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Homer E. Capehart
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==Political career== Capehart's career in the music industry made him wealthy and provided a path to the national political stage.<ref name="Pickett1986" /> Being the center-point for a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] revolution in Indiana and the Midwest, mainly by sponsoring a huge "Cornfield-Conference" on one of his farms in 1938.<ref>Indiana Public Media. [http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/great-cornfield-conference/ The Great Cornfield Conference]</ref><ref>Ralph D. Gray, ''Indiana History: A Book of Readings'' (1994), p. 335-341.</ref> Capehart was first elected to the U.S. Senate in [[United States Senate elections, 1944|1944]], narrowly defeating [[Henry Schricker]], going on to win subsequent victories in [[United States Senate elections, 1950|1950]] against [[Alexander M. Campbell]] and in [[United States Senate elections, 1956|1956]] against [[Claude R. Wickard]]. When first elected to the Senate at the height of [[World War II]], Capehart supported efforts to compromise with the [[Japan]]ese on terms of surrender in the summer of 1945 when [[United States Senate Minority Leader|minority leader]] [[Wallace H. White, Jr.]] stated that the war might end sooner if [[President of the United States|President]] [[Harry Truman|Truman]] would state specifically in the upper chamber just what unconditional surrender meant for the Japanese. After 1945, Capehart was critical of the Truman administration and the military for their postwar policies in [[Germany]], accusing Truman and General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] of a conspiracy to starve the remains of the German nation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Turley |first1=Mark |title=From Nuremberg to Nineveh |pages=18}}</ref> Throughout the 1950s, Capehart was constantly at odds with his Senate colleague [[William E. Jenner]], a staunch isolationist Republican who consistently opposed President Eisenhower's "modern-Republicanism." Capehart, although an isolationist himself during his first term in the Senate, became increasingly more internationalist during his later years in the Senate and this eventually led to the split with Jenner. By 1959, Jenner had retired and Democrat [[Vance Hartke]] had taken his place. Capehart was extremely critical of President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and his [[New Frontier]] programs, such as [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] and the [[Peace Corps]]. In 1962, Capehart attained his greatest popularity and what would ultimately become his lasting legacy as one of the key figures in the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] by calling for a "crack-down on Cuba" and warning of a missile build-up on the island. Kennedy, before receiving the famous spy-plane photos, thought Capehart was "inventing an issue." This was not the case and Capehart, although not appreciated at the time, has come to be seen in a more positive light because of his early and aggressive stances on Cuba. Capehart also backed, with Senator [[Kenneth Wherry]] of [[Nebraska]], legislation for building military family housing in the post-World War II era, when there were critical shortages of such housing. His support of public housing for veterans was part of his support of a strong defense, which he considered a legitimate use of public money. However, he opposed social welfare programs to give away houses to the poor at public expense as unconstitutional. In 1955, the U.S. Senate initiated a groundbreaking bill which authorized the construction of 540,000 public housing units over four years. Capehart, believing the bill was socialistic in nature, and lacking enough support to kill it, introduced an amendment which would have reduced the authorization to 35,000 units. Although Capehart thought he had enough votes to pass his amendment (even going so far as to tell majority leader [[Lyndon Johnson]] on the morning of the vote, "this time I'm going to rub your nose in shit"), his amendment was defeated by last-minute maneuvering engineered by Johnson.<ref>{{cite book |last= Caro |first= Robert A. | author-link = Robert Caro |title= The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate |publisher= [[Random House]] |year= 2002 |isbn= 0-394-52836-0|page=606|title-link= The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate }}</ref> Capehart voted in favor of the Senate amendment to the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957]] on August 7, 1957,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate β August 7, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=10|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=13900|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate β August 29, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=12|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=16478|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12-6-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> Capehart voted in favor of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1960]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate β April 8, 1960|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=106|issue=6|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|pages=7810β7811|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6-8-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> but did not vote on the [[Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate β March 27, 1962|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=108|issue=4|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=5105|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt4/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt4-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> Capehart was also an advocate of [[clean air legislation]], and briefly served on the [[United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management]] with Kennedy, [[Barry Goldwater]], and [[Karl Mundt]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hersh|first=Burton|title=Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between The Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover that Transformed America|year=2007|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-465-00607-6|page=175}}</ref>
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