Mansfield pushed into the forefront
By PETER JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Writer
Montana's Mike Mansfield reluctantly accepted the U.S. Senate majority leader role in 1961 at the urging of President John Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Senate colleagues.
The Montana Democrat would hold the post for a record 16 years before retiring from the U.S. Senate at the end of 1976. Mansfield's low-key keadership style contrasted markedly with the high-pressure tactics Johnson had used previously as majority leader.
LBJ would literally grab a Democratic senator by the lapels, lean in his face and threaten loss of spending for home state projects if the colleague didn't vote the party line.
Mansfield, who had served as Johnson's whip, or assistant majority leader, for four years,
didn't believe in a boss-dominated Senate. "I like to get by on cooperation, understanding and mutual trust," he once told then Tribune editor, William D. "Scotty" James. "I have no desire to be in a position where I can crack a whip. I don't want to tell people what to do. Senators are mature. They can arrive at a judgment."
Mansfield only asked Democratic colleagues to consider the party position if they were undecided. He dispersed responsibility, made the body more democratic and treated the minority Republicans fairly.
When Mansfield became majority leader, James quipped, "each senator was said to have grown an inch overnight and to have blossomed like a flower."
At times when Democratic legislative bills faltered and later when President Johnson's Vietnam policies became unpopular, Mansfield was criticized for not being a more vocal and powerful leader.
But it simply wasn't his style.
"Lyndon Johnson's objective was to dominate the Senate. Mike's was to lead a Senate of equals," said former U.S. Senator Edmond Muskie of Maine.
And during his Senate tenure, he steered landmark civil rights legislation, early environmental legislation and LBJ's Great Society social programs through Congress. Mansfield was also an early, unsuccessful opponent of the Vietnam War, which he called a "grotesque mistake."
After retiring from the Senate in early 1977, Mansfield went on to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Japan for a record 12 years under both Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican President Ronald Reagan.
At 96, Mansfield still works full-time in Washington, D.C., as a foreign policy advisor for an investment firm.
This article was published July 25, 1999 in the Great Falls Tribune
