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Barry Goldwater

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909[1] – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 1964.

"Goldwater" redirects here. For other uses, see Goldwater (disambiguation).

Barry Goldwater

Barry Morris Goldwater

(1909-01-02)January 2, 1909
Phoenix, Arizona Territory, U.S.

May 29, 1998(1998-05-29) (aged 89)
Paradise Valley, Arizona, U.S.

Christ Church of the Ascension
Paradise Valley, Arizona

Margaret Johnson
(m. 1934; died 1985)
Susan Shaffer Wechsler
(m. 1992)

4, including Barry Jr.

University of Arizona (did not graduate)

1941–1967

Goldwater was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where he helped manage his family's department store. During World War II, he flew aircraft between the U.S. and India. After the war, Goldwater served in the Phoenix City Council. In 1952, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he rejected the legacy of the New Deal and, along with the conservative coalition, fought against the New Deal coalition. Goldwater also challenged his party's moderate to liberal wing on policy issues. He supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, disagreeing with Title II and Title VII. In the 1964 U.S. presidential election, Goldwater mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the Republican nomination, but then lost the general election to incumbent Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide.


Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969 and specialized in defense and foreign policy. He successfully urged president Richard Nixon to resign in 1974 when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. In 1986, he oversaw passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act, which strengthened civilian authority in the U.S. Department of Defense. Near the end of his career, Goldwater's views on social and cultural issues grew increasingly libertarian.


After leaving the Senate, Goldwater became supportive of homosexuals serving openly in the military,[2] environmental protection,[3] gay rights,[4] abortion rights,[5] adoption rights for same-sex couples,[6] and the legalization of medicinal marijuana.[7] Many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics, which helped to bring about the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He also had a substantial impact on the American libertarian movement.[8]

Early life and family background

Goldwater was born in Phoenix in what was then the Arizona Territory, the son of Baron M. Goldwater and his wife, Hattie Josephine "JoJo" Williams. His father's family founded Goldwater's Department Store, a leading upscale department store in Phoenix.[9] Goldwater's paternal grandfather, Michel Goldwasser, a Polish Jew, was born in 1821 in Konin, then part of Congress Poland. He emigrated to London following the Revolutions of 1848. Soon after arriving in London, Michel anglicized his name to Michael Goldwater. Michel married Sarah Nathan, a member of an English-Jewish family, in the Great Synagogue of London.[10][11]


The Goldwaters later emigrated to the United States, first arriving in San Francisco, California before finally settling in the Arizona Territory, where Michael Goldwater opened a small department store that was later taken over and expanded by his three sons, Henry, Baron and Morris.[12] Morris Goldwater (1852–1939) was an Arizona territorial and state legislator, mayor of Prescott, Arizona, delegate to the Arizona Constitutional Convention and later President of the Arizona State Senate.[13]


Goldwater's father was Jewish, but Goldwater was raised in his mother's Episcopalian faith. Hattie Williams came from an established New England family that included the theologian Roger Williams of Rhode Island.[14] Goldwater's parents were married in an Episcopal church in Phoenix; for his entire life, Goldwater was an Episcopalian, though on rare occasions he referred to himself as Jewish.[15] While he did not often attend church, he stated that "If a man acts in a religious way, an ethical way, then he's really a religious man—and it doesn't have a lot to do with how often he gets inside a church."[16][17][18] His first cousin was Julius Goldwater, a convert to Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu priest who assisted interned Japanese Americans during World War II.[19]


After he did poorly as a freshman in high school, Goldwater's parents sent him to Staunton Military Academy in Virginia where he played varsity football, basketball, track and swimming, was senior class treasurer and attained the rank of captain.[15][20] He graduated from the academy in 1928 and enrolled at the University of Arizona.[20][21] but dropped out after one year. Barry Goldwater is the most recent non-college graduate to be the nominee of a major political party in a presidential election. Goldwater entered the family's business around the time of his father's death in 1930. Six years later, he took over the department store, though he was not particularly enthused about running the business.[15]

Early political career

In a heavily Democratic state, Goldwater became a conservative Republican and a friend of Herbert Hoover. He was outspoken against New Deal liberalism, especially its close ties to labor unions. A pilot, amateur radio operator, outdoorsman and photographer, he criss-crossed Arizona and developed a deep interest in both the natural and the human history of the state. He entered Phoenix politics in 1949, when he was elected to the City Council as part of a nonpartisan team of candidates pledged to clean up widespread prostitution and gambling. The team won every mayoral and council election for the next two decades. Goldwater rebuilt the weak Republican party and was instrumental in electing Howard Pyle as Governor in 1950.[26][27]

Local support for civil rights

Barry Goldwater was a staunch supporter of racial equality. Goldwater integrated his family's business upon taking over control in the 1930s. A lifetime member of the NAACP, Goldwater helped found the group's Arizona chapter. Goldwater saw to it that the Arizona Air National Guard was racially integrated from its inception in 1946, two years before President Truman ordered the military as a whole be integrated (a process that was not completed until 1954). Goldwater worked with Phoenix civil rights leaders to successfully integrate public schools a year prior to Brown v. Board of Education. Despite this support of Civil Rights, Goldwater remained in objection to some major federal Civil Rights legislation. Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. remarked of him "while not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulates a philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racists."[28][29]


Goldwater was an early member and largely unrecognized supporter of the National Urban League Phoenix chapter, going so far as to cover the group's early operating deficits with his personal funds.[30][31] Though the NAACP denounced Goldwater in the harshest of terms when he ran for president, the Urban League conferred on Goldwater the 1991 Humanitarian Award "for 50 years of loyal service to the Phoenix Urban League." In response to League members who objected, citing Goldwater's vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the League president pointed out that Goldwater had saved the League more than once, saying he preferred to judge a person "on the basis of his daily actions rather than on his voting record."[31]

Command Pilot Badge

(former U.S. Army Air Forces rating)

Service Pilot Badge

Legion of Merit

Air Medal

Army Commendation Medal

American Defense Service Medal

American Campaign Medal

European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

with campaign star

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal

with three bronze hourglasses

Armed Forces Reserve Medal

(1986)

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Distinguished Service Medal

American Legion

Marconi Gold Medal, Veteran Wireless Operators Association (1968)

Marconi Medal of Achievement (1968)

Bob Hope Five Star Civilian Award (1976)

Good Citizenship Award, Daughters of the American Revolution

33rd Degree Mason

The Memorial Award

Douglas MacArthur

Top Gun Award,

Luke Air Force Base

Order of Fifinella Award – Champion of the (WASP) (1978)

Women Air Force Service Pilots

National Defense Award 1978

Thomas D. White

Conservative Digest Award (1980)

Senator Award for Public Service in the field of Nuclear Disarmament (1983)

John Warner

Jr. Memorial Award (1983)

Alexander M. Haig

National Congress of American Indians Congressional Award (1985)

Space Pioneer Award, Sixth Space Development Conference (1987)

American Whig-Cliosophic Society (1988)

James Madison Award

(1982)[188]

National Aviation Hall of Fame

(1960)

The Conscience of a Conservative

(1963)

Why Not Victory? A Fresh Look at American Policy

(1964)

Where I Stand

(1971)

Conscience of a Majority

(1976)

The Coming Breakpoint

(1977)

Arizona

(1980)

With No Apologies: The Personal and Political Memoirs of Senator Barry M. Goldwater

(1988)

Goldwater

Relatives

Goldwater's son Barry Goldwater Jr. served as a Congressman from California from 1969 to 1983. He was the first Congressman to serve while having a father in the Senate. Goldwater's uncle Morris Goldwater served in the Arizona territorial and state legislatures and as mayor of Prescott, Arizona. Goldwater's nephew Don Goldwater sought the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona in 2006, but he was defeated by Len Munsil.

Electoral history of Barry Goldwater

Goldwater Institute

Goldwater rule

Gallup, George H, ed. (1972), The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971, vol. 3

Goldwater, Barry M. with Jack Casserly. Goldwater (Doubleday, 1988), autobiography.

Goldwater, Barry Morris (1980). . Berkley Books. ISBN 978-0425046630.

With No Apologies: The Personal and Political Memoirs of United States Senator Barry M. Goldwater

(1967), In A Cause That Will Triumph: The Goldwater Campaign and the Future of Conservatism (memoir), OCLC 639505 by Goldwater's speechwriter

Hess, Karl

Shadegg, Stephen. What Happened to Goldwater? The Inside Story of the 1964 Republican Campaign (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965).

White, F. Clifton. Suite 3505: The Story of the Draft Goldwater Movement (Arlington House, 1967).

Goldwater Either/or: A Self-portrait Based Upon His Own Words. Public Affairs Press, 1949.

Flynn, John T.

White, Theodore (1965), The Making of the President: 1964, HarperCollins,  978-0061900617 online

ISBN

United States Congress. . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

"Barry Goldwater (id: G000267)"

Appearances

"Barry Goldwater, Presidential Contender"

The Goldwater Institute

Speech delivered by Barry Goldwater to the Comstock Club of Sacramento, California on June 22, 1966