United States Senate
After U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) died in office in 1969 and Ralph Tyler Smith was appointed to the seat, Stevenson defeated Smith in a 1970 special election by a 58% to 42% margin to fill Dirksen's unexpired term. Stevenson introduced legislation requiring an end to all foreign aid to South Vietnam by June 30, 1975. He authored the International Banking Act, the Stevenson Wydler-Technology Innovation Act and its companion, the Bayh Dole Act, to foster cooperative research, organize national laboratories for technology utilization and commercialization, permit private sector interests in government funded research. He was the first Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee charged with implementing a code of ethics he helped draft. Stevenson was also chairman of a Special Senate Committee which reorganized the Senate and served on the Democratic Policy Committee. Inter alia, he also conducted the first in depth Congressional study of terrorism as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Collection and Production of Intelligence, leading to introduction of the Comprehensive Counter Terrorism Act of 1971 with warnings of "spectacular acts of disruption and destruction" and an amendment which proposed a reduction of assistance for Israel by $200 million until such time as the President could certify that the settlements polices of the newly elected Likud Government of Israel were consistent with U.S. policy. His amendment received 7 votes.
Stevenson was re-elected to the seat in 1974, and in 1980 declined to stand for re-election, thus serving in the U.S. Senate from 1970 to 1981.
Stevenson was encouraged to run for President in 1976 by Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago, declined and was one of the finalists for Vice-President at the Democratic Convention that year. Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota was nominated for vice president.
Read more about this topic: Adlai Stevenson III
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