PENDLETON, Ind. — The state’s longest serving U.S. senator was honored as part of Indiana Public Radio’s Indiana Living Biography Series at the Pendleton Community Library on Sunday.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., took the stage before an audience of about 20 locals, telling the audience and cameras, the tale of his Indiana upbringing and political career, including a brush with the Russians that left him and President Barack Obama detained at a Russian airport.
Lugar, a fifth-generation Hoosier, graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis and Denison University in Granville, Ohio.
Lugar then attended Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
Lugar was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 after serving two terms as the mayor of Indianapolis.
Lugar answered questions about his history in politics, emphasizing his influence on farm legislation, hunger, foreign relations and nuclear weapons disposal.
He explained that after the fall of the Soviet Union, Lugar joined Sen. Sam Nunn in forming the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, an initiative aimed at dismantling the nuclear weapons pointed at the United States in Russia.
There were 12,000 to 15,000 warheads aimed at the U.S. when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Lugar told the Pendleton crowd Sunday.
“We had a similar number aimed at Russia,” he said.
So far, the cooperative has deactivated 7,500 of those warheads.
“We’re down to roughly 2,000 warheads apiece,” Lugar said.
In his mission to rid Russia of nuclear arms, Lugar has traveled there multiple times over the years.
On Sunday, he told the story of his trip to the former Soviet Union that ended with him and then-Sen. Barack Obama being detained by the Russians.
On a trip to Perm, Russia, Obama and Lugar went to the airport to celebrate progress in removing more nuclear warheads when they were detained by Russians, who became skeptical of Lugar’s intentions, he told the audience.
“The Russians sincerely believed I was a spy,” Lugar said.
The two men were released shortly after learning they’d been detained and flew home safely.
When asked about the future, Lugar said the country remains threatened by nuclear warfare.
“We’re not out of the woods with regard to nuclear weapons.”
With North Korea and Iran consistently in the news touting weapons advancement, Lugar said Americans remain at risk.
“This is still a very dangerous world,” he said.
At the conclusion of his interview, Lugar said he’d like to be remembered as a loving husband and father to four sons.
Three members of the audience attended the biography series not to hear about Lugar’s adventures in politics, but to ask for his support in their own endeavors.
Former members of the Merchant Marine, a group of men who served in World War II ferrying supplies to soldiers at war, want to be recognized for their service and compensated by the GI Bill as the soldiers have been.
Don Elwood, leader of the local Merchant Marine chapter, said Lugar has not yet agreed to co-sponsor the bill awarding benefits to the men.
Veterans advocate Lisa Wilken said she hopes Lugar joins the campaign to recognize the service of the merchant mariners. “It’s a common-sense issue.”
Contact Brandi Watters 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
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