[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 107 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1344-E1345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO THE LATE CONGRESSMAN CHARLES W. WHALEN, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 18, 2011

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, it is with sadness that I advise the 
House of the death of my constituent and former Member of the House, 
the Honorable Charles W. Whalen, Jr., on June 2, 2011 at Sibley 
Hospital in Washington, DC. Rep. Whalen, 90, represented Ohio's Third 
Congressional District from 1967-79 and had resided with his family in 
Bethesda, Maryland since 1966.
  Prior to his election to the U.S. Congress, Congressman Whalen served 
for 12 years in the Ohio Legislature and was instrumental in the 
enactment of Ohio's Fair Housing Law. A liberal Republican, he was 
first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 and was 
reelected by wide margins in every subsequent election. In fact, in 
1974, he was the only Republican who was unopposed in both the primary 
and general elections.
  Upon his election to the House, Congressman Whalen was initially 
assigned to the House Armed Services Committee and subsequently became 
a member of the International Affairs Committee. He served on the 
Subcommittee on Africa and became an expert on that continent, visiting 
every single country in that vast land mass.
  Congressman Whalen, who served as an Army officer in the India-Burma 
Theater in World War II, developed very strong reservations about and 
then opposition to the Vietnam War shortly after coming to Washington. 
His former chief of staff has noted that Congressman Whalen was 
attending the funeral of a young Marine from Dayton when he found 
himself unable to justify to grieving relatives the loss of the young 
man. The memory of that event remained in the forefront of his mind and 
guided his efforts to do all he could to bring that conflict to an end. 
Although his early efforts to end the war were not popular, among his 
most notable achievements was the Nedzi-Whalen Amendment that he 
cosponsored with his good friend and colleague, Congressman Lucien 
Nedzi (D-MI). The bill sought to end military funding in order to bring 
the war to a swift close. Although it did not pass, the bill mustered a 
sizable showing in the House, reflecting growing sentiment to end the 
war.
  Congressman Whalen was a prolific writer, authoring or coauthoring 
five books. ``How to End the Draft: The Case for the All-Volunteer 
Army,'' published in 1967 and co-authored with four other GOP 
moderates, proposed the end of the draft. Most of its recommendations 
were later adopted by the Nixon Administration, which fashioned them 
into the legislation that created the all-volunteer military that we 
have today. His landmark book, ``Your Right to Know,'' endorsed the 
right of reporters to keep sources confidential. Published in 1973, 
this book is used today in many journalism, political science and law 
courses. Congressman Whalen coauthored two works of history with his 
wife, Barbara: ``The Longest Debate: A

[[Page E1345]]

Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act'' (1985) and ``The 
Fighting McCooks: America's Famous Fighting Family'' (2006), which told 
the story of two Ohio brothers and their 13 sons who served in the 
Union Army during the Civil War.
  Congressman Chuck Whalen, who has been laid to rest in Dayton, Ohio, 
was a great and courageous American who worked tirelessly for his 
constituents and his country. He was widely respected by members of 
both parties and showed that it was possible for reasonable people to 
differ and maintain civility at the same time. His was an example that 
we all should follow.
  I would like to insert in the Congressional Record Congressman 
Whalen's obituaries from the Washington Post and the New York Times.

                [From the New York Times, June 30, 2011]

           C.W. Whalen Jr., 90, Dies; Led Vietnam War Dissent

                          (By William Grimes)

       Charles W. Whalen Jr., a six-term congressman from Ohio who 
     led Republican opposition to the Vietnam War and espoused a 
     variety of liberal causes, died on Monday in Washington. He 
     was 90.
       His death was confirmed by a nephew, Jim Whalen.
       Mr. Whalen, a former economics professor and state 
     legislator from Dayton, won election from Ohio's Third 
     District in 1966 and, on taking office, quickly moved to the 
     forefront of liberal Republicans opposed to the war, a 
     position he articulated forcefully as a member of the Armed 
     Services Committee.
       In 1967 he joined with four colleagues who belonged to the 
     liberal Republican club known as the Wednesday Group to write 
     a detailed proposal to end the draft and establish an all-
     volunteer military within five years.
       The recommendations in ``How to End the Draft: The Case for 
     an All-Volunteer Army'' included increased pay, improved 
     retirement benefits, expanded educational programs and a 
     greater advertising budget for recruitment. Most were adopted 
     over the next several years.
       In the early 1970s Mr. Whalen was the sponsor or a co-
     sponsor of several unsuccessful amendments aimed at cutting 
     the military's budget, ending the draft or imposing a 
     deadline to withdraw all American troops from Southeast Asia.
       A free-market conservative, he opposed the Vietnam War 
     largely for economic reasons. The money could be put to 
     better use, he argued, addressing domestic problems normally 
     thought of as the preoccupation of liberals, like education, 
     social injustice and urban decline.
       A survey by Congressional Quarterly in 1974 found that he 
     had voted against a majority of his Republican colleagues 72 
     percent of the time the previous year.
       Mr. Whalen also took a resolute stand in favor of press 
     freedom, especially the right of journalists to protect 
     confidential sources. He addressed the subject in ``Your 
     Right to Know'' (1973), to which the CBS anchorman Walter 
     Cronkite contributed a foreword.
       Charles William Whalen Jr., known as Chuck, was born on 
     July 31, 1920, in Dayton. He attended the University of 
     Dayton, where he received a degree in business education in 
     1942. During World War II he served with the Army in the 
     China, India and Burma theater.
       After earning a master's degree in business administration 
     from Harvard in 1946, he became vice president of the Dayton 
     Dress Company, owned by his father.
       In the early 1950s he began teaching at the University of 
     Dayton, where he became chairman of the economics department 
     in 1962. He served in the state's General Assembly for 12 
     years, writing the state's first fair-housing law, before 
     winning election to the House of Representatives in 1967.
       He was hugely popular in his home district, even though 
     Democrats and Independents far outnumbered Republicans, and 
     even though his antiwar stance threatened jobs at Wright-
     Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton.
       A tireless door-to-door campaigner, in 1970 and 1972 he 
     carried his district with three-quarters of the vote. In 1974 
     he was the only congressman to run unopposed in both the 
     primary and the general election.
       He retired in 1979, tired of the increasing friction with 
     local party officials and Republican leaders in Washington, 
     who found him too liberal. He also expressed frustration with 
     Congress as an agent for change.
       ``We've come to realize there is a limit to our powers,'' 
     he told The New York Times in 1978, explaining why he and 
     several other House members were not running for re-election. 
     ``We have a feeling that we're not as powerful as we thought 
     we were.''
       After leaving office, he became a Democrat.
       He spent much of his time in retirement doing the research 
     for two works of history that he wrote with his wife, 
     Barbara, a former journalist: ``The Longest Debate: A 
     Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act'' (1985) and 
     ``The Fighting McCooks: America's Famous Fighting Family'' 
     (2006), about two Ohio brothers and their 13 sons who served 
     in the Union Army during the Civil War.
       Mr. Whalen, who lived in Bethesda, Md., is survived by his 
     wife and their six children, Charles, of Delray Beach, Fla.; 
     Daniel, of Washington; Edward, of Reston, Va.; Joseph, of 
     Lambertville, N.J.; Anne McLindon of Bethesda; and Mary 
     Scherer of Brambleton, Va.; and seven grandchildren.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, June 28, 2011]

   Charles W. Whalen, Jr., Six-Term Ohio GOP Congressman, Dies at 90

                            (By Emma Brown)

       Charles W. Whalen, Jr., an Ohio Republican who criticized 
     military spending and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War 
     during his six terms in Congress, died June 27 of renal 
     failure at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He was 90 
     and lived in Bethesda.
       Mr. Whalen had served in both houses of the Ohio General 
     Assembly before he won election to the U.S. House in 1966 as 
     a representative from a district centered on Dayton, a 
     largely middle-class factory town. During his 12 years in 
     office, he built a reputation as one of the most liberal 
     Republicans in the House.
       He served on the Committee on International Relations (now 
     Foreign Affairs) but was perhaps best-known for his years as 
     the most vocal Republican dove on the Armed Services 
     Committee. He was one of the panel's ``Fearless Five,'' known 
     for raising the ire of Chairman Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.) for 
     insisting on scrutiny of military spending requests.
       Mr. Whalen also co-sponsored several Vietnam troop-
     withdrawal bills and the unsuccessful 1971 Nedzi-Whalen 
     amendment, which would have cut off military spending for 
     weapons.
       He was an early and outspoken proponent of ending military 
     conscription in the United States. In 1967, he and four other 
     members of the Wednesday Group--an informal group of liberal 
     and moderate House Republicans--wrote a report describing how 
     the country could successfully build an all-volunteer Army 
     within five years.
       That report helped make draft reform an issue in the 1968 
     presidential election, according to a history of that period 
     published by the Army in 1996, and both political parties 
     came out in favor of ending compulsory service. The draft 
     ended in 1973.
       Mr. Whalen won his reelection campaigns handily but found 
     himself increasingly distant from the GOP establishment, both 
     in his home state and in Washington. He decided to retire 
     rather than run again in 1978.
       ``I had more trouble every year with the Republicans,'' he 
     told the Dayton Daily News in 2001. ``I just decided I might 
     as well give it up.''
       In 1979, after leaving office, he registered as a Democrat.
       Charles William Whalen, Jr. was born in Dayton on July 31, 
     1920. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1942 and 
     received a master's degree in business administration from 
     Harvard University in 1946.
       During World War II, Mr. Whalen served with the Army in the 
     China-Burma-India theater.
       He was the vice president of his father's dress factory in 
     Dayton and an economics professor at the University of Dayton 
     before entering politics in 1955 as a representative in the 
     General Assembly.
       He won election in the U.S. House over a one-term 
     Democratic incumbent after walking an estimated 880 miles 
     through the neighborhoods of Dayton to ring strangers' 
     doorbells and introduce himself. He also pulled a child's 
     wagon at least 100 miles, according to a 1966 Washington Post 
     account, from which he dispensed recipes for chicken supreme.
       In retirement, he lobbied on foreign affairs issues and 
     served as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center 
     for Scholars.
       He had written a book while in Congress--``Your Right to 
     Know'' (1973)--in support of reporters' privilege to protect 
     confidential sources. He went on to write several books with 
     his wife, journalist Barbara Gleason Whalen, including ``The 
     Fighting McCooks'' (2006), about a family that sent 17 
     members to fight in the Civil War.
       ``The Longest Debate: A Legislative History of the 1964 
     Civil Rights Act'' (1985), about the protracted and difficult 
     negotiations over the landmark legislation, won praise in a 
     Post review by historian Howard Zinn.
       ``The Whalens' account of the compromises, the deals, the 
     deceptions, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering,'' Zinn wrote, 
     ``is a fascinating lesson in how a bill really gets passed.''
       In addition to Mr. Whalen's wife of 52 years, survivors 
     include six children, Charles Whalen of Delray Beach, Fla., 
     Daniel Whalen of the District, Edward Whalen of Reston, 
     Joseph Whalen of Lambertville, N.J., Anne McLindon of 
     Bethesda and Mary Scherer of Brambleton; and seven 
     grandchildren.

                          ____________________