A Tribute to Senator Mark Hatfield by John Isaacs
Aug 10, 2011
Senators Edward Kennedy & Mark Hatfield, Rep. Ed Markey
A young Mark Hatfield, a naval officer who commanded landing craft in some of the bloodiest battles of World War II, entered Hiroshima shortly after the city had been incinerated by an atomic bomb. As he recalled it:
“When I entered Hiroshima, the charred bodies were still being pulled out of the rubble. The horror that I experience burned a lasting impression in my conscience. To this day, it serves as a philosophical anchor – my beacon of clarity in a political arena that turns a deaf ear to those who do not speak the exotic language of megatons, kill probability ratios and other terms that desensitize us to the true nature of nuclear war.”
This experience led to Senator Mark Hatfield’s long opposition to war and to the nuclear arms race. He was a man of conscience, and possessed a sense of right and wrong which overrode party loyalty.