McCarthy's Mind

1968 was a year of turmoil in America. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. only added to the political chaos that was the Vietnam War. 1968 was also the first year a majority of Americans spoke out against the war. Being an election year, the war was an important topic for the candidates for the presidential nomination. One of the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination was Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. His anti-war views changed not only American politics, but America itself.

Eugene, more commonly called Gene, McCarthy believed that the government should be held to a set of moral standards, and that fighting in Vietnam was not a morally sound decision. He was also convicted to speak out against the war for that majority of Americans who opposed it as well. On August 17, 1967, McCarthy walked out of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee “after hearing Undersecretary of State Nicholas Katzenbach declare that Congress was ‘compelled’ to support President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam Policy” (Eisele). McCarthy’s anti-war ideas remained strong throughout 1968.

Prompted by other politicians opposed to Vietnam, McCarthy started a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. He focused on encouraging Americans to speak up, and appealed to mostly young adults. However, his campaign was financed by a small number of older anti-war politicians who gave large donations. He spent a considerable sum of money on television ads for the New Hampshire primary. In fact, in 1971 Congress passed a law limiting campaign spending on television largely based on McCarthy’s New Hampshire campaign.

Although he did not win the nomination, or even the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy was able to transform American society. He was able to hold President Johnson under 50% of the vote by receiving 42% himself. Soon after McCarthy’s accomplishment, and the addition to the candidacy of Robert Kennedy, President Johnson decided not to run for re-election, thus turning the focus of the Democratic Party to getting out of Vietnam.

Gene McCarthy challenged the 1968 government. He spoke for the larger part of Americans, those that opposed the path our country was taking. And he was heard. In 1972, the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam. Albert Eisele, former press secretary to vice president Walter Mondale and Washington correspondent for Minnesota newspapers, knew McCarthy well. He covered his Senate Career as well as his 1968 campaign. Eisele conveys that “Eugene McCarthy showed that it is possible for one man to make a difference…and that not even the immense power of the presidency can withstand the opposition from a public aroused by a man who speaks out against what he sees as an immoral action by government” (Eisele). McCarthy achieved his goal because he stood firm in both his political and moral beliefs.

Gene McCarthy was a powerful man and his message reached much of America, including Tim O’Brien. In The Things They Carried, Tim states that he “had taken a modest stand against the war….just ringing a few doorbells for Gene McCarthy” (41). Tim O’Brien had campaigned for Gene McCarthy, therefore a stop to the war in Vietnam, not knowing that soon he would be over there as a soldier. After the war, however, Tim passionately felt that the war was wrong. He had supported Gene McCarthy previously, but it took the Vietnam War for him to really understand McCarthy’s point of view. Like Tim, it took time for America to see McCarthy’s vision, but once they did, American life was different: the soldiers were finally coming home. Eugene McCarthy played a large role in making that dream come true.

Bibliography:

Clausen, Christopher. "The Year That Changed Its Mind." New Leader. 01 Nov 2003. 12. eLibrary. Proquest. 20 Feb 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.

Eisele, Albert. "Eugene McCarthy." Commonweal. 21 Apr 2006. 10. eLibrary. Proquest. 20 Feb 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.

McGovern, George. "Gene McCarthy." Nation. 02 Jan 2006. 6. eLibrary. Proquest. 20 Feb 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.

Samples, John. “A Gene McCarthy Kind of Thing.” Spectator.org 15 Dec. 2005. Available: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5331

Notes:
I searched the Internet for scholarly articles relating to Eugene McCarthy. First I searched under Google Scholar, but I did not find much. I went to the Brooklyn Center Library to see if they had any useful information, but all of the books relating to McCarthy were not available at that library. I then went to the Champlin Park IMC homepage and looked in their databases. Elibrary was the database had the most useful articles, and that is where I got a majority of mine. After printing the content of the articles I wanted, I read through them a few times and highlighted the things I thought were important. I then put my notes aside and wrote my journal, only referring back to the text a few times for the quotes I used. I also looked back over The Things They Carried to pull out the quote from there.