Democractic
Senator from
Montana Mike Mansfield--majority leader of the
United States Senate following
Lyndon Johnson's election as
Vice President--served sixteen years before becoming Ambassador to
Japan under Presidents
Carter and
Reagan. Born in 1903, Mansfield retired as ambassador in 1988. He died in 2001 at age 98 (Greenberg).
Mansfield was first elected to the Senate in 1952. As majority leader he opposed the Vietnam War and pressed hard for the Senate to bring an end to the conflict (Greenberg).
Works Cited
Greenberg, Daniel. Rev. of
Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat, by Don Oberdorfer. Washington Post 4 Jan. 2004: T10.