Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 19:57, 1 June 2006

Template:Redirect5

Henry Martin Jackson
U.S. Senator, Washington
In office January 1953–September 1983
Preceded by	Harry P. Cain
Succeeded by	Daniel J. Evans
Personal details
Nationality	american
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Helen Jackson

Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson (May 31, 1912 – September 1, 1983) was a U.S. Congressman and Senator for Washington State from 1941 until his death. As a Cold War anti-Communist Democrat, Jackson's political philosophies and positions influenced modern American neoconservatism, though Jackson did not self-identify as a neoconservative.

Jackson was nicknamed "Scoop" by his sister, after a comic strip character that he is said to have resembled.

Career

Born in Everett, Washington, Jackson went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of Washington, where he joined the Delta Chi fraternity. In 1935 (the year of his law school graduation) he was admitted to the bar and began to practice law in Everett. He found immediate success, and was the prosecuting attorney for Snohomish County from 1938 to 1940.

He successfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1940 and took his seat in the House of Representatives with the Seventy-Seventh Congress on January 3, 1941. From that date forward, Jackson did not lose a congressional election. He attended the International Maritime Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1945 with the American delegation, and was elected president of the same conference in 1946, when it was held in Seattle, Washington. From 1945 to 1947, Jackson was also the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. In the 1952 election, Jackson relinquished his seat in the House for a run at one of Washington's Senate seats—he won that election, and remained a Senator for thirty years. In 1963, Jackson was made chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, a post he held until 1979. From 1977 until 1981, Jackson was chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Jackson was not only successful as a politician in Washington State, but also found recognition on the national level, rising to the position of chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1960. He did not achieve the party's ultimate honor, however, as he was denied the Democratic nomination for President in two attempts in 1972 and 1976.

In 1974, Jackson co-sponsored the Jackson-Vanik amendment with Charles Vanik, which denied normal trade relations to certain countries with non-market economies that restricted the freedom of emigration. The amendment was intended to help refugees, particularly religious minorities, specifically Jews, to emigrate from the Soviet Bloc. Jackson and his assistant, Richard Perle also lobbied personally for some people who were affected by this law — among them Natan Sharansky. Jackson also led the opposition within the Democratic Party against the SALT II treaty. For decades, Democrats who supported a strong international presence for the United States have been called "Scoop Jackson Democrats," the term even being used to describe contemporary Democrats like Joe Lieberman and R. James Woolsey, Jr.,

Jackson was often criticized for his close ties to the defense industries of his state. Opponents derided him as "the Senator from Boeing" because of his perceived close relationship with that company. Jackson served almost his entire Senate tenure, concurrently, with his good friend and Democratic colleague Warren G. Magnuson. "Scoop" and "Maggie" - as they affectionately called each other - were one of the most effective delegations in the history of the United States Senate in terms of "bringing home the bacon" for their home state.

Influence on neoconservatism

Jackson believed that evil should be confronted with power. His support for civil rights and equality at home, married to his opposition to detente, his support for human rights and democratic allies, and his firm belief that the United States could be a force for good in the world inspired a legion of loyal aides who went on to propound Jackson's philosophy as part of neoconservatism. In addition to Perle, neoconservatives Project for the New American Century member Paul Wolfowitz, Project for the New American Century member Elliott Abrams, Charles Horner, and Douglas Feith were former Democratic aides to Jackson who joined the Reagan administration in 1981, later becoming prominent foreign policy makers in the 21st-century Bush administration. Wolfowitz has called himself a "Scoop Jackson Republican.". Many journalists have noted links between Senator Jackson and modern neoconservatism through posthumous links to former associates.

Peter Beinart, who argues that the Democratic Party should return to Jackson's values in its foreign policy, criticizes the neoconservatives for failing to adopt Jackson's domestic policy views along with his foreign policy views.

Legacy

Jackson died in 1983 in Everett of an aortic aneurysm, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in that city. With his death in office, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was initially renamed Henry M. Jackson International Airport, but political resistance to the change led to this being reversed in favor of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It wasn't that the public didn't want to honor the late Senator, but rather leaders in both Seattle and Tacoma (Tacoma, in particular), fearing the loss of convention business, demanded that their cities name be included in the name of the airport. The airport lies between the two cities in the municipality of SeaTac. Since then, the University of Washington has named the Jackson School of International Studies in his honor. The US Navy submarine Henry M. Jackson was also named after him, in recognition of his longtime support of the nation's military. In 1998, the Everett School District completed construction of Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Washington. The Henry M. Jackson Wilderness Area was created in his honor by the 1984 Washington Wilderness Act. Jackson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1984.

In 2005, twenty-two years after his death, US government officials, including three members of the Central Intelligence Agency, seized and removed several of Senator Jackson's archived documents housed at the University of Washington . Though a team of the university's staff in 1983 removed all information considered classified at the time, the officials were verifying anything still considered classified, or reclassified since then, had been removed. The documents are pending declassification at the University as of February 2005.

In March 2005, the Henry Jackson Society was formed by scholars from the University of Cambridge, England. The think tank is dedicated to "pursuit of a robust foreign policy ... based on clear universal principles such as the global promotion of the rule of law, liberal democracy, civil rights, environmental responsibility and the market economy" as part of "Henry Jackson's legacy.". This group that has with no connection to the Henry M Jackson Foundation or his family. It is unknown how Senator Jackson's long legacy of opposing Fascism would be reconciled with this group.

Senator Patty Murray holds the Senate seat long held by Jackson and has voted against Neoconservative projects such as the 2003 unilateral US invasion of Iraq. Her Washington DC office features a large portrait of Senator Jackson.

See also

• Washington state congressional delegates

External links

• Henry M Jackson Foundation
• Henry M Jackson Papers
• The Henry Jackson Society at the University of Cambridge
• "Democrat hawk whose ghost guides Bush", from The Guardian 6 December 2002.
• Henry Jackson on Find-A-Grave

-->

• 1912 births
• 1983 deaths
• Delta Chi brothers
• Democratic National Committee chairs
• Elks
• Norwegian-Americans
• People from Washington
• Phi Delta Phi brothers
• Presbyterians
• Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
• Members of the United States House of Representatives from Washington
• United States presidential candidates
• United States Senators from Washington