Interview: Sen. Campbell on the American Dream

Thursday, March 22, 2007  

Forbes interviews retired Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colorado), a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana, and asks him one question "What is the American Dream?"

"The American Dream is freedom of success. It's the freedom to be what you want and to strive for what you want. I think it differs from a lot of countries where they have no dreams or can't implement their dreams," he says.

Campbell recounts his troubled youth and "dysfunctional" family. "I was a high school dropout. My dad was an alcoholic," he says.

But after joining the Air Force and serving in the Korean War, he went to college. He started judo competitions and made it to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

"If it hadn't been for sports and the Air Force, I might have ended up in a different kind of institution than the U.S. Senate," he says.

Campbell retired from the Senate in 2004.

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Ben Nighthorse Campbell On The American Dream (Forbes 3/22)

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