Editing Archibald Cox (section)

===Kennedy advisor, then partisan===

====Kennedy's labor expert====
In 1953 the young and ambitious [[John F. Kennedy]], new to the Senate, decided that labor relations would be the area that he would specialize in to begin building a policy and legislative resume for use in future political endeavors. He wrote to Cox in March 1953 inviting him to testify before the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.{{sfn|Gormley|1997|p=98}} Cox was a natural ally to seek out. He was one of Kennedy's constituents and a fellow Harvard alumnus. More importantly, he was a nationally recognized academic expert on labor law and a liberal Democrat{{efn|Professor Cox in 2000 was not certain when he had registered as a Democrat. He thought it "may have just been in connection with working with Kennedy and thinking it would be well advised."{{sfn|Hilbink|2000|p=1:62}} He once revealed that he had voted in an election for Democrat [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] for president, Republicans [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]] for Senator and [[Christian Herter]] for Governor.<ref name="ProfDemand">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/04/06/archives/professor-in-demand-archibald-cox.html|title=Professor in Demand: Archibald Cox|work=New York Times|date=April 6, 1960|page=31|access-date=April 20, 2016|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322155136/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/04/06/archives/professor-in-demand-archibald-cox.html|archive-date=March 22, 2018|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Lodge's opponent in that race was John F. Kennedy.}} with a predisposition towards labor.

In the fall of 1959, after the work on the Landrum–Griffin Act had wound up, Kennedy confided to Cox that he was running for president.{{sfn|Gormley|1997|p=112}} In January 1960, he wrote Cox formally asking him to head up his efforts to "tap intellectual talent in the Cambridge area" and then "ride herd over twenty or thirty college professors" in their activities for him.{{efn|[[Abram Chayes]] claimed that it was his idea to select Cox for this purpose and so told Sorensen "a couple of months" before 1960.{{sfn|Chayes|1964|pp=52–53}}{{sfn|Gormley|1997|p=115}} Much as he did with the informal group of advisors whom Cox recruited and led for the initial advice on the McClellan Hearings, Kennedy never made explicit what activities he wanted the group to perform, although he was clear to both Cox and those experts he met that he did not expect them to consider political implications in delivering their opinion on sound policy.{{sfn|Hilbink|2000|p=1:72}} Cox later found out that the position had been originally offered to Harvard law professor [[Mark De Wolfe Howe (historian)|Mark Howe]], who turned it down, thinking he was not suited for the role, and recommended Cox.<ref>{{harvnb|Hilbink|2000|pp=1:70–71}}; {{harvnb|Gormley|1997|p=115}}.</ref>}} Cox brought a number of eminent policy experts in a number of fields into contact with Kennedy. Although many were skeptical of his candidacy and some had been loyal to or inclined towards either [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] or [[Hubert Humphrey]], Kennedy won them over at a meeting in Boston's Harvard Club on January 24.{{efn|''See'' {{harvnb|Gormley|1997|p=116}}. The attendees included, from MIT: [[Jerome Wiesner]], [[Walt Whitman Rostow|Walt W. Rostow]], [[Paul Samuelson]], [[Lucian Pye]] and [[Walter A. Rosenblith]]; from Harvard Law School: Mark Howe, [[Paul Freund]] and [[Abram Chayes]]; and from Brandeis: [[Edward L. Katzenbach, Jr.]]{{sfn|Gormley|1997|p=485 n.22}}}} In the period leading up to the [[1960 Democratic National Convention|Democratic Convention]] in July, Cox acted mainly as a "stimulator" to prod various academics to send memoranda to Kennedy or to find academics to supply Kennedy with policy positions on specific topics.{{sfn|Hilbink|2000|pp=1:72–73}} While before the Convention, Cox had not recruited extensively beyond the Boston area, he had at least one recruit from the University of Colorado and recruited from [[Stanford University|Stanford]].{{sfn|Lester|1964|p=47}} as well. Even though the number was not large before the nomination, no other Democratic contender, not even Stevenson, had made an effort to recruit intellectual partisans.{{sfn|Lester|1964|pp=42–45}}

[[File:Archibald Cox in 1960.jpg|thumb|left|Archibald Cox in April 1960]]
As with the case of Cox's informal group of labor advisors, Kennedy was anxious to use Cox's contacts not only for their expertise but also for the éclat they gave his campaign. A ''Congressional Quarterly'' article in April, widely reprinted in local papers, named Cox and the other Cambridge advisors as a key to the kinds of policies Kennedy would advocate.<ref>One of the many papers that reprinted the report: {{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4766714/jefferson_city_posttribune/|title=Presidential Candidates Rely on 'Brain Trusts' for Advice|work=Jefferson City [Mo.] Post-Tribune|date=April 26, 1960|page=5|access-date=March 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413211132/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4766714/jefferson_city_posttribune/|archive-date=April 13, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> "Of John F. Kennedy's political talents none has been more helpful to him than his ability to attract capable men to his cause," the ''Times'' said in the middle of the convention.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/07/14/archives/kennedys-nomination-drive-aided-by-mixture-of-amateurs.html|title=Kennedy's Nomination Drive Aided by Mixture of Amateurs, Professionals, Eggheads and Hardheads|work=New York Times|date=July 14, 1960|access-date=March 23, 2016|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727115202/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/07/14/archives/kennedys-nomination-drive-aided-by-mixture-of-amateurs.html|archive-date=July 27, 2018|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The description of Cox's academic advisers was designed to recall Roosevelt's "[[Brain trust#Roosevelt.27s .22Brain Trust.22|Brain Trusts]]": "More ideas poured in from Cambridge, Mass., where an astounding galaxy of scholars had made themselves an informal brain-trust for Senator Kennedy."

After the Los Angeles Convention Kennedy, now the nominee, asked Cox to move to Washington to have an expanded role, hiring speechwriters and coordinating academic talent. Cox accepted, and then Kennedy point blank asked Cox if he thought he could get along with [[Ted Sorensen]] and explained "Sorensen's fear that somebody was going to elbow his way in between him and Kennedy."{{sfn|Hilbink|2000|p=1:74}} Cox assumed he could.{{sfn|Gormley|1997|p=122}} Cox had been unaware that Sorensen had already been at work, back in February, trying to compartmentalize and minimize Cox' group's efforts. Sorenen told [[Joseph A. Loftus]] of the ''Times'' that the Cambridge group was "something 'much more talked about than fact.'"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/02/08/archives/diverse-staffs-assist-kennedy-some-work-for-candidate-others-for.html|last=Loftus|first=James A.|title=Diverse Staffs Assist Kennedy|work=New York Times|date=February 8, 1960|page=25|access-date=March 28, 2016|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215107/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/02/08/archives/diverse-staffs-assist-kennedy-some-work-for-candidate-others-for.html|archive-date=July 25, 2018|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Cox would soon discover, however, that Sorensen always "was terribly worried about being cut out" and protected Kennedy from independent advice, including Cox'.{{sfn|Hilbink|2000|p=1:66}}