New Biography Chronicles The Life Of U.S. Sen. George McGovern

Most Americans today, probably remember the late center George McGovern is the loser by a landslide to Richard Nixon in 1972. McGovern was far more than Jack -- that. He was a decorated World War II hero who came -- became a passionate antiwar voice during Vietnam. He was a progressive leader of the late 20th century. Mark Sauer interviewed historian Thomas J. Knock who was just published "The Life of a Prairie Statesman: The Life and Times of George McGovern" . Welcome to midday edition, tell us why George McGovern Ueda distinguish military career piloting bombing missions in his be 24, how did he become America's leading antiwar critic during Vietnam? Partly because of that experience during World War II and also because he was a historian. When he ran for president in 1972, unlike any other presidential asked -- he asked them to think critically about foreign-policy. He was way ahead of everyone else in his criticism of the Vietnam War. That has a direct bearing on our foreign-policy today. We had gotten involved in Vietnam in the post-World War II period, gradually expanded our commitment, so that by the time got into the Kennedy administration, McGovern was the -- elected to Senate in 1962. He was already speaking very critically about Vietnam. He made a speech about it in September 1963. He said, the failure in Vietnam will not remain confined to Vietnam. The trapping of fallen into their will haunt us in every corner of this revolutionary period if we do not properly appraise its lessons and rely less on armaments and more on the economic political and moral sources. That was pressing indeed. I want to talk about one of McGovern's overlooked achievements, establishing food programs, school lunch programs. Kennedy brought him into his ministration to run the food for peace program, this was a great humanitarian project, a provided daily school lunch for tens of millions of malnourished children. In Third World countries a decreased school attendance by 40% and 50%, there was another program related to that which was called food for wages that operated and about 20 different countries. Families had to spend roughly half of their income, just getting food. We had an enormous surpluses built up after World War II, McGovern turn those into kind of a dynamic foreign-policy tool. Within a couple of years time he had this food for wages program going in 20 countries, where the food was he called it self-help capital, to fuel labor-intensive capital development projects, building small schools and hospitals out in the countryside and land. The food was provided for upwards of 700,000 workers and their families. The tween those two programs, I'd argue that McGovern was responsible for the greatest humanitarian achievement, of the Kennedy Johnson era. How do we go from that kind of humanitarian program to the military solutions that we seem to favor today? That was really, the crux of McGovern's critique, why we really could learn a lot from him today, he argued that you cannot force and American solution on a people that was still in search of its identity. Conflicts of this kind that were going on in Vietnam mom -- there were problems that had historical dimensions, political problems, psychological and economic problems, they didn't respond readily to military force from the outside. Just during the Johnson period, we dropped on Vietnam, the equivalent of all the tonnage of bombs dropped in all theaters of war in World War II, about 1,000,000 1/2 tons. An astonishing amount. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were killed, during Johnson's time, in the neighborhood of 30 -- 30,000 GIs and scores of thousands wounded. Not to mention, the folks that live there and the casualties. I want to ask you about McGovern, how did he become if Christian liberal is the right way to characterize a Mohammed did he come -- be how did he become so conservative? South Dakota is conservative, it came up as the state as a Republican, when a Republican party was more progressive of the two in the late 19th century. Lincoln and the Homestead act, that certain thing, when he was in high school studying US history, has heroes were Republican progressives like Robert love folic -- love folic. The things he read about history, gave him a critical perspective on American history. He went through the Great Depression as a boy and saw farmers suffering, working for almost nothing. In the postwar period, he was right in the flow of the fair deal and the great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson. Let's bring this to present, McGovern died in 2012, he said he opposed the war in Iraq as he opposed the war in Vietnam. Why? Because of the same reason see opposed the war in Vietnam, that's his legacy is most important legacy. Fighting in Vietnam for no good reason, making things worse and squandering incalculable resources. He could've been addressing essential needs here at home. Making friends not enemies. It echoes into our own time, we have an analogy with the second Gulf War that began 2003, McGovern roundly opposed, just as Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama did. I look forward to the second volume of your biography, when is that do? I'm hoping to have that finished by the next electoral cycle. It will be about his work in establishing a food stamp program and setting up a more democratic system of delegate selection, coming out of the disaster of the 1968 convention in Chicago, and of course writ -- Richard near -- Richard Nixon's Vietnam that went on for another four years under Nixon. We look forward to that and we missed George McGovern's voice in these terrible times. I've been speaking with historian, Thomas J. Knock about his new book , "The Life of a Prairie Statesman: The Life and Times of George McGovern". Thank you. This is Mark Sauer for KP had -- KPBS Midday Edition. The San Diego Fringe Festival dances on the edge and likes it. You are listening to KPBS Midday Edition.