World War II veteran and Vietnam critic McGovern passes

George McGovern, a proud liberal who argued fervently against the Vietnam War as a senator from South Dakota and suffered one of the most crushing defeats in presidential election history against Richard Nixon in 1972, died yesterday.

He was 90.

A spokesman for McGovern’s family, Steve Hildebrand, told reporters that McGovern died at 5:15am yesterday at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and lifelong friends.