Democratic politician and historian George
McGovern died Sunday aged 90, news reports quoted family members as
saying.
He was best known for his unsuccessful presidential bid against
Richard Nixon in 1972 on a campaign centred around opposition to the
Vietnam War. He lost in a landslide, winning the vote in only the
liberal north-eastern state of Massachusetts and the capital city of
Washington.
President Barack Obama called him "a statesman of great conscience
and conviction."
His defeat by Nixon remains one of the largest landslides in
US election history, with only the 1984 election that gave Ronald
Reagan a second term and Franklin D Roosevelt's 1932 reelection more
lopsided contests in the 20th century.
He was forced to change vice presidential candidates mid-race
after his first choice, Thomas Eagleton, was revealed to have been
treated for mental illness. He instead ran alongside Sargent Shriver,
a member of the Kennedy political dynasty.
Reminiscing about the campaign in a Washington Post editorial last
month, McGovern wrote that he was "genuinely stunned" by the result.
"The loss is there, an old wound never fully healed," he wrote.
"My disappointment was certainly personal, made deeper by the
awareness that many thousands of young Americans, and far more
Vietnamese and other Asian citizens, were going to and did lose their
lives with the Nixon administration's continuation of the war."
Still despite the failure, the race invigorated many young
activists who went on to become prominent members of the Democratic
party, including future president Bill Clinton and his wife,
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"We first met George while campaigning for him in 1972. Our
friendship endured for 40 years," the Clintons said in a statement.
"As a war hero, distinguished professor, congressman, senator and
ambassador, George always worked to advance the common good and help
others realize their potential."
"From his earliest days in Mitchell to his final days in Sioux
Falls, he never stopped standing up and speaking out for the causes
he believed in," they said. "We must continue to draw inspiration
from his example and build the world he fought for."
Born the son of a Methodist preacher in 1922, McGovern signed up
to be a pilot in World War II and flew bombers over Germany.
He also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination in 1968, when he made a late entry into the presidential
race shortly before a party convention marked by chaotic protests,
and again in 1984.
After the war he was a history professor and served at both levels
of the US Congress, serving as a representative in the lower House
and later a senator.
He was an outspoken advocate against global hunger, first as a
member of John F Kennedy's adminstration and later at the United
Nations.
"George McGovern dedicated his life to serving the country he
loved. He signed up to fight in World War II, and became a decorated
bomber pilot over the battlefields of Europe," Obama said in a
statement.
"When the people of South Dakota sent him to Washington, this hero
of war became a champion for peace," he said. "And after his career
in Congress, he became a leading voice in the fight against hunger.
George was a statesman of great conscience and conviction, and
Michelle and I share our thoughts and prayers with his family."
