40 Years Ago
In the Bygones section of our paper this morning there was an item from forty years ago:
April 17, 1966
--About 5,000 people are expected to attend the fourth annual Dalton LeMasurier Memorial Lecture at UMD today. Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, R-Ill, will speak in the Physical Education Building this afternoon.
I was there with my mom! My mom was a great admirer of Senator Dirksen. She loved his deep bass voice, his wild shock of white hair and rumpled appearance along with the great wisdom with which he spoke. When I heard that he was going to be here, I called my mom and asked her if would like to come up. Of course! It was quite a day but I do not remember the details except that we got to see and hear this magnificent speaker.
Everett McKinley Dirksen was born January 4, 1896 --3 days short of 6 years before my mom was born-- in Pekin, Illinois. He dropped out of the University of Minnesota to serve in the Army during WW I.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1932. Because he supported many New Deal programs he was considered a liberal Republican. He served there until 1946 when a series of medical problems caused him to leave.
In 1950 he was elected to the Senate beating Senate Majority Leader, Scott Lucas. In that campaign Dirksen relied heavily on Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.) and won by a narrow margin. When Mc Carthy went on his "witch-hunt" in 1954, Senator Dirksen encouraged him to apologize to avoid censure. He did not take Dirksen's advice. Dirksen did not vote to censure him, but later conceded that McCarthy "had lost his senses".
In 1959 he was elected Minority Leader of the Senate. He was the official voice of the Republican Party during most of the 1960s. His voting record was consistently conservative on economic issues. On foreign policy, he reversed his early isolationism to support the internationalism of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. He was a leading "hawk" on Vietnam and encouraged President Johnson to escalate the war.
In February 1964 Senator Dirksen made the following statement:
"First I agree that obviously we cannot retreat from our position in Vietnam. I have been out there three times, once as something of an emissary for then President Eisenhower. I took a good look at it. It is a difficult situation, to say the least. But we are in to the tune of some $350 million . I think the last figure I have seen indicates that we have over 15,500 military out there, ostensibly as advisors and that sort of thing. We are not supposed to have combatant troops, even though we were not signatories to the treaty that was signed at Geneva when finally they got that whole business out of the fire. But we are going to have muddle through for awhile and see what we do. Even though it costs us $1.5 million a day."
I wonder what he would be saying today! Another of the Senator's quotes: "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money." With inflation revise that to "trillion"!
We have been in Iraq for how long now? Lordy, lordy! How much has this cost us? In lives and money! Senator Dirksen, I think, would be MOST distressed with the current situations we are dealing with!
Here is a quote we should concentrate on: "When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there."
Senator Dirksen died on September 7, 1969 at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D. C. following cancer surgery.
April 17, 1966
--About 5,000 people are expected to attend the fourth annual Dalton LeMasurier Memorial Lecture at UMD today. Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, R-Ill, will speak in the Physical Education Building this afternoon.
I was there with my mom! My mom was a great admirer of Senator Dirksen. She loved his deep bass voice, his wild shock of white hair and rumpled appearance along with the great wisdom with which he spoke. When I heard that he was going to be here, I called my mom and asked her if would like to come up. Of course! It was quite a day but I do not remember the details except that we got to see and hear this magnificent speaker.
Everett McKinley Dirksen was born January 4, 1896 --3 days short of 6 years before my mom was born-- in Pekin, Illinois. He dropped out of the University of Minnesota to serve in the Army during WW I.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1932. Because he supported many New Deal programs he was considered a liberal Republican. He served there until 1946 when a series of medical problems caused him to leave.
In 1950 he was elected to the Senate beating Senate Majority Leader, Scott Lucas. In that campaign Dirksen relied heavily on Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.) and won by a narrow margin. When Mc Carthy went on his "witch-hunt" in 1954, Senator Dirksen encouraged him to apologize to avoid censure. He did not take Dirksen's advice. Dirksen did not vote to censure him, but later conceded that McCarthy "had lost his senses".
In 1959 he was elected Minority Leader of the Senate. He was the official voice of the Republican Party during most of the 1960s. His voting record was consistently conservative on economic issues. On foreign policy, he reversed his early isolationism to support the internationalism of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. He was a leading "hawk" on Vietnam and encouraged President Johnson to escalate the war.
In February 1964 Senator Dirksen made the following statement:
"First I agree that obviously we cannot retreat from our position in Vietnam. I have been out there three times, once as something of an emissary for then President Eisenhower. I took a good look at it. It is a difficult situation, to say the least. But we are in to the tune of some $350 million . I think the last figure I have seen indicates that we have over 15,500 military out there, ostensibly as advisors and that sort of thing. We are not supposed to have combatant troops, even though we were not signatories to the treaty that was signed at Geneva when finally they got that whole business out of the fire. But we are going to have muddle through for awhile and see what we do. Even though it costs us $1.5 million a day."
I wonder what he would be saying today! Another of the Senator's quotes: "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money." With inflation revise that to "trillion"!
We have been in Iraq for how long now? Lordy, lordy! How much has this cost us? In lives and money! Senator Dirksen, I think, would be MOST distressed with the current situations we are dealing with!
Here is a quote we should concentrate on: "When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there."
Senator Dirksen died on September 7, 1969 at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D. C. following cancer surgery.
posted by Lois at 1:51 PM
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