A Hawk's Hawk, a Liberal's Liberal

By Kurt Andersen.

Senator Henry Jackson: 1912-1983

Most of Congress had something to say about the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, but in the state of Washington, Senator Henry ("Scoop") Jackson's reactions had a double resonance: his constituents at the Boeing Co. built the 747 airliner, and during his 42 years on Capitol Hill, he had been more profoundly and articulately wary of the Soviet Union than any other national Democrat. Last week Jackson was recovering at home from a chest cold picked up during a trip to China, but on Thursday morning, he shrugged it off and drove into Seattle to talk to reporters about the aerial atrocity. It was "an act of barbarism," he said, and could have been planned in advance.

But for all his characteristic harshness, he was, as usual, thoughtful and careful. The U.S. should not strike back militarily, he said, adding, "The strongest arm of response is the moral one, one of outrage." Then should the matter be brought before the United Nations? Replied Jackson: "I would rather call a prayer meeting." Afterward Jackson, 71, went back to his wife Helen in Everett (pop. 54,400), the lumbermill town north of Seattle where he was born and raised. And where, a few hours after he got home, he suffered a heart attack and died.

"Jackson," said Sam Nunn, his Democratic colleague from Georgia, "truly was a giant in the Senate." He had decisively won six elections to the Senate, the latest last November, and had been the de facto leader of his party's conservative wing. Jackson felt that his onetime comrades had turned too easy on Communism, or in some cases too hard on social programs, while he remained the archetypal cold war liberal, determined that the U.S. spend generously on guns and butter. "I don't worry about ideologies," he said. "I've been called a Communist, a socialist, a conservative." In 1972 and 1976, he was a credible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

His death surprised those who knew him. Jackson was fit and industrious, and never smoked. He had no history of heart trouble, and lived prudently. The habit of prudence was bred by his parents, Norwegian immigrants. Nicknamed Scoop after a comic-strip character who appeared in the Everett Herald (which he delivered for years), Jackson practiced frankness young: in the third grade, asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he admitted he wanted Warren G.Harding's job.

He started at the University of Washington as the Depression began and returned to Everett with a law degree, taking a job with the new Federal Emergency Relief Administration. But his notions of public service were more ambitious. At 26, he was elected Snohomish County prosecutor; then in 1940, a year after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Jackson was sent there for real, elected to the House. He caught the nation's eye by speaking out early on against the witch-hunting excesses of the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1952 Jackson won election to the Senate over a Red-baiting Republican, and sat on the committee that grilled Wisconsin's Joseph McCarthy in the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings.

It is telling about Jackson, and political fashions, that in 1961, on the eve of Viet Nam (and the year he finally married), Jackson's rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action was a perfect 100, but by 1972, when he was still a diehard supporter of the war, his rating had fallen to 56. The times, not Jackson, had changed. The ill will between Jackson and the New Left grew worse when he ran for President, encouraged by the so-called ABM (Anybody But McGoven) movement among Democrats. Jackson was never noted for charisma or stump-speech eloquence, and his 1972 candidacy fell apart quickly. Although his well-organized 1976 run showed some life--he won the Massachusetts primary--the old cold warhorse was trounced by his fresh friend Jimmy Carter.

In the Senate, Jackson was not a superb legislative craftsman, but intelligent and consistent. He always favored an expansive military to counter the Soviets (he was the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee), resolutely supported Israel (his 1974 amendment made U.S.-Soviet trade contingent on a freer Kremlin emigration policy, mainly toward Jews) and nuclear power. He was also a dependable ally of organized labor, and happy to vote for social welfare programs or civil rights bills. Perhaps his zenith as a powerbroker came in the past decade, when he worked to kill or modify SALT arms-control treaties.

Jackson was a tried-and-true conservationist as well. In the 1950s, before ecology became trendy, he introduced a politically risky wilderness-protection bill, later spearheaded the epochal 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, and last year sponsored legislation to prevent mineral leasing on wilderness lands. Jackson never settled into rigid predictability. Says Nunn: "He was willing to take on the Pentagon when he thought it was wrong." Recently the hawk's hawk sounded almost dovish about Central America. "If we don't pay attention to the history of social and economic oppression there," Jackson said, "the military shield is bound to crumble."

The party may have lost more than an elder statesman. Lately the Democrats have entertained hopes of gaining a Senate majority in 1984. They may still get control, but Jackson's heretofore safe seat in Washington is now up for grabs: if Republican Governor John Spellman appoints Dan Evans, a popular G.O.P. predecessor, to fill in for a year, Representative Thomas Foley of Spokane, the most likely Democratic challenger, would face a tough race. In any event, Washington State will be without its supremely formidable champion in Washington, D.C.

But Henry Jackson was not simply a power wielder; he had a stubborn vision of America well armed and its people well cared for. He seldom roused voters, but served them ably and decently. He was more reasonable than passionate, more clearheaded than inspiring. His dreams were human-size. "Others may seek to make America great again," he said during his last run for President. "I seek to make America good again."

--By Kurt Andersen This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.