‘I want you to know that if it will serve the United States, I am expendable. Just don’t do it for unimportant reasons.” This was former senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.’s response to President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 request that he, a lifelong Republican, return to public life as ambassador to South Vietnam and serve in a Democratic administration. The Vietnam post was only one milestone in Lodge’s cursus honorum—besides serving as a senator and ambassador he was also, at different times, a state legislator, a military officer, a vice-presidential nominee and a possible presidential candidate. For almost five decades, Lodge...

Source: Wall Street Journal September 07, 2020 22:18 UTC