient. For some of them, no one talks to them. So am I have really fascinating stories about my life.

INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:03:07.690 --> 00:05:25.220 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Haley Steinhilber interviews Leonard Cohen on the AU campus during the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969 on October 4, 2019. In this clip, Leonard Cohen discusses the Vietnam War and Nixon's invasion of Cambodia. SUBJECTS: Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Cambodia; President Richard Nixon; AU Professor Gary Weaver; AU Professor James Weaver; School of International Service (SIS)

You must have known the new AU building. Were you part of any protests in 1969?

Absolutely. Oh, that was a new building. And I forgot exactly what sparked [inaudible]. I think it was, yes, it was the invasion of Cambodia by Nixon. And we were all against the war in Vietnam. When he expanded it, it allows for Cambodia and didn't even tell people that they will deal with the American people will financing this. The wars being fought in their name. They were killing literally millions of Cambodians and Cambodian peasants, farmers who were doing nothing, nothing but they were getting killed by bombs and napalm. Becuase they had to live there. We invaded that country for those two years remember, because the Ho Chi Minh Trail went through those countries. So it was brutal.

There's a place called the Plain of Jars, which became a moonscape. Because so much tonnage of bombs dropped on the Plain of Jars, there was nothing left. They killed every single living thing. Trees, bushes, plants, animals, insects, people ... didn't matter. If you went to God, you went out ashes.

So that's why we took over that. And we had support from some of the progressive faculty, namely Jim Weaver, who has passed away. And Gary Weaver, who's passed away I think two years ago, was kept on by the faculty because his wife was very wealthy. And I think she was a donor. I'm not positive, but that was that was the story. So a couple years ago, my friend Hari and I partied with my roommate in senior year. He lived in Glover Park. It was called the AU ghetto because a lot of AU students lived there. Our rent was $96 a month for a one bedroom apartment. And they never charged us utilities.

INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:05:33.550 --> 00:07:05.690 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Haley Steinhilber interviews Leonard Cohen on the AU campus during the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969 on October 4, 2019. In this clip, Leonard Cohen discusses the Vietnam War and Nixon's invasion of Cambodia. SUBJECTS: Alcohol on AU campus; AU as dry campus; AU theatre; Cast parties

Were you in the University in Revolution class?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we took University in Revolution. And that was a very good class. And I think he got into some mild hot water because he brought in like Eldridge Cleaver, who was a revolutionary black guy at the time and the administration which was very conservative at the time, did not approve of that. Now when I came here in 65, it was a dry campus. It was run by the Protestants I think, or the Presbyterians. Now I was in the theater. And after every play... guess what, there was a cast party and to the cast party, everyone that was ever thrown the phrase BYOB, bring your own booze. So I have a literally a box of Nabisco chocolate chip cookies, pick out the whole bag and put my six pack of Miller in that and hide it in my dorm room. Because I can be kicked out. Then by the time I left, they put a bar in [inaudible] which I find hard to believe. I guess people are too busy smoking dope to bother with them.

INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:07:12.950 --> 00:10:37.370 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Haley Steinhilber interviews Leonard Cohen on the AU campus during the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969 on October 4, 2019. In this clip, Leonard Cohen discusses GI coffeehouses, in particular, the U.F.O. Coffee House near the Fort Jackson training base & police harrassment. SUBJECTS: GI coffeehouses; U.F.O. Coffee House, Inc.; Fort Jackson, SC (Army Basic Combat Training); Police harrassment

So, have I told you about the UFO?

I would love to hear about the UFO.

When I graduated, I went to Columbia, South Carolina to work in a coffee house that was there to support GIs Fort Jackson training base who were against the war (U.F.O. Coffee House). So we went I went there as a volunteer, no pay, little reward. By [inaudible] I mean like we tunafish that was 25 cents a can and I mop the floor, you know what the early every day I mop the floor because I like it, and at night on Friday and Saturday night there was a band called Speed Limit 35 there was a local hot band, and they would play for nothing for us, because they liked what we were doing. And I stood outside because the piece was too loud for me. And I collected $1 from each and every person in there. So that's how we earned some money. I put it in this front pocket. Now, one night, I go out back and we have a back door to the place I go with the back door. And there's a cop there. The cop tells me go back inside and I don't think authority to well. I just don't. So I came out I said, What are you doing? And he arrests me. He handcuffs me and throws me up against the wall. And like some people from inside [inaudible].

So they take me to jail and when they get to jail, they find all these $1 bills in my pocket. So they're sure they caught a drug dealer, but they don't find any drugs. They don't find any traces of drugs. So they put me in the cell, let's say overnight there. And when I wake up in the morning this orange still could see the orange on my bench. So and then a cop comes into interview me, and I say to him, I don't talk to flat feet. Get me a guy in a suit. A few minutes later a guy in a suit comes in. And I said, I have some advice for you too. Go out and buy yourself a box of Betty Crocker cupcake mix, because you're gonna need to have a bake sale for your next paycheck. Because the ACLU is gonna break it. Unless you got nothing on me. You know, this is all bullshit. You thought I was selling drugs. I'm the main proponent of no drugs and political environment because you're going to get busted. So he lets me go. So I walked back to the UFO and everyone there says, Lenny, what are you doing here? We just called [inaudible] to come up from Atlanta. And I said, I'm sorry, I talked my way out. They were disappointed that I wasn't in jail. But don't worry, come December of that year, that would still be 69, a few months after I graduated from this university. So, where was I?

INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:10:37.370 --> 00:10:46.970 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Haley Steinhilber interviews Leonard Cohen on the AU campus during the Golden Eagles Reunion for the class of 1969 on October 4, 2019. In this clip, Leonard Cohen discusses his life after being arrested for suspected drug dealing --- volunteering in Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade. He also discusses his wife, children, and grandchildren. SUBJECTS: Police harrassment; Venceremos Brigade; Cuba; Israel

So a few months after you came back to the university after UFO

So, after the UFO thing, we get six years and come back to the appeal and the prosecutor thing was John Ford like the film director John Ford, he says, you guys could just go. There's no appeal. And our attorney says, until duly convicted by rule they have to be duly unconvicted. He said, Son, and this isn't [inaudible]. Son this is South Carolina I can do whatever I damn well please. Now I want to tell you boys go out of state because if your're caught here doing jaywalking, you'll be in jail. So I went home for a few days, then I went to Cuba two months as a volunteer for what was then called the Venceremos Brigade, which were volunteers to work in Cuba, originally was to cut sugarcane. But we were the first brigade the fifth to build houses. So we did that and then came back in I started living with the woman who's been my wife for 40 some odd years, with three children, seven wonderful grandchildren, 4 of whom live in Israel.

And by the way, I think Israel gets a bad rap on these campuses. Israel is the greatest place you've ever been. It's really fair. There's word about it being apartheid bullshit to that. They import blacks from Ethiopia, who would discriminate against on them with with uzis teach them how to fight. No apartheid regime does that. So that's a total misinformation that's going around the campuses.

Thank you for sharing your story with us today.

This is a good campus and I hope they keep on doing whatever they're doing. Yeah, and that's the end of the story. Thank you.