William S. Cohen Quotes
Don't come in [to the Senate] without assets and remain that way.... Go out and accumulate some capital and then try and run for the Senate.
William S. Cohen, U.S. Senator (Republican, ME), U. S. Secretary of Defense, Advice to Peter Dawkins, Quoted in New York Times, September 15, 1988
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The “old man” was their father, Joseph P. Kennedy who was a very wealthy businessman, but an unsavory figure. He had made much of his money in bootlegging and smuggling, and although married, carried on notorious affairs with movie stars. When he had the opportunity to serve the country in a critical post, he supported Hitler and the Fascists and fought to keep America from assisting England in WWII. President Roosevelt fired him, and President Harry Truman literally came to blows with Kennedy. JFK wanted his father’s money, but didn’t want him anywhere near the campaign. Most people who voted for Kennedy, had no idea that his father was on the Fascist side in WWII. Ironically, JFK was a hero who fought against the fascists and his older brother was killed in Europe on a secret mission against Germany. The elder Kennedy accused President Roosevelt of ‘murdering” his son in a useless war.
In Rhodes’ era money not only bought and influenced politicians but it enabled rich people and their companies to have their own armies and follow their own foreign policy. The British government has a long history of finding a proper balance of control over British wealthy men and her companies doing everything from enforcing the law to invading other countries. Without the companies, the management of the huge empire would have been too expensive and with them, the citizens and the government lost control of foreign policy. In the end, the latter was unacceptable and the British Empire was just too Expensive to maintain where so any nations wanted independence.
William Sebastian Cohen is an American politician, lawyer and author from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as both a member of the United States House of Representatives (1973–1979) and Senate (1979–1997), and as Secretary of Defense (1997–2001) under Democratic President Bill Clinton.
