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Mike Gravel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to French Canadian
immigrants. He attended French-speaking Catholic schools and as a teenager,
when he wasn’t working with his father and brothers in the house painting
and construction business, volunteered in local Springfield politics,
developing an avid interest in government
Senator Gravel enlisted in the U.S. Army (1951-54) and served as special
adjutant in the Communication Intelligence Services and as a Special Agent
in the Counter Intelligence Corps. He received a B.S. in Economics from
Columbia University, New York City, and holds four honorary degrees in law
and public affairs.
Mike Gravel served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1963-66, and
as Speaker from 1965-66. He then represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate from
1969-81. He served on the Finance, Interior, and Environmental and Public
Works committees, chairing the Energy, Water Resources, Buildings and
Grounds, and Environmental Pollution subcommittees.
In 1971, he waged a successful one-man filibuster for five months that
forced the Nixon administration to cut a deal, effectively ending the draft
in the United States. He is most prominently known for his release of the
Pentagon Papers, the secret official study that revealed the lies and
manipulations of successive U.S. administrations that misled the country
into the Vietnam War. After the New York Times published portions of the
leaked study, the Nixon administration moved to block any further
publication of information and to punish any newspaper publisher who
revealed the contents.
From the floor of the senate, Gravel (a junior senator at the time) insisted
that his constituents had a right to know the truth behind the war and
proceeded to read 4,100 pages of the 7,000 page document into the senate
record. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Senator Gravel did not have
the right and responsibility to share official documents with his
constituents.
He then published The Senator Gravel Edition, The Pentagon Papers, Beacon
Press (1971). This publication resulted in litigation, Gravel v. U.S.,
resulting in a landmark Supreme Court decision (No. 71-1017-1026) relative
to the Speech and Debate Clause (Article 1, Section 6) of the United States
Constitution.
He has worked as a cab driver in New York City, a clerk on Wall Street and
as a brakeman on the Alaska Railroad. He founded and served as president of
The Democracy Foundation, Philadelphia II, and Direct Democracy, nonprofit
corporations dedicated to the establishment of direct democracy in the
United States through the enactment of the National Initiative for Democracy
by American voters.
Books authored by Senator Gravel are Jobs and More Jobs, and Citizen Power.
He lectures and writes about governance, foreign affairs, economics, Social
Security, tax reform, energy, environmental issues and democracy.
Senator Gravel is married to Whitney Stewart Gravel and has two grown
children: Martin Gravel living in Colorado and Lynne Gravel Mosier, living
in California. The Gravels have four grandchildren: Renee, Alex, Madison and
Mackenzie. |
