Mansfield, Michael Joseph

▪ 2002

“Mike” 

      American politician and diplomat (b. March 16, 1903, New York, N.Y.—d. Oct. 5, 2001, Washington, D.C.), served as majority leader of the U.S. Senate from 1961 to 1977 under four presidents—the longest anyone had held that post. During that time he was instrumental in guiding a number of vital acts of legislation to passage, among them the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, legislation that paved the way to ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18 (1971), and the War Powers Act (1973). Mansfield was reared by an aunt and uncle in Montana, and when he was not yet 15, he joined the navy just before the U.S. entered World War I. Because he had lied about his age, he was discharged after 19 months, whereupon he joined the army, served for a year, and then joined the marines. Service in East Asia ignited a lifelong interest in that area. After returning to Montana, Mansfield worked in the copper mines and then, at the urging of his future wife, resumed his education, studying at the Montana State School of Mines, earning a high-school diploma through a correspondence course, and in 1930 entering the University of Montana. He received a bachelor's degree in 1933, joined the university's faculty, and the following year was awarded a master's. A growing interest in politics led Mansfield to seek the Democratic nomination for Montana's seat in the House of Representatives in the 1940 primary election, and though unsuccessful, he ran again in 1942 and won. He served in Congress for 10 years and in 1952 won election to the Senate, despite the anticommunist, red-baiting tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who campaigned for his opponent. Mansfield served on the Foreign Relations Committee, was named assistant majority leader in 1957, and in 1961, when Lyndon B. Johnson became vice president, moved up to majority leader. He remained in that position—guiding the increasing opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and being a leading voice against the Richard M. Nixon administration during the Watergate scandal—until he retired from the Senate in 1977. Mansfield then was appointed ambassador to Japan, a post he held for 10 years, and upon his return to the U.S. in 1988, he became a senior adviser at the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.

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