Frank Church | |
|---|---|
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| United States Senator fromIdaho | |
| In office January 3, 1957 – January 3, 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Herman Welker |
| Succeeded by | Steve Symms |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Frank Forrester Church III (1924-07-25)July 25, 1924 Boise, Idaho, U.S. |
| Died | April 7, 1984(1984-04-07) (aged 59) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingForrest |
| Education | Stanford University (BA,LLB) |
| Occupation |
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1946[a] |
| Rank | Second Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | |
Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an American politician and lawyer. ADemocrat, from 1957 to 1981 he served as a U.S. Senator fromIdaho, and is currently the last Democrat to do so. He was the longest servingDemocratic senator from the state and the only Democrat from the state who served more than two terms in the Senate. He was a prominent figure inAmerican foreign policy and established a reputation as a member of the party's liberal wing.
Born and raised inBoise, Idaho, he enrolled atStanford University in 1942 but left to enlist in theArmy, where he served as a military intelligence officer in theChina Burma India Theater of World War II. Following the end of the war, he completed his law degree fromStanford Law School and returned to Boise to practice law. Church became an active Democrat in Idaho and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in thestate legislature in 1952. In1956, he was elected to the United States Senate, defeating former SenatorGlen Taylor in a closely contested primary election and incumbentHerman Welker in the general election.
As a senator, he was aprotégé of then-Senate majority leaderLyndon B. Johnson, and was appointed to theSenate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1960, Church received national exposure when he gave the keynote speech at the1960 Democratic National Convention. Considered a strong progressive and environmental legislator, he played a major role in the creation of a system of protected wilderness areas. Church was highly critical of theVietnam War, despite initially supporting it; he co-authored theCooper–Church Amendment of 1970 and theCase–Church Amendment of 1973, which sought to curtail the war. In 1975, he chaired the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, better known as theChurch Committee, laying the groundwork for theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
Church belatedly sought the1976 Democratic nomination for president, and announced his candidacy on March 18, 1976. Although he wonprimaries inNebraska, Idaho,Oregon, andMontana, he withdrew in favor of formerGeorgia governorJimmy Carter. Church was re-elected continuously to the Senate, defeating hisRepublican opponents in1962,1968, and1974, until his defeat during the Republican wave of1980. Following the end of his term, he practiced international law in Washington, D.C., specializing in Asian issues. Church was hospitalized for apancreatic tumor on January 12, 1984, and he died less than three months later at his home inBethesda,Maryland, on April 7, 1984.
Frank Forrester Church III was born on July 25, 1924, in Boise, Idaho. He traced his ancestry from theEast Coast of the United States, with his grandfather, Frank Forrester Church I, moving to Idaho during the height of the gold rush that followed the end of theCivil War. Church III was the younger of two sons of Frank Forrester Church II and Laura Bilderback Church.[1][2] His older brother Richard Church became a career officer in theUnited States Marine Corps, and retired as acolonel.[1]
His father co-owned asporting goods store and took the sons onfishing,hunting, andhiking outings in theIdaho mountains.[3] The family was reportedly veryCatholic andconservative, with Church attending St. Joseph's School as a youngster,[4] where he went by the nickname "Frosty."[5] In his youth, Church admired William Borah, who represented Idaho in theUnited States Senate from 1907 until his death in 1940. When Borah died, Church walked by the open coffin in the rotunda of the State Capitol. He stated that "Because he was a senator, I wanted to become one, too."[6] Church graduated fromBoise High School in 1942, where he served as student body president.[2] As a junior in 1941, he won theAmerican Legion National Oratorical Contest, which resulted in him receiving sufficient funds to provide for his four-year enrollment at Stanford University inCalifornia, where he joined theTheta Xifraternity.[3]
Church left Stanford in 1942, at the age of 18, and enlisted in the Army following theattack on Pearl Harbor. He was called up the following year and attended officer candidate training atFort Benning inGeorgia.[7] He trained atCamp Ritchie, as one of theRitchie Boys, and was commissioned alieutenant on his 20th birthday. In the army, he served as a military intelligence officer in the China Burma India Theater. He was inducted to the Infantry Hall of Fame at Fort Benning.[8] Following the end of the war, he was discharged in 1946.[2][a]
In June 1947 he marriedBethine Clark, daughter ofChase Clark, a former Democraticgovernor of Idaho and thefederal judgefor the state. The wedding took place at the secluded Robinson Bar Ranch (44°14′49″N114°40′41″W / 44.247°N 114.678°W /44.247; -114.678),[9] the Clark family's ranch in the mountains east ofStanley (and now owned by singerCarole King, since 1981).[10][11] The two had a happy marriage and often showed their affection in public.[12] He enteredHarvard Law School that fall and after one year, Church transferred toStanford Law School, when he thought the coldMassachusetts winter was the cause of a pain in his lower back. The pain did not go away and the problem was soon diagnosed astesticular cancer.[13] After one of his testicles and glands in his lower abdomen were removed, Church was given only a few months to live. However, he rebounded from the illness after another doctor startedX-ray treatments. This second chance led him to later reflect that "life itself is such a chancy proposition that the only way to live is by taking great chances."[14] In 1950, Church graduated from Stanford Law School and returned to Boise to practice law and teach public speaking at Boise Junior College (nowBoise State University).[15][16]
Frank and Bethine Church had two sons,Frank Forrester Church IV, who died in 2009, and Chase Clark Church,[17] who lives in Boise. Both boys were named for their grandfathers.
Following his return to Idaho, he became active inDemocratic Party politics, and he became the chairman of the Young Democrats of Idaho. In 1952, he ran for a seat in the then-Republican dominatedIdaho state legislature, but lost the election.[3] In 1956, Church ran for theClass-3 Senate seat held byHerman Welker, who had alienated many Republicans for his opposition to PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower's programs and his alleged affiliation withMcCarthyism.[18] Church entered the primary race, which was described as "the most colorful primary in the history of the state". He faced a number of opponents, includingRicks College professor Claude Burtenshaw, bureaucrat Alvin McCormack, and former senatorGlen H. Taylor.[18]
When the primary came, Church won the Democratic nomination, with only 37.75% of the vote, narrowly edging out Taylor by 200 votes. Though Church won the nomination, Taylor refused to concede, and claimed a number of voting irregularities in the canvassing of the primary.[19] During the general election campaign, Church and his campaign hit the road. Church shook around 75,000 hands over the entire course of the campaign.[2] Church also conducted an astute campaign, by contrasting hisfitness with that of Welker. His slogan, "Idaho Will Be Proud of Frank Church", was a major asset to his campaign. Church also campaigned on aninternationalistplank, in favor of a publicly ownedHells Canyon Dam[20] and was conservative on money matters.[21]
This was in stark contrast to Welker's campaign, which focused heavily onanti-Communism, a decision that proved to be a weak political foundation.[19] The Welker campaign also ran on his record, as well as the "Herman letter", in which President Eisenhower endorsed Welker's candidacy.[21] Glen Taylor also ran in the general election as awrite-in candidate, labeling Church as a candidate of the "corporate interests".[19] Church won the race, defeating both Welker and Taylor, with a plurality of 46,315 votes.[22] This was despite a number of factors that might have inhibited Church's campaign, including the Republican's fundraising advantage and Eisenhower's large victory in the presidential election.[21]
Upon entering the Senate in January 1957, Church voted against a procedural motion on theCivil Rights Act of 1957 against the wishes of DemocraticMajority LeaderLyndon B. Johnson. This angered Johnson, who punished Church by all but ignoring him for the next six months.[23] However, Church managed to find his way into Johnson's good graces by voting for an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that would grant the right to a trial by jury to anyone charged with violating the act. Church also added a provision to that amendment requiring that juries in such cases be desegregated.[24] Johnson was so grateful he made the young Idahoan a veritable protégé, rewarding him with plum assignments, such as a seat on the prestigiousSenate Foreign Relations Committee, a position which allowed Church to follow in the footsteps of his idol,William Borah.[25] Recently declassified documents show that the young veteran also challenged his mentor, behind closed doors, after the 1964Gulf of Tonkin incident, making this prescient warning: "In a democracy you cannot expect the people, whose sons are being killed and who will be killed, to exercise their judgment if the truth is concealed from them."[26]
Church was reelected in 1962, defeating former state representativeJack Hawley. To date, he is the only Idaho Democrat to be popularly elected for more than one term in the Senate.
In 1967, a recall campaign was waged against Church by Ron Rankin, a Republican county commissioner in the northern Idaho countyKootenai who co-founded the Victory in Vietnam Committee to coordinate the recall.[27] Rankin unsuccessfully sued Idaho'ssecretary of state to accept recall petitions. TheU.S. District Court for Idaho ruled that the state's recall laws did not apply to U.S. senators and that such a recall would violate the U.S. Constitution.State attorney generalAllan Shepard, a future chief justice of thestate supreme court, agreed with the court's decision.[28]
In the1968 Senate election, Church won with over 60 percent of the vote against Republican challenger and U.S. RepresentativeGeorge V. Hansen, in contrast with the concurrentpresidential election where Republican candidateRichard Nixon got nearly 57 percent of the popular vote in Idaho.[29][30]James Risen attributes Church's victory to the 1967 recall effort backfiring: "Most Idaho voters were angered by the recall effort, and it generated sympathy for Church throughout the state."[31]
Church was a key figure inAmerican foreign policy during the 1970s, and served as chairman of theSenate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1979 to 1981. Following the instinct that led him to ask questions early on (see above), Church was one of the first senators to publicly oppose theVietnam War in the 1960s, although he had supported the conflict earlier. He was the co-author of two legislative efforts to curtail the war: the Cooper–Church Amendment of 1970, and the Case–Church Amendment of 1973.[32]
In September 1970, Church announced on television and in speeches across the country that "thedoves had won." Author David F. Schmitz states that Church based his assertion on the fact that two key propositions of theanti-war movement, "A negotiated peace and the withdrawal of American troops," were now official policy. The only debate that remained would be over when to withdraw, not whether to withdraw, and over the meaning of the war. Church concluded:
So the last service the doves can perform for their country, is to insist thatPresident Nixon's withdrawal program truly leads to a "Vietnamization" of the war. It must not become a device for lowering—and then perpetuating—an American military presence in South Vietnam for the indefinite future. Our long ordeal in this mistaken war must end. The gathering crisis in our own land, the deepening divisions among our people, the festering, unattended problems here at home, bear far more importantly on the future of our Republic than anything we ever had at stake inIndochina.
Church argued that the opponents of the Vietnam War needed to prevent the corruption of the nation and its institutions. To Church, the anti-war opposition was the "highest concept of patriotism—which is not the patriotism of conformity—but the patriotism of SenatorCarl Schurz, a dissenter from an earlier period, who proclaimed: 'Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right: when wrong, to be put right."[33]
Church gained national prominence during his service in the Senate through his chairmanship of the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities from 1975 through 1976, more commonly known as the Church Committee, which conducted extensive hearings investigating extra-legalFBI andCIA intelligence-gathering and covert operations. The committee investigated CIA drug smuggling activities in theGolden Triangle and secret U.S.-backed wars inThird World countries.[34][35][36][37]Together with SenatorSam Ervin's committee inquiries, the Church Committee hearings laid the groundwork for theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
Daniel Ellsberg quoted Church as speaking of theNSA as follows: "I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."[38] More specifically on August 17, 1975, Senator Frank Church stated on NBC's "Meet the Press" without mentioning the name of the NSA about this agency:
In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air. These messages are between ships at sea, they could be between units, military units in the field. We have a very extensive capability of intercepting messages wherever they may be in the airwaves. Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left such is the capability to monitor everything—telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide.
If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.
Now why is this investigation important? I'll tell you why: because I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.[39][40][41][42]
In a secret operation code-named "Project Minaret," theNational Security Agency (NSA) monitored the communications of leading Americans, including Senators Church andHoward Baker, Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., and others, including prominent U.S. journalists and athletes, who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam.[43] A review by NSA of the NSA's Minaret program concluded that Minaret was "disreputable if not outright illegal."[43]
Church is also remembered for his voting record as a strong progressive and environmental legislator, and he played a major role in the creation of the nation's system of protected wilderness areas in the 1960s. In 1964, Church was the floor sponsor of the nationalWilderness Act. In 1968, he sponsored theWild and Scenic Rivers Act and gained passage of a ten-year moratorium on federal plans to transfer water from thePacific Northwest toCalifornia. Working with othermembers of Congress from northwestern states, Church helped establish theHells Canyon National Recreation Area along the Oregon-Idaho border, which protected the gorge from dam building. He was also the primary proponent in the establishment of theSawtooth Wilderness andNational Recreation Area in central Idaho in 1972.
Church also was instrumental in the creation of Idaho'sRiver of No Return Wilderness Area in 1980, his final year in the Senate. Thiswilderness comprised the old Idaho Primitive Area, the Salmon River Breaks Primitive Area, plus additional lands. At 2.36 million acres (9,550 km2), over 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2), it is the largest wilderness area in the nation outside of Alaska. It was renamed theFrank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in 1984, shortly after the diagnosis of his pancreatic cancer. Idaho SenatorJim McClure introduced the measure in the Senate in late February,[44] andPresidentReagan signed the act on March 14,[45] less than four weeks before Frank Church's death on April 7.
Frank Church was considered a progressive (remarkable considering that he represented one of the most conservative states in the nation), though he was a strong opponent of gun control and was pro-life.[46] In 1979, he was the first in Congress to disclose and protest the presence of Soviet combat troops in Cuba. According to theChristian Science Monitor, this stance somewhat disarmed his opponent's charge in the 1980 campaign that Church's performance on the Foreign Relations Committee had helped to weaken the US militarily.[47]In 1974, Church joined SenatorFrank Moss, D-Utah, to sponsor the first legislation to provide federal funding forhospice care programs. The bill did not have widespread support and was not brought to a vote. Congress finally included a hospice benefit inMedicare in 1982.[48]
In late 1975 and early 1976, a sub-committee of theU.S. Senate led by Church concluded that members of theLockheed board hadpaid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft[49] in a series of illegalbribes and contributions made by Lockheed officials from the late 1950s to the 1970s. In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $22 million in bribes to foreign officials[50] in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including the F-104 Starfighter, the so-called "Deal of the Century."
Church also sponsored, along withPennsylvaniaRepublicanJohn Heinz, the "conscience clause," which prohibited the government from requiring church-affiliated hospitals to perform abortions.[5]
In 1976, Church belatedly sought theDemocratic nomination for president and announced his candidacy on March 18 from rusticIdaho City, his father's birthplace.[51] Although he won primaries in Nebraska, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana, he withdrew in favor of the eventual nominee, formerGeorgia governorJimmy Carter.[52] Church remains the only Idahoan to win a major-party presidential primary election following the reforms of theMcGovern–Fraser Commission. Prior to the primary elections of 1972, William Borah had won several contests in the1936 Republican primaries.
By June, Carter had the nomination sufficiently locked up and could take time to interview potential vice-presidential candidates. The pundits predicted that Church would be tapped to provide balance as an experienced senator with strong liberal credentials. Church promoted himself, persuading friends to intervene with Carter on his behalf. If a quick choice had been required as in past conventions, Carter later recalled, he would probably have chosen Church. But the longer period for deliberation gave Carter time to worry about his compatibility with the publicity-seeking Church, who had a tendency to be long-winded. Instead, Carter invited SenatorsEdmund Muskie,John Glenn, andWalter Mondale to visit his home inPlains, Georgia, for personal interviews, while Church,Henry M. Jackson, andAdlai Stevenson III would be interviewed at the convention in New York. Of all the potential candidates, Carter found Mondale the most compatible. As a result, Carter selected Mondale as his running mate.
In the late 1970s, Church was a leading congressional supporter of theTorrijos-Carter Treaties, which proposed to return thePanama Canal toPanama. The scheme proved to be widely unpopular in Idaho, and led to the formation of the"Anybody But Church" (ABC) committee, created by theNational Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), based in Washington, D.C. ABC and NCPAC had no formal connection with the 1980 Senate campaign of conservative RepublicancongressmanSteve Symms, which permitted them, under former Federal election law, to spend as much as they could raise to defeat Church.[53]
Church lost his bid for a fifth term to Symms by less than one percent of the vote. His defeat was blamed on the activities of theAnybody But Church Committee and the national media's early announcement in Idaho of Republican presidential candidateRonald Reagan's overwhelming win. These predictions were broadcast before polls closed statewide, specifically in thePacific Time Zone in the north. Many believed that this caused many Democrats in the more politically moderateIdaho Panhandle to not vote at all. As of 2024[update], Church is the last Democrat to represent Idaho in the U.S. Senate.
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Frank Church | 149,096 | 56.2% | Herman Welker (inc.) | 102,781 | 38.7% | Glen H. Taylor | Write-In | 13,415 | 5.1% | |||
| 1962 | Frank Church (inc.) | 141,657 | 54.7% | Jack Hawley | 117,129 | 45.3% | |||||||
| 1968 | Frank Church (inc.) | 173,482 | 60.3% | George V. Hansen | 114,394 | 39.7% | |||||||
| 1974 | Frank Church (inc.) | 145,140 | 56.1% | Bob Smith | 109,072 | 42.1% | Jean L. Stoddard | American | 4,635 | 1.8% | |||
| 1980 | Frank Church (inc.) | 214,439 | 48.8% | Steve Symms | 218,701 | 49.7% | Larry Fullmer | Libertarian | 6,507 | 1.5% |
Following his 24 years in the Senate, Church practicedinternational law with theWashington, D.C., firm of Whitman and Ransom, specializing inAsian issues.
Three years after leaving the Senate, Church was hospitalized for apancreatic tumor onJanuary 12, 1984.[54][55] Less than three months later, he died at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 7 at age 59.[7][56]A memorial service was held at theNational Cathedral in Washington, D.C.,[57] and then his body was flown home to Idaho, where helay in state beneath the rotunda of theIdaho State Capitol.[58][59] His funeral was held in downtown Boise at theCathedral of the Rockies on April 12 and televised throughout Idaho. Church was buried at Morris Hill Cemetery near his boyhood hero, Senator William Borah.[60][61][62]
Church received an honorary doctorate from Pennsylvania'sElizabethtown College in 1983 to honor his work for the American people during his career in public office. His papers, originally given to hisalma mater Stanford University in 1981, were transferred toBoise State University at his request in 1984.[63]
As of 2024[update], Church remains the last Democrat to serve in the U.S. Senate from Idaho; his final election victory was in1974, 51 years ago.
Church was stunned by what the Church Committee learned about the immense operations and electronic monitoring capabilities of theNational Security Agency (NSA), an agency whose existence was unknown to most Americans at the time. Church stated in 1975:
That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide.[39][64]
He is widely quoted as also stating regarding the NSA:
I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge... I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.[39][64]
Commentators such asGlenn Greenwald have praised Church for his prescient warning regarding this turning around by the NSA to monitor the American people, arguing that the NSA undertook such a turn in the years after theSeptember 11 attacks.[65]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator from Idaho (Class 3) 1956,1962,1968,1974,1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Keynote Speaker of theDemocratic National Convention 1960 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Response to the State of the Union address 1972 Served alongside:Carl Albert,Lloyd Bentsen,Hale Boggs,John Brademas,Thomas Eagleton,Martha Griffiths,John Melcher,Ralph Metcalfe,William Proxmire,Leonor Sullivan | Vacant Title next held by Mike Mansfield |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Idaho 1957–1981 Served alongside:Henry Dworshak,Leonard B. Jordan,James A. McClure | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Foreign Relations Committee 1979–1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Aging Committee 1971–1979 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Chair of theSenate National Emergency Termination Committee 1971–1975 | Position abolished |
| Chair of theChurch Committee 1975 | Succeeded byas Chair of theSenate Intelligence Committee | |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Baby of the Senate 1957–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Class 2 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
