""When I'm gone, I want to be forgotten," said Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana. While he lived a life that was truly unforgettable as one of America's most important and admired public servants of the twentieth century, Mansfield refused to write his memoirs and shunned the entreaties of would-be biographers. Nonetheless, he sat down with Don Oberdorfer for thirty-two interviews in the last three years of his long life and helped to open closed government documents that cast light on what he did and said. Until now, his amazing story has never been told in full." "Here is the story of his hardscrabble childhood in Montana, his service in the lowest ranks of every branch of the U.S. military in and after World War I, and the improbable love affair with his future wife, Maureen, that lifted this eighth-grade dropout from the Butte, Montana, copper mines to academia and political prominence. In his thirty-four years in Congress - including his record-breaking tenure as Senate Majority Leader from 1961 to 1977 - Mansfield was deeply involved in the great events of his time with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford."--Jacket.