Max Cleland, former US Senator and Army veteran, dies at 79

Max Cleland, who was a former lawmaker in the United States Senate and veteran of the Vietnam war, died on Tuesday. He was 79 years old.

Linda Dean, his personal assistant, said that Cleland succumbed to congestive heart failure at his residence in Georgia’s Atlanta, according to reports from Associated Press.

Cleland, who represented the United States on the field as an Army captain, lost three limbs while trying to pick up a live grenade that had fallen on the ground. The 1968 incident severely injured the former armed forces official, sending him off to the hospital for months.

Nearly a decade after the incident, Cleland was made the chief of United States Veterans Administration in 1977 by former President Jimmy Carter, a member of the Democratic party. He held the position for four years.

The VA and the wider medical community recognized post-traumatic stress disorder — what had been previously been dismissed as shell-shock — as a genuine condition while Cleland was in charge, and he worked to provide veterans and their families with better care, according to reports from Associated Press.

Cleland’s 2002 Senate loss generated enduring controversy after the campaign of Saxby Chambliss aired a commercial that displayed images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and questioned the Democrat’s commitment to defending the nation. Senator John McCain was among those who condemned the move by his fellow Republican.

The Democratic Party of Georgia, on Tuesday, released a statement recognising the former lawmaker’s contribution in the United States Senate. 

The statement read, “His patriotism, commitment to public service, and love for Georgia were unmatched, and his contributions to our state and nation – particularly for our service members, veterans, and their families – will be felt for generations to come.”

President Joe Biden saluted his Senate colleague Tuesday as someone with “unflinching patriotism, boundless courage, and rare character.”