Detente Quotes

• Detente is a readiness to resolve differences and conflicts not by force, not by threats and sabre-rattling, but by peaceful means, at the conference table.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  War, Mean, Differences

  "Brezhnev Reconsidered". Book by Edwin Bacon, p. 99, 2002.

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• It is madness for any country to build its policy with an eye to nuclear war.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  Country, War, Eye

  "Indefensible Weapons: The Political and Psychological Case Against Nuclearism". Book by Robert Jay Lifton and Richard A. Falk, p. 224, 1992.

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• I shall add that only he who has decided to commit suicide can start a nuclear war in the hope of emerging a victor from it. No matter what the attacker might possess, no matter what method of unleashing nuclear war he chooses, he will not attain his aims. Retribution will inevitably ensue.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  Suicide, War, Add

  "Soviet Strategy and the New Military Thinking". Book by Derek Leebaert and Timothy Dickinson, p. 68, 1992.

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• Communism will never be halted by negotiations or through the machinations of detente. It can only be halted by force from without or by disintegration from within.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  War, Cold, Communism

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• Detente - isn't that what a farmer has with his turkey - until Thanksgiving?

  Ronald Reagan

  Turkeys, Farmers

  Ronald Reagan, Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, George P. Shultz, Martin Anderson (2001). “Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

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• We are entirely for the idea that Europe shall be free from nuclear weapons, from medium-range weapons as well as tactical weapons. That would be a real zero option.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  Zero, Real, Europe

  "Nuclear War: The Search for Solutions". Book by Leonard V. Johnson, 1985.

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• The power and diversity of the Armed Forces, active Guard and Reserve, the resolve of our fellow citizens, the flexibility in our command to navigate international waters that remain troubled are all essential to our security.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Water, Diversity, Citizens

  United States. President (1974-1977 : Ford), Gerald R. Ford (1975). “Gerald R. Ford: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President”

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• I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.

  Golda Meir

  War, Phrases, Use

  Newsweek, January 19, 1976.

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• A strong defense is the surest way to peace. Strength makes detente attainable. Weakness invites war, as my generation - my generation - knows from four very bitter experiences. Just as America's will for peace is second to none, so will America's strength be second to none. We cannot rely on the forbearance of others to protect this Nation. The power and diversity of the Armed Forces, active Guard and Reserve, the resolve of our fellow citizens, the flexibility in our command to navigate international waters that remain troubled are all essential to our security.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Strong, Peace, War

  Gerald R. Ford's address to a joint session of Congress, August 12, 1974.

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• I believe that detente was having almost the opposite effect of what was intended. What was intended was to sort of end the contest for power and to stop Soviet expansion, especially by military means and the military build-up, the military contest

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Military, Believe, Mean

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• Why is Netanyahu pushing war? Among several reasons, demonizing Iran reduces pressure on Israel to negotiate seriously with the Palestinians. Many Israelis prefer building Jewish settlements on Palestinians' land instead. Moreover, Israel's rulers oppose any development-such as an Iranian-U.S. detente-that could diminish Israel's U.S.-financed hegemony in the region. War with Iran would be a catastrophe all around. Netanyahu and his hawkish American allies-the same people who gave us the disastrous Iraq war and ISIS-must be repudiated.

  Sheldon Richman

  War, Isis, Iran

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• With a television show, it's about fighting to get it on the screen every week. It's like going into battle, and you have to fight these fights. Some are big fights, some are skirmishes, some you can come to detente on, but it's always a fight.

  Alfred Gough

  Fighting, Battle, Television

  "Al Gough and Miles Millar Exclusive Interview CHARLIE'S ANGELS". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. February 1, 2011.

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• In the years just before... during the Carter years, the Soviets regularly violated, if you will, both the spirit and theletter of arms control agreements, I think, that they had negotiated during the period of detente.

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Thinking, Agreement, Years

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• And I think detente had manifestly failed, and that the pursuit of it was encouraging Soviet expansion and rendering the world more dangerous, and especially rendering the Western world in greater peril.

  Jeane Kirkpatrick

  Thinking, Expansion, World

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• Reverie is commonly classified among the phenomena of psychic detente. It is lived out in a relaxed time which has no linking force. Since it functions with inattention, it is often without memory. It is a flight from out of the real that does not always find a consistent unreal world.

  Gaston Bachelard

  Time, Memories, Real

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