Audio: 'ABC Evening News 1972 VP Drama' (July 28, 1972)

(Tuesday, July 25, 1972, morning CDT; during the 1972 United States presidential election campaign) — Democratic vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton said today that he was hospitalized three times between 1960 and 1966 for “nervous exhaustion and fatigue” and that he had undergone psychiatric treatment, including electric shock therapy, for “depression” on two of the three occasions.

The U.S. Senator from Missouri volunteered a review of his medical history before a surprising news conference this morning at the vacation retreat of the presidential nominee, Senator George McGovern, in Custer, South Dakota.

On the basis of a complete checkup in Washington last week, Eagleton said laughingly that he suffered now from nothing worse than “two pounds overweight and half a hemorrhoid.”

Senator McGovern, acknowledging that he had not been aware of his running mate’s earlier difficulties when he chose him at Miami Beach 11 days ago, said he would have picked him anyway.

“There is no one sounder in body, mind, and spirit than Tom Eagleton,” he said.

Later, in response to questions about whether he had made “an irrevocable decision” to keep Eagleton on the ticket, McGovern replied, “Absolutely.”