[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 107 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1344-E1345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO THE LATE CONGRESSMAN CHARLES W. WHALEN, JR.
______
HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN
of maryland
in the house of representatives
Monday, July 18, 2011
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, it is with sadness that I advise the
House of the death of my constituent and former Member of the House,
the Honorable Charles W. Whalen, Jr., on June 2, 2011 at Sibley
Hospital in Washington, DC. Rep. Whalen, 90, represented Ohio's Third
Congressional District from 1967-79 and had resided with his family in
Bethesda, Maryland since 1966.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Congress, Congressman Whalen served
for 12 years in the Ohio Legislature and was instrumental in the
enactment of Ohio's Fair Housing Law. A liberal Republican, he was
first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 and was
reelected by wide margins in every subsequent election. In fact, in
1974, he was the only Republican who was unopposed in both the primary
and general elections.
Upon his election to the House, Congressman Whalen was initially
assigned to the House Armed Services Committee and subsequently became
a member of the International Affairs Committee. He served on the
Subcommittee on Africa and became an expert on that continent, visiting
every single country in that vast land mass.
Congressman Whalen, who served as an Army officer in the India-Burma
Theater in World War II, developed very strong reservations about and
then opposition to the Vietnam War shortly after coming to Washington.
His former chief of staff has noted that Congressman Whalen was
attending the funeral of a young Marine from Dayton when he found
himself unable to justify to grieving relatives the loss of the young
man. The memory of that event remained in the forefront of his mind and
guided his efforts to do all he could to bring that conflict to an end.
Although his early efforts to end the war were not popular, among his
most notable achievements was the Nedzi-Whalen Amendment that he
cosponsored with his good friend and colleague, Congressman Lucien
Nedzi (D-MI). The bill sought to end military funding in order to bring
the war to a swift close. Although it did not pass, the bill mustered a
sizable showing in the House, reflecting growing sentiment to end the
war.
Congressman Whalen was a prolific writer, authoring or coauthoring
five books. ``How to End the Draft: The Case for the All-Volunteer
Army,'' published in 1967 and co-authored with four other GOP
moderates, proposed the end of the draft. Most of its recommendations
were later adopted by the Nixon Administration, which fashioned them
into the legislation that created the all-volunteer military that we
have today. His landmark book, ``Your Right to Know,'' endorsed the
right of reporters to keep sources confidential. Published in 1973,
this book is used today in many journalism, political science and law
courses. Congressman Whalen coauthored two works of history with his
wife, Barbara: ``The Longest Debate: A
[[Page E1345]]
Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act'' (1985) and ``The
Fighting McCooks: America's Famous Fighting Family'' (2006), which told
the story of two Ohio brothers and their 13 sons who served in the
Union Army during the Civil War.
Congressman Chuck Whalen, who has been laid to rest in Dayton, Ohio,
was a great and courageous American who worked tirelessly for his
constituents and his country. He was widely respected by members of
both parties and showed that it was possible for reasonable people to
differ and maintain civility at the same time. His was an example that
we all should follow.
I would like to insert in the Congressional Record Congressman
Whalen's obituaries from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
[From the New York Times, June 30, 2011]
C.W. Whalen Jr., 90, Dies; Led Vietnam War Dissent
(By William Grimes)
Charles W. Whalen Jr., a six-term congressman from Ohio who
led Republican opposition to the Vietnam War and espoused a
variety of liberal causes, died on Monday in Washington. He
was 90.
His death was confirmed by a nephew, Jim Whalen.
Mr. Whalen, a former economics professor and state
legislator from Dayton, won election from Ohio's Third
District in 1966 and, on taking office, quickly moved to the
forefront of liberal Republicans opposed to the war, a
position he articulated forcefully as a member of the Armed
Services Committee.
In 1967 he joined with four colleagues who belonged to the
liberal Republican club known as the Wednesday Group to write
a detailed proposal to end the draft and establish an all-
volunteer military within five years.
The recommendations in ``How to End the Draft: The Case for
an All-Volunteer Army'' included increased pay, improved
retirement benefits, expanded educational programs and a
greater advertising budget for recruitment. Most were adopted
over the next several years.
In the early 1970s Mr. Whalen was the sponsor or a co-
sponsor of several unsuccessful amendments aimed at cutting
the military's budget, ending the draft or imposing a
deadline to withdraw all American troops from Southeast Asia.
A free-market conservative, he opposed the Vietnam War
largely for economic reasons. The money could be put to
better use, he argued, addressing domestic problems normally
thought of as the preoccupation of liberals, like education,
social injustice and urban decline.
A survey by Congressional Quarterly in 1974 found that he
had voted against a majority of his Republican colleagues 72
percent of the time the previous year.
Mr. Whalen also took a resolute stand in favor of press
freedom, especially the right of journalists to protect
confidential sources. He addressed the subject in ``Your
Right to Know'' (1973), to which the CBS anchorman Walter
Cronkite contributed a foreword.
Charles William Whalen Jr., known as Chuck, was born on
July 31, 1920, in Dayton. He attended the University of
Dayton, where he received a degree in business education in
1942. During World War II he served with the Army in the
China, India and Burma theater.
After earning a master's degree in business administration
from Harvard in 1946, he became vice president of the Dayton
Dress Company, owned by his father.
In the early 1950s he began teaching at the University of
Dayton, where he became chairman of the economics department
in 1962. He served in the state's General Assembly for 12
years, writing the state's first fair-housing law, before
winning election to the House of Representatives in 1967.
He was hugely popular in his home district, even though
Democrats and Independents far outnumbered Republicans, and
even though his antiwar stance threatened jobs at Wright-
Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton.
A tireless door-to-door campaigner, in 1970 and 1972 he
carried his district with three-quarters of the vote. In 1974
he was the only congressman to run unopposed in both the
primary and the general election.
He retired in 1979, tired of the increasing friction with
local party officials and Republican leaders in Washington,
who found him too liberal. He also expressed frustration with
Congress as an agent for change.
``We've come to realize there is a limit to our powers,''
he told The New York Times in 1978, explaining why he and
several other House members were not running for re-election.
``We have a feeling that we're not as powerful as we thought
we were.''
After leaving office, he became a Democrat.
He spent much of his time in retirement doing the research
for two works of history that he wrote with his wife,
Barbara, a former journalist: ``The Longest Debate: A
Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act'' (1985) and
``The Fighting McCooks: America's Famous Fighting Family''
(2006), about two Ohio brothers and their 13 sons who served
in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Mr. Whalen, who lived in Bethesda, Md., is survived by his
wife and their six children, Charles, of Delray Beach, Fla.;
Daniel, of Washington; Edward, of Reston, Va.; Joseph, of
Lambertville, N.J.; Anne McLindon of Bethesda; and Mary
Scherer of Brambleton, Va.; and seven grandchildren.
____
[From the Washington Post, June 28, 2011]
Charles W. Whalen, Jr., Six-Term Ohio GOP Congressman, Dies at 90
(By Emma Brown)
Charles W. Whalen, Jr., an Ohio Republican who criticized
military spending and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
during his six terms in Congress, died June 27 of renal
failure at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He was 90
and lived in Bethesda.
Mr. Whalen had served in both houses of the Ohio General
Assembly before he won election to the U.S. House in 1966 as
a representative from a district centered on Dayton, a
largely middle-class factory town. During his 12 years in
office, he built a reputation as one of the most liberal
Republicans in the House.
He served on the Committee on International Relations (now
Foreign Affairs) but was perhaps best-known for his years as
the most vocal Republican dove on the Armed Services
Committee. He was one of the panel's ``Fearless Five,'' known
for raising the ire of Chairman Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.) for
insisting on scrutiny of military spending requests.
Mr. Whalen also co-sponsored several Vietnam troop-
withdrawal bills and the unsuccessful 1971 Nedzi-Whalen
amendment, which would have cut off military spending for
weapons.
He was an early and outspoken proponent of ending military
conscription in the United States. In 1967, he and four other
members of the Wednesday Group--an informal group of liberal
and moderate House Republicans--wrote a report describing how
the country could successfully build an all-volunteer Army
within five years.
That report helped make draft reform an issue in the 1968
presidential election, according to a history of that period
published by the Army in 1996, and both political parties
came out in favor of ending compulsory service. The draft
ended in 1973.
Mr. Whalen won his reelection campaigns handily but found
himself increasingly distant from the GOP establishment, both
in his home state and in Washington. He decided to retire
rather than run again in 1978.
``I had more trouble every year with the Republicans,'' he
told the Dayton Daily News in 2001. ``I just decided I might
as well give it up.''
In 1979, after leaving office, he registered as a Democrat.
Charles William Whalen, Jr. was born in Dayton on July 31,
1920. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1942 and
received a master's degree in business administration from
Harvard University in 1946.
During World War II, Mr. Whalen served with the Army in the
China-Burma-India theater.
He was the vice president of his father's dress factory in
Dayton and an economics professor at the University of Dayton
before entering politics in 1955 as a representative in the
General Assembly.
He won election in the U.S. House over a one-term
Democratic incumbent after walking an estimated 880 miles
through the neighborhoods of Dayton to ring strangers'
doorbells and introduce himself. He also pulled a child's
wagon at least 100 miles, according to a 1966 Washington Post
account, from which he dispensed recipes for chicken supreme.
In retirement, he lobbied on foreign affairs issues and
served as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars.
He had written a book while in Congress--``Your Right to
Know'' (1973)--in support of reporters' privilege to protect
confidential sources. He went on to write several books with
his wife, journalist Barbara Gleason Whalen, including ``The
Fighting McCooks'' (2006), about a family that sent 17
members to fight in the Civil War.
``The Longest Debate: A Legislative History of the 1964
Civil Rights Act'' (1985), about the protracted and difficult
negotiations over the landmark legislation, won praise in a
Post review by historian Howard Zinn.
``The Whalens' account of the compromises, the deals, the
deceptions, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering,'' Zinn wrote,
``is a fascinating lesson in how a bill really gets passed.''
In addition to Mr. Whalen's wife of 52 years, survivors
include six children, Charles Whalen of Delray Beach, Fla.,
Daniel Whalen of the District, Edward Whalen of Reston,
Joseph Whalen of Lambertville, N.J., Anne McLindon of
Bethesda and Mary Scherer of Brambleton; and seven
grandchildren.
____________________