Who was the only U.S. Congressman to vote against entering World War II?
Actually, it was a woman. On December 8, 1941, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 388-1 to enter the war. The only no-vote came from Republican Representative Jeannette Rankin, a pacifist from Montana. Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) was the first woman ever elected to the House and served two terms, separated by many years. During her first term from 1917 to 1919, she voted against U.S. entry into World War I and subsequently lost her bid for re-election. Her second term was from 1941 to 1943. Her vote against U.S. entry into World War II, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, caused a sensation and she did not seek re-election. She devoted the remainder of her life to pacifism and feminism. In 1968, feisty 87-year-old Jeannette Rankin led an anti-war march of 5,000 women in Washington, D.C., protesting the Vietnam War.
