In December, 1941, as Congress reacted to President Roosevelt’s call for force against Japan, Rep. Jeannette Rankin (R-Montana) became the only member to vote against America’s entry into World War II. With emotional regret, the lifelong pacifist said: “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” Rankin had been the first female elected to Congress, in 1916 (in 1917, she voted against participation in WW I). Widely cursed, she retired from politics. There is today the J. Rankin Foundation, and a statue of the lady in the U.S. Capitol.
TOM TIEDE