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.[109][110] 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 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."[81][109] " 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.[111] Though more skeptical about it than most senators,[112] 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.[81] McGovern thought the commander-in-chief should be given limited authority to retaliate against an attack;[110] 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.[111][112] Indeed, the day after the resolution vote, McGovern spoke concerning his fears that the vote would lead to greater involvement in the war;[81] 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".[111] This would become the vote that McGovern most bitterly regretted.[110][112] 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."[99][113] 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.[113] The speech gave McGovern national visibility as one of the "doves" in the debate over Vietnam.[113][114] 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".[115] He eschewed personal criticism of Johnson.[114] In November 1965, McGovern traveled to South Vietnam for three weeks.[116] 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.[81][99][115] Now he was ready, as he later said, "not merely to dissent, but to crusade" against the war.[116] McGovern voted in favor of Vietnam military appropriations in 1966 through 1968, not wanting to deprive U.S. forces of necessary equipment.[115] Nevertheless, his anti-war rhetoric increased throughout 1967.[117] 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."[117] 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.[143] The diversion during these years of much of Food for Peace's aid to South Vietnam, instead of other badly stricken countries around the world, greatly upset him.[144] By the end of 1969, McGovern was calling for an immediate cease-fire and a total withdrawal of all American troops within a year.[143] 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. 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". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_mcgovern#Opposition_to_Vietnam_War

• published: 13 Oct 2013
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