About this whole judgment there is the spirit of vengeance, and vengeance is seldom justice. The hanging of the eleven men convicted will be a blot on the American record which we shall long regret
Profiles in Courage, Kennedy, p. 191.
As a matter of general principle, I believe there can be no doubt that criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government … too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it as far as I am concerned, because the maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur.
This is a quality that has appeared often enough in American history — and outside America as well. Senators likeTed Kennedy have been prominent before, bearing names likeHenry Clay orDaniel Webster,John C. Calhoun, Robert Taft,Barry Goldwater andHubert Humphrey. Governors like New York Republican Nelson Rockefeller or Alabama DemocratGeorge Wallace. A Congressman likeJack Kemp. Non-office holders likeMartin Luther King in the United States orMohandas Gandhi in India orNelson Mandela in South Africa (who later became president of his country) can, through sheer force of personality, come to dominate the political scene of the day without ever bearing a single official title.
