Dean Rusk Quotes

We wanted this war and now we've got it, and I'm not sure that we know what to do with it.

Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

Let them fight it out, friend! Things have gone too far.

Unless you’re prepared to use force, it’s very difficult to deal with a person who understands only force.

The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations.

Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour. They chose dishonour. They will have war.

If it's to be a bloodbath, let it be now. Appeasement is not the answer.

Politics is the womb in which war develops.”

Nations drift into wars.

War is always an option. Peace is not.

When a rising power confronts a ruling power, bad things usually happen.... This is what happens when an extablished entity faces an upstart.... To avoid a disasterous clash like war, both parties have to make an adjustment, but the ruling power has to make more painful adjustments.

Those who think that through concessions they will gain respect and peace are wrong. It's the other way around; it will lead to more wars.

There are some who, for varying reasons, would appease Red China. They are blind to history's clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.

Those who make war against the United States have chosen their own destruction.

There can be no compromise with war.

Any jackass can talk about bombing Iran.

A broader reading of history shows that appeasement, no matter how it is labeled, never fulfills the hopes of the appeasers.

Nobody welcomes a war - not if they're smart. But war finds everyone sooner or later. It's inevitable.

As you can see, even when [Adolf] Hitler desires to speak for peace, he cannot dispense with threats. This is symptomatic.

For WAR, consisteth not in Battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battle is sufficiently known.... So the nature of War, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

I have never advocated war except as a means of peace.

If you aren't please tell me how you are going to not have a war.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.