Vietnam War Quotes - Page 3

• One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  War, Society, Vietnam

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• Our objective in South Vietnam has never been the annihilation of the enemy. It has been to bring about a recognition in Hanoi that its objective - taking over the South by force - could not be achieved.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  War, Enemy, Vietnam

  On Vietnam and Not Seeking Reelection, delivered 31 March 1968

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• We still seek no wider war.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  War, Stills

  Broadcast speech, 4 Aug. 1964

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• It's time that we recognized that ours was in truth a noble cause.

  Ronald Reagan

  War, Noble, Causes

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• Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam... These events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America's leadership in the world.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Military, Pride, America

  "A War Tat is Finished". Gerald R. Ford's speech at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, www.historyplace.com. April 23, 1975.

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• What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?

  Robert McNamara

  Winning, Tokyo, Immoral

  "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara". Documentary, www.imdb.com. August 30, 2003.

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• [General Curtis] LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side has lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?

  Robert McNamara

  Children, Winning, Men

  "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara". Documentary, www.imdb.com. August 30, 2003.

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• It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.

  Ronald Reagan

  Funny, Christmas, Country

  Ronald Reagan (1968). “I goofed: the wise and curious sayings of Ronald Reagan, 33rd Governor of California”

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• All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Money, War, Battle

  Benjamin Franklin, E. Sargent (1855). “The select works of Benjamin Franklin”, p.459

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• If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals.

  Robert McNamara

  War, Thinking, Criminals

  Robert S. McNamara (2004). “Official Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film”

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• We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.

  Ronald Reagan

  Stars, Military, War

  A Time for Choosing (aka "The Speech"), Air date 27 October 1964, Los Angeles, CA

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• What can one say about a country where a museum of science in a great city can feature an exhibit in which people fire machine guns from a helicopter at Vietnamese huts, with a light flashing when a hit is scored? What can one say about a country where such an idea can even be considered? You have to weep for this country.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, War, Gun

  Institute Professor Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky (2010). “American Power and the New Mandarins”, p.28, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• If in order to avoid further Communist expansion in Asia and particularly in Indo-China, if in order to avoid it we must take the risk by putting American boys in, I believe that the executive branch of the government has to take the politically unpopular position of facing up to it and doing it, and I personally would support such a decision.

  Richard M. Nixon

  War, Believe, Boys

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• In the '60s we fought for peace, when the Vietnam war was on. We were against the cops and against the politicians, and there was a lot of waving banners and all that. And I think in a way, just as they were enjoying that machoism of war, we were enjoying the machismo of being anti-war, you know?

  Yoko Ono

  War, Thinking, Vietnam

  "Just imagine". Interview with Andrew Smith, www.theguardian.com. November 03, 2001.

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• I was proud of the youths who opposed the war in Vietnam because they were my babies.

  Benjamin Spock

  Baby, War, Vietnam

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• All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

  Benjamin Franklin

  War, Arbitration, Opinion

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• If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.

  Curtis LeMay

  War, Criminals, Lost

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• The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man.

  Ho Chi Minh

  Pregnancy, Men, People

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• We seem bent upon saving the Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh, even if we have to kill them and demolish their country to do it....I do not intend to remain silent in the face of what I regard as a policy of madness which, sooner or later, will envelop my son and American youth by the millions for years to come.

  George McGovern

  Country, Son, Years

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• When the strongest nation in the world can be tied up for years in a war with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness, and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration - then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Leadership, War, Home

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• Matterhorn is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Vietnam, Metaphor

  "A Vietnam Epic Uncovers Old Wounds: An Interview with Karl Marlantes". Interview with Evan James, www.motherjones.com. April 30, 2010.

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• We have as a nation been duped by those who use our guilt about how we treated the innocent pawns in the Vietnam War game - the soldiers - into missing the point once again about the utter senselessness that is war.

  Steven Weber

  War, Games, Missing

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• America has made no reparation to the Vietnamese, nothing. We are the richest people in the world and they are among the poorest. We savaged them, though they had never hurt us, and we cannot find it in our hearts, our honor, to give them help-because the government of Vietnam is Communist. And perhaps because they won.

  Martha Gellhorn

  Hurt, War, Heart

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• President Johnson did not want the Vietnam War to broaden. He wanted the North Vietnamese to leave their brothers in the South alone.

  William Westmoreland

  Brother, Military, War

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• Naturally the common people don't want war. . . but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along. . .

  Hermann Goring

  Country, War, Simple

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