Congressman Cohen Remembers David Halberstam

Madam Speaker, yesterday a great American died, David Halberstam. We had a mutual friend, and through that I got to know Mr. Halberstam. He chronicled and wrote and reported the events of the last half of the 20th century. He saw truth, he spoke truth, and he wrote truth; and he gained his first fame at the age of 30 when he received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting about a quagmire known as Vietnam, a misdirection of American energies in foreign policies that led us to lose over 30,000 lives and many casualties in a great blunder under American foreign policy. We have a similar situation today in Iraq, another mistaken folly, and lives are being lost.

Madam Speaker, I would hope that we could speak truth to power, and that power would know that the Congress is giving the President a bill to support the troops, to bring the troops home and support them by seeing that they are not put in harm's way, and that the President will support the bill that the Congress gives him.

We have lost a great leader in Mr. Halberstam, and may the truth and knowledge that he brought to this country be imbued in this House and in executive leadership where another politician along with the 535 here serve.