POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS

POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE

Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.


SIGNIFICANT QUOTATIONS & SAGACIOUS REMARKS
INSIGHTS ON POLITICAL PHENOMENA & THE HUMAN SPECIES



WAR & PEACE:

NATIONAL SECURITY, MILITARY AFFAIRS,
GEOPOLITICS, & FOREIGN POLICY

RE: A Nation's Will to Defend Itself.

"A nation is not worthy to be saved if, in the hour of its fate, it will not gather up all its jewels of manhood and life, and go down into the conflict, however bloody and doubtful, resolved on measureless ruin or complete success."

      James A. Garfield, Speech, U.S. House of Representatives
            (1864).


RE: Pacifism & World Peace.

"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion."

      W.R. Rice, OUTSPOKEN ESSAYS (1915).


RE: Pacifism & Patriotism.

"The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrong-doer."

      Theodore Roosevelt, Speech, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
            (1917).


RE: Pacifism & a Nation's Defense & Security.

"There is no shadow of protection to be had by sheltering behind the slender stockades of visionary speculations, or by hiding behind the wagon-wheels of pacific theories."

      Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, Quoted in THE NEW YORK HERALD-
            TRIBUNE (March 21, 1938).


RE: Pacifism & Dealing with Totalitarian Aggressors.

"If the Nazis have really been guilty of the unspeakable crimes circumstantially imputed to them, then--let us make no mistake--pacifism is faced with a situation with which it cannot cope. The conventional pacifist conception of a reasonable or generous peace is irrelevant to this reality."

      John Middleton Murry, PEACE NEWS (September 22, 1944).


RE: Utopian Dreams & Schemes for Achieving World Peace.

"The Conservative views with a wary and skeptical eye Utopian blueprints for the reforma- tion of humanity, the elimination or sublimation of national patriotism, the elimination of war by contracting with a crafty and unscrupulous enemy that each cast away his weap- ons."

      William Henry Chamberlain, THE EVOLUTION OF A CONSERVATIVE
            (Henry Regnery, 1959).


RE: National Strength, Remaining Free, & Keeping the Peace.

"It is the cause of Republicanism to remind ourselves and the world that only the strong can remain free--that only the strong can keep the peace!"

      Barry Morris Goldwater, Acceptance Speech, Republican
            National Convention, San Francisco, California
            (1964).


RE: The Purpose of War.

"The aim of war is to be able to live unhurt in peace."

      Marcus Tullius Cicero, DE OFFICIIS (78 B.C.).


RE: The Purpose of War.

"The purpose of all war is peace."

      Saint Augustine, THE CITY OF GOD (427 A.D.)


RE: The Purpose of War.

"War is undertaken for the sake of peace, which is its only lawful end and purpose.

      James Kent, COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW (1826).


RE: What Makes a War a Crime Against Humanity.

"War is a dreadful thing, and unjust war is a crime against humanity. But it is such a crime because it is unjust, not because it is war."

      Theodore Roosevelt, Speech, Sorbonne (1910)


RE: How an Honorable Peace Is Attained..

"An honorable peace is attainable only by an efficient war."

      Henry Clay, Speech, U.S. House of Representatives (1813).


RE: War & the Moral Code.

The Bible nowhere prohibits war. In the Old Testament we find war and even conquest positively commanded, and although war was raging in the world in the time of Christ and His Apostles, still they said not a word of its unlawfulness and immorality."

      H.W. Halleck, ELEMENTS OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE
            (1846).


RE: Winning Peace versus Buying Peace.

"You may either win your peace or buy it; win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil."

      John Ruskin, THE TWO PATHS (1859).


RE: Doing Justice to All & Submitting to Wrong by None.

"The foreign policy of our government is to do justice to all, and to submit to wrong by none."

      Andrew Jackson, Second Presidential Inaugural Address
            (1833).


RE: Peace & Righteousness.

"Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is a righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping."

      Theodore Roosevelt, Annual Message, U.S. Congress
            (1906).


RE: In Peace & in War.

"In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger."

      William Shakespeare, HENRY V (1599).


RE: Appeasement & World Peace.

"That doctrine [of appeasement, or peace at any price] has done more mischief than any I can well recall that have been afloat in this country. It has occasioned more wars than any of the most ruthless conquerors. It has disturbed and nearly destroyed that political equilibrium so necessary to the liberties and the welfare of the world."

      Benjamin Disraeli, Speech, British House of Lords
            (1844).


RE: Appeasement as the Means to Avoid War.

"There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people's safety and greatness."

      Grover Cleveland, Address, U.S. Congress (1895).


RE: Appeasement as the Means to Avoid War.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

      Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1954).


RE: Standing Armies in Time of Peace.

"If ... it should be resolved to extend the prohibition [against armies] to the raising of armies in time of peace, the United States would then exhibit the most extraordinary spectacle which the world has yet seen--that of a nation incapacitated by its Constitution to prepare for defense before it was actually invaded. ... the presence of an enemy within our territories must be waited for as the legal warrant to the government to begin levies of men for the protection of the State. We must receive the blow before we could even prepare to return it. All that kind of policy by which nations anticipate distant danger and meet the gathering storm must be abstained from, as contrary to the genuine maxims of free government. We must expose our property and liberty to the mercy of foreign invaders and invite them by our weakness to seize the naked and defenseless prey, because we are afraid the rulers, created by our choice, dependent on our will, might endanger that liberty by an abuse of the means necessary to its preservation.

"The steady operations of war against a regular and disciplined army can only be success- fully conducted by a force of the same kind. Considerations of economy, not less than of stability and vigor, confirm this position. The American militia, in the course of the late war, have, by their valor on numerous occasions, erected eternal monuments to their fame; but the bravest of them feel and know that the liberty of their country could not have been established by their efforts alone, however great and valuable they were. War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverence, by time, and by practice.

      Alexander Hamilton, FEDERALIST 25 (1787-1788).


RE: War as the Lesser Evil.

"Although war is evil, it is occasionally the lesser of two evils."

      McGeorge Bundy, Essay, Yale College (1940).


RE: War & America's Prosperity.

"If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean--surrender your commerce, give up all your prosperity."

      Henry Clay, Speech, U.S. House of Representatives (1812).


RE: Military Training & the Nation's Safety.

"We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instructions a regular part of collegiate education. We can never be safe till this is done."

      Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Monroe (1813).


RE: Military Preparedness & Peace.

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."

      George Washington, First Annual State of the Union to
            Congress (1790).


RE: Military Preparedness & Peace.

"Preparation for war is the surest guarantee for peace."

      Theodore Roosevelt, "Washington's Forgotten Maxim,"
            Speech, Naval War College (1897).


RE: Military Preparedness & Peace.

"It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war."

      John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Presidential Election Campaign
            Speech (1960).


RE: Military Preparedness & Peace

"We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed."

      John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Presidential Inaugural Address
            (1961).


RE: The Causal Relationship between War & Armies.

"It is a popular delusion that armies make wars; the fact is wars inevitably make armies."

      Emory Upton, "The Military Policy of the United States"
            (1880).


RE: Speaking Softly and Carrying a Big Stick.

"A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: 'Speak softly and carry a big stick--you will go far.' If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few things more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting; and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both fool- ish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign power. Let us further make it evident that we use no words which we are not prepared to back up with deeds, and that while our speech is always moderate, we are ready and willing to make it good. Such an attitude will be the surest possible guarantee of that self-respecting peace, the attainment of which is and must ever be the prime aim of a self-governing people."

      Theodore Roosevelt, "The Big Stick," Speech, Minnesota
            State Fair (1901).


RE: Military Defense & the Maintenance of Peace.

"If order, peace, and civilization in a town, city, or state rest, as they do in the last analysis, upon force, upon what does the peace of a nation depend? It must depend, and it can only depend, upon the ability of the nation to maintain and defend its own peace at home and abroad....

"Armament is merely the instrument by which the force of the national community is manifested and made effective, just as the policeman is the manifestation of the force of the municipal community upon which local order rests. The fact that armies and navies are used in war does not make them the cause of war, any more than maintaining a fire in a grate to prevent the dwellers in the house from suffering from cold warrants the abolition of fire because where fire gets beyond control it is a destructive agent. The good or evil of national armament depends, not on its existence or its size, but upon the purpose for which it is created and maintained. Great military and naval forces created for purposes of conquest are used in the war which the desire of conquest causes. They do not themselves cause war. Armies and navies organized to maintain peace serve the ends of peace because there is no such incentive to war as a rich, undefended, and helpless country, which by its condition invites aggression. ... for one nation to disarm and leave itself defenseless in an armed world is a direct incentive and invitation to war. The first step, then, toward the maintenance of peace is for each nation to maintain its peace with the rest of the world by its own honorable and right conduct and by such organization and preparation as will enable it to defend its peace....

"We should never forget that if democracy is not both able and ready to defend itself, it will go down in subjection before military autocracy because the latter is then more efficient."

      Henry Cabot Lodge, "Force and Peace," Chancellor's
            Address, Union College (1915).


RE: Military Strength & Involvement in War.

"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the United States was too strong."

      Ronald Wilson Reagan (1980).


RE: Good, Evil, & the Arms Race.

"So in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware of the temptation of pride--the temptation blithely to declare yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil."

      Ronald Wilson Reagan, Statement, Orlando, Florida (1983).


RE: Victory in War.

"In war there is no substitute for victory."

      Douglas MacArthur, Speech, U.S. Congress (1951).


RE: Warmaking & the Will to Win.

"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it."

      Douglas MacArthur, Speech, Republican National Convention
           (1952).


RE: Peace & Going to the Brink of War.

"The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necassary art. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost."

      John Foster Dulles (1959).




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