[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Pages 28496-28497]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       SENATOR EUGENE McCARTHY: A GREAT AMERICAN HAS PASSED AWAY

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, in my book, ``Child of the Appalachian Coal 
Fields,'' I discussed the Senate class of 1958. That class, which 
included 15 Democrats and 3 Republicans, constituted the largest 
turnover over in Senate history, and from that class of Senators came a 
number of Senate leaders and Presidential candidates. Most important, I 
pointed out, while elected during the Eisenhower administration, the 
class of 1958 ``tackled some of the greatest foreign and domestic 
problems ever to face the Nation, and they played critical roles in 
enacting the Great Society programs and ending the war in Vietnam.''
  One of the most remarkable members of that remarkable class was 
Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, who passed away this weekend. He 
played critical roles both in enacting the Great Society programs and 
ending the war in Vietnam.
  It was my privilege and my pleasure to serve with Eugene McCarthy in 
the U.S. House of Representatives and here in the Senate as members of 
the class of 1958.
  While serving together, I came to appreciate that Senator McCarthy 
was a truly gifted and talented person with an extraordinary 
background. He was, without question, one of the more unusual Members 
to sit in this chamber. He was a poet, professor, philosopher, and 
author, and had been a military intelligence official during World War 
II and a semiprofessional baseball player.
  In the Senate, as throughout his life, Senator McCarthy did not 
hesitate to go his own way. He did not hesitate to stomp out of a 
Senate hearing, and he was willing to espouse unpopular views. But he 
always did so with an open heart, an open mind, and deep sincerity and 
dedication. Therefore, even when I disagreed with him, which was quite 
often in those early years, my respect for him continued to increase.
  And I developed a deep appreciation for his abilities, his wit, his 
warm personality, and his strong determination to make ours a better 
country. One of his first assignments in the Senate was chairing the 
Select Committee on Unemployment, which helped focus national attention 
on the problems of joblessness and poverty throughout the country. By 
holding hearings in Beckley, Welch, Fayetteville, and Wheeling, WV, as 
well as other economically distressed regions of the country, the 
Select Committee helped undermine the false claims of the so-called 
Republican prosperity of the 1950s, and, as a result, helped provide 
the ground work for the Great Society legislation that came a few years 
later.
  As I said earlier, it was members of the class of 1958 who also 
helped to end the war in Vietnam. Although all of us had voted for the 
Tonkin Gulf Resolution, many of us came to regret it. Senator McCarthy, 
to his great credit, was one of the first to speak out against the war. 
He did so by announcing his break with the Johnson administration, and 
running against the President for the Democratic presidential 
nomination. ``The Administration,'' he said, ``seems to have set no 
limit to the price which it is willing to pay for a military victory.''
  No one expected much from McCarthy's challenge. He was a little-

[[Page 28497]]

known Senator taking on President Johnson, who at the time, seemed all 
powerful.
  But, as most of us know, in the 1968 New Hampshire Democratic 
primary, Senator McCarthy stunned the Nation and shocked the political 
world. His near victory helped to drive President Johnson out of the 
Presidential race. That contest showed how unpopular the war was. It 
focused attention on, despite the administration's claims to the 
contrary, just how disastrous its policies were in Southeast Asia. It 
brought home to the American people an issue that was dividing the 
country and costing billions of dollars and thousands of American 
lives. Furthermore, Senator McCarthy's campaign helped embolden a 
generation of young Democratic Party activists.
  When Senator McCarthy announced that he would be leaving the Senate 
in 1970, I was one Senator who approached him and tried to change his 
mind. When I was unsuccessful, I came to the Senate Floor to pay 
tribute to him. Senator McCarthy, I said, ``has made his mark upon our 
party, he has made his mark upon our country, and he has made an 
indelible mark upon the hearts of all in the Senate who are privileged 
to call him friend.'' I said, ``he proves the truth of that verse of 
Scripture that states, `He that hath friends must show himself 
friendly.'''
  I have never wavered in those opinions that I expressed 35 years ago. 
In fact, our friendship became stronger, as did my admiration of him.
  Mr. President, our country has lost a good and talented man, and a 
great American. I will miss my friend. Our country needs more men like 
him.

     God give us men!
     A time like this demands strong minds,
     great hearts, true faith, and ready hands.
     Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
     Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
     Men who possess opinions and a will;
     Men who have honor; men who will not lie.

     Men who can stand before a demagogue
     And brave his treacherous flatteries without winking.

     Tall men, sun-crowned;
     Who live above the fog,
     In public duty and in private thinking.
     For while the rabble with its thumbworn creeds,
     It's large professions and its little deeds,
     mingles in selfish strife,
     Lo! Freedom weeps!
     Wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps.
     God give us men!

     Men who serve not for selfish booty;
     But real men, courageous, who flinch not at duty.
     Men of dependable character;
     Men of sterling worth;
     Then wrongs will be redressed, and right will rule the earth.
     God Give us men!

                          ____________________