Edmund Muskie
Edmund Sixtus Muskie[a] (March 28, 1914 – March 26, 1996) was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981, a United States senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1968 presidential election.
Edmund Muskie
Position established
Position established
Charles Cummings
Ralph Farris
March 26, 1996 (aged 81)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
5
United States
1942–1945
Born in Rumford, Maine, he worked as a lawyer for two years before serving in the United States Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1945 during World War II. Upon his return, Muskie served in the Maine State Legislature from 1946 to 1951, and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Waterville. Muskie was elected the 64th governor of Maine in 1954 under a reform platform as the first Democratic governor since Louis J. Brann left office in 1937, and only the fifth since 1857. Muskie pressed for economic expansionism and instated environmental provisions. Muskie's actions severed a nearly 100-year Republican stronghold and led to the political insurgency of the Maine Democrats.
Muskie's legislative work during his career as a senator coincided with an expansion of modern liberalism in the United States. He promoted the 1960s environmental movement which led to the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972. Muskie supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and opposed Richard Nixon's "Imperial presidency" by advancing New Federalism. Muskie ran with Vice President Hubert Humphrey against Nixon in the 1968 presidential election, losing the popular vote by 0.7 percentage point—one of the narrowest margins in U.S. history. He would go on to run in the 1972 presidential election, where he secured 1.84 million votes in the primaries, coming in fourth out of 15 contesters. The release of the forged "Canuck letter" derailed his campaign and sullied his public image with Americans of French-Canadian descent.
After the election, Muskie returned to the Senate, where he gave the 1976 State of the Union Response. Muskie served as first chairman of the new Senate Budget Committee from 1975 to 1980, where he established the United States budget process.[b] Upon his retirement from the Senate, he became the 58th U.S. Secretary of State under President Carter. Muskie's tenure as Secretary of State was one of the shortest in modern history. His department negotiated the release of 52 Americans, thus concluding the Iran hostage crisis. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Carter in 1981 and has been honored with a public holiday in Maine since 1987.
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In June 1940, President Roosevelt created the V-12 Navy College Training Program to prepare men under the age of 28 for the eventual outbreak of World War II. Muskie formally registered for the draft in October 1940 and was formally called to deck officer training on March 26, 1942.[32] At 28, he was assigned to work as a diesel engineer in the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School.[32] On September 11, 1942, Muskie was called to Annapolis, Maryland to attend the United States Naval Academy. He left his law practice running so "his name would continue to circulate in Waterville" while he was gone. He trained as an apprentice seaman for six weeks before being assigned the rank of midshipman.[33]
In January 1943, Muskie attended diesel engineering school for sixteen weeks before being assigned to First Naval District, Boston in May. Muskie worked on the USS YP-422 for a month. In June, he was assigned to the USS De Grasse (ID-1217) at Fort Schuyler in New York, where he worked as an indoctrinator.[34] In November 1943, Muskie was promoted to Deck Officer. He trained for two weeks in Miami, Florida at the Submarine Chaser Training Center. After that, Muskie was relocated to Columbus, Ohio to study reconnaissance in February 1944.[35] In March, he was promoted to Lieutenant (junior grade).[35] Muskie was stationed at California's Mare Island in April temporarily before formally engaging in active duty warfare.[35]
Muskie began his active duty tour aboard the destroyer escort USS Brackett (DE-41). His vessel was in charge of protecting U.S. convoys traveling from the Marshal and Gilbert Islands from Japanese submarines. The Brackett escorted ships to and from the islands for the majority of summer 1944. In January 1945, the ship engaged and eventually sank a Japanese cargo ship headed for Taroa Island.[36] After a few more months of escorting ships to and from the two islands, the ship was decommissioned. He was discharged from the Navy on December 18, 1945.[37]