Archibald Cox Quotes
I confess that I cannot understand how we can plot, lie, cheat and commit murder abroad and remain humane, honorable, trustworthy and trusted at home.
Cox, Archibald. Quoted in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations, edited by James B. Simpson, Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
In the early 21st century America’s world image, credibility, and popularity had plummeted to new lows. The George W. Bush administration spent millions of dollars on public diplomacy – public relations, propaganda, and image building using the techniques of Madison Avenue to change the world perception of America. Veteran diplomats like Kissinger advised that the Bush was going about it backwards. If America did the right things, world opinion would appreciate it and America’s credibility will follow as it has throughout most of the 20th century. Most foreign politicians and journalists tended to agree. It had been Bush’s policies and practices that had been disliked. They were understood, it was argued, and did not need to be better explained—just changed.
Austin was negotiating as a person loyal to Mexico for the territory of Texas. He spent much time in Mexico City and even renounced his U. S. citizenship and applied for Mexican citizenship. But his negotiations were always forcefully for Texas which was viewed very differently by the many Mexican political factions. In 1834 he was jailed for sedition caught between diverse Mexican interests and his vision of Texas.
He was referring to his campaign in 2000 where South Carolina was a very important state in the Republican primary elections and he was campaigning there. At that time, the racist tradition of flying the Confederate Flag, a symbol of slavery and disloyalty to the Union, over the state capitol was a hot political issue with Blacks and some whites outraged and many conservatives who were insistent that the tradition be maintained. McCain, not wanting to offend the conservative who were the core of the voters in the Republican primary, said he did not see anything wrong with the practice when it really offended him as it did most Americans at the time.
Archibald Cox Jr. was an American lawyer and law professor who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and was also an authority on constitutional law. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Cox as one of the most cited legal scholars of the 20th century.
