The son of a Methodist minister, George Stanley McGovern grew up in South Dakota. An indifferent student as a youth, McGovern later credited participation in high school debate with giving him confidence and he graduated in the top 10% of his high school class. His college education was interrupted by World War II, as McGovern enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force and served as a bomber pilot in Europe. After the war, McGovern resumed his studies, culminating in a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University in 1953. While employed as a professor of history and political science at Dakota Wesleyan University, McGovern became involved in Democratic Party politics. After working to build a voter list for the party, McGovern ran for the House of Representatives in 1956, successfully defeating the Republican incumbent. McGovern relinquished his House seat in 1960 to run for the Senate, only to be defeated by the incumbent Republican senator, Karl Mundt. After a brief period in the Kennedy administration, McGovern ran for the United States Senate succeeded in his second attempt in 1962, winning election by a slim margin. As a United States Senator, McGovern emerged as an early opponent of his country's intervention in South Vietnam. Approached by opponents of President Lyndon Johnson within the party, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the party's presidential nomination in 1968. Running again in 1972, he succeeded in winning the Democratic Party presidential nomination, only to be defeated by Republican President Richard Nixon in a landslide. Though he won a third Senate term in 1974, he was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 1980. McGovern spent his later years engaged in a variety of private activities, including writing, and a stint as a United States ambassador to the United Nations.