Pete McCloskey
Paul Norton McCloskey Jr. (born September 29, 1927) is an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983.[1]
Pete McCloskey
11th district (1967–1973)
17th district (1973–1975)
12th district (1975–1983)
Democratic (since 2007)
Republican (1948–2007)
Caroline McCloskey (div.)
Helen V. Hooper
4
Winters, California, U.S.
United States
United States Navy (1945–1947)
United States Marine Corps (1950–1952)
U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (1952–1974)
1945–1964
Colonel
Born in Loma Linda, California, McCloskey pursued a legal career in Palo Alto, California, after graduating from Stanford Law School. He served in the Korean War as a member of the United States Marine Corps. For his service, he was awarded the Navy Cross and the Silver Star. He won election to the House of Representatives in 1967, defeating Shirley Temple in the Republican primary. He co-authored the 1973 Endangered Species Act.[2] He unsuccessfully challenged President Richard Nixon in the 1972 Republican primaries on an anti-Vietnam War platform[2] and was the first member of Congress to publicly call for President Nixon's resignation after the Saturday Night Massacre.[3]
McCloskey continually won re-election until 1982, when he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to represent California in the United States Senate. The nomination was won by Pete Wilson, who went on to defeat Jerry Brown in the general election. During the 1988 Republican presidential primaries, McCloskey helped end Pat Robertson's campaign by revealing that Robertson's claims of serving in combat were false. In 1989, McCloskey co-founded the Council for the National Interest, non-profit, non-partisan organization that works for "Middle East policies that serve the American national interest."[4] He strongly opposed the Iraq War and supported Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. In 2006, he made an unsuccessful run for Congress against Republican Richard Pombo. He endorsed Democrat Jerry McNerney in the general election and became a Democrat himself shortly thereafter.
Early life[edit]
Pete McCloskey's great-grandfather was orphaned in the Great Irish Famine and came to California in 1853 at the age of 16. He and his son, McCloskey's grandfather, were farmers in Merced County. The family were lifelong Republicans.[5]
McCloskey was born on September 29, 1927, in Loma Linda, California, the son of Mary Vera (McNabb) and Paul Norton McCloskey.[6][7] He attended public schools in South Pasadena and San Marino. He was inducted into South Pasadena High School Hall of Fame for the sport of baseball.[8] He attended Occidental College and California Institute of Technology under the U.S. Navy's V-5 Pilot Program. He graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and Stanford University Law School in 1953.
Military service[edit]
McCloskey voluntarily served in the U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1947, the U.S. Marine Corps from 1950 to 1952, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 1952 to 1960 and the Ready Reserve from 1960 to 1967. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1974, having attained the rank of colonel.
He was awarded the Navy Cross and Silver Star decorations for heroism in combat and two Purple Hearts as a Marine during the Korean War.[2] He then volunteered for the Vietnam War before eventually turning against it.[2] In 1992, he wrote his fourth book, The Taking of Hill 610, describing some of his exploits in Korea.
Outside Congress[edit]
On Israel-Palestinian issues[edit]
In 1984, McCloskey was invited to return to Stanford University as a visiting lecturer.[34] The director of Hillel at Stanford characterized McCloskey's appointment as "a slap in the face of the Jewish community".[34] Members of the student government also tried to pressure McCloskey to remove an article by former US diplomat George Ball from his course syllabus and "add materials reflecting pro-AIPAC views."[34] Following a "faculty review" McCloskey's student opponents were censured for " 'serious abridgments' of academic freedom" and Stanford's Provost offered McCloskey a formal apology.[34]
In 1986, McCloskey engaged in a debate about Israel-Palestinian issues with Jewish Defense League founder, Rabbi Meir Kahane.[35] According to a disputed transcript of an event fourteen years later, McCloskey stated that two thousand people attended the 1986 debate which took place in San Francisco.[31][36] The event was eventually turned into a short film titled, "Why Terrorism?" produced by Mark Green.[37]
McCloskey and former Rep. Paul Findley (R-III.) helped arrange a June 8, 1991, White House ceremony during which forty-two surviving crew members of the USS Liberty, an intelligence ship attacked by Israeli forces in 1967, were belatedly presented the Presidential Unit Citation awarded, but never presented, to the ship's crew by President Johnson in 1968.[38] The ceremony took place on the 24th anniversary of the incident, which killed thirty-four Americans, and was attended by White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft.[38] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed concerns about whether the event was an held "to give a stamp of approval to those seeking to malign Israel”.[38] The ADL singled out the participation of McCloskey and Findley as "staunch critics of Israel" and "expressed concern with their involvement 'and the sanction given by the White House of such rhetoric.' "[38] In 1982, he was approached by a former Israeli senior lead pilot who admitted that he had recognized the Liberty as an American naval vessel during the attack but was told to ignore the U.S. flag and continue his attack.[39][40] Upon refusing to do so and returning to base, he was arrested. McCloskey has remained a committed supporter of the “USS Liberty Veterans Association.” He is planning to release a book in support of Liberty survivors titled The Most Infamous Order Ever Given: The Betrayal of the USS Liberty which will have many supporting documents in it.
Pat Robertson presidential campaign controversy[edit]
McCloskey contradicted Pat Robertson's statements about Korean War service and so put an end to Robertson's 1988 Presidential run. Robertson first claimed that he was a "combat veteran" back in 1981, which aroused the ire of McCloskey, who had been shipped to Korea along with Robertson as second lieutenants as part as the 5th Replacement Draft to bolster the First Marine Division, which had suffered great losses at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. McCloskey and Robertson were part of a contingent of 71 Marine officers and 1,900 enlisted men shipped to Korea aboard the USS General J.C. Breckenridge to serve as replacements.[41]
When Robertson began claiming again that he was a combat veteran during the 1988 Republican primaries, McCloskey wrote a public letter to U.S. Representative Andrew Jacobs Jr., also a Marine veteran of the Korean War, in which McCloskey said that Robertson was actually spared combat duty when his powerful father, U.S. Senator A. Willis Robertson of Virginia, intervened on his behalf, and that Robertson had actually boasted that his father would keep him out of combat. Robertson, a college friend, and four other second lieutenants were shipped to Japan, detailed to a training mission for Marines coming out of Korea. Of the remaining Marine officers, half were killed or wounded in combat.[41]
Robertson sued McCloskey and another accuser for libel and demanded damages of $35 million, but research underwritten by McCloskey that cost him $400,000 proved that his revelations had been true. Rather than being a combat veteran, Robertson had been shipped to Japan right off the USS Breckenridge, then spent most of his time when returned to Korea and was posted at the safe harbor of the Division Headquarters. Robertson served as the Division "liquor officer", responsible for keeping the officers' clubs supplied with alcohol, which meant he kept traveling back to Japan. It was claimed that Robertson sexually harassed a Korean woman at one of his clubs and worried about getting gonorrhea. Documentary evidence uncovered by McCloskey revealed that his father, Senator Robertson, thanked Marine Commandant Robinson for getting his son out of combat. By the time of the libel trial, which was scheduled for Super Tuesday, many other Marine officers were prepared to testify that Robertson had avoided combat duty. The day before the trial, Robertson dropped the libel suit. On Super Tuesday, he was punished at the polls. He later paid McCloskey's court costs.[41][42]
McCloskey wrote a book about his Korean War experiences, The Taking of Hill 610.
Council of the National Interest[edit]
In 1989, McCloskey co-founded the Council for the National Interest along with former Congressman Paul Findley.[4] It is a 501 (c)4 non-profit, non-partisan organization that works for "Middle East policies that serve the American national interest."[43][44] He taught political science at Santa Clara University in the early 1980s. For many years, he practiced law in Redwood City, California and resided in Woodside, California.
Iraq War[edit]
An opponent of the Iraq War,[45] McCloskey broke party ranks in 2004 to endorse John Kerry in his bid to unseat George W. Bush as President of the United States.[2]
Change of political affiliation[edit]
In the spring of 2007, McCloskey announced that he had changed his party affiliation to the Democratic Party. In an email and letter to the Tracy Press, McCloskey stressed that the "new brand of Republicanism" had finally led him to abandon the party that he had joined in 1948.[46][47] He followed this up with an op-ed column in which he explained that "Disagreement [with party leadership] turned into disgust" and "I finally concluded that it was fraud for me to remain a member of this modern Republican Party", although it was a "decision not easily taken."[5]
In the 2020 United States presidential election, McCloskey was nominated to be a member of the Democratic slate of electors for the state of California.[48] As Democrat Joe Biden won the state's popular vote, McCloskey became one of California's 55 members of the Electoral College. He cast his presidential vote for Biden and vice-presidential vote for California Senator Kamala Harris on December 14, 2020.[49]
Political positions[edit]
McCloskey favors abortion rights, supports stem cell research and Oregon's assisted suicide law. He was a co-chair of the first Earth Day in 1970.[2]