Tagged: George McGovern

Former Senator and 1972 Democratic Presidential Candidate George McGovern passed away over the weekend. McGovern worked as a historian before—and after—his political career.

If George McGovern often seemed miscast as a presidential candidate, he was at least as improbable as an icon of the anti-war movement.

The Vietnam War gave birth to an opposition movement unlike any America had seen in its previous wars. It was young, unconventional and countercultural, defiant of authority and deeply suspicious of government.

McGovern himself was none of these things.

Sen. George McGovern, who lost the 1972 presidential bid to Richard Nixon yet inspired a new generation of voters, has died. He was 90.

A family spokesman told the AP that McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. Sunday at a hospice in Sioux Falls, S.D., surrounded by family and friends.