McGovern on McGovern

PRESIDENTIAL Candidate George McGovern began his interview with LIFE Staff Writer Richard Meryman by describing a talk he had with Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley shortly after the 1968 election. Daley told McGovern: "Well, you know the candidate in ' 72 is probably going to be either young Kennedy or you." That comment, McGovern said, "made a big impression on me--and I believe he still thinks that." Soon after his talk with Daley, McGovern started seeking his party's nomination, although he thought Kennedy would have a better chance for the prize. "But I doubted, all things considered, that he'd run," McGovern added.

During the five hours of interviews, McGovern gave some revealing glimpses--some poignant, some wry. He reminisced about his early years in South Dakota towns: "There are the big old cottonwood trees, the big American elms, the little roadways in and out of town that have always been there." Not all of McGovern's Dakota remembrances were pleasant, however. He recalled that a gym teacher's accusation of physical cowardice "cut me more than anything anybody has ever said to me." Partly to disprove the teacher, said McGovern, he volunteered for training as a bomber pilot in World War II, though he was "terrified of the air."

Despite his current antiwar stand, McGovern said that during World War II he had few emotional conflicts about dropping bombs on cities. "We were caught in the struggle to pulverize the Nazi war machine," he said. "I felt the United States was totally right in the war, and that experience has not affected my stand on Viet Nam very much."

McGovern said that since starting his climb to political prominence he has often had to hold his tongue when confronted with irrational arguments or just plain rudeness. "If there is one thing I cannot tolerate, it is rudeness," he said emphatically, and described an incident that had angered him: "Well, early in the campaign a commercial flight was held for me about ten minutes. When I boarded, I went down one side and up the other apologizing to the passengers for detaining them. The last person was this old biddy. When I stopped by her, she said, 'Get out of here.' And I said, 'Well, I just wanted to tell you I was sorry that I delayed the plane.' She said, 'Well, you're a terrible person.' And I leaned over and said very quietly, 'Well, you're the biggest horse's ass I've met in the campaign.' I had a great feeling of elation. It was such a good, clean shot."

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