George McGovern
United States Senator from South Dakota
In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Joseph H. Bottum
Succeeded by	James Abdnor
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Dakota's 1st district
In office January 3, 1957 – January 3, 1961
Preceded by	Harold O. Lovre
Succeeded by	Ben Reifel
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs
In office July 30, 1968 – December 31, 1977
6th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture
In office April 1998 – October 2001
President	Bill Clinton, George W. Bush
Succeeded by	Tony P. Hall
Personal details
Born	George Stanley McGovern (1922-07-19) July 19, 1922 (age 89) Avon, South Dakota
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Eleanor McGovern (1943-2007) (her death)
Children	Ann (1945–) Susan (1946–) Teresa (1949–1994) Steven (1952–) Mary (1955–)
Residence	Mitchell, South Dakota
Alma mater	Dakota Wesleyan University (B.A.) Northwestern University (M.A., Ph.D)
Profession	Historian, professor, politician, author
Religion	Methodism
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army Air Force
Years of service	1943–1945
Rank	1st Lieutenant
Unit	741st Bomb Squadron, 455th Bombardment Group, Fifteenth Air Force
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II
Awards	Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal (3)

George Stanley McGovern (born July 19, 1922) is a historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election.

McGovern grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, where he was a renowned debater. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Forces upon the country's entry into World War II and as a B-24 Liberator pilot flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe. Among the medals awarded him was a Distinguished Flying Cross for making a hazardous emergency landing of his damaged plane and saving his crew. After the war he gained degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Northwestern University, culminating in a Ph.D, and was 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 elected there in 1962.

As a senator, McGovern was an exemplar 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 Democratic presidential nominating process, by greatly increasing 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 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 history. Re-elected Senator in 1968 and 1974, McGovern was defeated in a bid for a fourth term in 1980.

Throughout his career, McGovern has been involved in issues related to agriculture, food, nutrition, and hunger. As 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-based World Food Programme. As sole chair of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs from 1968–1977, McGovern publicized the problem of hunger within the United States and issued the "McGovern Report" that led to 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 1998–2001 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 being named World Food Prize co-laureate in 2008.

Early years and early education[link]

McGovern was born in the 600-person farming community of Avon, South Dakota.^[1][2] His father, Reverend Joseph C. McGovern (born 1868), was pastor of the local Wesleyan Methodist Church there.^[2][3] Joseph had once worked in mines^[4] and then been a professional baseball player in the minor leagues,^{[nb 1]} but had given the latter up due to the heavy drinking, gambling, and womanizing of his teammates, and entered the seminary instead.^[6] George's mother was the former Frances McLean (born c. 1890), who had been born in Toronto, Canada; her family had later moved to Calgary and then she came to South Dakota looking for work as a secretary.^[6][7][8] George was the second oldest of four children.^[6] Joseph McGovern's salary never reached $100 per month, and he often received compensation in the form of potatoes, cabbages, or other food items.^[2][9] Joseph and Frances McGovern were both firm Republicans, but were not politically active or doctrinaire.^[10][11]

The Corn Palace, a longtime sight of McGovern's hometown of Mitchell, South Dakota

Effects of a 1936 Dust Bowl storm in nearby Gregory County, South Dakota

When George was about three years old, the family moved to Calgary for a while to be near Frances' ailing mother, and he formed memories of events such as the Calgary Stampede.^[7][12] While living there, Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight in 1927 made a great impression upon George, as it did upon many members of his generation.^[6] When George was six, the family returned to the U.S. and moved to Mitchell, South Dakota, a community of 12,000.^[2] McGovern attended public schools there^[1] and was an average student whose only wild behavior was going to the movies (forbidden to good Wesleyans).^[9] He was painfully shy as a child and was afraid to speak in class during first grade.^[4] Otherwise he had a normal childhood marked by visits to the renowned Mitchell Corn Palace^[4] and "a sense of belonging to a particular place and knowing your part in it."^[8] He would, however, long remember the Dust Bowl storms and grasshopper plagues that swept the prairie states during the Great Depression.^[13] The McGovern family lived on the edge of the poverty line for much of the 1920s and 1930s.^[14] Growing up amid that lack of affluence gave young George a lifelong sympathy for underpaid workers and struggling farmers.^[2] He was influenced by the currents of populism and agrarian unrest and by the "practical divinity" teachings of cleric John Wesley that sought to fight poverty, injustice, and ignorance.^[15]

In seventh grade, a gym teacher called him a "physical coward" for being afraid to dive headfirst and somersault over a gymnastics vaulting horse; the incident troubled him psychologically.^[16] George attended Mitchell High School,^[1] where he was a solid but unspectacular member of the track team.^[16] A turning point came when his tenth grade English teacher recruited him for the debate team, where he became quite active.^[4] His high school debate coach proved to be a great influence in his life, and McGovern spent many hours honing his meticulous, if colorless, forensic style.^[11] 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.^[11][17] Debate changed McGovern's life, giving him a chance to explore ideas to their logical end, broadening his perspective, and instilling a sense of personal and social confidence.^[8][11] He graduated in 1940 in the top ten percent of his class.^[1][18]

McGovern enrolled at small Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell^[1] and became a star student there.^[19] He supplemented a forensic scholarship by working a variety of odd jobs.^[18] With World War II underway overseas, McGovern still felt insecure about his own courage. To prove himself, McGovern took flying lessons in an Aeronca aircraft and received a pilot's license through the government's Civilian Pilot Training Program.^[4][16] 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."^[4] In April 1941, McGovern began dating fellow student Eleanor Stegeberg, who had grown up in Woonsocket, South Dakota.^[20][21] (They had first encountered each other during a high school debate in which Eleanor and her twin sister Ila defeated McGovern and his partner.^[8])

McGovern was listening to a radio broadcast of 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.^[22] Within days he drove to Omaha, Nebraska, and volunteered to join the United States Army Air Forces.^[4][22] The military accepted him, but they did not yet have enough airfields, aircraft, or instructors to start training all the volunteers, so McGovern stayed at Dakota Wesleyan.^[20] George and Eleanor became engaged, but initially decided not to marry until the war was over.^[20] 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.^[3][23] McGovern was also elected president of his sophomore and junior classes.^[1] In February 1943, during his junior year, he and a partner won a national debate tournament at North Dakota State University that featured competitors from over one hundred schools; upon his return to campus he discovered that the Army had finally called him up.^[19]

Military service[link]

Soon thereafter McGovern was sworn in as a private at Fort Snelling in Minnesota.^[24] 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; both the academic work and physical training would be the toughest he would ever experience.^[25] He spent two months at a base in San Antonio, Texas and then went to Hatbox Field in Muskogee, Oklahoma for basic flying school in a single-engined PT-19.^[25] Lonely and in love, McGovern married Eleanor Stegeberg on October 31, 1943, while on three-day leave in a ceremony at the small Methodist church in Woonsocket with his father presiding, as the couple decided not to wait any further.^[26][27] After three months in Muskogee, McGovern went to Coffeyville Army Airfield in Kansas for three months of training on the BT-13.^[28] Around April 1944, McGovern went on to advanced flying school at Pampa Army Airfield in Texas for twin-engine training on the AT-17 and AT-9.^[28] Throughout, Air Cadet McGovern showed skill as a pilot, with his exceptionally good depth perception aiding him.^[25] Eleanor McGovern followed him to these different stops and was there when he got his wings and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant.^[28]

McGovern was assigned to Liberal Army Airfield in Kansas to transition school to learn to fly the B-24 Liberator, an assignment he was pleased with.^[28] 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 the time."^[4] Eleanor was constantly afraid of her husband suffering an accident while training, which claimed a huge toll of airmen during the entire war.^[29] This was followed by a stint at Lincoln Army Airfield in Nebraska, where McGovern met his B-24 crew.^[30] The traveling around the country and mixing with people from different backgrounds was a broadening experience for McGovern and others of his generation.^[30] The USAAF sped up training times for McGovern and others due to the heavy losses that bombing missions were suffering over Europe.^[31] 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.^[32] In June 1944, McGovern's crew received final training at Mountain Home Army Air Field in Idaho.^[30] They then shipped out via Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, where McGovern found history books to fill downtime, and overseas on a slow troopship.^[33]

A B-24 Liberator of the Fifteenth Air Force's 451st Bombardment Group (not McGovern's group, but also stationed in Italy), on a March 1945 mission over Germany

In September 1944, McGovern joined the 741st Squadron of the 455th Bombardment Group of the Fifteenth Air Force, stationed at San Giovanni Airfield nearby Cerignola in the Apulia region of Italy.^[34] 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 the Depression.^[34][35] (The sights would be part of his later motivation to fight hunger.^[36]) Starting on November 11, 1944, McGovern flew 35 missions over enemy territory from there, 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.^[37] His targets were in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and northern, German-controlled Italy, and were often either oil refinery complexes or rail marshalling yards, all as part of the U.S. strategic bombing campaign in Europe. The eight- or nine-hour missions were grueling tests of endurance for pilots, and while German fighter aircraft were a diminished threat by then, 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, a piece of shrapnel from flak came through the windshield and missed killing him by only a few inches.^[38] The following day on a mission to Brüx he nearly collided with another bomber during close-formation flying in complete cloud cover.^[39] The day after that 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 the plane.^[40] On a December 20 mission against the Škoda Works at Pilsen, McGovern's plane had one engine out and another in flames after being hit by flak. Unable to return to Italy, McGovern was able to land his plane on a British airfield on Vis, a small island off the Yugoslav coast controlled by Josip Broz Tito's Partisans. The short field, normally used by small fighter planes, killed many of the bomber crews who tried to make emergency landings there, but McGovern successfully landed, saving his crew and earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross.^[41][42]

In January 1945, McGovern used R&R time to see every sight he could in Rome and participate in an audience with the Pope.^[43] Bad weather prevented many missions from happening during the winter, and during 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.^[44] In February, McGovern was promoted to First Lieutenant.^[45] On March 14, McGovern had an incident over Austria in which he accidentally bombed a family farm when a jammed bomb accidentally released above it and destroyed it, which McGovern felt guilty about.^[46] (Decades later, after a public appearance in that country, the owner of that farm came to the media to let the Senator know that he was the victim of that incident, but no one was hurt and felt it was worth the price if that event helped achieve the defeat of Nazi Germany in some small way.^[47]) On return from the flight, McGovern was told his first child Ann had been born four days earlier.^[46] April 25 saw McGovern's 35th mission, to fulfill the Fifteenth Air Force 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" – the Dakota Queen was hit multiple times (producing 110 holes in its fuselage and wings) and the hydraulic system was knocked out. McGovern's waist gunner was injured and his flight engineer so terrified that he would be hospitalized with battle fatigue, but McGovern managed to bring back the plane safely with the assistance of an improvised landing technique.^[42][48]

In May and June 1945, following the end of the European war, McGovern flew food relief flights to northern Italy, then flew back to the United States with his crew.^[49] McGovern was discharged from the Army Air Forces in July 1945, with the rank of First Lieutenant.^[1] He was also awarded the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters,^[3] one instance of which was for the safe landing on his final mission.^[50]

Later education and early career[link]

Upon coming home, McGovern returned to Dakota Wesleyan University, aided by the G.I. Bill, and graduated from there in June 1946 with a B.A. degree magna cum laude.^[1][51] For a while he suffered from nightmares about flying through flak barrages or his plane being on fire.^[52] 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.^[51] The couple's second daughter, Susan, was born in March 1946.^[51]

McGovern switched from Wesleyan Methodism to less fundamental regular Methodism.^[51] Influenced by Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel movement,^[8] McGovern began divinity studies at Garrett Theological Seminary^{[nb 2]} in Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago.^[54] He preached as a United 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.^[8][54] 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.^[55] He received an M.A. in history in 1949.^[1][2]

McGovern then returned to his alma mater, Dakota Wesleyan, and became a professor of history and political science.^[1] With the assistance of a Hearst fellowship for 1949–1950, he continued pursuing graduate studies during summers and other free time.^[1] The couple's third daughter, Teresa, was born in June 1949.^[56] Eleanor McGovern began to suffer from bouts of depression, but continued to assume the large share of household and child-rearing duties.^[57] McGovern earned a Ph.D in history from Northwestern University in 1953.^{[1][nb 3]} 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.^[8][57] His thesis advisor, noted historian Arthur S. Link, later said he had not seen a better student than McGovern in 26 years of teaching.^[59]

Nominally a Republican growing up, McGovern began to admire Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II.^{[60][nb 4]} At Northwestern, his exposure to the work of China scholars John King Fairbank and Owen Lattimore had convinced him that unrest in Southeast Asia was homegrown and that U.S. foreign policy towards Asia was counterproductive.^[15] Discouraged by the onset of the Cold War, McGovern was attracted to the 1948 presidential campaign of former Vice President and Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace.^[62] He volunteered for Wallace in South Dakota and attended the Wallace Progressive Party's first national convention as a delegate.^[8][63] After deciding there that Wallace was in the control of "fanatics", Communist and otherwise, he did not vote in the general election,^[8][62] although he supported the re-election of President Harry Truman.^[63]

Four years later, in 1952, he heard a radio broadcast of Governor Adlai Stevenson's speech accepting the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.^[64] He immediately dedicated himself towards Stevenson's campaign, publishing seven articles in Mitchell's Daily Republic newspaper outlining the historical issues that separated the Democratic Party from the Republicans.^[64] The McGoverns named their only son Steven, born immediately after the 1952 Democratic National Convention, after his new hero.^{[57][65][nb 5]} 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."^[60] In early 1953, McGovern left teaching to become executive secretary of the South Dakota Democratic Party^[65][67] (the state chair having recruited him after reading his articles).^[64] Democrats in the state were at a low, holding no statewide offices and only 2 of the 110 seats in the state legislature.^[67] 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 a political career of his own.^{[68][nb 6]}

McGovern spent the following years rebuilding and revitalizing the party, building up a large list of voter contacts via frequent travel around the state.^[8] Democrats showed improvement in the 1954 elections, winning 25 seats in the state legislature.^[70] From 1954 to 1956 he also was on a political organization advisory group for the Democratic National Committee.^[67] The McGoverns' fifth and final child, Mary, was born in 1955.^[71]

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

George S. McGovern, date uncertain

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.^[67] He faced four-term incumbent Republican Party Representative Harold O. Lovre. Aided by the voter lists he had earlier accumulated,^[70] he ran a low budget campaign, spending $12,000 while borrowing $5,000.^[8][72] McGovern's quiet personality appealed to voters he met, while Lovre suffered from a general unhappiness over Eisenhower administration farm policy.^[8][67] When polls showed McGovern gaining, Lovre's campaign implied that McGovern's support for admitting 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.^[73] In his closing speech, McGovern responded: "I have always despised communism and every other ruthless tyranny over the mind and spirit of man."^[73] 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.^[67] The McGoverns established a home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.^[35]

Entering the 85th United States Congress, McGovern became a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor.^[67] As a representative, McGovern was attentive to his district.^[8] He became a staunch supporter of higher commodity prices,^[74] farm price supports, grain storage programs, and beef import controls,^[8] believing that such stored commodities programs guarded against drought and similar emergencies.^[3] He favored rural development, federal aid to small business and to education, and medical coverage for the aged under Social Security.^[67][74] In 1957, he traveled and studied conditions in the Middle East under a fellowship from the American Christian Palestine Committee.^[67] McGovern first allied with the Kennedy family by supporting a House version of Senator John F. Kennedy's eventually unsuccessful labor reform bill.^[67]

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 winner Joe Foss,^[8] who was initially considered the favorite to win.^[75] But McGovern ran an effective campaign and was the superior politician, possessing an acute sense of his political beliefs and the talent to articulate them.^[75][76] He prevailed with a slightly larger margin than two years before.^[67][75]

In the 86th United States Congress, McGovern was assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture.^[67] The longtime chair of 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."^[3] He helped pass a new food stamp law.^[74] He was one of nine representations from Congress to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly conferences of 1958 and 1959.^[67] Along with Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, McGovern strongly advocated a reconstruction of the Agricultural Trade Development Assistance Act that had started under Eisenhower, with a greater emphasis on feeding the hungry around the world and the establishment of an executive office to run it.^[67][77] During his time in the House, McGovern was regarded as a liberal overall,^[67][78] and voted in accordance with the rated positions of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) 34 times and against 3 times.^{[nb 7]} 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.^[74]

In 1960, McGovern decided to run for the U.S. Senate and challenge the Republican incumbent Karl Mundt,^[78] a formidable figure in South Dakota politics whom McGovern loathed as an old-style McCarthyite.^[35][79] The race centered mostly around rural issues, but John F. Kennedy's Catholicism was a drawback at the top of the ticket in the Protestant state.^[78] 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."^[79] McGovern was defeated in the November 1960 election, gaining 145,217 votes to Mundt's 160,579, but the margin was three times smaller than Kennedy's larger loss to Vice President Richard M. Nixon in the state's presidential contest.^[67][80]

Food for Peace director[link]

McGovern as Food for Peace director in 1961, with President John F. Kennedy

Having relinquished his House seat to run for the Senate, McGovern was available for a position in the new Kennedy administration.^{[nb 8]} 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.^[67] McGovern assumed the post on January 21, 1961.^[83]

As director, McGovern urged 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 under-privileged at home and abroad."^[3] He found space for the program in the Executive Office Building rather than be subservient to either the State Department or Department of Agriculture.^[84] 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 the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.^[67] 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 out of action for two months.^[85]

By the close of 1961, the Food for Peace program was operating in a dozen countries^[67] and 10 million more people had been fed with American surplus than the year before.^[85] In February 1962, McGovern visited India and oversaw a greatly expanded school lunch program thanks to Food for Peace; subsequently one of five Indian schoolchildren would be fed from it.^[85] Pope John XXIII praised McGovern's work during an audience in Rome,^[85] and the distribution program was also popular among South Dakota's wheat farmers.^[8] In addition, McGovern was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations-based World Food Programme in December 1961; it started distributing food to stricken regions of the world the following year and would go on to become the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.^[86][87]

Administration was never McGovern's strength, however, and he was restless for another try at the Senate.^[88] With the approval of President Kennedy, McGovern resigned his post on July 18, 1962.^[67][83] 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".^[83] Schlesinger would later write that Food for Peace had been "the greatest unseen weapon of Kennedy's third-world policy."^[85]

U.S. Senator[link]

1962 election and early years as a senator[link]

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.^[67] Case died in June, however, and McGovern instead faced an appointed senator, former Lieutenant Governor Joseph H. Bottum.^[67] Much of the campaign revolved around policies of the Kennedy administration and its New Frontier;^[89] Bottum accused the Kennedy family of trying to buy the Senate seat.^[80] McGovern appealed to those worried about the outflux of young people from the state, and had the strong support of the Farmers Union.^[80] Polls showed Bottum slightly ahead throughout the race and McGovern was hampered by a recurrence of his hepatitis problem in the final weeks of the campaign.^[80] (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.^[60]) Eleanor McGovern campaigned for her ailing husband and may well have saved his chances.^[90] The November 1962 election result was very close and required a recount, but McGovern's 127,458 votes prevailed by a margin of 597, making him the first Democratic senator from the state in 26 years^[89] and only the third since statehood in 1889.^[80]

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.^[89] On the Agriculture Committee, McGovern supported high farm prices, full parity, and controls on beef importation, as well as the administration's Feed Grains Acreage Diversion Program.^[91] 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.^[91] 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.^[92] McGovern was largely inactive on the Interior Committee until 1967, when he was given chair of the Subcommittee on Indian Affairs.^[93] However, Interior chair Henry M. Jackson, who did not get along with McGovern personally or politically, refused to allow McGovern his own staff, greatly limiting his effectiveness.^[93] McGovern regretted not accomplishing more for South Dakota's 30,000 Sioux Indians, although after a McGovern-introduced resolution on Indian self-determination passed in 1969, the Oglala Sioux named McGovern "Great White Eagle".^[93]

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 towards Cuba, saying that it suffered from "our Castro fixation".^[89] In August 1963, McGovern advocated reducing the $53 billion defense budget by $5 billion; influenced by advisor Seymour Melman, he held a special antipathy towards the doctrine of nuclear "overkill".^[94] McGovern would try to reduce defense appropriations or limit military expenditures in almost every year during the 1960s.^[95] He also voted against many weapons programs, especially missile and anti-missile systems, and also opposed military assistance to foreign nations.^[95] In 1964, McGovern published his first book, War Against Want: America's Food for Peace Program.^[89] In it he argued for expanding his old program, and a Senate measure he introduced was eventually passed, adding $700 million to the effort's funding.^[96]

Preferring to focus on broad policy matters and speeches, McGovern was not a master of Senate legislative tactics, and developed a reputation among some other senators for "not doing his homework".^[8][97] 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 a chance to join the powerful Senate Rules Committee.^[8][97] Relatively few pieces of legislation would bear his name and his legislative accomplishments were generally viewed as modest, although he would try to influence the contents of others' bills.^[74][97] In terms of ideology, McGovern fit squarely within modern American liberalism; through 1967 his ADA senate score was 92, and when lacking specific knowledge on a particular matter, he would ask his staff, "What are the liberals doing?"^[35][74][98]

Opposition to Vietnam War[link]

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.^[99][100] Bothered by the Buddhist crisis and other recent developments, and with concerns influenced by Vietnam historian Bernard Fall, McGovern said:

However, the speech was little noticed, and McGovern backed away from saying anything publicly for over a year afterward, partly because of the November 1963 assassination of President Kennedy and partly to not appear strident.^[101] Though more skeptical about it than most senators,^[102] 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.^[74] McGovern thought the commander-in-chief should be given limited authority to retaliate against an attack;^[100] subsequently he said his instinct had been to vote no, but that he had voted yes based on Senator J. William Fulbright's urging to stand behind Johnson politically.^[101][102] Indeed, the day after the resolution vote, McGovern spoke concerning his fears that the vote would lead to greater involvement in the war;^[74] Wayne Morse, one of only two senators to oppose the resolution, sardonically noted that this fell into the category of "very interesting, but very belated".^[101] This would become the vote that McGovern most bitterly regretted.^[100][102]

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 the north."^[89][103] 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.^[103] The speech gave McGovern national visibility as one of the "doves" in the debate over Vietnam.^[103] However, McGovern made moderate-to-hawkish statements at times too, flatly rejecting unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces and criticizing anti-war draft-card burnings as "immature, impractical, and illegal".^[104] In November 1965, McGovern travelled to South Vietnam for three weeks.^[105] The human carnage he saw in hospital wards deeply upset him, and he became increasingly outspoken about the war upon his return, more convinced than ever that Vietnam was a political not military problem.^{[74][89][104]} Now he was ready, as he later said, "not merely to dissent, but to crusade" against the war.^[105]

McGovern voted in favor of Vietnam military appropriations in 1966 through 1968, not wanting to deprive U.S. forces of necessary equipment.^[104] Nevertheless, his anti-war rhetoric increased throughout 1967.^[106] Over 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."^[106]

1968 presidential and Senate campaigns[link]

In August 1967, activist Allard K. Lowenstein founded the Dump Johnson movement, and soon they were seeking a Democratic Party figure to make a primaries campaign challenge against Johnson in the 1968 presidential election.^[107] Their first choice was Senator Robert Kennedy, who declined, as did another, and by late September 1967 they approached McGovern.^[35][107] 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.^[8][108] A month later the anti-Johnson forces were able to convince Senator Eugene McCarthy to run,^[107] who was one of the few "dove" senators not up for reelection that year.^[108]

The 1968 Democratic primaries unfolded with McCarthy staging a strong showing and Robert Kennedy entering, followed by Johnson withdrawing and Vice President Humphrey running instead. While McGovern favored Kennedy privately, McCarthy and Humphrey were from a neighboring state and publicly McGovern remained neutral throughout.^[109] 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.^[109] McGovern spoke with Kennedy by phone minutes before Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.^[109] The death of Bobby Kennedy left McGovern the most emotionally distraught he had ever been to that point in his life.^[109]

Within days, some of Kennedy's aides were urging McGovern to run in his place; their antipathy towards McCarthy and ideological opposition to Humphrey made them unwilling to support either candidate.^[110] McGovern delayed making a decision, making sure that Ted Kennedy did not want to enter, and with his staff still concerned about the senator's own reelection prospects.^[110] Indeed McGovern's voting had changed during 1968, with his ADA rating falling to 43 as he sought more middle-of-the-road stances.^[74] In late July, McGovern's decision became more complicated when his daughter Teresa was arrested in Rapid City, South Dakota on marijuana possession charges.^[111] She had led a troubled life since her teenage years, developing problems with alcohol and depression and suffering the consequences of a relationship with an unstable neighborhood boy.^[112] Based on a recently enacted strict state drugs law, Terry now faced a minimum five-year prison sentence if found guilty.^[113] McGovern was also convinced that the socially conservative voters of South Dakota would reject him due to his daughter's arrest.^[113] Charges against her were subsequently dropped due to a technically invalid search warrant.^[114]

McGovern formally announced his candidacy on August 10, 1968 in Washington, two weeks in advance of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, committing himself to "the goals for which Robert Kennedy gave his life."^[115] Asked why he was a better choice than McCarthy, he said, "Well – Gene really doesn't want to be President, and I do."^[116] At the convention in Chicago, Humphrey was the near-certain choice while McGovern became the initial rallying point for around 300 leaderless Kennedy delegates.^[116] The chaotic circumstances of the convention found McGovern denouncing as "police brutality" the Chicago police tactics against demonstrators.^[117] It was very difficult for McGovern to gain in delegate strength given the internal politics of the party, and black protest candidate Channing E. Phillips drew off some of his support.^[117] In the actual roll call, McGovern came in third with 146½ delegates, far behind Humphrey's 1760¼ and McCarthy's 601.^[118]

McGovern endorsed Humphrey at the convention, to the dismay of some anti-war figures who considered it a betrayal.^[117] 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,^[119] he initially suffered a substantial drop in popularity over the events in Chicago.^[120] However, McGovern conducted an energetic campaign that focused on his service to the state, while Gubbrud ran a lackluster effort.^[120] In November, McGovern won 57 percent of the vote in what he would consider the easiest and most decisive victory of his career.^[119]

Middle Senate years and continued opposition to Vietnam War[link]

During the 1968 Democratic Convention, a motion had been passed to establish a commission to reform the Democratic Party nomination process.^[121] In 1969, McGovern was named chairman of the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection; due to the influence of former McCarthy and Kennedy supporters on the staff, the commission significantly reduced the role of party officials and insiders in the nomination process, increased the role of caucuses and primaries, and mandated quotas for proportional black, female, and youth delegate representation.^[122] A somewhat unintended consequence of the McGovern Commission's reforms was a massive increase in the number of presidential primaries; this became true for the Republican Party as well.^[123] The U.S. presidential nominating process has been different ever since, with scholars debating whether all the changes are for the better.^[123]

In the wake of several high-profile reports about hunger and malnutrition in the United States, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs had been created in July 1968, with McGovern as its chair.^[124] Seeking to dramatize the problem, in March 1969 McGovern took the committee to Immokalee, Florida, the base for 20,000 mostly black or Hispanic migrant farm workers.^[125] They saw graphic examples of hunger and malnutrition firsthand, but also encountered resistance and complaints about bad publicity from local and state officials.^[125][126] McGovern battled the Nixon administration and Southerners in Congress during much of the next year over an expanded food stamp program; he had to compromise on a number of points, but legislation signed in 1970 established the principles of free food stamps and a nationwide standard for eligibility.^[127]

McGovern generally lacked both interest and expertise in economics, but was outspoken in reaction to Nixon's imposition of wage and price controls in 1971.^[128] McGovern declared: "This administration, which pledged to slow inflation and reduce unemployment, has instead given us the highest rate of inflation and the highest rate of unemployment in a decade."^[129] A 1971 60 Minutes detailed his support of desegregation busing while Washington, D.C. resident McGovern simultaneously paid tuition for his own daughter to attend Bethesda, Maryland public schools, which were only 3 percent black.^[130]

U.S. Congressional opposition to U.S. involvement in wars and interventions
1812 North America
House Federalists’ Address
1847 Mexican–American War
Spot Resolutions
1917 World War I
Filibuster of the Armed Ship Bill
1935–1939
Neutrality Acts
1935–1940
Ludlow Amendment
1970 Vietnam
McGovern–Hatfield Amendment
1970 Southeast Asia
Cooper–Church Amendment
1971 Vietnam
Repeal of Tonkin Gulf Resolution
1973 Southeast Asia
Case–Church Amendment
1973
War Powers Resolution
1974
Hughes–Ryan Amendment
1976 Angola
Clark Amendment
1982 Nicaragua
Boland Amendment
2007 Iraq
House Concurrent Resolution 63
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But most of all, McGovern was known for his continued opposition to the Vietnam War. In March 1969, he became the first senator to explicitly criticize the new president's policy there, an action that was seen as a breach of customary protocol by other Senate doves.^[131] By the end of 1969, McGovern was calling for an immediate cease-fire and a total withdrawal of all American troops within a year.^[131] In October 1969, McGovern was a featured speaker before 100,000 demonstrators in Boston at the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, and in November he spoke before 350,000 at Moratorium/Mobilization's anti-war march to the Washington Monument.^[132] Afterward, he decided that radicalized peace demonstrations were counterproductive and criticized anti-war figures such as Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Huey Newton, Abby Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin as "reckless" and "irresponsible".^[132]

Instead, McGovern focused on legislative means to bring the war to an end.^[133] The McGovern–Hatfield Amendment to the annual military procurement bill, co-sponsored by Republican Mark Hatfield of Oregon, required via funding cutoff a complete withdrawal of all American forces from Indochina by the end of 1970.^[134] It underwent months of public discussion and alterations to make it acceptable to more senators, including pushing the deadline out to the end of 1971.^[135] In May 1970, McGovern obtained a second mortgage on his Washington home in order to fund a half-hour televised panel discussion on the amendment on NBC.^[135] The broadcast brought in over $500,000 in donations that furthered work on passage,^[133] and eventually the amendment gained the support of the majority of the public in polls.^[135] The effort was denounced by opposition groups organized by White House aide Charles Colson, which called McGovern and Hatfield "apostles of retreat and defeat" and "salesmen of surrender" and maintained that only the president could conduct foreign policy.^[135] The amendment was defeated in September 1970 by a 55–39 vote, just short of what McGovern had hoped would constitute at least a moral victory.^[133] During the floor debate McGovern criticized his colleagues opposing the measure:

The Senate reacted in startled, stunned silence, and some faces showed anger and fury;^[100] when one member told McGovern he had been personally offended by the speech, McGovern said, "That's what I meant to do."^[135] McGovern believed Vietnam an immoral war that was destroying much of what was pure, hopeful, and different about America's character as a nation.^[100]

The defeat of the amendment left McGovern embittered and somewhat more radicalized.^[136] He accused Vice President of South Vietnam Nguyen Cao Ky of running a heroin trafficking operation that was addicting American soldiers.^[136] In a retort to the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis' suggestion that U.S. troops might have to return to Cambodia, McGovern declared, "I'm tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight. If he wants to use American ground troops in Cambodia, let him lead the charge himself."^[137] He denounced Nixon's policy of Vietnamization as "subsidiz[ing] the continued killing of the people of Indochina by technology and mercenaries."^[138] In a Playboy interview, he said that Ho Chi Minh was the North Vietnamese George Washington.^[136]