| Terry Sanford begins the final installment of Biographical Conversations with comments about the late 1960s and the Vietnam War, which he states was a “terrible political mistake.” After his term as governor was over, he went back to practicing law and set up a study of American States to student other state governments. From his findings, he thought that states were becoming too dependent on the federal government and were not showing the excellence and leadership that he felt state governments should model.
He began to eye the US Presidency when he ran Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for president. In 1968 he considered running for the US Senate, but after running polls and surveying the political climate at the time, he decided against it.
However, his political career took a more academic turn when he was chosen to be Duke University’s president. He gladly accepted, knowing that he could contribute to the university and could make improvements. In fact, one of his early decisions was to improve the athletic program at Duke. Against opposition that stated that the program was too expensive, Sanford pushed to have an athletic program that had the same standards of excellence as the academic programs.
He was a popular president. Like UNC president Graham, he held meetings with students and became affectionately known as “Uncle Terry.” In fact, he used that nickname to his advantage in a letter to students correcting them for their rudeness during athletic events. When some of the Duke students petitioned him to run for US President, he entered his name into the race, against, as he says, his better judgment. Because he did not run a full-time campaign, Sanford lost the primary—twice—but had no regrets about not leaving his duties at Duke.
He did, however, run a full-time campaign for US Senator against Senator Broyhill, vying for the office to strengthen the Democratic Party. He won but served only one term, losing to Lauch Faircloth in 1986. During his time in the Senate, he created an International Commission to study problems in South America and held hearings for Middle East issues.
After he retired, Sanford began writing and studying aging issues. Still interested in education, he said he was pleased with some of the educational experiments that North Carolina is conducting to try to provide more options for children.
Issues
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