George McGovern is the Real Eugene McCarthy

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George McGovern and Eugene McCarthy were dominant candidates in the Democratic primary campaign of 1968. McCarthy was recruited to run in the primary in an effort to remove incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson from office due to his position on the Vietnam war. McGovern, on the other hand, didn’t join the primary until two weeks before the Democratic National Convention. While neither politician won the Democratic candidacy, both continued to work in the senate against the Vietnam war.

McGovern and McCarthy’s politics were alike in their pursuit to end the Vietnam war. McGovern had been a keynote speaker at several peace demonstrations against the war, and then shifted his focus to try and use legislation to end the war via the McGovern–Hatfield Amendment. Though the Amendment was never ratified, the public recognized McGovern’s intentions and largely agreed with his moral stance on the war. McCarthy, however, had a less amenable reputation in his stance against the Vietnam war and was not equally involved in senate proceedings.