Max Cleland, Former Senator and Veteran Who Was Gravely Injured in Vietnam, Dies

For us Vietnam Veterans we might remember this brave Army Captain.
Here is a little write-up on him.

Max Cleland, who lost three limbs to a hand grenade in Vietnam and later became a groundbreaking Veterans Administration chief and U.S. senator from Georgia until an attack ad questioning his patriotism derailed his reelection, died on Tuesday. He was 79.

Cleland died at his home in Atlanta from congestive heart failure, his personal assistant Linda Dean told The Associated Press.


Cleland was a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam when he lost his right arm and two legs while picking up a fallen grenade in 1968. He blamed himself for decades, until he learned that another soldier had dropped it. He also spent many months in hospitals ill-equipped to help so many wounded soldiers.

Fellow veterans cheered when President Jimmy Carter appointed Cleland to lead the Veterans Administration, a post he held from 1977 to 1981. The VA and the wider medical community recognized post-traumatic stress disorder -- what had been previously been dismissed as shell-shock -- as a genuine condition while Cleland was in charge, and he worked to provide veterans and their families with better care.

Cleland's 2002 Senate loss to Republican Saxby Chambliss generated enduring controversy after the Chambliss campaign aired a commercial that displayed images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and questioned Cleland's commitment to defense and Homeland Security. Sen. John McCain was among those who condemned the move by his fellow Republican.

a reply to: musicismagic

Fellow veterans cheered when President Jimmy Carter appointed Cleland to lead the Veterans Administration

The only good Carter ever did .

Sen. John McCain was among those who condemned the move by his fellow Republican.

That was back in McCain's heyday , before all the corruption set in .