Misplaced Pages

#851148

136-565: Fred Halstead writes that it was "the first time [the anti-war movement] reached the level of a full-fledged mass movement." When the new Republican president, Richard Nixon , took office on January 20, 1969, about 34,000 Americans had been killed fighting in Vietnam by that point. During Nixon's first year in office, from January 1969 to January 1970, about another 10,000 Americans were killed fighting in Vietnam. Though Nixon talked much in 1969 of his plans for " Peace with Honor " and Vietnamization ,

272-557: A B.A. degree magna cum laude . For a while he suffered from nightmares about flying through flak barrages or his plane being on fire. He continued with debate, again winning the state Peace Oratory Contest with a speech entitled "From Cave to Cave" that presented a Christian-influenced Wilsonian outlook. The couple's second daughter, Susan, was born in March 1946. McGovern switched from Wesleyan Methodism to less fundamentalist regular Methodism . Influenced by Walter Rauschenbusch and

408-505: A McGovern-introduced resolution on Indian self-determination passed in 1969, the Oglala Sioux named McGovern "Great White Eagle." In his first speech on the Senate floor in March 1963, McGovern praised Kennedy's Alliance for Progress initiative but spoke out against U.S. policy toward Cuba , saying that it suffered from "our Castro fixation". In August 1963 McGovern advocated reducing

544-662: A Moratorium in Australia. Late in 1969, they formed the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign or VMC, which had its own executive, a permanent secretary and a number of affiliated organizations. The group that claims credit for mooting the idea is the Congress for International Co-operation and Disarmament (or CICD), a pacifist organization formed out of the Melbourne Peace Congress of 1959 . The VMC and CICD certainly shared

680-445: A Senate measure he introduced was eventually passed, adding $ 700 million to the effort's funding. Preferring to concentrate on broad policy matters and speeches, McGovern was not a master of Senate legislative tactics, and he developed a reputation among some other senators for "not doing his homework". Described as "a very private, unchummy guy", he was not a member of the Senate "club" nor did he want to be, turning down in 1969

816-484: A better student than McGovern in 26 years of teaching. McGovern was influenced not only by Link and the " Consensus School " of American historians but also by the previous generation of "progressive" historians . Most of his future analyses of world events would be informed by his training as a historian, as well as his personal experiences during the Great Depression and World War II. Meanwhile, McGovern had become

952-399: A chance to join the powerful Senate Rules Committee . Relatively few pieces of legislation bore his name, and his legislative accomplishments were generally viewed as modest, although he would try to influence the contents of others' bills. In his political beliefs, McGovern fit squarely within modern American liberalism ; through 1967 he had voted in accordance with the rated positions of

1088-641: A child with an unknown woman. In May and June 1945, following the end of the European war, McGovern continued with the 741st Bomb Squadron delivering surplus food and supplies near Trieste in Northeastern Italy; this was then trucked to the hungry in nearby locations, including to German prisoners of war. McGovern liked making these relief flights, as it gave a way to address the kinds of deprivations he had witnessed when first arriving in Italy. He then flew back to

1224-457: A community of 12,000. McGovern attended public schools there and was an average student. He was painfully shy as a child and was afraid to speak in class during first grade. His only reproachable behavior was going to see movies, which were among the worldly amusements forbidden to good Wesleyan Methodists. Otherwise he had a normal childhood marked by visits to the renowned Mitchell Corn Palace and what he later termed "a sense of belonging to

1360-457: A daughter during 1941, although this did not become public knowledge during his lifetime. In April 1941 McGovern began dating fellow student Eleanor Stegeberg , who had grown up in Woonsocket, South Dakota . They had first encountered each other during a high school debate in which Eleanor and her twin sister Ila defeated McGovern and his partner. McGovern was listening to a radio broadcast of

1496-546: A general unhappiness over Eisenhower administration farm policy. When polls showed McGovern gaining, Lovre's campaign implied that McGovern's support for admitting the People's Republic of China to the United Nations and his past support for Henry Wallace meant that McGovern was a communist appeaser or sympathizer. In his closing speech, McGovern responded: "I have always despised communism and every other ruthless tyranny over

SECTION 10

#1732852566852

1632-417: A hazardous emergency landing of his damaged plane and saving his crew. After the war he earned degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Northwestern University , culminating in a PhD, and served as a history professor. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956 and re-elected in 1958. After a failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 1960 , he was a successful candidate in 1962 . As

1768-488: A history teacher who capitalized on McGovern's interest in that subject, proved to be a great influence in his life, and McGovern spent many hours honing his meticulous, if colorless, forensic style. McGovern and his debating partner won events in his area and gained renown in a state where debating was passionately followed by the general public. Debate changed McGovern's life, giving him a chance to explore ideas to their logical end, broadening his perspective, and instilling

1904-627: A margin of 597, making him the first Democratic senator from the state in 26 years and only the third since statehood in 1889. When he joined the Senate in January 1963 for the 88th Congress , McGovern was seated on the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee and Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee . On the Agriculture Committee, McGovern supported high farm prices, full parity, and controls on beef importation, as well as

2040-524: A million demonstrators gathered across from the White House for a rally where they were led by Pete Seeger in singing John Lennon 's new song " Give Peace A Chance " for ten minutes or more. His voice above the crowd, Seeger interspersed phrases like, "Are you listening, Nixon?", "Are you listening, Agnew?", "Are you listening, in the Pentagon?" between the choruses of protesters singing, "All we are saying ...

2176-705: A new set of nutritional guidelines for Americans. McGovern later served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 1998 to 2001 and was appointed the first UN global ambassador on world hunger by the World Food Programme in 2001. The McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program has provided school meals for millions of children in dozens of countries since 2000 and resulted in McGovern's being named World Food Prize co‑laureate in 2008. McGovern

2312-446: A number of members, among them Jim Cairns , who was made Chairman, and John Lloyd, secretary of both organizations. The VMC was, however, a much more representative body, including a wide variety of pre-existing Australian groups: Church groups, Trade Unions, radical and moderate student organizations, pacifist groups and anti-war groups. The VMC inherited the CICD's interstate connections with

2448-519: A particular place and knowing your part in it." He would, however, long remember the Dust Bowl storms and grasshopper plagues that swept the prairie states during the Great Depression . The McGovern family lived on the edge of the poverty line for much of the 1920s and 1930s. Growing up so close to privation gave young George a lifelong sympathy for underpaid workers and struggling farmers. He

2584-446: A piece of shrapnel from flak came through the windshield and missed fatally wounding him by only a few inches. The following day on a mission to Brüx , he nearly collided with another bomber during close-formation flying in complete cloud cover. The following day, he was recommended for a medal after surviving a blown wheel on the always-dangerous B-24 take-off, completing a mission over Germany, and then landing without further damage to

2720-435: A pilot's license through the government's Civilian Pilot Training Program . McGovern recalled: "Frankly, I was scared to death on that first solo flight. But when I walked away from it, I had an enormous feeling of satisfaction that I had taken the thing off the ground and landed it without tearing the wings off." In late 1940 or early 1941, McGovern had pre-marital sex with an acquaintance that resulted in her giving birth to

2856-465: A polarized and divided nation with about roughly half of the nation supporting Nixon's policies in Vietnam and the other half opposed. The first nationwide Moratorium was followed on Saturday, November 15, 1969, by a second massive Moratorium march in Washington, D.C. , which attracted over 500,000 demonstrators against the war, including many performers and activists. This massive Saturday march and rally

SECTION 20

#1732852566852

2992-516: A political career of his own. McGovern spent the following years rebuilding and revitalizing the party, building up a large list of voter contacts via frequent travel around the state. Democrats showed improvement in the 1954 elections, winning 25 seats in the state legislature. From 1954 to 1956 he also was on a political organization advisory group for the Democratic National Committee . The McGoverns' fifth and final child, Mary,

3128-624: A popular if politically outspoken teacher at Dakota Wesleyan, with students dedicating the college yearbook to him in 1952. Nominally a Republican growing up, McGovern began to admire Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II, even though he supported Roosevelt's opponent Thomas Dewey in the 1944 presidential election . At Northwestern, his exposure to the work of China scholars John King Fairbank and Owen Lattimore had convinced him that unrest in Southeast Asia

3264-453: A reconstruction of Public Law 480 (an agricultural surplus act that had come into being under Eisenhower) with a greater emphasis on feeding the hungry around the world, the establishment of an executive office to run operations, and the goal of promoting peace and stability around the world. During his time in the House, McGovern was regarded as a liberal overall, and voted in accordance with

3400-604: A result, over 50% of the students in San Francisco high schools missed classes on November 14, as they instead went out to protest against the war the day before the march. Activists at some universities continued to hold monthly "Moratoria" on the 15th of each month. Following the success of the November 1969 Moratorium in the United States, a series of citizen groups opposed to the war in Vietnam decided to band together to put on

3536-471: A senator, McGovern was an example of modern American liberalism . He became most known for his outspoken opposition to the growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War . He staged a brief nomination run in the 1968 presidential election as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy . The subsequent McGovern–Fraser Commission fundamentally altered the presidential nominating process, by increasing

3672-483: A sense of personal and social confidence. He graduated in 1940 in the top ten percent of his class. McGovern enrolled at small Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell and became a star student there. He supplemented a forensic scholarship by working a variety of odd jobs. With World War II under way overseas and feeling insecure about his own courage, McGovern took flying lessons in an Aeronca aircraft and received

3808-826: A single-engined PT‑19 . McGovern married Eleanor Stegeberg on October 31, 1943, during a three-day leave (lonely and in love, the couple had decided to not wait any longer). His father presided over the ceremony at the Methodist church in Woonsocket. After three months in Muskogee, McGovern went to Coffeyville Army Airfield in Kansas for a further three months of training on the BT‑13 . Around April 1944, McGovern went on to advanced flying school at Pampa Army Airfield in Texas for twin-engine training on

3944-538: A speech in New Orleans charged that "a spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals". Agnew also accused the peace movement of being controlled by "hardcore dissidents and professional anarchists" who were planning "wilder, more violent" demonstrations at the next Moratorium. In its coverage of the first marches, an article in Time remarked that

4080-507: A year afterward, partly because of the November 1963 assassination of President Kennedy and partly to not appear strident. Though more skeptical about it than most senators, McGovern voted in favor of the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution , which turned out to be an essentially unbounded authorization for President Lyndon B. Johnson to escalate U.S. involvement in the war. McGovern thought

4216-400: Is a clear demonstration of the limitations of military power ... [Current U.S. involvement] is a policy of moral debacle and political defeat ... The trap we have fallen into there will haunt us in every corner of this revolutionary world if we do not properly appraise its lessons. However, the speech was little noticed, and McGovern backed away from saying anything publicly for over

Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam - Misplaced Pages Continue

4352-487: Is give peace a chance". Others who joined the second Moratorium included the composer Leonard Bernstein , the folk music group Peter, Paul and Mary , the singer John Denver , the folk musician Arlo Guthrie and the Cleveland String Quartet who all played for the crowd. Four touring companies arrived to perform songs from the hippie musical Hair . After the main demonstration about 10,000 protesters headed to

4488-478: The 1968 Democratic National Convention , committing himself to "the goals for which Robert Kennedy gave his life." Asked why he was a better choice than McCarthy, he said, "Well – Gene really doesn't want to be president, and I do." At the convention in Chicago, Humphrey was the near-certain choice, while McGovern became the initial rallying point for around 300 leaderless Kennedy delegates. The chaotic circumstances of

4624-450: The 1972 presidential election . McGovern grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota , where he became a renowned debater. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Forces upon the country's entry into World War II . As a B-24 Liberator pilot, he flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe from a base in Italy. Among the medals he received was a Distinguished Flying Cross for making

4760-575: The AT‑17 and AT‑9 . Throughout, Air Cadet McGovern showed skill as a pilot, with his exceptionally good depth perception aiding him. Eleanor McGovern followed him to these duty stations, and was present when he received his wings and was commissioned a second lieutenant . McGovern was assigned to Liberal Army Airfield in Kansas and its transition school to learn to fly the B‑24 Liberator, an assignment he

4896-846: The Association for International Co-operation and Disarmament (its NSW equivalent), the Campaign for Peace in Vietnam (SA) and the Queensland Peace Council for International Co-Operation and Disarmament, giving it a truly national character. The structure of the Moratorium, in Victoria at least, was conflicted—the VMC executive vied for control with the Richmond Town Hall mass public meetings, which could involve up to 600 members and usually went late into

5032-620: The Civil Rights Act of 1960 , but did not vote on the Senate amendment to the bill in April 1960. In 1960, McGovern decided to run for the U.S. Senate and challenge the Republican incumbent Karl Mundt , a formidable figure in South Dakota politics whom McGovern loathed as an old-style McCarthyite . The race centered mostly on rural issues, but John F. Kennedy's Catholicism was a drawback at

5168-532: The Justice Department . When rocks and sticks were thrown at the building, police responded with a massive tear gas attack while other police units blocked Constitution Avenue . Two thousand people trying to get between the National Museum of Natural History and a concrete underpass could move no faster than a very slow walk. Big clouds of tear gas covered the crowd. Police fired more cannisters of gas into

5304-510: The My Lai Massacre which had occurred on March 16, 1968, which led to Lieutenant William Calley being charged with murder. The My Lai massacre become a symbol to the anti-war movement of the brutality of the Vietnam war, and much of the success of the second Moratorium march was due to the revelation of the My Lai massacre. Karnow described the United States by the fall of 1969 as being very much

5440-610: The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam 's April 15, 1967 march on the United Nations and their 1967 March on the Pentagon , the event was a clear success, with millions participating throughout the world. Future U.S. President Bill Clinton , then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, organized and participated in the demonstration in England; this later became an issue in his Presidential campaign. In New York City ,

5576-605: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra for a sophomore-year music appreciation class when he heard the news of the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor . In January 1942 he drove with nine other students to Omaha, Nebraska , and volunteered to join the United States Army Air Forces . The military accepted him, but they did not yet have enough airfields, aircraft, or instructors to start training all

Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam - Misplaced Pages Continue

5712-624: The Smithsonian Museum complex was opened to allow protesters a place to sleep. A daytime march before the White House was lined by parked tour buses and uniformed police officers, some flashing peace symbols on the inside of their jackets in a show of support for the crowd. The second Moratorium drew an even larger crowd than the first, and it is considered to have been the largest demonstration ever in Washington, D.C. The Woodstock Music Festival had drawn about 400,000 people in August 1969, and it

5848-523: The Social Gospel movement, McGovern began divinity studies at Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois , near Chicago . Among Methodist seminaries, Garrett tended towards social involvement paired with a theologically liberal approach, and many of the students there leaned towards pacifism. McGovern was influenced by the weekly sermons of a well-known local minister, Ernest Fremont Tittle , and

5984-477: The South Dakota Democratic Party , the state chair having recruited him after reading his articles. Democrats in the state were at a low, holding no statewide offices and only 2 of the 110 seats in the state legislature. Friends and political figures had counseled McGovern against making the move, but despite his mild, unassuming manner, McGovern had an ambitious nature and was intent upon starting

6120-469: The U.S. strategic bombing campaign in Europe . The eight- or nine-hour missions were grueling tests of endurance for pilots and crew, and while German fighter aircraft were a diminished threat by this time as compared with earlier in the war, his missions often faced heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire that filled the sky with flak bursts. On McGovern's December 15 mission over Linz , his second as pilot,

6256-569: The minor leagues , but had given it up due to his teammates' heavy drinking, gambling, and womanizing, and entered the seminary instead. George's mother was the former Frances McLean, born c.  1890 and initially raised in Ontario , Canada ; her family had later moved to Calgary , Alberta , and then she came to South Dakota looking for work as a secretary. George was the second oldest of four children. Joseph McGovern's salary never reached $ 100 per month, and he often received compensation in

6392-509: The "silent majority", Agnew's speech was intentionally meant to be provocative and polarizing. As Nixon's public approval ratings soared, he told his aides in a meeting in the Oval Office: "We've got those liberal bastards on the run now, and we're going to keep them on the run". On November 13, in Des Moines, Agnew lashed out in a speech against the Moratorium declaring that it was all the work of

6528-585: The $ 53 billion defense budget by $ 5 billion; influenced by advisor Seymour Melman , he held a special antipathy toward the doctrine of nuclear "overkill" . McGovern would try to reduce defense appropriations or limit military expenditures in almost every year during the 1960s. He also voted against many weapons programs, especially missile and antimissile systems, and also opposed military assistance to foreign nations. In 1964 McGovern published his first book, War Against Want: America's Food for Peace Program . In it he argued for expanding his old program, and

6664-639: The ADA 92 percent of the time, and when lacking specific knowledge on a particular matter, he would ask his staff, "What are the liberals doing?" In a speech on the Senate floor in September 1963, McGovern became the first member to challenge the growing U.S. military involvement in Vietnam . Bothered by the Buddhist crisis and other recent developments, and with concerns influenced by Vietnam historian Bernard Fall , McGovern said: The current dilemma in Vietnam

6800-518: The Centre. In Melbourne, on June 30, 1971, there was a march of nearly 100,000 people. By this time public opinion was beginning to turn decisively against conscription and Australian involvement in the war. Fred Halstead Fred W. Halstead (April 21, 1927 – June 2, 1988) was the Socialist Workers Party 's candidate for President of the United States in 1968 . His running mate

6936-585: The Democratic Party from the Republicans. The McGoverns named their only son, Steven, born immediately after the convention, after his new hero. Although Stevenson lost the election, McGovern remained active in politics, believing that "the engine of progress in our time in America is the Democratic Party." In early 1953, McGovern left a tenure-track position at the university to become executive secretary of

SECTION 50

#1732852566852

7072-708: The Depression. Those sights would form part of his later motivation to fight hunger. Starting on November 11, 1944, McGovern flew 35 missions over enemy territory from San Giovanni, the first five as co-pilot for an experienced crew and the rest as pilot for his own plane, known as the Dakota Queen after his wife Eleanor. His targets were in Austria ; Czechoslovakia ; Nazi Germany ; Hungary ; Poland ; and northern, German-controlled Italy , and were often either oil refinery complexes or rail marshaling yards , all as part of

7208-566: The Food for Peace program was operating in a dozen countries, and 10 million more people had been fed with American surplus than the year before. In February 1962, McGovern visited India and oversaw an expanded school lunch program thanks to Food for Peace; subsequently one in five Indian schoolchildren would be fed from it, and by mid-1962, 35 million children around the world. During an audience in Rome, Pope John XXIII warmly praised McGovern's work, and

7344-599: The Middle East under a fellowship from the American Christian Palestine Committee . McGovern first allied with the Kennedy family by supporting a House version of Senator John F. Kennedy's eventually unsuccessful labor reform bill. In his 1958 reelection campaign, McGovern faced a strong challenge from South Dakota's two-term Republican governor and World War II Medal of Honor recipient Joe Foss , who

7480-426: The Moratorium and that day had been "business as usual". In private, Nixon was enraged by the Moratorium and felt very much besieged as he felt that the Moratorium had undercut his policy of winning "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Nixon ordered his aides to start writing a speech to rebut the Moratorium protests, which took two weeks to produce a version that was satisfactory to the president. On October 19, 1969, Agnew in

7616-454: The Moratorium had brought "new respectability and popularity" to the anti-war movement. In various locations all over the United States, over 15 million people took part in marches against the war on October 15. The success of the Moratorium marches was due largely to avoiding the violence that many Americans associated with the New Left and the hippie "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" sensibility that

7752-573: The Moratorium of October 15, the North Vietnamese Premier Phạm Văn Đồng released a letter praising the marchers for trying to save young American men "from a useless death in Vietnam". In a speech written by Patrick Buchanan , the Vice President, Spiro Agnew , demanded that the organizers of the Moratorium disavow Đồng's letter and accused them of being "communist dupes". As with previous large anti-war demonstrations, including

7888-410: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization . In June 1961 McGovern became seriously ill with hepatitis , contracted from an infected White House dispensary needle used to give him inoculations for his South American trip; he was hospitalized and unable to come to his office for two months (his campaign disguised the condition by saying it was a mild kidney infection). By the close of 1961,

8024-409: The United States with his crew. McGovern was discharged from the Army Air Forces in July 1945, with the rank of first lieutenant. He was also awarded the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters , one instance of which was for the safe landing on his final mission. Upon coming home, McGovern returned to Dakota Wesleyan University, aided by the G.I. Bill , and graduated from there in June 1946 with

8160-491: The United States. Only Americans can do that". The public response to Nixon's "silent majority speech" was very positive with the phone lines to the White House becoming jammed in the hours after he gave his speech as too many people called the White House to congratulate the president. Likewise, the response to Agnew's speech attacking the media was positive in certain quarters of America, through unlike Nixon's "silent majority speech" where he professed to be speaking on behalf of

8296-440: The Wallace Progressive Party 's first national convention as a delegate . There he became disturbed by aspects of the convention atmosphere, decades later referring to "a certain rigidity and fanaticism on the part of a few of the strategists." But he remained a public supporter of Wallace and the Progressive Party afterward. As Wallace was kept off the ballot in Illinois where McGovern was now registered, McGovern did not vote in

SECTION 60

#1732852566852

8432-452: The administration's Feed Grains Acreage Diversion Program. McGovern had a fractious relationship with Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman , who was less sympathetic to farmers; McGovern's 1966 resolution to informally scold Freeman made the senator popular back in his home state. Fellow new senator Edward M. Kennedy saw McGovern as a serious voice on farm policy and often sought McGovern's guidance on agriculture-related votes. McGovern

8568-402: The air so that they landed and exploded in the midst of the crowd on the feet and clothing of the retreating demonstrators. In San Francisco, over a quarter million of people took part in the march against the war on November 15. The school boards in San Francisco refused permission for high school students to take part in the second moratorium, declaring that the moratorium was "unpatriotic". As

8704-423: The anti-Johnson forces were able to persuade Senator Eugene McCarthy to run; he was one of the few "dove" senators not up for reelection that year. In the 1968 Democratic primary campaign, McCarthy staged a strong showing. Robert Kennedy entered the race, President Johnson withdrew and Vice President Hubert Humphrey joined the field. While McGovern privately favored Kennedy, McCarthy and Humphrey were both from

8840-486: The anti-war movement believed that the best way of bringing pressure on Nixon was to ensure the movement had a "respectable" face in order to win the support of the largest number of Americans, many of whom did not much like either the hippie counterculture or the radical New Left movement. The Vietnam Moratorium Committee sought the support of "respectable" groups like the civil rights movement, churches, university faculties, unions, business leaders, and politicians. Before

8976-424: The campaign revolved around policies of the Kennedy administration and its New Frontier ; Bottum accused the Kennedy family of trying to buy the Senate seat. McGovern appealed to those worried about the outflux of young people from the state, and had the strong support of the Farmers Union . Polls showed Bottum slightly ahead throughout the race, and McGovern was hampered by a recurrence of his hepatitis problem in

9112-401: The cause of peace. The rallies in New York, Detroit, Boston (where about 100,000 attended a speech by anti-war Senator George McGovern ), and Miami were also well attended. Unlike the protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in August 1968 which led to a police riot, the Moratorium marches on October 15 were completely peaceful, attended by families and people of all ages and faiths, with

9248-418: The comedian Dick Gregory told the crowd: "The President says nothing you kids do will have any effect on him. Well, I suggest he make one long-distance call to the LBJ ranch". In a statement to the press, Nixon stated: "Under no circumstances will I be affected" as "policy made in the streets equals anarchy". On October 15, 1969, the White House press secretary declared that Nixon was completely indifferent to

9384-443: The commander in chief should be given limited authority to retaliate against an attack; subsequently, he said his instinct had been to vote no, but that he had voted yes because of Senator J. William Fulbright 's urging to stand behind Johnson politically. The day after the resolution vote, McGovern spoke concerning his fears that the vote would lead to greater involvement in the war; Wayne Morse , one of only two senators to oppose

9520-425: The committee, Harold D. Cooley , would subsequently say, "I cannot recall a single member of Congress who has fought more vigorously or intelligently for American farmers than Congressman McGovern." He helped pass a new food-stamp law. He was one of nine representatives from Congress to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly conferences of 1958 and 1959. Along with Senator Hubert H. Humphrey , McGovern strongly advocated

9656-519: The consequences of a relationship with an unstable neighborhood boy. On the basis of a recently enacted strict state drugs law, Terry now faced a minimum five-year prison sentence if found guilty. McGovern was also convinced that the socially conservative voters of South Dakota would reject him owing to his daughter's arrest. Charges against her were subsequently dropped because of an invalid search warrant. McGovern formally announced his candidacy on August 10, 1968, in Washington, two weeks in advance of

9792-447: The convention found McGovern denouncing the Chicago police tactics against demonstrators as "police brutality." Given the internal politics of the party, it was difficult for McGovern to gain in delegate strength, and black protest candidate Channing E. Phillips drew off some of his support. In the actual roll call, McGovern came in third with 146½ delegates, far behind Humphrey's 1760¼ and McCarthy's 601. McGovern endorsed Humphrey at

9928-502: The convention, to the dismay of some antiwar figures who considered it a betrayal. Humphrey went on to lose the general election to Richard Nixon . McGovern returned to his Senate reelection race , facing Republican former governor Archie M. Gubbrud . While South Dakota voters sympathized with McGovern over his daughter's arrest, he initially suffered a substantial drop in popularity over the events in Chicago. However, McGovern conducted an energetic campaign that focused on his service to

10064-456: The day marked Game 4 of the 1969 World Series and included controversy as Mayor John Lindsay wanted the US flag to be flown at half-staff; however, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn overruled the mayor and ordered the flag to be flown at full staff. Also, Mets Game 4 Starter Tom Seaver had his face on some anti-Moratorium Day literature distributed before the game. Seaver claimed that his picture

10200-514: The distribution program was also popular among South Dakota's wheat farmers. In addition, McGovern was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations-run World Food Programme in December 1961; it started distributing food to affected regions of the world the following year and would go on to become the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Administration was never McGovern's strength, however, and he

10336-468: The evening, full of arguments over slogans and policies. Work began quickly to organize the Moratorium. The original date was set for April 1970, but changed soon after to May 8, 9 and 10, to coincide with protests in the US, just days after the killings of four students at Kent State . The demonstration in Melbourne , held on May 8 and led by member of Parliament Jim Cairns, had over 100,000 people taking to

10472-556: The event as the Vietnam Moratorium Committee with David Mixner , Marge Sklencar , John Gage , and others. Brown, who was 25 years old in 1969, was a former divinity student who had worked hard as a campaign volunteer for Senator McCarthy in 1968, developed the concept of the moratorium protests. Brown felt that protests should take place in communities rather than on university campuses so that "the heartland folks felt it belonged to them". Brown and other moderate leaders of

10608-469: The figure of 325,000. Nixon joked that he should send helicopters to blow out the candles. The vast majority of demonstrators during these days were peaceful; however, late on Friday, a small conflict broke out at DuPont Circle , and the police sprayed the crowd with tear gas . The people of Washington, D.C., generously opened schools, seminaries, and other places of shelter to the thousands of students and others who converged for this purpose. In addition,

10744-488: The final weeks of the campaign. (During this hospitalization, McGovern read Theodore H. White 's classic The Making of the President 1960 , and for the first time began thinking about running for the office someday. ) Eleanor McGovern campaigned for her ailing husband and may have preserved his chance of winning. The November 1962 election result was very close and required a recount, but McGovern's 127,458 votes prevailed by

10880-541: The first director of the Food for Peace program in 1961, McGovern oversaw the distribution of U.S. surpluses to the needy abroad and was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations-run World Food Programme . As sole chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs from 1968 to 1977, McGovern publicized the problem of hunger within the United States and issued the "McGovern Report", which led to

11016-567: The flight, McGovern was told his first child Ann had been born four days earlier. April 25 saw McGovern's 35th mission, which marked fulfillment of the Fifteenth Air Force's requirement for a combat tour, against heavily defended Linz. The sky turned black and red with flak – McGovern later said, "Hell can't be any worse than that" – and the Dakota Queen was hit multiple times, resulting in 110 holes in its fuselage and wings and an inoperative hydraulic system. McGovern's waist gunner

11152-505: The form of potatoes, cabbages, or other food items. Joseph and Frances McGovern were both firm Republicans , but were not politically active or doctrinaire. When George was about three years old, the family moved to Calgary for a while to be near Frances's ailing mother, and he formed memories of events such as the Calgary Stampede . When George was six, the family returned to the United States and moved to Mitchell, South Dakota ,

11288-412: The general election McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in U.S. electoral history. Though re-elected to the Senate in 1968 and 1974, McGovern was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 1980. Beginning with his experiences in war-torn Italy and continuing throughout his career, McGovern was involved in issues related to agriculture, food, nutrition, and hunger. As

11424-493: The general election. By 1952, McGovern was coming to think of himself as a Democrat . He was captivated by a radio broadcast of Governor Adlai Stevenson 's speech accepting the presidential nomination at the 1952 Democratic National Convention . He immediately dedicated himself to Stevenson's campaign, publishing seven articles in the Mitchell Daily Republic newspaper outlining the historical issues that separated

11560-436: The general feeling at the time was that Nixon's policies were essentially the same as Lyndon Johnson 's. The Moratorium developed from Jerome Grossman 's April 20, 1969 call for a general strike if the war had not concluded by October. David Hawk and Sam Brown , who had previously worked on the unsuccessful 1968 presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy , changed the concept to a less radical moratorium and began to organize

11696-674: The greater use of food to enable foreign economic development, saying, "We should thank God that we have a food abundance and use the over-supply among the underprivileged at home and abroad." He found space for the program in the Executive Office Building rather than be subservient to either the State Department or Department of Agriculture . McGovern worked with deputy director James W. Symington and Kennedy advisor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in visiting South America to discuss surplus grain distribution, and attended meetings of

11832-683: The heavy losses that bombing missions were suffering over Europe. Despite, and partly because of, the risk that McGovern might not come back from combat, the McGoverns decided to have a child, and Eleanor became pregnant. In June 1944, McGovern's crew received final training at Mountain Home Army Air Field in Idaho . They then shipped out via Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia , where McGovern found history books with which to fill downtime, especially during

11968-534: The ideas of Boston personalism . McGovern preached as a Methodist student supply minister at Diamond Lake Church in Mundelein, Illinois , during 1946 and 1947, but became dissatisfied by the minutiae of his pastoral duties. In late 1947 McGovern left the ministry and enrolled in graduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, where he also worked as a teaching assistant. The relatively small history program there

12104-431: The incident during an Austrian television program and indicated he was still haunted by it, the owner of the farm called the television station to say that his farm was hit by that bomb but that no one had been hurt and the farmer felt that it had been worth the price if that event helped achieve the defeat of Nazi Germany in some small way. McGovern said finding this out was "an enormous release". ) On returning to base from

12240-639: The main theme being grief and sorrow over the war, instead of anger and rage. The journalist Stanley Karnow wrote the Moratorium marches were "...a sober, almost melancholy manifestation of middle class concern...". Speakers at the Moratorium marches included Coretta Scott King, Dr. Benjamin Spock , David Dellinger , W. Averell Harriman , and Arthur Goldberg . In his speech in New York, Harriman predicted that Nixon "is going to have to pay attention". About Nixon's statement that he would not be affected by Moratorium marches,

12376-472: The media who were "a small and unelected elite that do not—I repeat do not—represent the view of America". Agnew accused the media of being biased against Nixon and for the peace movement, and further stated his belief that the media "to a man" represented "the geographic and intellectual confines of New York and Washington". Agnew in particular singled out The New York Times and The Washington Post for criticism. In early November 1969, two disclosures put

12512-517: The mind and spirit of man." McGovern staged an upset victory, gaining 116,516 votes to his opponent's 105,835, and became the first Democrat elected to Congress from South Dakota in 22 years. The McGoverns established a home in Chevy Chase, Maryland . Entering the 85th United States Congress , McGovern became a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor . As a representative, McGovern

12648-425: The most emotionally distraught he had ever been to that point in his life. Within days, some of Kennedy's aides were urging McGovern to run in his place; their antipathy toward McCarthy and ideological opposition to Humphrey made them unwilling to support either candidate. McGovern delayed making a decision, making sure that Bobby's brother Ted Kennedy did not want to enter, and with his staff still concerned about

12784-520: The neighboring state of Minnesota and publicly McGovern remained neutral. McGovern hosted all three as they campaigned for the June 4 South Dakota Democratic primary, which resulted in a strong win by Kennedy to go along with his win in the crucial California primary that night. McGovern spoke with Kennedy by phone minutes before Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. The death of Bobby Kennedy left McGovern

12920-743: The north." McGovern instead proposed a five-point plan advocating a negotiated settlement involving a federated Vietnam with local autonomy and a UN presence to guarantee security and fair treatment. The speech gave McGovern national visibility as one of the "doves" in the debate over Vietnam. However, McGovern made moderate-to-hawkish statements at times too, flatly rejecting unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces and criticizing antiwar draft-card burnings as "immature, impractical, and illegal." He eschewed personal criticism of Johnson. In November 1965 McGovern traveled to South Vietnam for three weeks. The human carnage he saw in hospital wards deeply upset him, and he became increasingly outspoken about

13056-569: The number of 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 split ideologically, and the failed vice-presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton undermined McGovern's credibility. In

13192-524: The plane. On a December 20 mission against the Škoda Works at Pilsen , Czechoslovakia, McGovern's plane had one engine out and another in flames after being hit by flak. Unable to return to Italy, McGovern flew to a British airfield on Vis , a small island in the Adriatic Sea off the Yugoslav coast that was controlled by Josip Broz Tito 's Partisans . The short field, normally used by small fighter planes,

13328-476: The political talk show Firing Line . This article about a California politician is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota , and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in

13464-459: The rated positions of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) 34 times and against 3 times. Two of the themes of his House career, improvements for rural America and the war on hunger, would be defining ones of his legislative career and public life. McGovern did not vote on the initial House bill for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 , but voted in favor of the Senate amendment to the bill in August 1957. McGovern voted in favor initial House bill for

13600-461: The resolution, sardonically noted that this fell into the category of "very interesting, but very belated." This would become the vote that McGovern most bitterly regretted. In January 1965 McGovern made his first major address on Vietnam, saying that "We are not winning in South Vietnam ;... I am very much opposed to the policy, now gaining support in Washington, of extending the war to

13736-479: The senator's own reelection prospects. McGovern's voting had changed during 1968, with his ADA rating falling to 43 as he sought more middle-of-the-road stances. In late July, McGovern's decision became more complicated when his daughter Teresa was arrested in Rapid City on marijuana possession charges. She had led a troubled life since her teenage years, developing problems with alcohol and depression and suffering

13872-452: The state's presidential contest. Having relinquished his House seat to run for the Senate, McGovern was available for a position in the new Kennedy administration . McGovern was picked to become a special assistant to the president and first director of Kennedy's high-priority Food for Peace program, which realized what McGovern had been advocating in the House. McGovern assumed the post on January 21, 1961. As director, McGovern urged

14008-653: The streets in Melbourne alone. Similar demonstrations were held in Sydney , Brisbane , Adelaide and Hobart . Across Australia, it was estimated that 200,000 people were involved. The second Vietnam Moratorium in September 1970 was smaller; more violence occurred. Fifty thousand people participated and there were violent incidents between police. Two hundred people were arrested in Sydney. The Melbourne and Brisbane marches were held on September 18. The third moratorium in June 1971 closed

14144-523: The time." Eleanor was constantly afraid. Accidents while training claimed a huge toll of airmen over the course of the war. This schooling was followed by a stint at Lincoln Army Airfield in Nebraska , where McGovern met his B-24 crew. Traveling around the country and mixing with people from different backgrounds proved to be a broadening experience for McGovern and others of his generation. The USAAF sped up training times for McGovern and others, owing to

14280-434: The top of the ticket in the mostly Protestant state. McGovern made careless charges during the campaign, and the press turned against him; he would say eleven years later, "It was my worst campaign. I hated [Mundt] so much I lost my sense of balance." McGovern was defeated in the November 1960 election, gaining 145,217 votes to Mundt's 160,579, but the margin was one third of Kennedy's loss to Vice President Richard M. Nixon in

14416-524: The trip overseas on a slow troopship. In September 1944 McGovern joined the 741st Squadron of the 455th Bombardment Group of the Fifteenth Air Force , stationed at San Giovanni Airfield near Cerignola in the Apulia region of Italy. There he and his crew found a starving, disease-ridden local population wracked by the ill fortunes of war and far worse off than anything they had seen back home during

14552-517: The volunteers, so McGovern stayed at Dakota Wesleyan. George and Eleanor became engaged, but initially decided not to marry until the war was over. During his sophomore year, McGovern won the statewide intercollegiate South Dakota Peace Oratory Contest with a speech called "My Brother's Keeper", which was later selected by the National Council of Churches as one of the nation's twelve best orations of 1942. Smart, handsome, and well liked, McGovern

14688-496: The war going until such a time that the government of North Vietnam ceased trying to overthrow the government of South Vietnam . Nixon implicitly conceded the point to the anti-war movement that South Vietnam was not important, saying the real issue was America's credibility, as he maintained that America's allies would lose faith if the United States did not stand by South Vietnam. Nixon promised that his policy of Vietnamization would gradually lower American losses in Vietnam; stated he

14824-410: The war upon his return, more convinced than ever that Vietnam was a political, not military, problem. Now he was ready, as he later said, "not merely to dissent, but to crusade" against the war. McGovern voted in favor of Vietnam military appropriations in 1966 through 1968, not wanting to deprive U.S. forces of necessary equipment. Nevertheless, his antiwar rhetoric increased throughout 1967. Over

14960-459: The wind back into the sails of the antiwar movement. Colonel Robert Rheault of the U.S. Army Special Forces was charged with ordering the murder of a South Vietnamese official suspected of being a Viet Cong spy, which was described euphemistically in an Army report as "termination with extreme prejudice". More shockingly to the American people, on November 12, 1969 journalist Seymour Hersh revealed

15096-503: The winter, and during such downtime McGovern spent much time reading and discussing how the war had come about. He resolved that if he survived it, he would become a history professor. In February, McGovern was promoted to first lieutenant . On March 14 McGovern had an incident over Austria in which he accidentally bombed a family farmhouse when a jammed bomb inadvertently released above the structure and destroyed it, an event that haunted McGovern. (Four decades later, after McGovern related

15232-528: The years, Johnson had invited McGovern and other Senate doves to the White House for attempts to explain the rationale for his actions in Vietnam; McGovern came away from the final such visit, in August 1967, shaken by the sight of a president "tortured and confused ... by the mess he has gotten into in Vietnam." In August 1967 activist Allard K. Lowenstein founded the Dump Johnson movement , and soon it

15368-455: The young Kennedy administration", while Schlesinger would later write that Food for Peace had been "the greatest unseen weapon of Kennedy's third-world policy." In April 1962 McGovern announced he would run for election to South Dakota's other Senate seat , intending to face incumbent Republican Francis H. Case . Case died in June, however, and McGovern instead faced an appointed senator, former lieutenant governor Joseph H. Bottum . Much of

15504-498: Was Paul Boutelle . Halstead played a significant role in the movement against the Vietnam War , outlined in his book Out Now! He also was a staff writer on The Militant , the publication of the Socialist Workers Party. Halstead was a 6′6″, 350-pound ex–garment cutter who worked briefly as a bouncer in a country-and-western saloon in the 1950s, when he was on the blacklist . On July 10, 1968, Halstead appeared on

15640-488: Was among the best in the country and McGovern took courses given by noted academics Ray Allen Billington , Richard W. Leopold , and L. S. Stavrianos . He received an M.A. in history in 1949. McGovern then returned to his alma mater, Dakota Wesleyan, and became a professor of history and political science. With the assistance of a Hearst fellowship for 1949–50, he continued pursuing graduate studies during summers and other free time. The couple's third daughter, Teresa,

15776-443: Was attentive to his district. He became a staunch supporter of higher commodity prices, farm price supports, grain storage programs, and beef import controls, believing that such stored commodities programs guarded against drought and similar emergencies. He favored rural development, federal aid to small business and to education, and medical coverage for the aged under Social Security. In 1957 he traveled and studied conditions in

15912-567: Was born in 1955. In 1956 McGovern sought elective office himself, and ran for the House of Representatives from South Dakota's 1st congressional district , which consisted of the counties east of the Missouri River . He faced four-term incumbent Republican Party representative Harold O. Lovre . Aided by the voter lists he had earlier accumulated, McGovern ran a low-budget campaign, spending $ 12,000 while borrowing $ 5,000. His quiet personality appealed to voters he met, while Lovre suffered from

16048-568: Was born in June 1949. Eleanor McGovern began to suffer from bouts of depression but continued to assume the large share of household and child-rearing duties. McGovern earned a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University in 1953. His 450-page dissertation, The Colorado Coal Strike, 1913–1914 , was a sympathetic account of the miners' revolt against Rockefeller interests in the Colorado Coalfield War . His thesis advisor, noted historian Arthur S. Link , later said he had not seen

16184-464: Was born in the 600‑person farming community of Avon, South Dakota . His father, the Rev. Joseph C. McGovern, born in 1868, was pastor of the local Wesleyan Methodist Church there. Joseph – the son of an alcoholic who had immigrated from Ireland – had grown up in several states, working in coal mines from the age of nine and parentless from the age of thirteen. He had been a professional baseball player in

16320-451: Was elected president of his sophomore class and voted "Glamour Boy" during his junior year. In February 1943, during his junior year, he and a partner won a regional debate tournament at North Dakota State University that featured competitors from thirty-two schools across a dozen states; upon his return to campus, he discovered that the Army had finally called him up. Soon thereafter McGovern

16456-418: Was estimated by some that the second Moratorium had brought out a number equal to "two Woodstocks". Nixon said about the march, "Now, I understand that there has been, and continues to be, opposition to the war in Vietnam on the campuses and also in the nation. As far as this kind of activity is concerned, we expect it; however, under no circumstances will I be affected whatever by it." On Moratorium Day, half

16592-543: Was homegrown and that U.S. foreign policy toward Asia was counterproductive. Discouraged by the onset of the Cold War , and never thinking well of incumbent president Harry S. Truman , in the 1948 presidential election McGovern was attracted to the campaign of former vice president and secretary of agriculture Henry A. Wallace . He wrote columns supporting Wallace in the Mitchell Daily Republic and attended

16728-458: Was influenced by the currents of populism and agrarian unrest, as well as the "practical divinity" teachings of cleric John Wesley that sought to fight poverty, injustice, and ignorance. McGovern attended Mitchell High School , where he was a solid but unspectacular member of the track team. A turning point came when his tenth-grade English teacher recommended him to the debate team, where he became quite active. His high-school debate coach,

16864-410: Was initially considered the favorite to win. But McGovern ran an effective campaign that showcased his political strengths of having firm beliefs and the ability to articulate them in debates and on the stump. He prevailed with a slightly larger margin than two years before. In the 86th United States Congress , McGovern was assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture . The longtime chairman of

17000-417: Was injured, and his flight engineer was so unnerved by his experience that he would subsequently be hospitalized with battle fatigue , but McGovern managed to bring back the plane safely with the assistance of an improvised landing technique. According to a McGovern associate speaking after McGovern's passing, sometime during his wartime experiences in Europe, McGovern had an extramarital affair and fathered

17136-484: Was largely inactive on the Interior Committee until 1967, when he was given the chairmanship of the subcommittee on Indian affairs. However, Interior Committee chairman Henry M. Jackson , who did not get along with McGovern personally or politically, refused to allow McGovern his own staff, limiting his effectiveness. McGovern regretted not accomplishing more for South Dakota's 30,000 Sioux Indians , although after

17272-448: Was pleased with. McGovern recalled later: "Learning how to fly the B‑24 was the toughest part of the training. It was a difficult airplane to fly, physically, because in the early part of the war they didn't have hydraulic controls. If you can imagine driving a Mack truck without any power steering or power brakes, that's about what it was like at the controls. It was the biggest bomber we had at

17408-399: Was preceded by the March against Death, which began on Thursday evening and continued throughout that night and all the next day. Over 40,000 people gathered to parade silently down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Hour after hour, they walked in single file, each bearing a placard with the name of a dead American soldier or a destroyed Vietnamese village, and carrying a candle. The march

17544-421: Was restless for another try at the Senate. With the approval of President Kennedy, McGovern resigned his post on July 18, 1962. Kennedy said that under McGovern, the program had "become a vital force in the world", improving living conditions and economies of allies and creating "a powerful barrier to the spread of Communism." Columnist Drew Pearson wrote that it was one of the "most spectacular achievements of

17680-450: Was seeking a Democratic Party figure to make a primaries campaign challenge against Johnson in the 1968 presidential election . The group's first choice was Senator Robert Kennedy, who declined, as did another, and by late September 1967 they approached McGovern. After much deliberation McGovern declined, largely because he feared such a run would significantly damage his own chances for reelection to his Senate seat in 1968. A month later

17816-461: Was silent except for the playing of six drums, which played funeral tunes. The marchers finished in front of the Capitol building , where the placards were placed in coffins. Despite his public disdain, Nixon watched the march on television, staying up until 11 pm as he obsessively watched the demonstration outside of the White House and tried to count how many people were participating, eventually reaching

17952-521: Was so unforgiving to four-engined aircraft that many of the bomber crews who tried to make emergency landings there perished. But McGovern successfully landed, saving his crew, a feat for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross . In January 1945 McGovern used R&R time to see every sight that he could in Rome, and to participate in an audience with the pope . Bad weather prevented many missions from being carried out during

18088-770: Was sworn in as a private at Fort Snelling in Minnesota . He spent a month at Jefferson Barracks Military Post in Missouri and then five months at Southern Illinois Normal University in Carbondale, Illinois , for ground school training. McGovern later maintained that both the academic work and physical training were the toughest he ever experienced. He spent two months at a base in San Antonio, Texas , and then went to Hatbox Field in Muskogee, Oklahoma , for basic flying school, training in

18224-618: Was used without his knowledge or approval. The Mets won that day's game in 10 innings and would go on to win the Series the next day. Over a quarter of million people attended the Moratorium march in Washington, D.C., where they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in the evening bearing candles led by Coretta Scott King to the White House . Scott King told the marchers that it would have delighted her assassinated husband, Martin Luther King Jr. , to have seen people of all races rallying together for

18360-460: Was widely considered to be anti-social. In response to the Moratorium of October 15, on the evening of November 3, 1969 Nixon went on national television to give his "silent majority speech" asking for the support of the "silent majority" of Americans for his Vietnam War policy. In his speech, Nixon professed to share the goal of the protesters of peace in Vietnam, but he argued that the United States had to win in Vietnam, which would require keeping

18496-445: Was willing to compromise provided that North Vietnam recognized South Vietnam; and finally warned that it would take "strong and effective measures" if the war continued. Nixon ended his "silent majority speech" with: "And so tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support. Let us be united for peace. Let us be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate

#851148