Charles H. Percy Quotes

By absenting the United States from the process by which international legal rules are made, the Senate has denied the country’s ability to shape them.

The United States' credibility is at an all-time low. So, this war is against the interest of the Untied States.

U.S. foreign aid must be used more strategically to achieve our national security goals.

Foreign policy must be about priorities. The United States cannot do everything everywhere.

Most tragic mistake in history occurred when the United States joined the U.N.

It was a privilege to play a leading role in helping to safeguard our parliamentary sovereignty, and as such I am, on any view, a person with a genuine and substantial interest in the matter of defending MPs' voices.

Well it did not make excessive sense to say that 20 million people are the recognized government of a billion people that have their own institutions. We did not change it in the sense that we said this has to end, but there was a U.N. vote that transferred the legitimacy of China from Taiwan to Beijing. Beijing was recognized as the government of all of China. Then, under President Carter, we followed what the U.N. had already done eight years earlier.

Hard power makes sense under some circumstances. But there's not a universal solution to global problems. A major country like the United States has to have a broadly-conceived program for effective international action, influence and cooperation with others.

Let's note, that in what I consider the most disgraceful performance abroad by an American official in my lifetime - something not exampled since Jane Fonda sat on the anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi to be photographed - Mr. McDermott said in effect, not in effect, he said it, we should take Saddam Hussein at his word and not take the President at his word. He said the United States is simply trying to provoke. I mean, why Saddam Hussein doesn't pay commercial time for that advertisement for his policy, I do not know.

Will the United States pull the rug on New Zealand? The answer is no. They might polish the lino a bit harder and hope that I execute a rather unseemly glide across it.

The United States government does not negotiate with terrorists.

Every American president, regardless of party, has said that America has an intense interest in a peaceful resolution. And I think it should be left at that.

I have looked at public opinion polls in France in the late 1940s and early 1950s during the height of Marshall Plan aid. They had a very negative attitude towards the United States then. There were negative attitudes towards the United States because of Vietnam. There were negative attitudes about the United States when Reagan wanted to deploy intermediate range ballistic missiles. I don't think the president should base his foreign policy on American public opinion polls, let alone foreign public opinion polls.

I want a president who'll look out for American interests. Every treaty we sign has a provision that a president of the United States, if he or she concludes that it's no longer in the interest of the country should step back from it.

It is not the role of the United States to dictate change, but to enter into discussions with our friends.

One of the problems with Marco's [Rubio] foreign policy is he has far too often supported Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama undermining governments in the Middle East that have helped radical Islamic terrorists.

As president, I decided that a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government. We've seen the results.

I think what we need to do is understand our number one obligation is to act in the national interest of the United States of America. I believe it is in our national interest to see democracy take hold on the island of Cuba. And so we examine our foreign policy, including all the changes that President Obama made, in that lens and through that lens.

I'd like to see a more aggressive attitude on the part of the United States. That doesn't mean launching an immediate preventive war.

I believe that the United States is not genuine regarding having a cessation of violence in Syria.

Everyone knows that the Zionist regime is a tool in the hands of the United States and British governments.

Earlier this month the State Department gave the umpteenth performance of its popular play, Please Tread on Me, with Ceylon as guest star, and the usual cast.

I'm confident that America's foreign policy rebalance to the region will endure beyond my presidency because it's in the national interest of the United States.

The other view is of the official United States, the United States of armies and interventions. The United States that in 1953 overthrew the nationalist government of Mossadegh in Iran and brought back the shah.

My hope is the Trump administration will approach Russia strategically, with a clear purpose of trying to find more common ground, but without giving up on fundamental values and principles that are at the core of the United States' foreign policy.