McCarthy served two terms in the U.S. Senate, and before that
five terms in the House of Representatives. His political zenith
came in 1968. His opposition to the Vietnam War turned into a
crusade to capture the Democratic presidential nomination.
McCarthy didn't win. But his candidacy, and the 1968 campaign,
left lasting imprints on American politics. St. Paul, Minn. —
Eugene McCarthy was Minnesota's senior U.S. senator when he
leapt onto the national political stage on Nov. 30, 1967. On
that late fall day in Washington, D.C., McCarthy announced his
plans to challenge President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic
Party's nomination. Democrats at the time controlled the White
House and both houses of Congress. But McCarthy and a handful of
other Democrats had grown increasingly skeptical of U.S. policy
in Vietnam, and the expanding military operation. That
skepticism, he said, was critical to his decision to enter the
race. "I don't think it's a qualitative difference. It's just
been kind of a quantitative esca