Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on January 13 of this year, our country lost one of its most courageous diplomats--Ambassador Robert E. White. Ambassador White was 88 years old. I knew Bob White, who graduated from my alma mater, Saint Michael's College in Vermont, in 1952, just 9 years before I did. But I would have admired him greatly no matter what college he went to because he had the qualities every American diplomat should possess--outstanding intellect, unimpeachable integrity, great courage, and a devotion to the ideals and values of this country. In the 1980s, during the civil war in El Salvador, the United States--in what most historians now know was a tragic mistake-- steadfastly supported the Salvadoran Army despite abundant evidence that some of its elite units were operating as death squads, arbitrarily arresting, torturing, and murdering civilians suspected of supporting the FMLN rebels. Unlike some other U.S. officials who turned blind eyes to the heinous crimes that were being committed in the name of fighting communism, Ambassador White refused to remain silent. He publicly condemned the Salvadoran military and their rightwing backers who were implicated in atrocities such as the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who just days ago was put on the path to sainthood by Pope Francis, and the massacre of four American churchwomen. For speaking out on behalf of the victims of those crimes, Bob White paid dearly.…”