Senator Mark Hatfield was a Republican Senator from Oregon famous for opposing the Vietnam War and the death penalty, and for his support for foreign aid and hunger relief.
Mark was a sailor in the Navy who piloted landing craft ashore during the invasion of Iwo Jima, and later went to Hiroshima only weeks after the atom bomb had been dropped. Although this experience didn't make him a total pacifist, it gave him an understanding of the horrors of war, especially nuclear war, that would last him through the rest of his political career.
After the end of World War II, Mark Hatfield came back to Oregon, where he took up a position teaching law at Willamette University. Although he was raised Christian, during this time, he gained an emotional understanding of what his faith meant. After becoming Dean of Students at Willamette, he became convinced that a political career would be the best way to declare his Christian ethics.
In 1956, at the age of 34, he became Oregon's Secretary of State. Two years later, he became the governor of Oregon and served two terms. in 1966, he ran for Senate and won. He was popular with both Republicans and Democrats in Oregon, and was popular with the national republican leadership.
However, almost as soon as he was elected, he begin to speak out against the Vietnam War. This did not make him popular with the Republican leadership. This pacifist bent was one of the things that cost him the chance to be the Vice-Presidential nominee in 1968 and 1972.
After the controversy surrounding the Vietnam War, Senator Hatfield didn't arouse much interest in the Senate for the next few decades. He was best known for being intelligent and non-partisan, and for giving speeches about his religious belief and for working against hunger.
Senator Hatfield next made headlines in the early 90's, over alleged ethics violations. Truthfully, I don't remember what they were about, I think they somehow involved giving government money to a college that later admitted his daughter as a student.
He made news on a slightly more positive note in 1996, when he voted against the right wing of the republicans party's Balanced Budget Amendment, and the Repulican leadership threatened to strip him of his commitee chairmanships. However, they didn't carry through on their threats.
Senator Hatfield retired from active politcal life, choosing not to run in the 1998 election. He had served five terms, and wanted to leave. He instead went to teach Law and Public Policy at Willamette University as a Professor Emeritus.
It is rumored that he also had a strong distaste for the other Republican Senator from Oregon, Bob Packwood.