INTEGRITY UNDER PRESSURE
An interview with Mark O Hatfield.
April 1, 1988
Known as "the conscience of the Senate," Mark O. Hatfield is serving his fourth term as Republican senator from Oregon. He is the Senate's second-ranking Republican and ranking minority member of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee. Throughout his political career-he served in the Oregon state legislature for six years and then became Oregon's secretary of state and, later, governor for eight years before reaching the Senate-he has been characterized as a person willing to stand firm on his principles. In 1966, for example, as governor of Oregon, Hatfield was adamantly opposed to the Vietnam War, a position that drew opposition and even hostility from many quarters. At the same time, President Lyndon Johnson, himself under criticism, was seeking the endorsement of continued American involvement in Southeast Asia from leaders across the country. Thus, when the governors of every state held a conference in Los Angeles that July, Johnson asked that they go on record as approving his policy. The nation was deeply divided over the Vietnam conflict, and many political leaders felt such a showing of unity with the president would help heal the rift. Influential politicians told Hatfield, "Don't rat on America." If he wasn't willing to vote in favor of Johnson's policy, they asked him to at least be conveniently out of the meeting room when the poll of governors was taken. ... Hatfield's courage to stand alone, shown several times during his career, is rooted deeply in his Christian faith. He grew up in Dallas, Oregon, the son of committed Conservative Baptists. The family often provided food and shelter for those who needed it. "We always had something to share," he remembers. Today Hatfield is a member of Georgetown Baptist ...
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