1st Lt. George S. McGovern Shares with His Friend Bob Pennington a Few (Surprising) Comments on the 1944 Presidential Race

“We’ve lived in a funny era and son of a mixed up one, but I’m still glad I’m living in this age,” twenty-one-year-old George McGovern wrote to his friend (and future brother-in-law) Bob Pennington on December 28, 1943. “If we can just get this war completely over with and make damn sure we’ve won it we may be able to spend the rest of our lives doing things we’ve been dreaming about for so long.” McGovern, who had confided to his young wife, Eleanor, that flying “scared [him] silly,” was in Kansas training to be a combat pilot. What he dreamed about was returning to South Dakota and becoming a teacher, and he left for Europe months later armed with a stack of history and philosophy books. Whatever fears he had confessed to Eleanor were not apparent to the crew of his B-24, nicknamed the “Dakota Queen”; McGovern quickly earned a reputation for being a steel-nerved pilot in the most life-threatening situations. (McGovern would be awarded both the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery and heroism under fire.) Days before the election back in the States between President Roosevelt and the Republican candidate, New York Governor Thomas Dewey, McGovern wrote to Lt. Pennington in Rome with observations about life in combat, Eleanor, and the presidential campaign.

Nov. 4, 1944

Dear Bob,

Well I’m writing this from a 15th Air Force Base in Italy, Bob. We haven’t been here so very long, but are beginning to get into the swing of combat flying. It’s a great deal like I expected it to be. Perhaps a little rougher in some respects and not so rough in other respects. At any rate I’m glad to get started on that string of missions we’ve been preparing for the last year and a half. I’ll confess we’re going to need and are already using the major part of what we learned back in the States. It seems that while training gets tiresome back home it seems scantly enough when you have to put it into practice to save your neck. We really haven’t done much of anything yet over here, but we’re beginning to see that there’s a damn big job ahead of us before we’ll ever see home again.

Eleanor tells me that she’s beginning to look the part of an expectant mother. I noticed it a little before I left, so she must be “showing” considerably by now. The baby’s E.T.A. is supposed to be around the first week in March so it isn’t so very far off. I guess I’ll miss his entrance, though, but if we aren’t held up too much I should be able to see him around next summer. (Notice that I use “him” and “he,” etc.) I hope it is a boy, but a doctor friend of mine is betting me that it will be a girl due to the fact that in his observations he has found that the children of airmen flying at high altitude are in the great majority of cases girls. I hope he’s wrong in our case, though, even though I’d be almost equally happy to have a girl.

I suppose you have been following the political battles of Dewey and F.D.R. with your usual interest, Bob. I’ve sort of lost track of them lately, but the Stars and Stripes have sort of revived my interest. I’m going to be more than disgusted if Dewey doesn’t win. I really think we need a man like Dewey in there now! I like the vigor, and efficiency that he has shown in the past and even in the way he is conducting his campaign. I think he’ll do a lot toward clearing up all the dozen and one messes that the government is in now. For one thing he has a fairly definite attitude toward everything really vital and that’s something the New Deal certainly hasn’t had. I believe Dewey will give business a confidence in the government that they haven’t had for quite awhile now. I like his plan for a simpler and definite tax policy. He also seems to be concerned with regaining the confidence of the people and of Congress in the president. I believe he can do it if he continues to stick to his guns and follow out a definite and straightforward platform. Have you read his recent eight point platform? It seems very good to me.

I hope this letter finds you O.K., Bob, and in good spirits.

Your friend,

Mac

McGovern’s first child was a girl—Ann. And Franklin D. Roosevelt trounced Thomas Dewey to win an unprecedented fourth term in office. (The twenty-second amendment to the Constitution, preventing a president from serving more than two terms, was not ratified until 1951.) McGovern returned home from the war and pursued his goal of becoming a professor. But he eventually went into politics and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1956 and the Senate in 1962. Ten years later he became the Democratic nominee for president, but lost to Richard Nixon in one of the worst electoral defeats in American history. McGovern, a vocal opponent to the war in Vietnam, was pilloried for being a “left-wing, liberal peacenik.” McGovern rarely mentioned his wartime experiences—or decorations—during the presidential campaign.