Richard Lugar
Richard Lugar was a prominent American politician and Republican senator from Indiana, known for his significant contributions to both domestic and foreign policy. Born on April 4, 1932, Lugar's early life was marked by academic excellence, including a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. His political career began in local governance as the mayor of Indianapolis, where he implemented the "Unigov" plan that integrated municipal and county government, leading to economic growth.
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, Lugar became a respected figure in foreign relations, notably co-sponsoring the Nunn-Lugar program, which focused on securing and dismantling nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union. His efforts in foreign policy included advocating for NATO expansion, improved trade relations with China, and humanitarian aid in Africa. Although he faced criticism during his presidential campaign in 1996 for his views on nuclear threats, his insights gained recognition post-9/11. After serving for decades, Lugar lost his Senate seat in 2012 but left a lasting legacy as a bipartisan leader in global issues. He passed away on April 28, 2019, at the age of 87, leaving behind a foundation committed to addressing critical global challenges.
Subject Terms
Richard Lugar
- Born: April 4, 1932
- Birthplace: Indianapolis, IN
- Died: April 28, 2019
- Place of death: Annandale, VA
During his 1996 campaign for the presidency, Republican senator from Indiana Richard Lugar ran a campaign advertisement depicting a terrorist plot to use rogue nuclear weapons against the United States. Lugar was arguing that, in the wake of the Cold War, a US president would need more experience, more political sophistication, and more foresight to shepherd the country safely through new global circumstances. At the time, critics dismissed Lugar's advertisement as mere melodramatics, and many considered the programs he and then-Georgia Senator Sam Nunn sponsored to stabilize and dismantle the former Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities as an unnecessary expense. Following September 11, 2001, however, Lugar's informed attention to international affairs earned him renewed respect and even a few apologies.
Early Life
Richard Green Lugar was born on April 4, 1932, to Marvin and Bertha Lugar. He graduated first in his class from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, and again from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Lugar's exceptional academic performance earned him a Rhodes Scholarship to study at England's Pembroke College, Oxford University in 1954. He received an honors degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford.
Lugar married Charlene Smeltzer in 1956, the same year that he volunteered for the US Navy. He served as an officer from 1957 to 1960, and worked as the intelligence briefer for Admiral Arleigh Burke, then Chief of Naval Operations. After completing his military service, Lugar returned to Indianapolis to help run his family's food manufacturing business. His inclination for public service led him toward education in Indianapolis where, having been elected to the city's School Board in1963, Lugar helped usher in voluntary desegregation of the public school system.
Political Career
In 1967, Lugar was elected mayor of Indianapolis. Serving two terms (from 1968 to 1975), he is credited with the complete restructuring of the city by merging the municipal government with that of surrounding Marion County. His "Unigov" plan eventually helped to spur on Indianapolis' economic growth and earned Lugar the post of president of the National League of Cities in 1971. In 1972, Lugar was the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention.
Lugar's successes as mayor helped him win the 1976 election for the US Senate. As a senator, Lugar made use of his foreign intelligence background and his personal experience with his family's small manufacturing business and Indiana farm. For Lugar, these apparently divergent areas of interest were actually closely related. In his past service as Chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lugar insisted on the direct relationship between the welfare of small business and farms in the United States and the country's diplomatic and trade relationships abroad.
The senator's legendary efforts to keep himself well informed and his willingness to battle Republican leadership on important issues earned him a degree of authority held by few other senators. During his decades in office, Lugar worked to provide tax relief and conservation incentives for farmers, and he also argued in favor of federal funding for an array of agricultural research programs. However, he also led the fight to cut back on subsidies to farmers and to reform the US Department of Agriculture. In 1996, Lugar was the leading opponent of a federal bill to eliminate the school lunch program.
Shaping Foreign Policy
Having won his seat as chairman of the Foreign Relation Committee with the retirement of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, Lugar finally realized the leadership role in foreign affairs that he had worked for since joining the Senate. An ardent supporter of Ronald Reagan's economics, Lugar nevertheless fought in the 1980s to impose tougher sanctions on apartheid-era South Africa than did the president, and convinced Reagan to back Corazon Aquino in the Philippines after Lugar and a team of inspectors accused dictator Ferdinand Marcos of electoral fraud. He resisted President George W. Bush with regard to US action in Iraq, farm subsidies, and food stamps. He supported the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), better trade relations with China, aid for African nations, and the revision of the policy by which the US government imposes sanctions on foreign nations.
By far Lugar's most well publicized contribution to US foreign policy, however, was the Nunn-Lugar program, which worked to secure nuclear weapons in the regions of the former Soviet Union. Following the dismantling of the USSR at the end of the 1980s, Lugar's program provided funding for destroying nuclear weapons, securing military equipment, and providing training and funding for scientists and security personnel to prevent high-level military equipment and materials from falling prey to regional conflicts or international terrorists.
Senator Lugar was reelected in 2006, having defeated Libertarian candidate Steve Osborn. In 2009, he became Indiana's senior senator. In May 2012, he lost his primary election bid to Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock.
After his time in the Senate ended, Lugar received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in late 2013. That same year, he founded and began serving as the first president of the Lugar Center, a nonprofit policy organization devoted to global issues such as food and energy security, nonproliferation, and bipartisan governance. On April 28, 2019, he died at the age of eighty-seven in Annandale, Virginia, of complications of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.
Bibliography
"About Senator Richard Lugar." The Lugar Center, www.thelugarcenter.org/about-lugar.html. Accessed 28 Sept. 2020.
Brown, Michael H. "Richard Lugar, Six-Term Senator and Leading Voice on Foreign Policy, Dies at 87." The Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/richard-lugar-six-term-senator-and-leading-voice-on-foreign-policy-dies-at-87/2019/04/28/2fa890ec-69ce-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5‗story.html. Accessed 28 Sept. 2020.
Lewis, Neil A. "Richard Lugar, G.O.P. Senator and Foreign Policy Force, Dies at 87." The New York Times, 28 Apr. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/obituaries/senator-richard-lugar-dead.html. Accessed 28 Sept. 2020.