On this date, in 1967 Eugene McCarthy announced that he would enter Democratic Primaries for President, and he would take on sitting US President Lyndon Johnson.
McCarthy was born to an Irish immigrant father and a mother from Bavaria. A tall man, he excelled at baseball, and would graduate from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN in 1935 with high honors at the age of 19. He would play semi-pro baseball during his final years at St John's, but also played hockey, and one year was the highest scorer on the team in taking St John's to its first state championship. McCarthy would teach high school, go on to earn a master's in economics from the U of Minnesota, return to St John's to teach education and economics, and would briefly enter the novitiate to see if a contemplative life was his calling. After serving as a code breaker in WWII, he would briefly farm near his hometown of MN, before going on to teach economics and sociology at St. John's arch-rival, St Thomas. However, he found his calling in politics in 1949, and would serve in the House of Representatives until 1949, moving to the US after being elected to that position in 1958.
Ten years later he would lead the revolt against the Vietnam War, prove the pundits wrong and cause a sitting President to drop out of the race. Rather than lose another primary, LBJ would drop out of the race just before the primary in the eastern neighbor of Minnesota. But, the race was not over, as Robert Kennedy would enter the race, with many observers commenting that he was coming in after McCarthy had done all the dirty work. McCarthy would win the Oregon primary setting a show down with RFK in California. But as we know, Kennedy's assassination would be but one additional mark in an already turbulent year. Vice President Hubert H Humphrey would go on to win the Democratic nomination at the tumultuous Chicago convention, even though he had not entered a single primary.
McCarthy would try two more times for President, each falling short. He even failed in 1982 to earn back a US Senate seat in Minnesota after having given it up in 1970.
McCarthy was born to an Irish immigrant father and a mother from Bavaria. A tall man, he excelled at baseball, and would graduate from St. John's University in Collegeville, MN in 1935 with high honors at the age of 19. He would play semi-pro baseball during his final years at St John's, but also played hockey, and one year was the highest scorer on the team in taking St John's to its first state championship. McCarthy would teach high school, go on to earn a master's in economics from the U of Minnesota, return to St John's to teach education and economics, and would briefly enter the novitiate to see if a contemplative life was his calling. After serving as a code breaker in WWII, he would briefly farm near his hometown of MN, before going on to teach economics and sociology at St. John's arch-rival, St Thomas. However, he found his calling in politics in 1949, and would serve in the House of Representatives until 1949, moving to the US after being elected to that position in 1958.
Ten years later he would lead the revolt against the Vietnam War, prove the pundits wrong and cause a sitting President to drop out of the race. Rather than lose another primary, LBJ would drop out of the race just before the primary in the eastern neighbor of Minnesota. But, the race was not over, as Robert Kennedy would enter the race, with many observers commenting that he was coming in after McCarthy had done all the dirty work. McCarthy would win the Oregon primary setting a show down with RFK in California. But as we know, Kennedy's assassination would be but one additional mark in an already turbulent year. Vice President Hubert H Humphrey would go on to win the Democratic nomination at the tumultuous Chicago convention, even though he had not entered a single primary.
McCarthy would try two more times for President, each falling short. He even failed in 1982 to earn back a US Senate seat in Minnesota after having given it up in 1970.
Al Eisele, a long time editor of The Hill, AND A 1958 graduate of St John's, would in a tribute to McCarthy say:
Most of all, he was a man of courage who was willing to stand up at a critical moment in American history and warn the nation that it was engaged in an unwinnable war that was diplomatically indefensible, constitutionally questionable and morally wrong. When McCarthy announced his anti-war candidacy in 1967, the number of American military personnel killed in Vietnam was 15,858. When the war finally ended five years later, after he had left the Senate, the number was more than 58,000. In other words, more than 42,000 American lives, and countless Vietnamese lives as well, would have been saved had he been elected president.
His stand against the war was a singular act of courage that grows larger in retrospect and guarantees him a secure place in history of his country. He was, as he said of his friend, the late Senator Phil Hart of Michigan, "a man out of his proper time, a man meant for the Age of Faith... when men like Thomas More could make their last defense, beyond the civil law, in religious belief."
The world needs men like Thomas More, and Eugene McCarthy if for no other reason than to make people think through their actions brought on by their choices. Perhaps the McCarthy Center at St John's is providing this level of critical thinking, courage, and resolve to current St. John's University students.
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