Mike Mansfield
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- This article describes the American politician. For the British lawyer, see Michael Mansfield.
Michael Joseph Mansfield (March 16, 1903 – October 5, 2001) was an American politician. Born in New York City to Irish Catholic immigrants, he was raised in Montana, where he graduated from the University of Montana and was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Mansfield represented the state of Montana throughout his political career.
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[edit] Early childhood
Mansfield was born in New York City, but moved to Montana at an early age. He was raised in Great Falls.
[edit] Military service
Mansfield left home in 1917, before completing the 8th grade and joined the United States Navy at 14 years of age on 23 February 1918. During World War I, ten of Mansfield’s nineteen months of service were spent overseas. He subsequently served a one-year hitch in the Army.
On 10 November 1920, Mike Mansfield enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at San Francisco, California. Serving in the Western Recruiting Division at San Francisco until January 1921, he was transferred to the Marine Barracks at Puget Sound, Washington, where he remained until February. At that time, he was detached to the Guard Company, Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California. In April 1921, Mansfield boarded the USAT Sherman for the Philippines. After a brief stopover at the Marine Barracks at Cavite, he arrived at his duty station on 5 May 1921, the Marine Barracks, Naval Station, Olongapo, Philippine Islands. After nearly twelve months of duty at Olongapo, Mansfield was assigned to Company A, Marine Battery, Asiatic Fleet. His month long tour of duty with the Asiatic Fleet took him up and down the coast of China before he returned to Olongapo in late May, 1922.
In August 1922, Mansfield returned to Cavite in preparation for his return to the United States and eventual discharge from the Marine Corps. On 9 November 1922, Private Michael J. Mansfield was discharged upon expiration of his enlistment. Awarded the Good Conduct Medal, Mansfield’s character was described as “excellent” during two years of service.
[edit] Education
Mansfield returned to Montana after his discharge where he worked in the Butte mines as a miner and mining engineer until 1930. Having never attended high school, Mansfield had to read and study to take the entrance examinations to become eligible to enter college. He attended the Montana School of Mines from 1927 to 1928 and University of Montana (known then as Montana State University) from 1930 to 1934. At the University, he was awarded the B.A. and M.A. degrees and went on to teach there for ten years. Before being elected to his first term in Congress in 1942, he was the Professor of Latin American and Far Eastern History at the University of Montana.
[edit] Congressional service
He served as a member of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1943 until 1953 and in the United States Senate from 1953 until 1977. During his tenure in the Senate, he served as the majority leader from 1961 to 1977; he is the longest serving majority leader in the history of the Senate as of 2006.
An early supporter of Ngo Dinh Diem, Mansfield had a change of heart on the Vietnam issue after a visit to Vietnam in 1962. He reported to President Kennedy on December 2, 1962, that US money given to Diem's government was being squandered and that the US should avoid further involvement in Vietnam. He was thus the first American official to comment adversely on the war's progress. During the Johnson presidency, Mansfield became a frequent and vocal critic of US involvement in the Vietnam war. He hailed the new Nixon administration, especially the "Nixon Doctrine" announced at Guam in 1969 that the US would 1) honor all U.S. treaty commitments against those who might invade the lands of allies of the United States; 2). To provide a nuclear umbrella against threats of other nuclear powers; and 3). To supply weapons and technical assistance to countries where warranted but without committing American forces to local conflicts. In turn Nixon turned to Mansfield for advice and as his liaison with the Senate on Vietnam. However, By 1970, with Nixon still pursuing the war, he adopted the position that the Congress ought to pressure Nixon more, especially by stringent legislative limitations on the use of American forces and appropriated funds for the war. As a result, Nixon reduced American forces by 95%, leaving only 24,200 in late 1972; the last left in 1973.
Mansfield introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The controversial Mansfield Amendment of 1973 expressly limited appropriations for defense research (through ARPA) to projects with direct military application.
[edit] U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Mansfield retired from the Senate in 1976, and was appointed Ambassador to Japan in April 1977 by Jimmy Carter, a role he retained during the Reagan administration until 1988. Mansfield is particularly renowned for describing the United States-Japan relationship as the 'most important bilateral relationship in the world, bar none'. Mansfield's successor in Japan Michael Armacost noted in his memoirs that, for Mansfield, the phrase was a 'mantra'.
After his retirement as ambassador, he worked as an advisor to Goldman Sachs on East Asian affairs.
[edit] Honors
The Mike and Maureen Mansfield Memorial Library at the University of Montana, Missoula is named after him and his wife Maureen, as was his request when informed of the honor. The library also contains the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, which is dedicated to Asian studies, and, like the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, "advancing understanding and co-operation in U.S.-Asia relations."
The Montana Democratic Party holds an annual Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner named partially in his honor. Mansfield retired in 1989, received the United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1990, and died on October 5, 2001, at the age of 98.
[edit] Burial at Arlington
This gentleman went from snuffy to national and international prominence. And when he passed away in 2001, he was rightly buried in Arlington. If you want to visit his grave, don't look for him near the "Kennedy Eternal Flame", where so many politicians are laid to rest. Look for a small, common marker shared by the majority of our heroes. Look for the marker that says "Michael J. Mansfield, Pfc. U. S. Marine Corps". Remarks by Col. James Michael Lowe, USMC [1] October 20, 2004.
The plot of Senator and Mrs. Mansfield can be found in section 2, marker 49-69F.
[edit] References
- Thorne, Christopher Laid to Rest, A Tribute to Mike Mansfield October 11, 2001, Associated Press
- This article incorporates text in the public domain from the United States Marine Corps.
- Gregory A. Olson, Mansfield and Vietnam, a Study in Rhetorical Adaptation Michigan State University Press, 1995
- Don Oberdorfer, Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat (ISBN 1-58834-166-6), 2003.
- Francis R. Valeo; Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader: A Different Kind of Senate, 1961-1976 M. E. Sharpe, 1999
- Charles and Barbara Whalen, The Longest Debate: A Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Cabin John, `Maryland: Seven Locks Press, 1985).
- The Honorable Michael J. Mansfield, Who's Who in Marine Corps History, History Division, United States Marine Corps. (URL access on April 22, 2006)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Mansfield Center
- Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
| Preceded by Jeannette Rankin |
U.S. Representative for Montana's 1st Congressional District 1943-1953 |
Succeeded by Lee Metcalf |
| Preceded by Zales Ecton |
U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Montana 1953-1977 |
Succeeded by John Melcher |
| Preceded by Earle C. Clements |
Senate Majority Whip 1957-1961 |
Succeeded by Hubert Humphrey |
| Preceded by Lyndon B. Johnson |
Senate Majority Leader Senate Democratic Leader 1961-1977 |
Succeeded by Robert Byrd |
| Preceded by James D. Hodgson |
U.S. Ambassador to Japan 1977 – 1988 |
Succeeded by Michael Armacost |
| Preceded by Ronald Reagan |
Sylvanus Thayer Award recipient 1990 |
Succeeded by Paul H. Nitze |
| United States Senate Majority Leaders |  |
|---|---|
| Curtis • Watson • Robinson • Barkley • White • Lucas • McFarland • Taft • Knowland • Johnson • Mansfield • Byrd • Baker • Dole • Byrd • Mitchell • Dole • Lott • Daschle • Lott • Daschle • Frist • Reid |
Categories: United States Senators from Montana | Members of the United States House of Representatives from Montana | Ambassadors of the United States | Vietnam War people | United States Marines | United States Army soldiers | United States Navy sailors | American World War I veterans | Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients | Montana State University alumni | Irish-American politicians | Roman Catholic politicians | People from Montana | 1903 births | 2001 deaths
