U.S. Senator. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the state of California for four terms in the US Senate from January 1969 until January 1993, serving as the Democratic Whip from 1977 until 1991. Born Alan MacGregor Cranston in Palo Alto, California into a wealthy real estate family, he attended local public schools before attending Pomona College in Claremont, California and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, and graduated in 1936 from Stanford University in Palo Alto with a degree in journalism. In 1937, he became a correspondent for the International News Service for two years preceding World War II (WWII), covering Europe and North Africa. When an abridged English-language translation of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" was released, sanitized to exclude some of Hitler's anti-semitism and militancy, he published a different translation (with annotations) which he believed more accurately reflected the contents of the book. In 1939 Hitler's publisher sued him for copyright violation in Connecticut and a judge ruled in Hitler's favor and publication of the book was halted. From 1940 until 1944, he served as chief, foreign language division in the Office of War Information and in 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. In 1945, he wrote the book, "The Killing of the Peace," a synopsis of the failed bid to get the U.S. to join the League of Nations immediately following World War I (WWI). A world government supporter, he attended the 1945 conference that led to the Dublin Declaration, and became president of the World Federalist Association in 1948. In 1949, he successfully pushed for the California legislature to pass the World Federalist California Resolution, calling on Congress to amend the Constitution to allow US participation in a federal world government. From 1949 until 1952, he was the national president of the United World Federalists. In 1952, he co-founded the California Democratic Council and served as its chairman. In 1958, he was elected California's State Controller as a Democrat and was re-elected in 1962. In 1968, he ran as the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate and was elected to the first of four six-year terms, defeating Republican challenger Max Rafferty, followed by Republican challenger H.L. "Bill" Richardson in 1974, Republican Paul Gann in 1980, and Republican Congressman Ed Zschau in 1986. During his time in the U.S. Senate, he served on the Banking, Housing, Urban Affairs, Veterans (which he chaired), and Foreign Relations Committees and was strongly opposed to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, dropping out of the race after finishing poorly in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. In November 1991, he was reprimanded by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics for "improper conduct" after Lincoln Savings head Charles Keating's companies contributed $850,000 to voter registration groups closely affiliated with him. Because the Keating affair had damaged his political career, coupled with his diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, he decided against running for a 5th U.S. Senate term. His final act as a Senator was to preside over the inauguration of Bill Clinton as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. A fitness enthusiast, he was notable for practicing and participating in the sport of track and field as a sprinter in special senior races. An avid lifetime supporter of the global abolishment of nuclear weapons, in his retirement he became a part of the Nuclear Weapon Elimination Initiative of the State of the World Forum and founded the Global Security Institute in 1999, serving as its president. He died of natural causes in Los Altos, California at the age of 86.