Gerald R. Ford Quotes

The United States is as weak as the Soviet Union. If enough pressure is applied to them, they will pull out of the Middle East.

The Cold War didn't end. It was won.

Following the missile crisis, detente started to gain ground between the United States and the Soviet Union, so the international political climate improved after that.

Russia does not want confrontation of any kind. And we will not take part in any kind of 'holy alliance.'

The United States has dealt with the Middle East and surrounding regions for many decades in the context of the Cold War.

The core of detente [with Russia] is the reduction in arms.

That's the problem with Russia: The world has changed. Europe is not at war, and no one wants to negotiate with us. The world has changed, but Russia prefers to pretend it has not.

The engagement policy of détente made the United States number two in a world where it is dangerous, if not fatal, to be second best

If Russia and the United States approach each other in starkly adversarial terms, the conflict will badly warp the foreign policy of both countries ...

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

For the Kremlin, it is more feasible to preserve its great-power status in cooperation with the United States than in confrontation.

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

I told him that my own opinion was that the time now and the method now to deal with Russia was to keep our mouths shut and let our actions speak for words.

I believe the U.S. already understands and will understand more and more that only a strong Russia will respond to the genuine interests of the United States.

The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.

Of course the United States and Russia have different interests. Nevertheless, both are strategic partners.

The overall or political objective is to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and British Empire.

One hour ago, President Johnson informed me that Egyptian forces are preparing an attack on Israeli positions and that this attack is to be launched. If such a thing happens, then the United States will consider itself freed from the commitments it gave to the USSR to exercise restraint.

Why were the Europeans bothered about the Soviet Union at all? It was nothing to do with us. China had nothing to do with us. Why were we not building, without reference to the Soviet Union, a good society in our own countries? But no, we were all — in one way or another — obsessed with the bloody Soviet Union, which was a disaster…

Military security and a policy of detente are not contradictory but complementary.

My last words to you, my son and successor, are: Never trust the Russians!

The United States will have the honor of proving experimentally, that true policy goes hand in hand with moderation and humanity.

The United States is too big and too important a country to have permanent enemies.

It’s not in our interest to drive the Russians into a beleaguered attitude where they have to prove what they can do.

If we can deter the Soviet Union, if we can deter North Korea, why on earth can't we deter Iran?