Mansfield, Michael Joseph "Mike", 1903-2001

<p>A man of few words and great modesty, Mike Mansfield often said he did not want to be remembered. Yet, his fascinating life story and enormous contributions are an inspiration for all who follow.</p>

<p><b>Rocky Childhood</b><br>
Mike Mansfield was born in New York City on March 16, 1903. Following his mother’s death when Mike was 7, his father sent him and his two sisters to Great Falls, Montana, to be raised by an aunt and uncle there. At 14, he lied about his age in order to enlist in the U.S. Navy for the duration of World War I. Later, he served in the Army and the Marines, which sent him to the Philippines and China, awakening a lifelong interest in Asia.</p>

<p><b>From Mucker to Teacher</b><br>
Honorably discharged from the Marines in 1922, Mike Mansfield returned to Montana. Lacking a high school education, he worked as a “mucker” in the copper mines of Butte, shoveling rock and ore half a mile underground, and attended the Montana School of Mines. While in Butte he met Maureen Hayes, a young school teacher who encouraged Mike to further his education. With her financial and moral support, Mansfield enrolled at Montana State University (now The University of Montana) where as a “special student” he took high school and college courses simultaneously. He and Maureen Hayes were married in 1932, and thus began a lifelong partnership of extraordinary devotion, commitment and respect that lasted until her death in September 2000.</p>

<p>Mansfield received his high school equivalency and bachelor’s degree in 1933 and went on to receive a master’s degree in 1934. He then taught Latin American and East Asian history at The University of Montana until 1942.</p>

<p><b>Bipartisan Leadership</b><br>
Mike Mansfield’s political career was launched in 1942 when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served five terms from Montana’s 1st District. In 1952, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and re-elected in 1958, 1964 and 1970. His selection as Democratic Assistant Majority Leader in 1957 was followed by election in 1961 as Senate Majority Leader. He served in that capacity until his retirement from the Senate in 1977, longer than any other Majority Leader in history.</p>

<p>It has been said that Mike Mansfield shaped the character of the modern Senate more than any other leader in its history by allowing a Senate of equals to emerge and giving voice and a role to younger Senators. Respected by Senators on both sides of the aisle, he led the Senate during a period of great achievement as the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s was passed. Yet, he found time to personally read and sign all letters to his constituents in Montana and was remarkable in his memory of the names of folks back home and in Washington, D.C. Each year his Montana constituents looked forward to receiving Christmas cards that he and Maureen designed.</p>

<p><b>Respected Envoy</b><br>
During Mike Mansfield’s years in Congress, Presidents Truman and Eisenhower appointed him delegate to the United Nations in 1951 and 1958 respectively. Considered an authority on U.S.-Asia relations, he also undertook foreign policy assignments for Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford, and his private discussions with President Nixon paved the way for Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Mike Mansfield did not hesitate to speak out in opposition to the war in Vietnam and he privately counseled a succession of presidents against U.S. involvement.</p>

<p>In 1977, President Carter appointed Mike Mansfield Ambassador to Japan. He was reappointed by President Reagan and served until January 1989, longer than any other U.S. Ambassador to Japan. Mansfield brought his experience in Asian affairs to the embassy in Tokyo, where he tackled thorny bilateral trade and defense issues and was trusted and esteemed for his wisdom and sensitivity.</p>

<p>Following his retirement in 1989 until his death on October 5, 2001, Mike Mansfield served as senior advisor to the international financial firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Washington, D.C.</p>

<p><b>Mike Mansfield<br>
Quiet Leadership in Troubled Times</b></p>

<p>On March 24, 1998, Mike Mansfield returned to the Senate to deliver the first Leader's Lecture in the Old Senate Chamber, which had been restored during his long tenure as Senate majority leader. Many of the senators who attended had not served with Mansfield. He was 95 years old, but stood straight and spoke forthrightly. In reflecting on Senate leadership, he chose to deliver a speech that he had planned to give on November 22, 1963, but instead had simply inserted into the Congressional Record following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That speech aptly captured his philosophy of leadership and understanding of the Senate.</p>

<p>Mike Mansfield was born in New York City in 1903, the son of Irish immigrants. His mother died while he was a child and he was sent to live with relatives in Great Falls, Montana. At the age of 14 he dropped out of school and enlisted in the navy during World War I. He had gone on several convoys across the Atlantic before the navy discovered his real age and discharged him. Mansfield promptly joined the army and then went into the Marine Corps. The marines sent him to the Philippines, Japan, and China, which kindled Mansfield's lifelong interest in Asian affairs.</p>

<p>When Mansfield returned to Montana, he worked in the copper mines and studied to be a mining engineer. Then his life took a dramatically different course when he met school teacher Maureen Hayes, who persuaded him to complete his high school education through correspondence courses and go to the University of Montana. She cashed in an insurance policy to help pay his tuition. They married in 1932 and had one daughter, Ann. Mansfield got his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Montana, where he taught Far Eastern and Latin American history and political science. He also started on a PhD, but politics intervened.</p>

<p>An internationalist in a state with strong isolationist sentiments, Mansfield lost a race for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1940. Two years later, however, after the United States had entered World War II, he won the seat. He served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and went to China on a special mission for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1952 Mansfield ran for the Senate against incumbent Zales Ecton. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy came to Montana to campaign for Ecton and to question Mansfield's patriotism. Mansfield eked out a narrow victory. When he arrived in the Senate, Senator McCarthy greeted him by asking how things were in Montana. "Much better since you left, sir," Mansfield replied.</p>

<p>Mansfield was appointed to the Foreign Relations Committee and became the Senate's leading authority on Southeast Asian affairs, working closely with the Eisenhower administration and traveling frequently to the region. In 1957 Democratic Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson tapped Mansfield as his whip. Despite his liberal voting record, Mansfield was popular among the southern conservatives who chaired the most powerful committees. His quiet and modest style also balanced Johnson's overpowering personality. When Johnson was elected vice president, Mansfield reluctantly agreed to become majority leader and was elected without opposition.</p>

<p>The Kennedy administration often clashed with Congress, and much of the president's ambitious domestic agenda stalled in the legislative machinery. Some senators voiced regret that Mansfield did not exert more forceful leadership in the Johnson mode. Mansfield, however, believed that the Senate operated best by accommodation, respect, and mutual restraint. He distributed power and perks among all senators, insisting that they must equally bear the legislative burden. By spreading responsibilities among the junior senators, he sought to reduce the influence of the powerful committee chairmen. He quietly abolished most patronage positions to establish a professional staff, assigned office space by seniority rather than as favors, and refrained from handing out committee assignments in return for senators' support.</p>

<p>When Lyndon Johnson entered the White House, the legislative logjam broke, beginning when cloture was invoked to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Mansfield's style proved perfectly suited to handle the rush of legislation that encompassed Johnson's "Great Society" program. "I had never seen so much activity in my life around here!" said Stuart McClure, chief clerk of the Senate Education and Labor Committee. "We were passing major bills every week. It was unbelievable."</p>

<p>While he loyally supported President Johnson in public, behind the scenes Mansfield vigorously dissented from the president's policies in Vietnam. Mansfield, who had continued to travel to Vietnam to assess the situation personally, sent Johnson a series of memoranda that urged a diplomatic rather than a military solution to the war. When Richard Nixon became president in 1969, Mansfield made an extraordinary offer as a leader of the opposition party: If the president withdrew U.S. troops from Vietnam, Mansfield would publicly declare it the "best possible end of a bad war." President Nixon recognized that by rejecting this offer, he would turn Kennedy and Johnson's war into his own. Still he declined, not wanting to lose the war. Senator Mansfield then took a more open role by sponsoring bills to prohibit sending U.S. troops to Laos and Thailand and setting a date to remove U.S. forces from Cambodia.</p>

<p>Following the Watergate burglary in 1972, Senator Mansfield set up the Watergate Committee, chaired by North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin. To help reassert congressional authority, he also cosponsored the War Powers Act of 1973. Under his leadership in the 1970s, the Senate also adopted a series of institutional reforms, from the "sunshine" requirements for opening committee meetings to public scrutiny to reducing the number of votes needed to invoke cloture from two-thirds to three-fifths.</p>

<p>After a record-setting 16 years as majority leader, Mansfield retired from the Senate in 1977. President Jimmy Carter appointed him U.S. ambassador to Japan, a post he continued under President Ronald Reagan. In the 1990s, he advised President Bill Clinton on normalizing relations with Vietnam. Mansfield died at the age of 98 in 2001 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.</p>

<p>
MANSFIELD, MICHAEL JOSEPH (MIKE), a Representative and a Senator from Montana; born in New York City, March 16, 1903; moved with his family to Great Falls, Cascade County, Mont., in 1906; attended the public schools in Great Falls; served as a seaman when only fourteen years old in the United States Navy during the First World War, as a private in the United States Army in 1919-1920, and as a private first class in the United States Marine Corps 1920-1922; worked as a miner and mining engineer in Butte, Mont., 1922-1930; attended the Montana School of Mines at Butte in 1927 and 1928; graduated from University of Montana at Missoula in 1933, and received a masters degree from that institution in 1934; also attended the University of California at Los Angeles in 1936 and 1937; professor of history and political science at the Montana State University (now University of Montana-Missoula) 1933-1942; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-eighth Congress; reelected to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1943-January 3, 1953); was not a candidate for reelection in 1952, having become a candidate for the Senate; chairman, Special Committee on Campaign Expenditures (Eighty-first Congress); was elected to the United States Senate in 1952; reelected in 1958, 1964, and 1970 and served from January 3, 1953, to January 3, 1977; Democratic whip 1957-1961; majority leader and Democratic caucus chairman 1961-1977; Democratic Policy Committee chairman 1961-1977; chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration (Eighty-seventh Congress), Select Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (Ninety-second Congress), Special Committee on Secret and Confidential Documents (Ninety-third Congress); was not a candidate for reelection in 1976; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan 1977-1988; East Asian advisor, Goldman, Sachs; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 19, 1989; was a resident of Washington, D.C. until his death due to congestive heart failure on October 5, 2001; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.</p>

<p>Michael Joseph Mansfield was born in New York City on March 16, 1903. He was five years old when his mother died, and shortly thereafter he moved to Great Falls, Montana, to live with his father's aunt and uncle. His father remained in New York, where he was a hotel porter. Although his career took him to many other places, Mansfield once said that he always felt a homesickness when absent from Montana.</p>

<p>After serving in the navy (he enlisted at the age of fourteen), the army, and the marines, he returned to Montana in 1922 and worked in the Butte mines for the next eight years, first as a miner, then as a mucker and mining engineer. Although he had not even completed grade school, Mansfield gained admittance to the Montana School of Mines in Butte in 1927. After his first year, he transferred to Montana State University (later the University of Montana) in Missoula, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in 1933 and 1934, respectively. His thesis, on Korean-American relations, anticipated a lifelong interest in Asia. He stayed at the university as an administrator and teacher of Latin American and Far Eastern history until 1942. After entering politics, he retained his position as professor of history at the university on permanent tenure.</p>

<p>Mansfield was elected to the U.S. Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1942, carrying eleven of seventeen counties in Montana's First District. He served five terms in Congress. Surviving attacks at the height of Mc- Carthyism for his views on China, he was elected senator from Montana in 1952. Although he won fewer counties than his opponent, Republican Zales Ecton, he was elected with a plurality of 6,600. Mansfield's support came mainly from a belt of counties in the northern half of the state, extending, with few interruptions, from its western to its eastern boundaries. He served in the Senate until 1977. In the early 1960s he was the leading advocate in Washington for stopping the war in Vietnam. As Senate majority leader from 1961 to 1977 (the longest any member ever held that position), Mansfield played a major role in the passage of landmark domestic legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, reduction in the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, and Medicare, as well as sundry foreign policy landmarks, including the rapprochement between the United States and China. He held the post of American ambassador to Japan from 1976 to 1988 under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.</p>

<p>Mike Mansfield died in Washington DC on October 5, 2001, one year after the death of his wife, Maureen, to whom he was married for sixty-eight years.</p>

<p><i>Angela Unruh The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation</i></p>

<p>Michael Joseph Mansfield (March 16, 1903 – October 5, 2001) was an American politician and diplomat. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative (1943–1953) and a U.S. Senator (1953–1977) from Montana. He was the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader, serving from 1961–1977. During his tenure, he shepherded Great Society programs through the Senate and opposed the Vietnam War in its later stages.</p>

<p>Born in Brooklyn, 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.</p>

<p>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. He opposed escalation of the Vietnam War and supported President Richard Nixon's plans to withdraw U.S. soldiers from Southeast Asia.</p>

<p>After retiring from the Senate, Mansfield served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1988. Upon retiring as ambassador, he was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mansfield is the longest-serving American ambassador to Japan in history. After his ambassadorship, Mansfield served for a time as a senior adviser on East Asian affairs to Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment banking firm.</p>