The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust our own government statements. I had no idea until then that you could not rely on them.
There are many respects in which America, if it can bring itself to act with the magnanimity and the empathy appropriate to its size and power, can be an intelligent example to the world.
Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations.
In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.