Mike Mansfield
Michael Joseph Mansfield 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 Mansfield was born on March 16, 1903, in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, Patrick J. Mansfield and Josephine 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 Montana, he attended local public schools, and worked in his relatives' grocery store. He turned into a habitual runaway, even living at a state orphanage in Twin Bridges for half a year.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.
Military service
Wanting to join the war effort during World War I, the 14 year old Mansfield forged his father's signature in order to enlist in the US Navy. He went on several overseas convoys on the, but was discharged by the Navy after his real age was discovered. After his Navy discharge, he enlisted in the US Army, serving as a private from 1919 to 1920.Mansfield was a Private First Class in the US Marine Corps from 1920 to 1922. He served in the Western Recruiting Division at San Francisco until January 1921, when he was transferred to the Marine Barracks at Puget Sound, Washington. The following month, he was detached to the Guard Company, Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California. In April, he boarded the USAT Sherman, bound for the Philippines. After a brief stopover at the Marine Barracks at Cavite, he arrived at his duty station on May 5, 1921, the Marine Barracks, Naval Station, Olongapo, Philippine Islands. One year later, Mansfield was assigned to Company A, Marine Battery, Asiatic Fleet. A short tour of duty with the Asiatic Fleet took him along the coast of China before he returned to Olongapo in late May 1922. His service with the Marines established a lifelong interest in Asia.
That August, Mansfield returned to Cavite in preparation for his return to the United States and eventual discharge. On November 9, 1922, Private Mansfield was released from the Marine Corps on the completion of his enlistment. He was awarded the Good Conduct Medal, his character being described as "excellent" during his two years as a Marine.
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. Having never attended high school, he gained admission to Montana School of Mines in Butte by taking their entrance examinations. He attended MSM from 1927 to 1928, studying to become a mining engineer.In 1928, Mansfield met Maureen Hayes, a local schoolteacher who would become his wife. She encouraged him to pursue further education. In December 1931, Mansfield began his studies at the University of Montana in Missoula, where he took both high school and college courses. Maureen moved to Missoula, and they married on September 13, 1932. She worked as a social worker, to help support Mansfield through his studies.
At the University of Montana, Mansfield joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. In 1933, he earned both his high school equivalency and his Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued with graduate studies at UM, while also working part-time in the registrar's office and teaching two courses as a graduate assistant. He earned a Master of Arts degree from UM in 1934 with a thesis titled "American Diplomatic Relations with Korea, 1866–1910."
After completing his graduate studies, Mansfield accepted a position as administrator and professor at UM, teaching courses in Latin American and Far Eastern History, and occasionally lecturing on Greek and Roman history. Additionally, he studied towards a PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1936 to 1937. Though he left UM in 1942 to enter politics, he remained a tenured Professor of History at the University of Montana until his death.
U.S. Representative
In 1940, Mansfield ran for the Democratic nomination for the House of Representatives in Montana's 1st congressional district but was defeated by Jerry J. O'Connell, a former holder of the seat, in the primary. The general election was won by Republican Jeannette Rankin, who had previously won what was formerly an at-large seat in the House in 1916 and served until her defeat in 1920. Mansfield decided to run for the seat again in the following election and won it by defeating the businessman Howard K. Hazelbaker after Rankin, who had voted against the entry of the United States into World War II, decided not to run for what would have been her third term.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. He went to China on a special mission for US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and served as a delegate to the ninth Inter-American Conference in Colombia in 1948. In 1951, he was appointed by President Harry S. Truman as a delegate to the United Nations' sixth session in Paris. During his House tenure, he also expressed his support for price controls, a higher minimum wage, the Marshall Plan, and aid to Turkey and Greece. He opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee, the Taft–Hartley Act, and the Twenty-second Amendment.
U.S. Senator
In 1952, Mansfield was elected to the United States Senate after he had narrowly defeated the Republican incumbent, Zales Ecton. He served as Senate Majority Whip under Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson from 1957 to 1961. In 1961, after Johnson resigned from the Senate to become Vice President, Mansfield was unanimously elected the Democratic floor leader and thus Senate Majority Leader. Serving sixteen years, from 1961 until his retirement in 1977, Mansfield is the longest-serving Majority Leader in the history of the Senate. The Washington Post compared Mansfield's behavior as Majority Leader to Johnson's by saying, "Instead of Johnson's browbeating tactics, Mansfield led by setting an example of humility and accommodation."Mansfield was critical of US involvement in Laos. On December 28, 1960, he opined that US aid to Laos had produced nothing but "chaos, discontent, armies on the loose, and a large mission of hundreds of officials in Vientiane."
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:
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.
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.