Early life, education, and early career (1930–1964)
Adlai Stevenson III was born in Chicago to Ellen Stevenson and two time Democratic Party presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II. He attended Milton Academy in Massachusetts, Harrow School in England, and Harvard College.[2] He received a law degree in 1957 from Harvard Law School.[3][4] Stevenson was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952, served in Korea and was discharged from active duty in 1954. He continued to serve in the Marine Reserve and was discharged in 1961 as a captain.[5] In 1957, Stevenson went to work as a clerk for a Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois and worked there until 1958 when he joined the law firm of Brown and Platt.[6]
Stevenson served in the Illinois House from 1965 to 1967.[6][7] During his time in the state house, he won a Best Legislator award from the Independent Voters of Illinois.[9][1]
Treasurer of Illinois
Stevenson during his tenure as state treasurer
In 1966, Stevenson was elected treasurer of Illinois. As state treasurer, he quadrupled earnings on the investment of state funds while cutting the budget each year.[1][10]
United States Senate (1970–1981)
Elections
1970
Following the death of incumbent U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen in 1969, Stevenson ran for the seat. He faced former state representative Ralph T. Smith in the general election, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie. Stevenson defeated Smith in a 1970 special election by a 57%-42% margin to fill Dirksen's unexpired term.[11]
1974
In 1974, Stevenson ran for re-election, and faced Republican George Burditt in the general election. He defeated Burditt by a large margin 62%-37%.[12]
Committee assignments
In the Senate, Stevenson served on the Commerce Committee (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space), Banking Committee (Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Finance) and Intelligence Committee (Chairman, Subcommittee on the Collection and Production of Intelligence). He was the first Chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics charged with implementing a code of ethics he helped draft. Stevenson was also chairman of a Special Senate Committee which led the first major reorganization of the Senate since its Committee system was formed in the early 19th Century.[1]
Tenure
Stevenson was sworn in as senator on November 17, 1970.
Stevenson was highly critical of Republican President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. He called on Nixon to answer for the integrity of the country’s leaders. “All of us — Republicans and Democrats — have an interest in clearing the record," he said a year before Nixon resigned in disgrace. “The faith of the people in their system and their leaders — a faith that has already been shaken enough — is at stake."[13]
Legislative accomplishments
Stevenson authored the International Banking Act of 1978, the Stevenson–Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 and its companion, the Bayh–Dole Act, to foster cooperative research, organize national laboratories for technology utilization and commercialization, and permit private sector interests in government-funded research.[15] He was the first chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics charged with implementing a code of ethics he helped draft.[16] Stevenson was also chairman of a special Senate committee that reorganized the Senate and served on the United States Senate Democratic Policy Committee.[1] He also conducted the first in-depth congressional study of terrorism as chairman of the Subcommittee on the Collection and Production of Intelligence, leading to introduction of the Comprehensive Counter Terrorism Act of 1971.[1] He warned of "spectacular acts of disruption and destruction" and an amendment that proposed reducing assistance for Israel by $200 million.[17] His amendment received seven votes.[1]
Views on Israel
Stevenson was a strong supporter of Israel, but was critical of the influence of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on US politics. Stevenson had sharp differences with the Israeli lobby on issues concerning the Middle East, including a 1979 vote to cut military assistance to Israel by 10 percent and support of a 1978 weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. AIPAC also criticized his meeting with PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
In a letter to Jewish leader Hyman Bookbinder in 1980, Stevenson wrote:
"It is the Israeli lobby, led by AIPAC, which I deplore. It does not speak for all Jewry, including Israeli Jewry. Yet it exercises an inordinate degree of influence with weak public officials. I deplore their subservience to the vagaries of a foreign government."
Stevenson was encouraged to run for president in 1976, which was fueled by Richard J. Daley of Chicago, who resented the senator’s liberal reforms, but who recognized Stevenson as being a vote-getter. The senator declined to campaign, but as the nominating process got underway, Daley forces ran him as a favorite son candidate.[19]
In the 1982 campaign, Stevenson complained that Thompson was trying to portray him as an ineffectual elitist by famously stating, "He is saying 'Me tough guy,' as if to imply that I’m some kind of wimp."[22] The initial vote count showed Stevenson winning;[23] however, the final official count showed him losing by 0.14 percent.[24] Stevenson promptly petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court for a recount and presented evidence of widespread election irregularities, including evidence of a failed punch card system for tabulation of votes.[23] Three days before the gubernatorial inauguration, the court denied the recount in a 4-3 ruling, asserting that the Illinois recount statute was unconstitutional.[25]
1986
In the 1986 statewide Democratic primaries, Democratic voters nominated allies of Lyndon LaRouche for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.[26] Stevenson objected to their platform and refused to appear on the same ticket.[26] Instead, he organized the Illinois Solidarity Party to provide an alternate slate for governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state, which was endorsed by Democratic Party of Illinois.[27] Persuading Democrats to vote for most of the Democratic ticket as well as the Solidarity candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state was an unconventional strategy; however, Stevenson and the candidate for lieutenant governor position, Mike Howlett, won 40% of the vote.[28]
Later career
Business and cultural relations
After leaving the Senate, Stevenson was active in business and cultural relations with East Asia.[16] He was chairman of SC&M Investment Management Corporation,[29] and co-chairman of HuaMei Capital Company (the first Chinese-American investment bank).[30]
Non-profit organizations
He also held many positions with non-profit organizations in this area.[16] He served as chairman of the National Association of Japan–America Societies Society of Chicago, the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association, and the Midwest U.S.-China Association, and as president of the U.S. Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).[16] He was also co-chairman of the PECC's Financial Market Development Project, a member of the U.S.-Korea Wisemen Council, and sat on the board of directors of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.[1] He was also chairman of the international Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy housed at the family home, a national historic landmark, near Libertyville, Illinois.[31] Stevenson was also a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.[32]
UNPA proposal
On December 8, 2012, aged 82, Stevenson endorsed the proposal for the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA), one of only six persons who served in the United States Congress ever to do so.[33]
Death
Stevenson died from complications of Lewy body dementia at his home in Chicago on September 6, 2021, at age 90. [5][16]
Stevenson met his future wife, Nancy Anderson, in 1953 while he was in tank training at Fort Knox in preparation for his deployment to Japan and then Korea. The couple was married in 1955 at Nancy’s home outside of Louisville.[36] Together, they had four children. His son Adlai Stevenson IV is a business executive and former journalist.[5] Though Adlai IV had previously expressed his intention to be "Adlai the last,"[37] his son, Adlai Ewing Stevenson V, was born in the summer of 1994.
In addition to Adlai IV, he is survived by another son, Warwick; as well as two daughters, Lucy and Katherine; his brothers; and at least nine grandchildren.[5]
Writings
Stevenson authored The Black Book, which records American history and culture from within its politics as his family knew it over five generations, starting with his great great grandfather, Jesse W. Fell, who was Abraham Lincoln's patron and persuaded him to run for president. As well as his grandfather Lewis Stevenson, an Illinois secretary of state, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1928.[38][5]
Awards
Stevenson has been honored with a number of awards, which include :
^"Stevenson, Adlai III". Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Archived from the original on November 26, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
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