Interview with Rep. Dante Fascell, Part 2

United States Representative Dante B. Fascell speaks with Dr. Greg Bush and answers audience questions about his career in politics and American politics broadly across the 20th century. Fascell served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1955-1993, representing parts of Miami-Dade County, after serving for four years in the Florida legislature (1950-1954). He was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 1983-1993. During his remarks, Fascell discusses the effect of media on American politics; his view of politics as consensus-building; his entry into politics in the 1940s and 1950s; environmental protection and water issues in South Florida; the creation of national parks and reserves such as Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, and Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve; civil rights and school integration in Miami-Dade County, as well as the passage of national civil rights legislation; and major foreign affairs events like the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Iran-Contra Affair. Also mentioned are World War II, McCarthyism, the 1926 hurricane in Miami, and the Italian American community in Dade County.