Word: vinson
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Rivers' district came to reflect his legislative bent. One recent survey of his home district of nine counties, including Charleston, noted an Air Force base, naval base, Polaris missile submarine base, Coast Guard station, the Sixth Naval District Headquarters and the Parris Island Marine boot camp. While Carl Vinson was still chairman of the Armed Services Committee, he once remarked to Rivers: "You put anything else down there in your district, Mendel, it's gonna sink...
...When Vinson retired in 1965, Rivers, as the committee's ranking Democrat, came into his own as chairman. Upon taking office, he doubled the Johnson Administration's request for a servicemen's pay raise and sponsored a bill requiring congressional review of any cutbacks in military facilities. In one of Rivers' first encounters with the former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, the Pentagon chief tried to patronize the committee, as he had under Vinson's chairmanship. Rivers finally breathed drowsily: "But Mr. Secretary, Carl Vinson's gone. He's gone...
...came to praise Rivers, but buried Vinson. Vice President Spiro Agnew was at his quippy best last week as he paid tribute to South Carolina's Democratic Representative L. Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and new recipient of a Distinguished American Award. In a speech interrupted 14 times by laughter, the Vice President mentioned Rivers' honorary membership in the International College of Dentists. Said Agnew: "I told him, 'You're never going to practice dentistry on me.' That's all right.' he replied. 'I'm never going...