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I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it.

George McGovern

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George McGovern
Age: 90 †
Born: 1922
Born: July 19
Died: 2012
Died: October 21
Autobiographer
Diplomat
Historian
Peace Activist
Politician
University Teacher
Avon
South Dakota
George Stanley McGovern
George S. McGovern
Disaster
War
Thought
Anything
Hard
Good
Unmitigated
Utter
Vietnam

More quotes by George McGovern

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I always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie.
George McGovern
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Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace. We are our brother's keeper.
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I would support a Presidential candidate who pledged to take the following steps: ... At the end of the war in the Persian Gulf, press for a comprehensive Middle East settlement and for a 'new world order' based not on Pax Americana but on peace through law with a stronger U.N. and World Court.
George McGovern
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It would be a good time to replace the drug war with something more constructive. The cure offered the drug war today has probably been more harmful and done more damage than the disease.
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I flew a full string of 35 combat missions over some of the most heavily defended targets in Europe. We were hitting Hitler's oil refineries, his tank factories, his aircraft factories, his railway yards. Those were our prime targets.
George McGovern
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Every once in a while, I run into somebody who tells me that she met her husband in my campaign or a husband who says, I met my wife. I have to tell you, I caused a few divorces too.
George McGovern
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I always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie. My dad was a Methodist minister. I went off to war. I have been married to the same woman forever. I'm what a normal, healthy, ideal American should be like.
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Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward. Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world. And let us be joyful in the homecoming.
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For a generation and more, the government has sought to meet our needs by multiplying its bureaucracy. Washington has taken too much in taxes from Main Street, and Main Street has received too little in return. It is not necessary to centralize power in order to solve our problems.
George McGovern
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When I was small, my most serious handicap was a painful bashfulness in the presence of strangers.
George McGovern
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Every program that ever helped working people, from rural electrification to Medicare, was enacted by liberals over the opposition of conservatives. When people tell me they don't like liberals, I ask, Do you like Social Security? If so, then shut up!
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I am a liberal and always have been - just not the wild-eyed character the Republicans made me out to be.
George McGovern
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The longer the title, the less important the job.
George McGovern
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Somehow politicians have become convinced that negative campaigning pays off in elections.
George McGovern
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You don't run for the presidency out of nostalgia.
George McGovern
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Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction 'Love the neighbor as thyself.'
George McGovern
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I was the guy who was constantly speaking out against the Vietnam War. I have no regrets about that.
George McGovern
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Truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics.
George McGovern
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It's nice not to have to worry about constituents, now, I simply do what I want.
George McGovern
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It doesn t require any particular bravery to stand on the floor of the Senate and urge our boys in Vietnam to fight harder and if this war mushrooms into a major conflict and a hundred thousand young Americans are killed it won t be U.S. Senators who die. It will be American soldiers who are too young to qualify for the Senate.
George McGovern