Lucius Mendel Rivers was a Democratic U. S. Representative from South Carolina, representing the Charleston-based 1st congressional district for nearly 30 years. He was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee as the U. S. escalated its involvement in the Vietnam War.
Background
Lucius Mendel Rivers was born on September 28, 1905 in Gumville, North Carolina, the son of Lucius Hampton Rivers, a farmer and turpentine-still operator, and Henrietta Marion McCoy. Lucius died when his son was about eight years old, leaving the family in precarious economic circumstances. Rivers delivered newspapers, worked at odd jobs, and played professional baseball in the minor leagues.
Education
He was educated in the public schools and attended the College of Charleston from 1926 to 1929 and the University of South Carolina School of Law from 1929 to 1931, but he graduated from neither.
Career
In 1932 he was admitted to the bar of South Carolina and briefly practiced law. He was elected as a Democrat to the South Carolina legislature in 1933 and served for three years.
From 1936 to 1940 he worked for the United States Department of Justice.
In 1940, Rivers was elected to Congress from South Carolina's First District, and he was re-elected fifteen times. He had no serious challenge from within the Democratic party or from the Republicans; indeed, he often ran unopposed.
Rivers fitted the stereotype of the hardworking, hard-drinking, flamboyant southern politician whose speeches were heavily laced with poetry and biblical references. Rivers claimed some credit as a populist, supporting programs such as food stamps, anti-poverty legislation, public housing, and masstransit subsidies. It was, however, his unquestioning and unswerving support of the military that brought him power and attention.
One consequence of Rivers' power was the proliferation of military installations in his congressional district around Charleston. Among these facilities were a naval shipyard, a Polaris-submarine base, two naval hospitals, the Parris Island Marine Corps training station, a Coast Guard station, a mine-warfare facility, a Marine Corps air station, an army supply depot, an air force base, and a naval weapons station. Carl Vinson, a Georgia congressman, was quoted as saying, "You put anything else down there in your district, Mendel, it's gonna sink. "
As Rivers' power grew, many defense-related industries found it prudent to locate plants in the Charleston area. Among these were the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, McDonnell-Douglas, J. P. Stevens and Company, Avco, and General Electric. It was estimated that 55 percent of the payrolls of the district came from defense-related operations, and Rivers claimed that he was personally responsible for 90 percent of this. Rivers, who never served in the armed forces, believed that not only should the nation be strong militarily but the military should be used on any provocation.
During the Kennedy administration, he advocated a full-scale invasion of Cuba, and he wanted to use nuclear weapons in Korea and Vietnam. When the North Koreans captured the United States intelligence ship Pueblo in 1968, Rivers pressed for severe retaliation. In general, the professional military establishment was more restrained than Rivers. "If Mendel was running things, we'd be in World War V, " one of his colleagues remarked. Rivers liked to be thought of as a friend of the common soldier. Enlisted personnel frequently wrote to him with problems, and he sometimes intervened with the Pentagon or interfered with the military justice system on their behalf.
He also prevented the prosecution of Green Beret soldiers accused of murdering a Vietnamese double agent. An opponent of an all-volunteer army, Rivers supported the draft and sponsored bills for better pay for military personnel. Rivers died in Birmingham, Alabama.
Achievements
Religion
Rivers was an Episcopalian, and a member of the Freemasons, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Exchange Club.
Politics
Throughout his career, he pressed for more-sophisticated weapons and an expansion of the armed forces. He believed that Congress had the responsibility for, and oversight of, the military, an attitude that brought him into regular conflict with the executive branch, especially the secretary of defense, whose authority Rivers worked to undermine.
He vigorously opposed the army's prosecution of American soldiers implicated in the massacre at My Lai, Vietnam.
Interests
He was an enthusiast of boxing. He enjoyed playing baseball and he batted well over . 300 in the Congressional Baseball Games.
Connections
On September 1, 1938, Rivers married Margaret Middleton; they had three children.