Volume 14 , Issue 43

Former U.S. Senator George McGovern

We are remembering former U.S. Senator George McGovern, who ran against Nixon in 1972 or the presidency. Some of us remember George Stanley McGovern (19 july 1922- 21 october 2012) as an American historian, author and U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election. Many have worked on his campaign of 1972 directly or indirectly.

McGovern was born in the 600-person farming community of Avon, South Dakota. He grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota and was a renowned debater.

He volunteered for the Army Air Forces upon the country's entry into WW II and as a B-24 Liberator pilot flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe. Beside his distinguished Flying Cross medal for making a hazardous emergency landing of his damaged plane and saving his crew, he gained degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Northwestern University, culminating in a Ph.D., and was a history professor.

As a senator, McGovern was an exemplar of modern American Liberalism. He was known for his outspoken opposition tot he growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1968 presidential election he stood in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. The subsequent McGovern-Fraser Commission fundamentally altered the presidential nominating process, by greatly increasing the number o caucuses and primaries and reducing the influence of party insiders.

The McGovern-Hatfield Amendment sought to end the Vietnam War by legislative means but was defeated in 1970 and 1971. McGovern's long-shot, grassroots-based 1972 presidential campaign found triumph in gaining the Democratic nomination but left the party badly split ideologically, and the failed vice-presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton undermined McGovern's credibility. In the general election McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in American electoral history. He was re-elected in a bid for U.S. Senator in 1968 and 1974 and defeated in a bid for a fourth term in 1980. McGovern was involved in issues related to agriculture, food, nutrition and hunger.

Let me leave you with this quote from George McGovern, "It doesn't require any particular bravery to stand on the floor of the Senate and urge our boys in Vietnam to fight harder, and if this war mushrooms into a major conflict and a hundred thousand young Americans are killed, it won't be U. S. Senators who die. It will be American soldiers who are too young to qualify for the senate."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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