George McGovern remembered

It was just a few weeks ago when former U.S. Senator, Representative and former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern visited Crazy Horse Memorial and shook the hand of Ed McGaa, a Crazy Horse vendor and a self-described “nemesis”â��of McGovern’s for many years.

McGaa, a Vietnam veteran who flew 110 F-4   Phantom combat missions during the war, opposed McGovern and the rest of the “Dove Senators” who spoke out against the war in Vietnam. 

When he got home from Vietnam, the opposition continued, as McGaa spoke out against McGovern while supporting Republican former governor Archie M. Gubbrud in their race for the U.S. Senate in 1968. He even appeared in a documentary supporting Gubbrud for Senate.

“Iâ��got up there and spoke how about we were losing the war in Vietnam because of the Dove Senators,”â��he said.â��“Iâ��was wrong. Iâ��was brainwashed to think the Vietnam War was a just cause.”

McGovern, an unabashed liberal and a well-respected advocate for both the State of South Dakota and hunger issues, died Sunday, Oct. 21, at the Doughtery Hospice House in Sioux Falls. He was 90.

“Our wonderful father, George McGovern, passed away peacefully at the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, surrounded by our family and life-long friends,” his family said in a statement.