-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 00:54:45 -0800 ~ http://www.latimes.com/obituary/20001231/tCB00V0631.html Sunday, December 31, 2000 Ex-Sen. Alan Cranston Dies at 86 By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer SAN FRANCISCO--Former Sen. Alan Cranston of California, a nuclear arms control activist who ended a 24 -year Senate career in 1993 under the cloud of the savings and loan industry scandal, died Sunday at 86. Cranston died at his home in Los Altos, said his son Kim, who said he found him slumped over a sink. The cause of death wasn't immediately known, though Cranston had been taking antibiotics and had recently had trouble maintaining his balance. After Cranston's retirement from Congress, the Democrat largely dropped out of publics view. But he continued to champion the cause of nuclear arms control, which had been the centerpiece of his political career and his 1984 campaign for president. In 1996, he entered the private-sector to work on nuclear disarmament, first as chairman of the Gorbachev Foundation USA and more recently as president of the Global Security Institute, both San-Francisco based think tanks. "Sen. Cranston's lifelong dedication to peace in the world and nuclear arms reduction have been inspirational to me," said Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who took over Cranston's seat. "My heart goes out to his family." "He was a tireless worker for peace and disarmament and quite frankly, there's never been a more consistent voice in that arena," said State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres. California's Democratic Gov. Gray Davis said in a statement: "Anyone who knew Alan will remember him with respect and affection." When Cranston announced in 1990 that he wouldn't seek a fifth Senate term, he cited his diagnosis of prostate cancer. However, at the time, his approval rating had plunged to a record low due to the savings and loan scandal and his relationship with Lincoln Savings & Loan President Charles Keating, who had just been indicted on securities fraud charges. A Senate Ethics Committee investigation later led to a formal reprimand of Cranston and sanctions against four other senators, known as "The Keating Five," for intervening with federal regulators on Keating's behalf. Cranston, who received nearly $1.2 million in political funds from Keating, initially insisted he had been "politically stupid" but ethically correct to intervene. While he ultimately agreed to a finding that he had "engaged in an impermissible pattern of conduct in which fund raising and official activities were substantially linked in connection with Mr. Keating and Lincoln," he remained defiant. In his final response to the reprimand on the Senate floor in 1991, Cranston declared that his actions "were not fundamentally different from the actions of many other senators." The remark clouded the former majority whip and No. 2 Senate Democrat's relationship with his Senate colleagues, and Cranston's reputation as a champion of liberal activism and progressive reform never recovered from the scandal. In a 1996 interview, Cranston said: "I don't feel any need for redemption." "I'm satisfied with what I did in the Senate," he said. "I don't look back. I look forward." Cranston said in a 1985 speech that he chose to serve in the Senate "because there I can work on the issues of war and peace, and the environment, and justice, and opportunity." It's "where I kept the commitment I made in my 1968 campaign and get us out of the tragic war in Vietnam; where one act of mine helped keep us out of war in Angola ... one step I took, followed by many more, did much to prevent war in Angola, ... where I'm doing the utmost to dispel the threat of nuclear war that hangs over our children, darkening their days and filling their nights with fear," he said. Cranston was a journalist before he became involved in politics. He became a lobbyist for the Common Council for American unity, an organization opposing discrimination against the foreign born, then served two terms as California state controller before he was elected to the U.S. Senate on his second try in 1968. In 1977, he became assistant majority leader, or whip. In 1983, at the age of 68, Cranston announced his candidacy for president, declaring that his age would be an advantage because the American people "want wisdom, maturity, proven capability" in the White House. Cranston announced that ending the arms race would be the "paramount goal" of his campaign. But he never attracted significant support and withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination, later won by Walter Mondale. Early in his Senate career, Cranston earned a reputation for uncanny skill in determining how senators would vote on an issue. He "runs around with a pencil and a computer -which is his mind -and keeps a complete record on everyone's past voting record, future voting record, and apparently even their innermost thoughts," former Sen. Dale McGee, D-Wyo., once said. Cranston was born into a prosperous family in Palo Alto in 1914. After graduating from Stanford University in 1936, he started working for International News Service, reporting from London, Rome and Ethiopia. He never lost his interest in journalism. In 1973, at the height of the Watergate scandal that drove President Nixon from office, Cranston introduced legislation to guarantee reporters the right to keep their informants confidential. Cranston also edited the first unexpurgated English translation of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" published in the United States. Hitler successfully sued for copyright violation, and for decades, Cranston's resume proudly included the fact that he had been sued by the German dictator. He and cartoonist Lee Falk also wrote a play, "The Big Story," based on Cranston's newspaper experiences. It was tried out in New Jersey but never reached Broadway. Cranston enlisted in the Army during World War II and was assigned to lecture on war aims. After the war, he wrote "The Killing of the Peace," a book about the Senate struggle over the League of Nations in the aftermath of World War I. During the late 1940s, Cranston worked at his father's Palo Alto real estate firm and became president of United World Federalists, an organization advocating world government. When he announced his presidential candidacy more than 30 years later, Cranston said he no longer believed that world government was "a practical solution to problems in the form in which they now exist." Cranston was married and divorced twice. One of his two sons, Robin, was killed in a traffic accident in 1980 at age 33. He is survived by his son Kim and one grandchild. Kim Cranston remembered his father as a leader, a man with great intellectual curiosity and as an athlete who, he said, at one point held the world record in the 100 -yard dash among 55 -year-olds. "He was fascinated about so many things," he said. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use. -- Galileo Galilei ----------------------------------------------------------------- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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