Topeka, Kansas — Bob Dole has passed away. He overcame the trauma of the war and became an articulate Senate leader in Kansas. He was the Republican presidential candidate and later became his dwindling generation. Symbol and celebrater of veterans of World War II. He is 98 years old.

His wife Elizabeth Dole posted the news on Twitter on Sunday.

Dole announced in February 2021 that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

"Bob Dole serves our country, from the battlefields of World War II to the U.S. Senate, we all serve his country. At this moment, our hearts are with his family and friends," the governor Phil Murphy (Phil Murphy) said in a brief statement also posted on Twitter on Sunday.

During his 36-year career on Capitol Hill, Dole became one of the most influential legislators and party leaders in the Senate. He combined a talent for compromise with a mean wit. He often attacked himself, but he did not hesitate to attack. Others, too.

He formulated tax policies, foreign policies, farm and nutrition programs, and the rights of persons with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act stipulated protections against discrimination in employment, education, and public services.

Today's barrier-free government offices and national parks, sidewalk ramps, and sign language interpreters in local official events are just some of the more visible signs of his legacy and the legislators he convened for extensive civil rights legislation 30 years ago.

In his later years, Dole devoted himself to the cause of commemorating wounded veterans, their comrades who died in Arlington National Cemetery, and veterans of World War II.

In 2004, tens of thousands of veterans gathered on the National Mall to participate in what Doll called "our last reunion" at the inauguration of the World War II Memorial. He has always been the driving force of his creation.

"Our team has been reduced," he said at the time. "However, if we gather in the twilight, we will be happy because of our knowledge of maintaining confidence in our comrades."

Dole has already left Kansas, spent his life in the capital, in the center of power, and then retired in the shadow of it, living in the legendary Watergate. When he left politics and joined a law firm made up of well-known Democrats, he joked that he took his dog to work so he could talk to another Republican.

He has tried to become president three times.

Finally, in 1996, when he won the Republican nomination, only President Bill Clinton was re-elected.

He sought the presidential nomination of his party in 1980 and 1988, and was a Republican vice presidential candidate in 1976, defeating President Gerald Ford.

Through all this, he bears the mark of war. In 1945, Dolle was struck by a shrapnel from an artillery shell when he was charging into battle in northern Italy, crushing two vertebrae, causing his arms and legs to become paralyzed.

The young army platoon commander recovered in the hospital for three years, but his right hand could no longer be used.

In order to avoid embarrassing those who try to shake hands with him, Dole always puts the pen in it and stretches out his left hand.

Dole may be ruthless to his competitors, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

When George HW Bush defeated him in the 1988 Republican primary in New Hampshire, Dole sternly said: "Don't lie to my record anymore." If in today's political arena, this is the same as those heinous insults. It pales in comparison, which was shocking at the time.

But when Bush died in December 2018, when Doll appeared in front of Bush's coffin in the rotunda of the Capitol, the old competition was forgotten. When an assistant lifted him up from the wheelchair, the sick and sad Dole slowly stabilized himself, paying tribute to his once mortal enemy with his left hand, his jaw trembling.

Twenty years ago, in a vice presidential debate with Walter Mondale, Dole boldly referred to all wars in the United States in that century as "Democratic Wars." Mundell retorted that Dole had just “won his reputation as a man with an axe”.

Dole initially denied saying what he had just said on that very public stage, then flinched, and finally admitted that he had done too much. "I should go to the jugular vein," he said, "I did it—my own."

Despite all his naked ways, he is convinced that the Senate as an institution has won the respect and even the love of many Democrats.

Just days after Dole announced his terrible cancer diagnosis, President Joe Biden visited his home and wished him all the best.

The White House stated that the two were close friends in the Senate.

Dole won a seat in Congress in 1960, representing the Western House District of Kansas. Eight years later, when the current Republican President Frank Carlson retired, he entered the Senate.

There, he made fierce partisan and satirical remarks at the request of President Richard Nixon, angering his fellow Senate colleagues. In 1971, before Nixon’s presidency fell due to the Watergate scandal, Kansasians were rewarded by the chairman of the Republican National Committee for their loyalty.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he served as chairman of the Senate committee, majority leader, and minority leader. All in all, he served as the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate for nearly 11.5 years, a record that was broken by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell in 2018.

It was during this period that he gained a reputation as a shrewd and pragmatic legislator, and he worked tirelessly to reach compromises.

After the Republicans won control of the Senate, Dole became chairman of the tax preparation and finance committee and won praise from deficit hawks and others for handling the 1982 tax bill, in which he persuaded Ronald Reagan's White House to agree to an increase of $100 billion To alleviate the federal budget deficit.

But some more conservative Republicans were shocked by Dole's push to raise taxes. Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich called him "the tax collector of the welfare state."

Dole became the leader of the Senate in 1985 and served as the majority or minority leader, depending on which party was in charge, until he resigned in 1996 to run for the presidency.

That campaign was Dole's last campaign, and it was full of problems from the beginning. He ran out of money in the spring, and the Democratic advertisement used the same brush to depict the Republican candidate and the split House Speaker Gingrich: Just like the Republicans want to cancel health insurance. Clinton won by a big score.

He also faces questions about his age as he ran for president at the age of 73-breakfast during Biden's election cycle before the 78th in 2020.

After retiring to private life, Dole became an elderly politician who helped Clinton pass a chemical weapons treaty.

He also takes care of his wife's political ambitions. Elizabeth Dole (Elizabeth Dole) failed to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and subsequently served as the North Carolina senator.

Dole is also popular with the public as a self-deprecating salesman of Viagra and other products.

He also continued to comment on issues and support political candidates.

In 2016, Dole initially supported the Republican presidential nomination by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Later, he developed a good impression of Donald Trump and eventually supported him.

But six weeks after the 2020 election, Trump still refused to acknowledge and promote baseless allegations of voter fraud. Dole told the Kansas City Star that “the election is over.”

He said: "This is a very bitter pill for Trump, but it is a fact that he has lost."

In September 2017, Congress voted to award Dole the highest appreciation for the country's outstanding contributions, which is the Congressional Gold Medal. That was ten years after he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Congress again commended Dole in 2019, promoting him from Captain of the Army to Colonel, in recognition of his two Purple Heart Medals for him.

Robert Joseph Dole was born on July 22, 1923 in Russell, an agricultural and oil community in western Kansas. He is the eldest of four children. His father ran a butter and egg business and managed the grain elevator, and his mother sold sewing machines and vacuum cleaners to help support the family during the Great Depression. Dole studied at the University of Kansas for two years before enlisting in the army in 1943.

Dole met Phyllis Holden, a therapist at the military hospital, while recovering from the trauma of war in 1948. They are married and have a daughter, Robin. The couple will divorce in 1972.

Dole began his political career at Washburn University and won a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.

When she was working for Nixon's White House, he met his second wife, Elizabeth Dole. When Dole was in the Senate, she also served on the Federal Trade Commission and served as Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Labor. They got married in 1975.

Dole published a memoir "A Soldier's Story" about his wartime experience and recovery in 2005.

The Dole School of Political Science at the University of Kansas maintains the archives of veterans of World War II in Kansas.

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