On this date in Automotive History: July 8 1909 Romney Sticks to His Guns George Romney, the AMC President largely responsible for the introduction of the compact car, was born in a Mormon colony in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico. Romney’s grandfather, Miles Romney, had been one of the founding members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois. The elder Romney sired thirty children, one of who was Gaskell Romney, George’s father. In 1885 when U.S. law forbade polygamy, a number of Mormons obtained permission from the Mexican government to buy land and start colonies. While George’s parents followed the group, they remained monogamists. The family returned to the U.S. in 1912, afraid of being harmed at the hands of Pancho Villa’s marauding band. George Romney grew up in poverty in California and never went to college. He remained Mormon and credited his success to his spiritual training, saying “I do not think there is any college training that is a substitute for my religious training.” He entered the car industry as a salesman and eventually became one of the most powerful men in the business, leading AMC in becoming the largest independent car company in the country. He became the governor of Michigan in 1962, a position he held for eight years. Romney was a visible figure in the civil rights movement and he caused a great sensation when he spoke out against the war in Vietnam in 1967, as he had strongly supported the war effort in only two years earlier after returning from a visit with a group of governors to Saigon. Following his trip, he deemed the war “morally right and necessary.” Romney’s change of opinion came as he saw the war worsening and through his increased knowledge of Vietnam. He felt that he had been “brainwashed” during his visit to Vietnam and that the leaders of the country were not being honest about the war. The voting public deemed his reversal of opinion unforgivable, hurting his chances badly when Romney ran for the presidency in 1968. Sticking to his guns, Romney accused Secretary of Defense and former Ford executive Robert McNamara of giving the public inaccurate information. Romney may have been enigmatic and prone to changes of opinion, but history shows him as a man who was willing to admit to being wrong while others were afraid to do the same.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 17:26:30 +0000
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