Long before he was a U.S. senator, Max Cleland, who died this year at 79, was a U.S. Army captain, a soldier’s soldier who earned Silver and Bronze Stars for valor in Vietnam. At the Battle of Khe Sanh, he lost both legs and his right arm, but he was never given to complaining. Like the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who would let children touch the scars he carried from his police beating on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Max would encourage gawkers to rub the stump of his arm as if it were Buddha’s belly. Quoting Ernest Hemingway, he would say he was “strong in all the broken places,” knowing the scars he carried were a source of inner strength, tangible proof of his commitment to American democracy. See Full Magazine Issue Here.
