![]() In 1971, he led a one-man filibuster to protest the Vietnam-era draft, and he read into the Congressional Record 4,100 pages of the 7,000-page leaked document known as the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department’s history of the country’s early involvement in Vietnam. Gravel’s Senate tenure also was notable for his anti-war activity. It was one of the last bills Carter signed before leaving office. In the end, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, a compromise that set aside millions of acres for national parks, wildlife refuges, and other protected areas. Gravel feuded with Alaska’s other senator, Republican Ted Stevens, on the land matter, preferring to fight Carter’s actions and rejecting Stevens’s advocacy for a compromise. He had the unenviable position of being an Alaska Democrat when some residents were burning President Jimmy Carter in effigy for his measures to place large sections of public lands in the state under protection from development. SONNY CALLAHAN, WHO DIED FRIDAY, HELPED STABILIZE THE MIDDLE EAST Gravel’s two terms came during tumultuous years for Alaska when construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was authorized and when Congress was deciding how to settle Alaska Native land claims and whether to classify enormous amounts of federal land as parks, preserves, and monuments. Gravel had been living in Seaside, California, and was in failing health, said Theodore Johnson, a former aide. Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, died Saturday, according to his daughter, Lynne Mosier. ![]() senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. ![]() SEASIDE, California (AP) - Mike Gravel, a former U.S. ![]()
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