Mike Mansfield

Michael Joseph Mansfield (March 16, 1903 – October 5, 2001) was an American Democratic Party politician and diplomat who represented Montana in the United States House of Representatives from 1943 to 1953 and United States Senate from 1953 to 1977. As the leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus from 1961 to 1977, Mansfield shepherded Great Society programs through the Senate; his tenure of exactly sixteen years was the longest of any party leader in Senate history, until the record was broken by Mitch McConnell in 2023.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mansfield grew up in Great Falls, Montana. He lied about his age to serve in the United States Navy during World War I. After the war, he became a professor of history and political science at the University of Montana. He won election to the House of Representatives and served on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs during World War II.

In 1952, he defeated incumbent Republican Senator Zales Ecton to take a seat in the Senate. Mansfield served as Senate Majority Whip from 1957 to 1961. Mansfield ascended to Senate Majority Leader after Lyndon B. Johnson resigned from the Senate to become vice president. In the later years of the Vietnam War, he opposed escalation of American involvement and supported President Richard Nixon's plans for Vietnamization.

After retiring from the Senate, Mansfield served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1988. Mansfield is the longest-serving American ambassador to Japan in history. Upon his retirement, he was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mansfield also worked as a senior adviser on East Asian affairs to Goldman Sachs.

Early childhood

Michael Joseph (Mike) Mansfield was born on March 16, 1903, in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, Patrick J. Mansfield and Josephine (née O'Brien) Mansfield. His father worked various jobs, including as a construction worker, hotel porter, and maintenance man, to support the family. In 1910, Josephine died from nephritis. Shortly before her death, Patrick had been injured in a construction accident, which left him unable to care for his three children. As a result, Patrick sent Mike and his two sisters to live with his great-aunt and uncle, Richard and Margaret, in Great Falls, Montana.

In 1917, at age 14, Mansfield dropped out of school, left home and made his way to a logging camp in Leavenworth, Washington. There, he met members of the Oregon National Guard, who were stationed nearby. They helped him board their troop train as it traveled east to New York, en route to their eventual deployment in Europe. He made it to New York City, where he reunited with his father. He went on several overseas convoys on the , but was discharged by the Navy after his real age was discovered.

Mansfield was a Private First Class in the US Marine Corps from 1920 to 1922.

Education

Following his return to Montana in 1922, Mansfield worked as a "mucker" and shoveled ore and other waste in the copper mines of Butte for eight years. In December 1931, Mansfield began his studies at the University of Montana (UM) in Missoula, Maureen moved to Missoula, and they married on September 13, 1932. She worked as a social worker, to help support Mansfield through his studies. and occasionally lecturing on Greek and Roman history.

Mansfield served five terms in the House, being re-elected in 1944, 1946, 1948, and 1950. His military service and academic experience landed him a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

An early supporter of Ngo Dinh Diem, Mansfield altered his opinion on the Vietnam War after a visit to Vietnam in 1962. He reported to John F. Kennedy on December 2, 1962, that US money given to Diem's government was being squandered and that the US should avoid further involvement in Vietnam. He was thus the first American official to comment even mildly negatively on the war's condition.

On September 25, 1963, Mansfield introduced Kennedy during a joint appearance with him at the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds, Kennedy expressing his appreciation afterward and adding, "I know that those of you who live in Montana know something of his character and his high standard of public service, but I am not sure that you are completely aware of what a significant role he has played in the last three years in passing through the United States Senate measure after measure which strengthens this country at home and abroad."

Mansfield delivered a eulogy on November 24, 1963, as President Kennedy's casket lay in state in the Capitol rotunda, saying, "He gave that we might give of ourselves, that we might give to one another until there would be no room, no room at all, for the bigotry, the hatred, prejudice, and the arrogance which converged in that moment of horror to strike him down."

During the Johnson administration, Mansfield, convinced that it was a blunder based on just aims, became a skeptic of US involvement in the Vietnam War. In February 1965, he lobbied against escalating aerial bombardment of North Vietnam in the aftermath of Pleiku, arguing in a letter to the president that Operation Rolling Thunder would lead to a need for "vastly strengthened... American forces."

In 1964, Mansfield, as Senate Majority Leader, filed a procedural motion to have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 discussed by the whole Senate rather than by the Judiciary Committee, which had killed similar legislation seven years earlier. Mansfield voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mansfield voted in favor of the initial Senate amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on August 7, 1957, but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957. Mansfield did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1960 or the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mansfield co-sponsored Mark Hatfield's Neighborhood Government Act, which would have diverted social service provisions to neighborhood levels, and also supported the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971 and the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972.

He hailed the new Richard Nixon administration, especially the "Nixon Doctrine" announced at Guam in 1969 that the US would honor all treaty commitments, provide a nuclear umbrella for its allies, and supply weapons and technical assistance to countries where warranted without committing American forces to local conflicts.

In turn, Nixon turned to Mansfield for advice and as his liaison with the Senate on Vietnam. Nixon began a steady withdrawal and replacement of US troops shortly after he took office in January 1969, a policy supported by Mansfield. During his first term, Nixon reduced American forces by 95%, leaving only 24,200 in late 1972; the last ones left in March 1973.

During the economic crisis of 1971, Mansfield was not afraid to reach across the aisle to help the economy:

<blockquote>What we're in is not a Republican recession or a Democratic recession; both parties had much to do with bringing us where we are today. But we're facing a national situation which calls for the best which all of us can produce, because we know the results will be something which we will regret.</blockquote>

Mansfield attended the November 17, 1976, meeting between President-elect Jimmy Carter and Democratic congressional leaders in which Carter sought out support for a proposal to have the president's power to reorganize the government reinstated with potential to be vetoed by Congress.

Mansfield Amendments

Two controversial amendments by Mansfield limiting military funding of research were passed by Congress.

The Mansfield Amendment of 1969, passed as part of the fiscal year 1970 Military Authorization Act (Public Law 91-121), prohibited military funding of research that lacked a direct or apparent relationship to specific military function. Through subsequent modification the Mansfield amendment moved the Department of Defense toward the support of more short-term applied research in universities. The amendment affected the military, such as research funding by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
The Mansfield Amendment of 1973 expressly limited appropriations for defense research through the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is largely independent of the military, to projects with direct military application. This controversial amendment greatly reduced ARPA funding for many university-based computer projects, thereby forcing many American computer science experts to move to private sector research facilities such as Xerox PARC. However, for that very reason, the amendment is also credited with giving birth to the contemporary computer technology industry.

An earlier Mansfield Amendment, offered in 1971, called for the number of US troops stationed in Europe to be halved. On May 19, 1971, however, the Senate defeated the resolution 61–36.

U.S. ambassador to Japan

thumb|1978 painting of Mansfield

Mansfield did not run for reelection in 1976 and retired in January 1977; in April 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed him as ambassador to Japan. a role that he retained during the Reagan administration until 1988. While serving in Japan, Mansfield was highly respected and was particularly renowned for describing the US-Japan relationship as the "most important bilateral relationship in the world, bar none." Mansfield's successor in Japan, Michael Armacost, noted in his memoirs that for Mansfield, the phrase was a "mantra." While in office, Mansfield also fostered relations between his home state of Montana and Japan. The state capital of Helena is the sister city to Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushu.

Honors

The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library at the University of Montana, Missoula, is named after him and his wife Maureen, as was his request when informed of the honor. The library also contains the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, which is dedicated to Asian studies, international relations, and the preservation and promotion of democracy. The Mike Mansfield Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Butte was renamed in his honor in 2002.

The Montana Democratic Party holds an annual Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner named partially in his honor.

In 1977, Mansfield received the US Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

In 1977, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.

On January 19, 1989, Mansfield and Secretary of State George P. Shultz were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. In his speech, Reagan recognized Mansfield as someone who has "distinguished himself as a dedicated public servant and loyal American." In 1990, he was given both the United States Military Academy, Sylvanus Thayer Award and Japan's Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon. This is Japan's highest honor for someone who is not a head of state.

In 1999, Missoula's daily newspaper, the Missoulian, chose Mansfield as The Most Influential Montanan of the 20th Century.

Final years and death

thumb|right|Just a few months before his death, Mansfield appears behind [[Howard Baker, the new U.S. Ambassador to Japan with President George W. Bush, June 26, 2001]]

Throughout his later years, Mansfield lived in Washington, D.C., where he remained active, delivering speaking engagements well into his nineties and working from his office at Goldman Sachs until the week before his death.

Mansfield's wife, Maureen, died on September 20, 2000.

He died from heart failure at Walter Reed Army Medical Center just over one year later, on October 5, 2001, at the age of 98. He was survived by his daughter, Anne Fairclough Mansfield (1939–2013), and one granddaughter.

The burial plot of Mansfield and his wife can be found in section 2, marker 49-69F of Arlington National Cemetery. His gravemarker reads, "Michael Joseph Mansfield - PVT, US Marine Corps."

Citations

General references

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Interviews

External links

Arlington National Cemetery
The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, US-Asia relations
The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana
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Links formerly displayed via the CongLinks template:

Works by or about Mike Mansfield in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
Appearances on C-SPAN programs
Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
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Legislative Summary: Statement by Senator Mike Mansfield , John F. Kennedy Library, 1964
Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – January 19, 1989
Mike Mansfield Papers (University of Montana Archives)
Mansfield's America Oral History Project (University of Montana Archives)
Don Oberdorfer Interviews with Mike Mansfield Oral History Project (University of Montana Archives)