Richard Lugar

Richard Lugar (2010)

Richard Green "Dick" Lugar (born April 4, 1932 in Indianapolis , Indiana ; † April 28, 2019 in Falls Church , Virginia ) was an American politician . He was one of the two U.S. Senators from the state of Indiana from 1977 to 2013 . He was a member of the Republican Party and was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Policy Committee from 1987 to 1995 and from 2003 to 2007 . Lugar was very active in the Senate for the elimination of nuclear , biological and chemical weapons in the world.

life and work

Early years and education

Richard Lugar attended school in his native Indianapolis, was at the same time a scout and received the Eagle Scout, their highest honor. He studied at Denison University and graduated in 1954 before moving to Pembroke College at the University of Oxford in England , where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics as a Rhodes scholarship holder . He stayed here until 1956 and then served in the United States Navy from 1957 to 1960 .

Political activity

From 1964 to 1967, Lugar was a member of the Indianapolis School Committee and was then elected mayor of the city . In this function he was closely linked to the contract for administrative reform of the city of Indianapolis, known as " Unigov ", and the linkage of the same with Marion County . His confirmation came in 1971 and shortly thereafter he was unofficially named " Richard Nixon 's favorite mayor" for his efforts to decentralize the affairs of government to the local authorities.

Richard Lugar ran for the first time as a Republican candidate for the US Senate elections in 1974 , but was defeated by the Democrat Birch Bayh . In 1976 he ran again, this time winning against Vance Hartke . In the following years he was able to successfully defend his seat through several elections and was last confirmed in 2006 with a majority of 87.4% of voters. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 , but it went to Bob Dole .

The distinguished foreign and security politician was instrumental in the ratifications of the Senate for the laws to reduce the worldwide production and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In 1991 he initiated together with the later chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn an initiative to destroy potential weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union . To date, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has destroyed more than 5900 nuclear warheads that were previously aimed at the United States.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry , Lugar supported reforms in agriculture in 1996 that ended state production control in the 1930s. He initiated a biofuel program to reduce the US economy's reliance on foreign oil. He also reformed the national SNAP food stamp system and promoted the statutory lunch program for schools.

In June 2007, Lugar publicly called for a change of course in President George W. Bush's Iraq policy for the first time . Its strategy of troop reinforcement in Iraq is delaying necessary adjustments to American foreign policy and restricting its diplomatic opportunities. Lugar's remarks were taken as a sign that the president was clearly losing support within his own party on this issue.

In his party's primary on May 8, 2012, Lugar lost the nomination for the Senate election to Richard Mourdock , the candidate of the Tea Party movement . Democrat Joe Donnelly defeated Mourdock to succeed Lugar in the Senate.

Richard Lugar died in April 2019 at the age of 87.

Honors

Senators Lugar and Obama on a Russian military base near Perm (2005)

Lugar has received a number of awards for his political work, including the Guardian of Small Business and the Spirit of Enterprise . Lugar holds 34 honorary doctorates from various universities. He is a member of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). In 2004 he received the Chairman's Medal of the Heinz Awards . The Great Federal Cross of Merit with a Star was awarded to him on December 12, 1985, the Great Federal Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon on January 25, 2013. Also in 2013 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama . On August 22nd, 2016 he received the Ukrainian Order of Freedom .

Web links

Commons : Richard Lugar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Richard Lugar in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Richard Lugar in the nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Former Indiana Senator Richard Lugar dies
2. ^ President Obama Names Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients. Press release. In: WhiteHouse.gov , August 8, 2013 (English).
3. ↑ Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 340/2016 of August 22, 2016 ; accessed on October 20, 2016 (Ukrainian)