Though Congress has always been one of America’s most visible foxholes, the Jan. Over the course of his career, the percentage of veterans in Congress declined while polarization and dysfunction rose. A decade later he supported her for president. John Warner, R-Va., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in Washington, D.C. We paddled together against many storms from his party and from mine and we both paid a price for it.” In 1996, Warner overcame a formidable insurgent primary campaign. “I had only the best interest of the country in mind,” he recalled, “and so long as I knew Sam did too, we would keep paddling forward in that direction together. Sam Nunn of Georgia: “We always tried to paddle with the same strokes, as you do in canoeing.” Some of his colleagues threatened to remove him from leadership if he kept working so closely with Nunn. One of Warner’s strongest relationships was with his Democratic counterpart on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. It’s what is best for the country.” Fewer veterans and more dysfunction “Bipartisanship is something we can and must strive for. “I didn’t get anything done by pulling out my sword and cutting everybody in my pathway,” he told us. Two years later, the Republican endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. These decisions included opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork, voting to acquit President Bill Clinton on one of two articles of impeachment, critiquing the execution of the Iraq War and in 2014 endorsing his onetime rival, Democrat Mark Warner, for his old Senate seat. Warner put aside party lines at many high-pressure moments. He noted often that while veterans once represented 70% of Congress, they now compose less than 20%. “It’s hard to be in a tent when the tent used to have five guys in it.”Īmerica Talks: Join us to reduce toxic polarization – and to help save our nation ![]() “The loss of your pals is what you carry back with you,” he said. Years later, after his father had passed away, Warner signed up for the Marine Corps and served in the Korean War. It haunted him.” Warner persisted and finally received his father's permission to enlist in the Navy. “He had seen too many Marines destroyed in World War I. That lesson constitutes the heart of the Foxhole Doctrine.Īt age 17, Warner wanted to join in the action himself, as a Marine in World War II. You fight for a common cause larger than any one individual, transcending any differences you have in background or belief. Warner’s father explained to him that when you are in a foxhole fighting for your country, you look after each other. You’ve got to establish a trusting relationship with your fellow soldiers.” Causes larger than any one person That’s the code which you have got to live up to. “He taught me the military principles,” Sen. He first learned the doctrine from his father, John Warner II, a doctor who treated soldiers on the front lines of the bloody battlefields of World War I. ![]() He called it the “Foxhole Doctrine,” and believed it was the key to our future. In Warner’s final months, we shared a series of life history interviews with him, during which he illuminated the principle that guided him over his decades of public service. We knew him as an enthusiastic adviser to With Honor Action, a cross-partisan organization working to reduce polarization and dysfunction in Congress by advancing principled veteran leadership. ![]() John Warner, the former senator, Navy secretary and World War II and Korean War veteran who died last month at 94, will be honored Wednesday with a funeral at National Cathedral. John Warner, a former Navy Secretary and Republican senator from Virginia, tours a new submarine that bears his name in Newport News, Va., on Sept.
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