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Biography Edmund Muskie was born Edmund Sixtus Marciszewski in Rumford, Maine. Hre was the son of Roman Catholic Polish immigrants. He graduated from Bates College in 1936 and Cornell University Law School in 1939 before serving in the United States Navy during World War II rising to Lieutenant. After the war, he was instrumental in building up the United States Democratic Party in Maine. Maine had traditionally been a Republican state, notable for being one of the only two states that Alf Landon carried against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936 (the other was Vermont). Muskie served in the Maine House of Representatives before being elected Governor in 1954. In 1958 Governor Muskie defeated incumbent Republican Senator Frederick G. Payne by 60 percent of the vote to 39 percent. Senator Muskie was reelected in 1964, 1970 and 1976 by solid margins over 60%. Edmund Muskie became one of the first environmentalists to enter the U.S. Senate and was a leading campaigner for new and stronger measures to curb pollution and provide a cleaner environment. In 1968, Muskie was nominated for Vice President on the Democratic ticket with sitting Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The Humphrey-Muskie campaign lost the election to Richard Nixon winning 42.72% of the vote, 13 states and 191 electoral votes to Nixon-Agnew's 43.42%, 32 states and 301 electoral votes. Third party candidate George Wallace had taken 13.53%, won 5 states in the Deep South and carried their 46 votes in the electoral college. Continuing his career in the Senate, Muskie served as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget through the Ninety-third to the Ninety-sixth Congresses in 1973-1980. In 1970, the Maine senator was chosen to articulate the Democratic party's message to congressional voters before the midterm elections. Muskie's broadcast was seen as thoughtful and definitive in comparison to the message of President Nixon, who appearing in black and white, seemed harsh and paranoid over unrest in the nation over Vietnam and the economy. Considering the obvious parallels drawn between the two men, Muskie's national stature was raised as a major candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1972. But the grassroots Iowa caucuses made the early runnings more liberal and anti-war than Muskie's perceived positions. Though the senator had built up the Democratic party in his home state of Maine, Muskie had never participated in a primary election campaign. Some observers faulted Muskie's political inexperience as one of the factors that led to the foundering of his campaign. A letter was published written by ABC news anchor Howard K. Smith to the candidate indicating the anchor's full support for his campaign. This was during a contentious period when the Nixon Administration claimed that the press was biased in its news coverage. Muskie lost momentum, and after winning the New Hampshire primary by only a small margin, saw his lead fall to South Dakota Senator George McGovern. The collapse of Muskie's momentum early in the 1972 campaign is also attributed to his response to personal attacks. First, just prior to the New Hampshire primary, the so-called Canuck Letter was published in conservative New Hampshire newspaper, the Manchester Union-Leader. The letter to the editor claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians - a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-Canadian population in northern New England. Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife Jane, reporting that she drank and used off-color language during the campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper's offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie later stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes, the press reports that Muskie broke down and cried were to shatter the candidate's image as calm and reasoned. Evidence later came to light during the Watergate scandal investigation that, during the 1972 presidential campaign the Nixon campaign committee maintained a "dirty tricks" unit focused on discrediting Nixon's strongest challengers. FBI investigators revealed that the Canuck Letter was a forged document as part of the dirty tricks campaign against Democrats orchestrated by the Nixon campaign. Among other tricks, literature purportedly from the Hubert Humphrey campaign attacked Muskie. During the pivotal Wisconsin primary, an arson occurred at a suburban Milwaukee Democratic campaign headquarters. A young Karl Rove was a member of this dirty tricks unit. Author Theodore White, in his book The Making of the President 1972, cited such conduct. Historians believe that, prior to the "crying speech", Muskie had a strong chance to win the Democratic nomination and, as a candidate acceptable to both moderate and liberal Democrats, could have gained enough support to defeat President Nixon in the general election. The more liberal McGovern would go on to win the nomination at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, but lost the November election in a landslide to the incumbent Nixon. Muskie was tapped by President Jimmy Carter to serve as Secretary of State, following the resignation of Cyrus Vance from that post in 1980. Vance had opposed a secret rescue mission as a means of bringing the Iran Hostage Crisis to an end, and after that mission failed with the loss of eight US servicemen, Vance resigned. Muskie attempted to bring the hostages home by diplomatic means, appealing to the United Nations and Iran. Muskie left public office following Carter's loss of the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Carter on January 16, 1981. Muskie retired to his home in Washington in 1981. He continued to work as a lawyer for some years. In 1987, as an elder statesman, Muskie was appointed a member of the President's Special Review Board known as the 'Tower Commission' to investigate whether President Ronald Reagan's administration's funnelling of money in the Iran-Contra Scandal. Muskie died in Washington, D.C. of congestive heart failure in 1996, two days before his 82nd birthday. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Muskie's papers are kept at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine
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