Bok Commends Cox's Action In Defying Presidential Order

In an unannounced and hastily arranged morning prayer service at Appleton Chapel yesterday, President Bok praised Archibald Cox '34, in his first public remarks concerning President Nixon's dismissal of the former special Watergate prosecutor.

Bok commended Cox for his unwillingness to compromise his conscience in the face of "uncertain demands of international security and domestic harmony."

"I have never known a man who took his responsibilities more seriously or struggled harder to be true to his principles," Bok told the packed audience in his five-minute address.

However, Bok's comments did not constitute a political stand on the Watergate issue, as some observers had expected. Bok has yet to make a statement on the subject, Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, confirmed yesterday.

Bok said afterwards that Cox will not be returning to Harvard soon. "It's very, very likely that he's going to want to go somewhere to rest for the rest of the semester," he said.

Bok stressed the morally instructive implications of Cox's actions: "The University must be sensitive to everything that bears upon the moral education of its members. It was a principle worth defending, even by refusing to obey a Presidential order, in order to press its importance vividly on the mind of the nation."

"It is ironic that in our conversation on the morning before he [Cox] decided to accept his Washington post, one of Archie's chief concerns was whether his decision would set a bad example for his younger colleagues by suggesting that important government service was automatically to be preferred to the professor's chief responsibility as a teacher," Bok recounted.

"In retrospect, it appears that he has taught us more in government service than he could have hoped to achieve in those Harvard classrooms where we welcome him back with admiration," Bok concluded.

The Rev. Michael C. Henderson, assistant to the minister of Memorial Church, said that yesterday was the first time Bok has spoken at morning services.

Bok said he requested the time because "I felt in a personal way very moved by what Archie did, and I wanted to express carefully and exactly what I feel."

Bok said that Cox's action exemplified "the truth embedded in Aristotle's Ethics: if you would understand virtue, observe the conduct of virtuous men."