Gore, Al, full name Albert Gore, Jr. (1948- ), American politician and the 45th vice president of the United States (1993- ). Gore was born in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 1948. His father, Albert Gore, Sr., was a longtime Democratic congressman and senator from Tennessee. Gore graduated from Harvard University in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in government. Although Gore opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1959-1975), he accepted induction into the United States Army and served from 1969 to 1971. While in Vietnam, Gore worked as a military reporter. Upon his return home, and until 1976, he worked as an investigative reporter and editorial writer for The Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper. During this time Gore operated a small farm and worked as a homebuilder and land developer. In 1976 he earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University, where he had also studied philosophy in 1971 and 1972. Gore married Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Aitcheson in 1970, and they had four children.
Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. He was reelected in 1978, 1980, and 1982. In 1984, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. As a member of Congress, Gore earned a reputation as an authority on arms control and environmental issues. He pioneered efforts to clean up hazardous waste dumps and brought political attention to the depletion of the earth's ozone layer. Gore ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. In 1992, presidential candidate Bill Clinton chose Gore as his running mate on the Democratic ticket. Clinton defeated the incumbent Republican president, George Bush, and Gore became vice president in 1993. Gore is the author of several books, including Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992).

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