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Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat

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For young soldiers returning from the war in Vietnam, Senator Mike Mansfield was a literal legend in his own time, the consistent voice for greater moderation, caution, and reason during the escalation of the war in Vietnam. As chronicled so marvelously in this new biography by noted historian Don Oberdorfer, from the very beginning of the sordid Vietnam affair Mansfield had cautioned long-time colleagues as friends John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson as to the absolute futility and danger associated with pursuing a military victory in Southeast Asia. A long-time member of the Foreign Relations committee in the Senate, he was well aware of the complexities and national aspirations simmering under the surface of the region, and recognized the morass we might soon find ourselves in if we succumbed to the siren song of the so-called `domino' theorists, who posited the loss of South Vietnam would lead inextricably to the loss of Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Mansfield maintained the domino we needed to worry about was Vietnam itself, which might well topple our whole far-eastern strategy if we allowed ourselves to become entwined in its silken grips.

Alas, no one among the `best and the brightest' of either the Kennedy or Johnson administration listened, and instead dragged us into more than a decade of death, destruction, and depravity. Yet in this fascinating biography, we learn that Mike Mansfield had many more facets to his marvelous personality and many more intellectual insights to offer the American people during his long and illustrious career as a public servant. He presided over the U.S. Senate during the difficult and angst-filled deliberations over the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, its companion bill for Voter Rights Act passed the following year, and the donnybrook that ensured over the initial passing of Medicare legislation. A man of almost encyclopedic knowledge, he spoke carefully and constructively, and listened as intently as he had spoken. Like his predecessor as Senate majority leader, LBJ, he was a master of personal one-on- one persuasion, and his soaring intellect and engaging personality made him scores of friends and precious few enemies in his many travels and engagements. He was, however, much like Harry Truman in terms of being both a straight-talker and a straight shooter, and he was known to be a man of incredible principle and integrity.

His only regret in later serving as Ambassador to Japan was that it took him so far a field from his beloved Montana, a place he could sometimes become almost doggedly appreciative of. He was a hunter, an outdoorsman, and an early champion of what was then called conservation and is now better understood as environmentalism. His was a life that spanned a myriad of different concerns, causes, and conflicts, and although we will always remember him best for his earnest, informed, and heartfelt opposition to the war in Vietnam, Mike Mansfield was certainly a public man for all seasons. This is a wonderful book about a noteworthy American who until now has been seriously under-appreciated. Enjoy!

This book is mandatory reading for anyone seeking, or currently in, public office. Oberdorfer's analysis of Mansfield's writing, thinking, and speaking style is first rate. For serious students of American politics, Oberdorfer has given them a look at the making of one of the most important men of the century. I know it must have been difficult because Mansfield steadfastly refused to allow anyone to be his biographer. Mansfield believed that biographies should be written only after a person had been dead for 75 to 100 years. Therefore I was extremely happy to see that Don Oberdorfer had accomplished what many Mansfield devotees couldn't...capture the essence of one of the most important men (and his absolutely incredible wife Maureen) of the 20th Century. The 510 pages devoted to Mansfield are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. His influence on members of the Senate, his understanding of world affairs, his unshakable and sometimes frustratingly rigid belief in Montana, and his ability to say so much in as few words as possible, could fill a dozen more volumes.
I wanted to be Mansfield's biographer. I was his foil regarding the complex and vexing problems surrounding US-Japanese defense policy from 1985-1988. During his trips into the Pacific Command, we had long conversations about Asia, American politics (especially LBJ and the course of the Vietnam war), the teaching of history, and getting inside the mind of the Japanese. Ambassador Mansfield, who rarely carried on long conversations, spoke in 50-minute segments and one only got three minutes to answer the questions he would pose afterwards. To engage in a conversation with Mansfield was a dangerous thing if one was un- or ill-prepared. Those segments, which came from his encyclopedic and near perfect recall memory, would tie everything in his life starting as a 14 year old seaman to an up-to-the-minute analysis of the world in general and Asia in the specific. Two days with Mansfield could qualify anyone to CLEP an examination in world history! I would rate him as the finest professors of history in the United States.
Mansfield once told me that the preparation time to smoke a pipe was the equivalent of preparing for a conversation. Slowly and deliberately, he would think about what he wanted to say, say it, then command from the listener that three minute reply. I never heard him ever raise his voice. I never saw him ever become rude or angry. When he felt it was time to leave a dinner or conference, he left, regardless of who was in the room. His coffee making always put people off guard, immediately humbling them and defusing their anger.
Whenever he came to Hawaii for medical checkups, or conferences, he had a shopping list to buy small yet significant things for the lowest ranking members of his embassy staff. For the secretary pool, See's chocolate candy...for his US Marine Embassy guards, the newest rank insignia for their next promotion...for his Japanese staff members, Hawaiian macadamia nuts. For himself, he always bought Prince Albert pipe tobacco; two large cans worth so he could "mediate and reflect" on what was best for the United States of America.
Read this book, for it is the true and good and troubled history of the 20th century of the United States. Mike Mansfield personified all that is good and decent about politics. Mike Mansfield knew how and when to act when troubles arose. Mike Mansfield knew how to love his nation. Fortunately Oberdorfer was in the right place, as the right time, posing as the right agent, to capture Senator Mansfield as no one else ever will.

Don Oberdorfer's biography of Mike Mansfield brings an extraordinary American to life. Not only does the reader gain deep insights into Congressman then, Senator and, later, Ambassador Mansfield; but also Private Mansfield of the U.S. Marine Corps; and copper miner Mansfield of Butte, Montana; high school and college student Mansfield which he completed simultaneously, and professor Mansfield of the University of Montana in the 1930s and 40s.

Besides a wonderful and inspiring portrait of a truly unique American, the book portrays the relationships Mansfield developed with American Presidents beginning with FDR through Ronald Reagan. The entire middle third of the book focuses on the Vietnam era and Mansfield's heroic, behind the scene, effort as the Senate's Asia expert and Majority Leader to persuade Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford to, first, avoid committing American troops to a mainland war in Asia and, second, to withdraw troops once they were tragically in place in Vietnam.

Mansfield's analysis showed the Vietnam problem to be 9 parts diplomatic/political and one part military. Therefore, he argued American policy in Vietnam could not be resolved using a 9 part military solution to only 1 part diplomatic/political. Essentially, Mansfield believed a military response is rarely indicated and far too often, riding coattails of false intelligence and phony patriotism, militarism acquires a fatal and unstoppable momentum of its own. In retrospect it turns out that the "attacks" by North Vietnamese torpedo boats against the U.S. Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1965 that were used by President Johnson as a pretext to go to war were a monumental and, likely, willful intelligence failure. Almost 40 years later, on a much larger scale, American intelligence now seems to have failed to provide an accurate analysis of Iraq's WMD. It is clear American Presidents still base their decision to take the country to war on often misleading or patently false information.

This book provides an apt but sober warning for policy makers working on contemporary Middle East who are designing President George Bush's war on terrorism. This is a great read about a unique American who lived through a compelling time in American history and whose values in public life are sorely missed in today's divisive and disfunctional political climate.

I had known of Senator Mansfield, but this biography was essentially my first real glimpse of the man. It was a genuine treat to come to know him, even in this limited way, and the author has given us one of the best biographies in many years. Yes, this is a tribute and it is clear that the author has great respect for his subject (as he should), but he does not ignore the complexities of Mansfield's career in the public arena. Admittedly there is little about Mansfield's private life (outside of the early, pre-government years), but I found that refreshing as what we need to know about Mansfield is what he contributed to the country and what we can learn from his long career. Nevertheless, we do get a sense of Mansfield's intellect, his charm, and his appeal across ideological divides. His greatness is never exaggerated and after finishing the book, one gets a sense of sadness as we consider what could have been if only he had been listened to regarding Vietnam.

Michael Joseph (Mike) Mansfield's approach to Congress could instruct many of the politicians in power today. Unlike his bombastic, controlling predecessor, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Mansfield, as Senate Majority Leader, retreated from the glare of publicity so that his fellow senators, from both parties, could take pride in successful legislation that they initiated, all the while guiding that body with a steady hand.

Because of the statesman's honesty, his intellectual capacity, his ability to connect immediately with people, no matter their views, and his brilliance as a public servant, his home state Montana kept him in Congress from the year they first elected him in 1942 to 1977, when he retired from the Senate. They loved him because he put their interests first, regardless of what was occurring on the world's stage.

When Mansfield retired from the Senate, he expected to "loaf, read, and think," but the government couldn't let go and sent him to Japan where he served as Ambassador, a position from which he retired in his mid-eighties. After that, Goldman Sachs hired him to be its East Asian Advisor.

Above all else, human relationships ranked highest in importance for Mansfield. When his wife died, he said during her eulogy that without her he would have been nothing. Early in their marriage she urged him to leave his work as miner and mining engineer to pursue and complete his education.

I recommend Don Oberdorfer's "Senator Mansfield" to readers interested in a look into the bowels of politics, particularly during the Vietnam War era and its aftermath. I felt as if I were hiding under a desk eavesdropping. Reading parts of the tapes that Nixon made of himself, I couldn't decide whether to laugh or weep.

People used to say that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush won elections because they were regular guys you could `have a beer with.' But neither the 42nd or 43rd impersonation of Joe Sixpack holds a candle to Mike Mansfield, who held the post of Senate Majority Leader for 16 years. It was Mansfield alone among his congressional peers that enlisted in the Army, Navy and Marines. Though born in New York, Mansfield spent most of his life orphaned in rural Montana. Don Oberdorfer's subtitle could not be more apt, Senator Mansfield really is the best example of an American statesman and diplomat.

Mansfield was not blessed with the intellect of a Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. He lacked the grace of Washington or towering stature of Lincoln. He was not especially eloquent or articulate, in fact for a Congressman and Senator of thirty-plus years he was remarkably quiet. But he possessed a noble dignity and honest intentions that ever so rarely, carries a man far in his political career. Think Harry Truman, without ever having been president.

Some argue that Mansfield was less effective as Majority Leader than his famed predecessor LBJ. While probably true, Mansfield was also much more beloved by his colleagues, who were never bullied or cajoled into voting for something that could cost them their jobs. He made his mark in foreign affairs, arguing strongly (though privately) against increased American involvement in Vietnam. Johnson and Nixon both solicited his opinion, but tragically ignored his advice.

His expertise in Asia led to an unusual `retirement' job after leaving the Senate, he served as ambassador to Japan for 11 years, under the Carter and Reagan administrations. During which time he kept good relations with Japan despite its increasing economic power. More than any other biographer, Oberdorfer presents his subject not as one to be deified, but rather a fine model for those wanting serve their country. Mansfield was not a giant in life, did not gain stature in death, but remains a model of humility and patriotism. For any interested in congressional leadership, Vietnam or self-made men, Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat is a worthy read.

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