Antiwar politician Eugene McCarthy dies at 89
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-12 11:24

Eugene McCarthy, a former US senator and an indomitable antiwar activist whose firm stance against the Vietnam War forced a re-evaluation of the US role in the conflict, has died at the age of 89, Democratic Party officials said.

McCarthy passed away in his sleep at his retirement home in the US capital early Saturday, the officials said, without disclosing the exact cause of the death.

A KGO-TV cameraman, left, prepares to tape a presidential debate, between Senator Eugene McCarthy, fourth left, and Sen. Robert Kennedy, second right, in this June 1, 1968, in San Francisco. From second left: ABC White House correspondent William Lawrence, an unifentified floor man, McCarthy, producer Peggy Whedon, moderator Frank Reynolds, Kennedy, and ABC political correspondent, Robert Clark. [AP/file]

McCarthy is largely credited with ending the presidency of another fellow Democrat, Lyndon Johnson, a staunch advocate of a continued US military commitment to the Indochina conflict.

In 1968, he defied the party hierarchy and challenged Johnson in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, surprisingly scoring 42 percent of the vote against Johnson's 49 percent.

Although the president carried the state, its primary produced a clear indication that Democrats were deeply divided over the war and Johnson's reputation had become too closely defined by Vietnam.

The realization prompted Johnson to reassess his re-election bid and drop out of the race entirely in March 1968.

The dramatic election campaign, which was marked by the assassination of Robert Kennedy, another Democratic presidential candidate, eventually propelled to the fore vice president Hubert Humphrey, a moderate without a clearly defined stance on the war, who became the Democratic nominee but lost the general election to Republican Richard Nixon.

However, McCarthy's foray into presidential politics had succeeded in putting US disengagement from Vietnam to the top of the national agenda, where it would remained to the end of the conflict.

Former Minnesota Sen. and former presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy is interviewed by the Associated Press at his home in Washington in this Feb. 19, 2003 file photo. [AP/file]

Aware of growing anti-war sentiment in the country, Nixon eventually negotiated an end to the US military involvement in the war in 1973.

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid called McCarthy "an important, respected voice" in the country.

"He dedicated his life to public service and made an enormous difference for the people of Minnesota and the entire United States," Reid said in a brief statement.

Brian Melendez, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said McCarthy's decision to launch himself into the 1968 presidential race had reconfigured the political landscape at a critical time in American history.

"The issues that propelled Senator McCarthy onto the national stage nearly four decades ago are the same issues that confront Americans today: the morality of war, the integrity of our leaders, and the government's accountability to its people," Melendez pointed out.

Born on March 29, 1916, McCarthy represented Minnesota in the US Senate from 1959 to 1971 and was a member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.