1. Pete McCloskey served in the Korean War as a member of the United States Marine Corps.
43 Facts About Pete McCloskey
1. 2.
Pete McCloskey won election to the House of Representatives in 1967, defeating Shirley Temple in the Republican primary.
3.
Pete McCloskey unsuccessfully challenged President Richard Nixon in the 1972 Republican primaries on an anti-Vietnam War platform and was the first member of Congress to publicly call for President Nixon's resignation after the Saturday Night Massacre.
4.
Pete McCloskey continually won re-election until 1982, when he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to represent California in the United States Senate.
5.
Pete McCloskey endorsed Democrat Jerry McNerney in the general election and became a Democrat himself shortly thereafter.
6.
Pete McCloskey's great-grandfather was orphaned in the Great Irish Famine and came to California in 1853 at the age of 16.
7.
Pete McCloskey was born on September 29,1927, in Loma Linda, California, the son of Mary Vera and Paul Norton Pete McCloskey.
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Pete McCloskey attended public schools in South Pasadena and San Marino.
9.
Pete McCloskey was inducted into South Pasadena High School Hall of Fame for the sport of baseball.
10.
Pete McCloskey attended Occidental College and California Institute of Technology under the US Navy's V-5 Pilot Program.
11.
Pete McCloskey graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and Stanford University Law School in 1953.
12.
Pete McCloskey voluntarily served in the US Navy from 1945 to 1947, the US Marine Corps from 1950 to 1952, the US Marine Corps Reserve from 1952 to 1960 and the Ready Reserve from 1960 to 1967.
13.
Pete McCloskey retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1974, having attained the rank of colonel.
14.
Pete McCloskey was awarded the Navy Cross and Silver Star decorations for heroism in combat and two Purple Hearts as a Marine during the Korean War.
15.
Pete McCloskey then volunteered for the Vietnam War before eventually turning against it.
16.
Pete McCloskey was a lecturer on legal ethics at Santa Clara University and Stanford Law School from 1964 to 1967.
17.
Pete McCloskey was elected as a Republican to the 90th Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative J Arthur Younger, after defeating Shirley Temple in the primary.
18.
Pete McCloskey was reelected to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving from December 12,1967, to January 3,1983.
19.
Pete McCloskey was the first member of Congress to publicly call for the impeachment of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal and the Saturday Night Massacre.
20.
Pete McCloskey was the first lawmaker to call for a repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that had allowed for the War in Vietnam.
21.
Pete McCloskey received one vote from a New Mexico delegate; all other votes cast went to Nixon.
22.
In 2016, Pete McCloskey published a tribute to Lujan titled An Honest Public Servant.
23.
In January 1980, Pete McCloskey was one of six members of an official bipartisan delegation of the House of Representatives appointed by Speaker Tip O'Neill to visit Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.
24.
Shortly after Israel's passage of the Golan Heights Law on December 14,1981, Pete McCloskey denounced the move as an "aggressive and imperialistic action" and urged his Congressional colleagues to block a $2.2 billion foreign aid package to Israel unless the action was rescinded.
25.
In 1982, Pete McCloskey was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for nomination to the United States Senate.
26.
On January 23,2006, Pete McCloskey announced at a press conference in Lodi, California, that he would return to the political arena by running against seven-term incumbent Republican Richard Pombo in the Republican Party for California's 11th congressional district.
27.
On July 24,2006, Pete McCloskey endorsed Jerry McNerney, a Democrat who defeated Pombo in the 2006 midterm elections.
28.
Pete McCloskey spent most of Election Night at McNerney's victory party.
29.
The Sierra Club recognized Pete McCloskey for helping to unseat Pombo with their 2006 Edgar Wayburn Award.
30.
Journalist Mark Hertsgaard of The Nation, in response to criticism of Pete McCloskey following an article about the candidate's 2006 campaign, stated that a videotape he had viewed of Pete McCloskey's speech to the IHR did not contain the "right or wrong" wording present in the transcript.
31.
In 1984, Pete McCloskey was invited to return to Stanford University as a visiting lecturer.
32.
In 1986, Pete McCloskey engaged in a debate about Israel-Palestinian issues with Jewish Defense League founder Rabbi Meir Kahane.
33.
Pete McCloskey contradicted Pat Robertson's statements about Korean War service and so put an end to Robertson's 1988 Presidential run.
34.
Robertson first claimed that he was a "combat veteran" back in 1981, which aroused the ire of Pete McCloskey, who had been shipped to Korea along with Robertson as second lieutenants as part as the 5th Replacement Draft to bolster the First Marine Division, which had suffered great losses at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.
35.
When Robertson began claiming again that he was a combat veteran during the 1988 Republican primaries, Pete McCloskey wrote a public letter to US Representative Andrew Jacobs Jr.
36.
Documentary evidence uncovered by Pete McCloskey revealed that his father, Senator Robertson, thanked Marine Commandant Robinson for getting his son out of combat.
37.
Pete McCloskey wrote a book about his Korean War experiences, The Taking of Hill 610.
38.
In 1989, Pete McCloskey co-founded the Council for the National Interest along with former Congressman Paul Findley.
39.
An opponent of the Iraq War, McCloskey broke party ranks in 2004 to endorse John Kerry in his bid to unseat George W Bush as President of the United States.
40.
Pete McCloskey cast his presidential vote for Biden and vice-presidential vote for California Senator Kamala Harris on December 14,2020.
41.
Pete McCloskey favored abortion rights and supported stem cell research as well as Oregon's assisted suicide law.
42.
Pete McCloskey was a co-chair of the first Earth Day in 1970.
43.
On May 8,2024, Pete McCloskey died at his home in Winters, California, due to complications of kidney and congestive heart failure.