Your work at Nuremberg as Chief U.S. Prosecutor in 12 trials involving 190 defendants not only made history but gave life to such concepts as “War Crimes,” “Crimes Against Peace,” and “Crimes Against Humanity”—concepts with a sadly enduring relevance to our present day. By your own account, little in your previous experience in military intelligence or as general counsel, before the war, to the Federal Communications Commission had prepared you for this path-breaking role. But by the time you relinquished that role, you had received a broad array of international honors. Having broken new ground in the practice of international law, you went on to teach that subject at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Cardozo Law School, and, for 14 years, at the Columbia University School of Law. You have also expanded public awareness of the field through such fine books as Sword and Swastika, Nuremberg and Vietnam, and Munich: The Price of Peace, which won the 1979 National Critics Prize for non-fiction. Your latest book, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, published when you were 84, was dubbed by The New York Times as “wise and authoritative,” “a masterly work of military and judicial history.” And it beckons its grateful readers with the promise of a further installment of reflections on a life-experience that has been truly unique. In recognition of your distinguished achievement in the field of international law, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.
Megamenu Social