Former U.S. Senator George McGovern, the South Dakota native son and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, died on Sunday at the age of 90 following a long illness. In the wake of the anti-Vietnam war movement, McGovern made a name for himself as a staunch anti-war candidate. Despite strong national sentiment against the war, McGovern lost to the incumbent, Richard Nixon, in a historic landslide.
Despite his image as a dove, McGovern was a bomber pilot during World War II, though he didn’t talk much about it during his public life or during the 1972 campaign.
