Dean Acheson Quotes

Show this administration an oil well, and it will show you a foreign policy.

In truth, every American administration since that of Franklin D. Roosevelt has maintained close ties with the Saudi rulers, and for a single, simple reason: oil.

It is no exaggeration to say that Syria holds the key for nearly all of America's foreign policy goals in the Middle East. As Syria goes, so goes the region.

Already, China has undermined U.S. foreign policy in efforts to gain access to oil resources in Iran and Sudan. We simply cannot separate the political and economic values of oil.

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil …. Whatever their publicized angst over Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction,' American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in an area that harbors a resource indispensable for the functioning of the world economy

If we lose Saudi Arabia because of sanctions or by avoiding them, they're going to China; they're going to Russia.

As we head to war with Iraq, President Bush wants to make one thing clear: This war is not about oil. It's about gasoline.

Vladimir Putin uses energy to hold our allies hostage. If energy is going to be used as a weapon, I say America must have the largest arsenal.

The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all considered, one would not normally choose to go. But we go where the business is.

The internal affairs of other countries has a big impact on American interests.

I don’t think America wants democracies in the Middle East. They wouldn’t be nearly as friendly to us

Normalization of relations with the United States should not be a reward for good behavior .... It should depend on America's interests.

Nothing has really taken me aback more as Secretary of State than the way that the politics of energy is –… warping diplomacy around the world…we have simply got to do something about the warping now of diplomatic effort by the all-out rush for energy supply

There is nothing in common between the United States and Saudi Arabia except Israel.

Energy is always geopolitics.

Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches

It’s not America’s job to fix the Middle East. Our job is to look after our own interests..

We will never again permit any foreign nation to have Uncle Sam over a barrel of oil.

Israel may be beloved, but for American security, it is not essential.

It's all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton.

In a world of increasing interdependence, energy security will depend much on how countries manage their relations with one another. That is why energy security will be one of the main challenges of foreign policy in the years ahead. Oil and gas have always been political commodities.

Nothing would please me more, but who else would pump the oil that we need? God damn America.

Europeans were actually buying more Russian oil and gas than they were helping Ukraine... So in some ways, the Europeans are funding both sides of the war.

Iran is central to our foreign policy in the Middle East, a major player in global energy markets, and a key country in terms of our interaction with the Muslim world.

Iraq is not about oil.