Quotes from George McGovern

There is a strong tendency in the United States to rally round the flag and their troops, no matter how mistaken the war.

For 50 years, the Republicans have been accusing the Democrats of being soft on national security.

I hope someday we will be able to proclaim that we have banished hunger in the United States, and that we've been able to bring nutrition and health to the whole world.

Somehow politicians have become convinced that negative campaigning pays off in elections.

My dad was a Methodist minister.

It's nice not to have to worry about constituents, now, I simply do what I want.

Im sick and tired of old men sitting around in air conditioned rooms here in Washington, dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

When I was in the war, I was lucky that I was in a plane and never saw the carnage close-up.

I always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie.

I met my wife in South Dakota.

I always thought of myself as a moderate liberal, a fighter for peace and justice. I never thought of myself as being all that far out.

Politics is an act of faith; you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public.

I seek to call America home to those principles that gave us birth.

I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it.

There is a strong tendency in the United States to rally round the flag and their troops, no matter how mistaken the war.

I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American businesspeople while I was a U.S. senator and later a presidential nominee. That knowledge would have made me a better legislator and a more worthy aspirant to the White House.

It's a tough thing, to know what to do about a war that deep in your gut you feel is wrong and yet watch your peers going off to fight in that war.

When I was a youngster growing up in South Dakota, we never referred to the national debt, it was always referred to as the war debt because it stemmed from World War I.

The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.

The truth is that I oppose the Iraq war, just as I opposed the Vietnam War, because these two conflicts have weakened the U.S. and diminished our standing in the world and our national security.

People didn't have the political guts to stand up against an American war.

I always thought of myself as a moderate liberal, a fighter for peace and justice. I never thought of myself as being all that far out.

I was the guy who was constantly speaking out against the Vietnam War. I have no regrets about that.

Politics is an act of faith you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public.