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Richard Green Lugar KBE (/ ˈ l u ɡ ər / LOO-gər; April 4, 1932 – April 28, 2019) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party. Born in Indianapolis, Lugar graduated from Denison University and the University of Oxford.
- 1957–1960
Richard Lugar, the former Indiana senator whose work in pursuit of nuclear nonproliferation helped cement his place as one of the Republican Party's most influential voices on foreign policy,...
Apr 28, 2019 · Richard G. Lugar, who represented Indiana in the Senate for 36 years and whose mastery of foreign affairs made him one of only a handful of senators in modern history to exercise substantial...
- Overview
- Reaction to Lugar's death
Indianapolis — Former Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican foreign policy sage known for leading efforts to help the former Soviet states dismantle and secure much of their nuclear arsenal, but whose reputation for working with Democrats cost him his final campaign, died Sunday. He was 87.
The Lugar Center issued a statement saying Lugar died early Sunday at the Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute in Virginia from complications related to chronic inflammatory demylinating polyneuropathy, or CIPD, a rare neurological disorder.
A soft-spoken and thoughtful former Rhodes Scholar, Lugar dominated Indiana politics during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate. That popularity gave him the freedom to concentrate largely on foreign policy and national security matters — a focus highlighted by his collaboration with Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn on a program under which the U.S. paid to dismantle and secure thousands of nuclear warheads and missiles in the former Soviet states after the Cold War ended.
"Every stockpile represents a theft opportunity for terrorists and a temptation for security personnel who might seek to profit by selling weapons on the black market," Lugar said in 2005. "We do not want the question posed the day after an attack on an American military base."
He served for decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, twice as chairman, where he helped steer arms reduction pacts for the presidential administrations of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, supported an expansion of NATO and favored aid to Nicaragua's Contra rebels.
Lugar tried to translate his foreign policy expertise into a 1996 presidential run, where his slogan was "nuclear security and fiscal sanity." But his campaign for the GOP nomination went badly from the start. His kickoff rally began just hours after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, and he struggled to build name recognition and support.
Former President Barack Obama issued a statement Sunday afternoon saying "for 36 years, Richard Lugar proved that pragmatism and decency work — not only in Washington, but all over the world."
"He exhibited the truth that common courtesy can speak across cultures," Obama continued. "In Dick, I saw someone who wasn't a Republican or Democrat first, but a problem-solver-an example of the impact a public servant can make by eschewing partisan divisiveness to instead focus on common ground. Today, thousands of warheads, bombers, and submarines no longer threaten us because of Dick's work. America is safer because of Dick; the world is, too. His passing is a reminder of the constant and pressing need to expand international nonproliferation agreements. And it's a call to remember what a public servant can be."
- 5 min
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Apr 28, 2019 · INDIANAPOLIS — Former Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican foreign policy sage known for leading efforts to help the former Soviet states dismantle and secure much of their nuclear arsenal,...
Apr 29, 2019 · INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Richard Lugar worked to alert Americans about the threat of terrorism years before “weapons of mass destruction” became a common phrase following the Sept. 11 attacks.
May 15, 2019 · May 15, 2019. INDIANAPOLIS — Richard G. Lugar, a six-term senator from Indiana known for expertise in international affairs and a voice incapable of a shout or a slur, was remembered on...
