riesenfeld rare books research center

university of minnesota law library

an exhibition in celebration

of the life and career of walter f. mondale

april 2008

A Voice of Wisdom, Compassion, and Hope

Walter F. Mondale was born in the smallsouthern Minnesotan town of Ceylon in1928. He grew up under the influences of the United Methodist church, wherehis father was a minister, and the GreatDepression. These influences instilled a sense of compassion, a bent for publicservice, and a strong suspicion of self-serving platitudes.

Mr. Mondale attended Macalester Collegeand the University of Minnesota, where he earned a B.A. in political science in 1951.He received a J.D. from the University ofMinnesota Law School in 1956 after servingin the U.S. Army. He began his career ofpublic service as Minnesota AttorneyGeneral from 1960 to 1964. He then servedas U.S. Senator from 1964 to 1976 beforebecoming Vice President in 1977. Heserved as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from1993 to 1996.

Mr. Mondale’s wide-ranging career in pub-lic office placed him at the center of manydecisive episodes in American political history. Weaving through his public serviceare three themes, two of which stretchback to James Madison’s design of theAmerican constitutional system: balancebetween individual freedom and govern-mental authority, promotion of the nationalinterest abroad, and reconnection of theDemocratic Party with the working people.

Individual freedom versus state authority

As Minnesota’s Attorney General, Mr.Mondale took a leading role in a seminalSupreme Court case that would require statecourts to supply legal counsel in criminal

cases for defendants unable to afford anattorney. Prompted by a hand-written peti-tion to the U.S. Supreme Court by ClarenceGideon, who had been in and out of prisonfor theft and gambling most of his 51-yearlife, Attorney General Mondale rallied 23

state attorneys general to fortify a core prin-ciple of the American justice system: that allAmericans are entitled to “their day incourt,” regardless of income or pedigree.

Attorney General Mondale concluded thatthe constitutional principle of protectingindividual liberty without the means toexercise it is a hollow barrier against unjustor arbitrary government action. Later, as aU.S. Senator, he worked to establish theLegal Services Corporation, further widen-ing access to legal assistance.

In another expansion of individual freedom,Attorney General Mondale brokered a dealat the 1964 Democratic Party Convention in Atlantic City that is still controversial. It allowed the all-white delegation fromMississippi to be seated along with twoAfrican-American Mississippi Democrats asat-large delegates. Although the MississippiDemocrats protested in 1964, the deal estab-lished a commission that prevented future

Walter F. Mondale: In the Tradition of James Madison

Senator Walter Mondale, 1966

discrimination and led to an integrated,non-discriminatory southern DemocraticParty. Senator Mondale also was a leader inenacting civil rights legislation. His crown-ing achievement was passing fair housinglegislation against long odds.

Within the Senate, Mr. Mondale balancedthe deliberative power of the UpperChamber against the democratic principleof majority rule and created the modern“filibuster.” With civil rights legislationstymied by the procedural maneuvering ofopponents, Senator Mondale at first sup-ported elimination of the filibuster to allowmajority rule to dictate the body’s decision-making (mirroring the rules in the U.S.House of Representatives).

However, over the course of the debate, his appreciation for deliberation and theSenate’s unique capacity to build broadcoalitions tempered his drive to establishmajority rule. He created a compromise forterminating a filibuster that stipulated aclear process and reduced the votes neces-sary from two-thirds to 60. The filibusterwas preserved but the barrier it posed tomajorities was moderated.

Senator Mondale also played a decisive rolein balancing individual liberties and home-land security. In the aftermath of theWatergate crisis, an unparalleled bipartisaninvestigation of American domestic and

international security services was con-ducted by a committee chaired by SenatorFrank Church. Although widely known as the “Church Committee,” SenatorMondale assumed operational leadership of the investigation—according to theCommittee chief counsel Frederick A.O.

Schwartz, Jr.—following Senator Church’sdecision to run for president.

The Committee’s findings were staggering,making plain the need for vigilant scrutinyof government. In addition to revelationsof sordid and ill-conceived efforts to assassi-nate foreign leaders, the Mondale-Churchinvestigations documented F.B.I. plans toundermine Martin Luther King, Jr. andengage in wide-ranging inappropriate andillegal activities violating the Bill of Rights.Legislative intervention to check executivebranch excess was precisely the kind ofcounterbalancing that James Madison identified as essential to preventing tyrannyand injustice. Walter Mondale also sought aworkable balance between America’s securityagainst foreign attack and the results ofunchecked power uncovered by theMondale-Church investigations. As Senator, and then as Vice President,Mr. Mondale worked both with America’snational security services to facilitate intelligence-gathering and with constitu-tional experts to create a judicial process of review.

President and Vice President arriving at CampDavid to meet about the Iran hostage crisis,November 1979; credit: Library of Congress

Senator Walter F. Mondale and Hubert H. Humphrey,1975; credit: Minnesota Historical Society

The resulting law, the Foreign IntelligenceSurveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, became acornerstone of American governance,recasting the issue of security versus civilliberties into a synthesis that advancedboth. The FISA process continues to be animportant rallying point for the bipartisanresistance to recent governmental policieson domestic surveillance.

Advancing America’s national interest onthe world stage

We now know from previously top-secretdocuments that Vice President Mondalecontributed to the modernization ofAmerican military capabilities. Today, wesee evidence of the historic shift frommechanized forces to digitized forces incruise missiles, unmanned predator drones,and many other military capabilities.

In his roles as U.S. Senator, Vice President,and Ambassador to Japan, Mr. Mondaleclosely connected America’s practical powerto economic and diplomatic relations.Although Presidents Richard Nixon andJimmy Carter opened relations withChina, Vice President Mondale’s meeting

with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping andother senior leaders in China in 1979 estab-lished the foundation for the economic,cultural, and security interconnections thatdefine relations today.

Vice President Mondale prepared for histrip by generating from a resistant bureau-cracy a host of historic commercial anddiplomatic packages. Recently declassifiedconfidential transcripts of the historicmeetings reveal the palpable excitement ofChinese leaders as they came to realize thenew levels of interdependence that the VicePresident was offering. Looking back now,the Mondale initiatives shifted US-Sinorelations from strictly military and territo-rial rivalry to complex interconnectionsthat included extensive trade and diplo-matic partners (as recently illustrated bythe coordinated diplomacy regardingNorth Korea).

Vice President Mondale’s conviction that human rights advance and secureAmerican national interests precipitatedone of the most important peaceful Walter and Joan Mondale, 1984; credit: Robert Burgess

1984 presidential campaign; credit: Thomas F. Arndt

regime changes since World War II: theSouth African transition from apartheid toa democratically elected government led byNelson Mandela. In a series of confidential1977 meetings with John Vorster, PrimeMinister of Apartheid South Africa, thathave only recently fully come to light, theVice President announced a new U.S. poli-cy of encouraging the gradual and peacefultransition to majority rule.

The counter-attack was ferocious. PrimeMinister Vorster warned that the situationin South Africa was not conducive to dem-ocratic governance with the black majority,and that the Vice President’s approach was naïvely opening the door to Sovietexploitation, a claim that would be furtherpressed by officials in the U.S. Government.

With the backing of President Carter, theVice President’s position prevailed. Imaginethe situation today without a stable andprosperous South Africa.

The first “new” Democrat

Two decades before President Bill Clinton’spromotion of a “third way” and a “newDemocrat,” Mr. Mondale was speakingabout and proposing policies that re-exam-ined taxes, questioned welfare dependency,and promoted programs to expand oppor-tunities to working Americans.

A consistent pattern emerges from Mr.Mondale’s career—the scrutiny of appar-ent contradictions and antinomies to findbalanced and practical resolutions. Civilliberties and protecting homeland securityare bound together, not inevitable foes.Human rights and national defense support

each other rather than feed off each other.Open government and loyalty are alliesrather than tools of subversion.

Mr. Mondale’s career demonstrates thatblending values and beliefs with practicalityis a necessity in politics, not just an “art”form or an ingredient for winning an election. Principle without expediency is arecipe for irresponsible irrelevance; expedi-ency without principle is a recipe forunthinking recklessness and barbarism.

By Lawrence R. Jacobs, Walter F. and JoanMondale Chair for Political Studies, andDirector, Center for the Study of Politics andGovernance, Hubert H. Humphrey Instituteof Public Affairs and Department of PoliticalScience, University of Minnesota.

Walter F. Mondale, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, andJoan Mondale, 1993

University of Minnesota Law Library

Walter F. Mondale Hall 229 Nineteenth Avenue South

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center

The University of Minnesota Law Library gratefully acknowledges the support of

Dorsey & Whitney LLP in making this exhibit possible. The Law Library also appreciates

the cooperation of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the Minnesota

Historical Society, and the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.

“What I learned at the University of Minnesota

Law School opened the door

to my world and set me on my road to the

State Capitol, the Congress,

the White House, the presidential campaign,

to Japan, and finally back home again.

My years here changed my life forever.

My teachers not only taught me about the law,

but from their friendship and example,

I left here with a far better idea

of why honesty, decency, learning, service,

and justice are so crucial to all of us.

For me it was magic and it still is.”

— Remarks by Walter Mondale at the dedication ofWalter F. Mondale Hall, May 17, 2001.