George
McGovern, the son of a Methodist minister, was born in Avon, South
Dakota, on 19th July, 1922. A highly intelligent student, in 1940
he won a scholarship to study history at the North-Western University.
McGovern's
education was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second
World War. McGovern joined the United States
Air Force in 1943 and flew 35 combat missions as a B-24 bomber
pilot in Europe. During the war McGovern won the Distinguished Flying
Cross.
After
the war McGovern returned to Northwestern University where he obtained
a Ph.D in history. He later moved to Dakota Wesleyan University where
he taught history and political science.
An active member of the Democratic Party,
McGovern served in the House of Representatives (1957-60) and was
director of the Food for Peace Program under John
F. Kennedy. In this position he oversaw the donation of millions
of tons of food to developing nations.
McGovern returned to the Senate in 1962 where he emerged as one of
the leading opponents of the Vietnam War.
In 1972 McGovern won the party nomination as its presidential candidate.
Given little chance of winning against the Republican
Party candidate, Richard Nixon, several
leading politicians, including Hubert Humphrey,
refused to be his running-mate. Tom Eagleton accepted but a few weeks
later was forced to resign after it was leaked to the press that he
had two spells in hospital for mental depression. He was replaced
by Sargent Shriver.
Over
the next few months McGovern argued for a guaranteed annual income
for each American family. This policy was unpopular with the middle
classes who feared that this system would provide benefits for people
unwilling to work.
During the election campaign there was a break-in at the headquarters
of the Democratic Party at the Watergate
complex in Washington. Reports by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
of the Washington Post, began to claim that some of Nixon's
top officials were involved in organizing the Watergate break-in.
However, this was not believed at the time and Nixon (46,631,189)
had an easy victory over McGovern (28,422,015).
McGovern was re-elected to the Senate in 1974 and in 1976 President
Gerald Ford named McGovern as a United
Nations delegate to the General Assembly. In 1978 President Jimmy
Carter appointed him as a UN delegate for the Special Session
on Disarmament.
McGovern,
whose autobiography, Grassroots,
was published in 1978, lost his seat in the Senate in 1980 to a right-wing
Republican Party candidate. For the
next few years he was visiting professor at several institutions including
Columbia University, Northwestern University, Cornell University and
the University of Berlin. He also served as president of the Middle
East Policy Council (1991-1998).
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