The loss, he told CBS News in 2009, "threw me right back in war," prompting "massive anxiety … powerlessness and hopelessness" that brought back the sensation of lying bleeding on the battlefield.Ĭleland recovered, and would serve as a director of the Export-Import Bank. Having lost his sense of purpose with his bitter Senate loss, Cleland wound up back at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with PTSD. In 2002, however, he lost his re-election bid to Saxby Chambliss, when the Republican's campaign aired a commercial questioning Cleland's patriotism, alongside images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. In 1982 Cleland was elected Georgia's Secretary of State, and in 1996 he won the Senate seat of the retiring Sam Nunn. While he was in charge, the VA would recognize post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a genuine condition, and he worked to provide veterans and their families with improved care. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed Cleland to head the Veterans Administration.
And I said, 'This is a great time to run for the state Senate."'Ĭleland won a state Senate seat, then lost a run for lieutenant governor. Returning home a triple-amputee, Cleland recalled in a 2002 interview being depressed about his future, but still interested in pursuing a political career: "I sat in my mother and daddy's living room and took stock in my life. Nothing but a splintered white bone protruded from my shredded elbow," he wrote in his 1980 memoir, "Strong at the Broken Places." He lost his right arm and two legs. "When my eyes cleared I looked at my right hand. Army captain in Vietnam when, on April 8, 1968, he reached for a grenade he thought had fallen from his belt. Georgia native Max Cleland (August 24, 1942-November 9, 2021), an accomplished college swimmer and basketball player, was a U.S. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery. | Chris Maddaloni/Roll Call/Getty ImagesĪ look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.īy senior producer David Morgan. Max Cleland, D-Ga., at a 2001 press conference.
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