Duke Cunningham, war hero turned corrupt congressman, dies at 83<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nWhat few may recall, however, is that Cunningham had an unlikely friendship with two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Stills, who is as unabashedly liberal in most of his political views as Cunningham was unabashedly conservative in most of his.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great American. I think he ought to change his politics. Other than that, he\u2019s a great guy,\u201d Cunningham said of Stills in a 1996 San Diego Union-Tribune interview.<\/p>\n
Stills voiced similar sentiments about Cunningham in a separate Union-Tribune interview a few weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great American. I think he ought to change his politics. Other than that, he\u2019s a great guy,\u201d Stills said of Cunningham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI must say, the Duke wasn\u2019t as conservative when he was in the Navy! I liked him better as a squadron commander!\u201d<\/p>\n
What drew these two decidedly strange bedfellows together?<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen has always had an intense love of aviation, and I loved his music,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe \u2018adopted\u2019 him when I was commanding the F-21 Fighter Squadron at Miramar (Naval Air Station). It did surprise me that he had a genuine interest in something I loved, aviation, which he was very knowledgeable about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two met in the first half of the 1970s, nearly two decades before Cunningham first ran for a seat representing parts of San Diego County in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Stills alerted the chairman of the Democratic Party before publicly supporting Cunningham\u2019s 1990 bid for a House seat. He then performed at a $250-per-head San Diego fund-raiser for Cunningham.<\/p>\n
Never mind that Stills was a supporter of President Bill Clinton, who Cunningham once denounced as a \u201ca traitor\u201d on the House floor. Never mind that Stills\u2019 very liberal political activism in the 1960s earned him a spot on President Richard M. Nixon\u2019s infamous \u201cenemies list\u201d that prompted Stills to move to England for several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m basically more conservative than my (musical) partners,\u201d Stills said. \u201cI think everyone instinctively knows that when somebody like me gets involved with something, it\u2019s not foolhardy. It\u2019s part of the consensus. I won\u2019t have anything to do with really far-out stuff \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cGood common sense is the only thing that will work, and this country is not designed for ideologues to run it. You can use the bully pulpit, but you can\u2019t legislate morality. And that\u2019s what\u2019s killing the Grand Old Party. They\u2019re going to sit there and eat their young, like a pride of old lions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unlikely friendship between Cunningham and Stills had not been publicized prior to the summer of 1996, when the GOP National Convention was held at the San Diego Convention Center.<\/p>\n
It came to light when this writer was in Little Rock to interview Stills and his bandmate, David Crosby, prior to a Crosby, Stills & Nash concert in the Arkansas capital. The trio, who were counterculture heroes in the late 1960s and beyond, were on a national tour. It included a subsequent show at the SDSU Open Air Theatre that was attended by Cunningham. (I would not have been in Little Rock at all had the manager of Wayne Newton \u2014 a performer at the 1996 GOP convention here \u2014 not refused out interview request, but that\u2019s a story for another day.)<\/p>\n
Toward the conclusion of my interview in Little Rock with Stills, he asked if I knew Cunningham, who Stills fondly referred to as \u201cthe Duke\u201d and \u201cthe Dukester.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stills than spoke so enthusiastically about Cunningham that \u2014 after flying back to San Diego \u2014 I contacted Cunningham\u2019s office in Washington, D.C.,\u00a0 to request an interview. Cunningham happily accepted and spoke at length about Stills.<\/p>\n
The rock star had visited U.S. Naval Air Station Miramar a number of times and Cunningham had arranged for him to do fly-alongs on Navy jet fighter planes. Stills, in turn, told Cunningham he wanted to do USO tours, although none ever materialized.<\/p>\n
Cunningham attended CSN\u2019s concert at the SDSU Open Air Theatre where he sat directly in front of me. He did not applaud for any of the songs, but remained for the duration of the performance. He seemed undaunted by the heavy clouds of pot smoke that wafted through the outdoor venue.<\/p>\n
My interviews with Crosby, Stills and Cunningham \u2014 what a band name that would have made! \u2014 resulted in two August 1996 Union-Tribune articles, \u201cVoice Votes \u2014 Their views may diverge, but Crosby, Stills & Nash are in harmony about political activism\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re pals? Well, love the one you\u2019re with.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latter article appears here in full.<\/p>\n
![\"Crosby,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/LDN-L-DAVIDCROSBY-0719-10.jpg\")
Stephen Stills. David Crosby and Graham Nash are shown on stage at San Diego\u2019s Balboa Stadium in 1969. Henry Diltz \/ Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)
\nThey\u2019re pals? Well, love the one you\u2019re with<\/p>\n
By George Varga, Music Critic<\/strong><\/p>\nAug. 11, 1996 | The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/p>\n
One is a staunch Democrat, the other a staunch Republican.<\/p>\n
One is a famous rock musician in a band associated with liberal causes, the other a former U.S. Navy pilot who is now a hawkish member of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
One is a firm supporter of President Clinton; the other publicly denounced the first-time Democratic presidential candidate as a \u201ctraitor\u201d in 1992.<\/p>\n
Despite these and other differences in background and opinion, Stephen Stills and Randy \u201cDuke\u201d Cunningham, R-Escondido, are good friends \u2014 if very strange political bedfellows.<\/p>\n
Neither can recall exactly when or where they met, although Cunningham says it was in California shortly after he returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam in the early \u201970s.<\/p>\n
And what brought this unlikely pair together?<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen has always had an intense love of aviation, and I loved his music,\u201d Cunningham, 54, said from his Capitol Hill office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe \u2018adopted\u2019 him when I was commanding the F-21 Fighter Squadron at Miramar (Naval Air Station). It did surprise me that he had a genuine interest in something I loved, aviation, which he was very knowledgeable about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him: \u2018I love your music, but I\u2019m a country-and-western fan. I love Johnny Cash.\u2019 And he said: \u2018So am I.\u2019 And Stephen wanted to do a USO tour \u2014 anywhere \u2014 and I respect him for that. We agree on some political things and disagree on others. But I do that with a lot of my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stills, speaking at a Crosby, Stills & Nash tour stop in President Clinton\u2019s hometown of Little Rock, Ark., smiled as he discussed Cunningham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to go out there to Miramar when he was commander of the Bandits (flying squadron) and try to figure out ways for them to waste gasoline on me!\u201d Stills, 51, said. \u201cHe\u2019s a character. I hope I get to see him in San Diego. I\u2019m going to try to look him up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham, who disclosed that he\u2019s \u201calso a Deadhead,\u201d hopes to persuade Stills to perform at Sea World today during House Speaker Newt Gingrich\u2019s invitation-only party. (\u201cBut that might be pushing it too far,\u201d Cunningham allowed.)<\/p>\n
And \u201cthe Duke,\u201d as he is referred to by his friends, plans to be in attendance when CSN performs tonight at the SDSU Open Air Theatre. (\u201cI want to pay for the tickets, because I can\u2019t accept them as gifts,\u201d he noted.)<\/p>\n
It will be the second time Cunningham has attended a CSN concert at the SDSU venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen invited me to a concert at SDSU before, and I went,\u201d Cunningham recalled with a chuckle. \u201cAnd, I swear, every hippie from the \u201960s and \u201970s was there, and the (marijuana) smoke was pretty heavy. And I\u2019m sitting there, and he introduced me from the stage as his friend. I didn\u2019t know whether to duck or what, but they all cheered because I was a friend of his.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stills acknowledged the differences between him and Cunningham. But, he stressed, the two weren\u2019t always so far apart in their political views.<\/p>\n
\u201cI must say, the Duke wasn\u2019t as conservative when he was in the Navy!\u201d Stills said, laughing. \u201cI liked him better as a squadron commander!\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 29, 2025 at 3:38 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Randy \u201cDuke\u201d Cunningham, who died Wednesday at the age of 83, will be remembered for his feats of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,171,1370,5424,3549,3550,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-185817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-music-and-concerts","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-county","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-things-to-do","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115114652736037695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}