A hawkish Democratic senator who tied Soviet trade status to Jewish emigration
"The American people, above all, are committed to a human détente… to the free movement of men and ideas," he said, "on which a stable and more lasting peace must be based."
The son of Norwegian immigrants, born in Washington state, he served in Congress for over four decades as a Cold War liberal. A champion of civil rights and environmental legislation yet skeptical of détente, he drove the Jackson-Vanik amendment tying Soviet trade status to Jewish emigration. When the informal 1974 bargain with Kissinger and Dobrynin collapsed under Soviet rejection, Jackson effectively sank the 1972 trade agreement. His hawkish aides later formed the core of neoconservatism.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1938–1940Prosecuting attorney, Snohomish County
- 1941–1953U.S. Representative (WA)
- 1953–1983U.S. Senator (WA)
- 1963–1981Chair, Interior/Energy & Natural Resources Committee
- 1972·1976Democratic presidential candidate
- 1974Co-sponsored the Jackson-Vanik amendment
Related historical events
Domestic legislative record and its contested legacy
Though known as a Cold War hawk, Jackson left a progressive legislative record at home. He supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, and was rated as having one of the strongest civil rights records in Congress during the movement. Responding to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, he gave a speech on the legacy and injustice of inequality.
On the environment, he authored the National Environmental Policy Act, called one of the most influential environmental laws in history. It established the principle of publicly analyzed environmental impact and spurred similar legislation in other states and much of the world. He was also a leader of the fight for statehood for Alaska and Hawaii. From 1963 to 1981 he chaired the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, renamed the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in 1977, and in the 1970s he joined other senators in opposing the Ford administration's request to end oil price controls. In the same period he worked with congressional leaders to demand a resupply of weapons to Israel.
That record was contested. Local residents strongly opposed his plan to site an anti-ballistic missile system at Fort Lawton, and American Indian rights activists staged a sit-in against his plan to give Fort Lawton to Seattle rather than return it to local tribes; in the compromise most of the site became Discovery Park, with 20 acres leased to United Indians of All Tribes. He was derided as "the senator from Boeing" for his ties to the defense industry and criticized for supporting the Vietnam War. After his death, critics cited his support for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and his efforts to keep them from returning to the Pacific Coast as grounds to protest the placement of his bust. From an anti-imperialist standpoint, he was thus a contradictory figure: he produced real gains in domestic civil rights and environmental law while participating in Cold War militarism and policies of racial repression.