Clark Harrison, Jr. was my uncle. He was the first WWII paraplegic to leave the VA hospital and live. He learned to fly his own plane and published his autobiography after being chairman of Dekalb County Commissioners. Taking this stand was considered crazy and political suicide at the time, but was inspiring to me. The best politician I ever knew.
PAGE 14A DeKALB NEW ERA WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1972
Harrison Tells Why He Supports McGovern
Two, prominent DeKatb County citizens – Clark Harrison and former Congressman James A. Mackay – have publicly endorsed the Presidential candidacy of Sen. George McGovern.
In last week’s issue of the DeKalb News, Mr. Mackey, a Decatur attorney and former U.S. Congressman, emphasized his support for the Democratic candidate, and closed with the comment that “Senator McGovern is simply asking us to be something different than a modern, militaristic Rome.”
Clark Harrison, the out-going Chairman of the Dekalb County Board of Commissioners, is the head of the Dekalb drive to elect Senator McGovern.
Here, in an assessment of his desire to see George McGovern elected, Clark Harrison speaks candidly about war, patriotism and the economy of a nation.
By CLARK HARRISON
My endorsement of George McGovern for President is based on personal conviction that goes back many years.
I was in a hospital in England in 1944 when President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill made their historic demand for the ‘unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. I felt strongly at the time, and since that this unnecessary political statement cost the lives of young Americans.
Since I was wounded in combat, I have always felt strongly about the political use of patriotism of our young men. Historians have confirmed the feeling I had at the time about the ‘unconditional surrender’ statement, and I believe they will confirm the feelings many have today that the Viet Nam War, and the Presidential visits to Red China and Russia, have been used in a ‘political effort by President Nixon to assure his re-election in 1972.
The tragedy of this day is the fact that alter four more war years under Nixon, we can no better control the internal situation in Viet Nam than we could have when Richard Nixon took office in 1969 – and 20,000 young Americans have been killed in action in the intervening years.
1 am convinced we can stay in Viet Nam another 10 years and the final situation in that unhappy country will not be substantially improved.
We are told today that the only reason we do not totally withdraw, now, is because of our prisoners of war – and yet, there are 550 more Americans held prisoner in Viet Nam today than in 1969. And, every day, American men fly over North Viet Nam, and are exposed to capture or death.
President Nixon sold one-fourth of the U.S. wheat crop to Russia in a deal they have sought for years—and did not secure the release of a single American prisoner.
Domestically, the Viet Nam War has been used to silence critics of what has been the most disastrous administration of this century.
The disaster of the Nixon Administration has been that our involvement in a war we cannot win has been continued at great expenditure of this nation’s wealth, and without a corresponding tightening of our civilian belts.
We have, in effect, been told that we can have ‘guns and butter,’ and the result has been disaster to our economy with the bill paid in inflation, devaluation of the dollar, a stock crash that cost the small investor literally billions, and an unprecedented high in unemployment.
The price of the Nixon Administration has been paid by the youth of America, by the wage earner, whose income has been fixed, and by the elderly.
The most alarming development is the apparent intent of the Nixon administration to continue these policies for another four years.
I have always been proud that I could serve my country in combat in World War II. I hope today, that whatever influence I may have will be on the side of preserving the ideals that made this country worthy of the sacrifice of our young men.
At the moment, that means, for me, voting for George McGovern.