Adlai Ewing Stevenson III (October 10, 1930 – September 6, 2021) was an American attorney and politician from Illinois.

He had been awarded Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure with gold and silver stars and was an honorary Professor of Renmin University of China.

[3][4] Stevenson was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952, served in Korea and was discharged from active duty in 1954.

He faced former state representative Ralph T. Smith in the general election, who was appointed to the seat by Gov.

Stevenson defeated Smith in a 1970 special election by a vote of 2,065,054 (57%) to 1,519,718 (42%) to fill Dirksen's unexpired term.

[1] He warned of "spectacular acts of disruption and destruction" and an amendment that proposed reducing assistance for Israel by $200 million.

Stevenson had sharp differences with the Israeli lobby on issues concerning the Middle East, including a 1979 vote to cut military assistance to Israel by 10 percent and support of a 1978 weapons sale to Saudi Arabia.

In a letter to Jewish leader Hyman Bookbinder in 1980, Stevenson wrote:"It is the Israeli lobby, led by AIPAC, which I deplore.

The senator declined to campaign, but as the nominating process got underway, Daley forces ran him as a favorite son candidate.

[19] Despite this, former governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia locked up the nomination before the 1976 Democratic National Convention, in New York City.

[21] In the 1982 campaign, Stevenson complained that Thompson was trying to portray him as an ineffectual elitist by famously stating, "He is saying 'Me tough guy,' as if to imply that I’m some kind of wimp.

[16] He was also co-chairman of the PECC's Financial Market Development Project, a member of the U.S.-Korea Wisemen Council, and sat on the board of directors of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

[1] He was also chairman of the international Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy housed at the family home, a national historic landmark, near Libertyville, Illinois.

[33] Stevenson died from complications of Lewy body dementia at his home in Chicago on September 6, 2021, at age 90.

[5] His father, Adlai Stevenson II, was governor of Illinois, Ambassador to the United Nations, and two-time Democratic presidential nominee.

[35] Stevenson met his future wife, Nancy Anderson, in 1953 while he was in tank training at Fort Knox in preparation for his deployment to Japan and then Korea.