Stanley Baldwin Quotes

There's no excuse for skimping on national defense when the country is at war.

Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.

If the Pentagon truly confined itself to providing defense, then presumably we wouldn't need a whole separate government agency to provide 'Homeland Security.'

In any case, decisions on troop levels in the American system of government are not made by any general or set of generals but by the civilian leadership of the war effort.

Let no one expect us to disarm unilaterally. We are not a naive people.

It is necessarily requisite to the peoples defense, that they be fore-armed. Now to be fore-armed is to be furnished with Soldiers, Armies, Ships, Forts and Monies, before the danger be instant; for the listing of Soldiers, and taking up of Arms after a blow is given, is too late at least, if not impossible.

Now that you're Secretary of War, what kind of an army do you think we ought to have?

As president, I wouldn't be making the day-to-day combat decisions. The job of the commander-in-chief is to lay the objective out and then you rely upon the generals and admirals and commanders to give you their expert advice on the tools needed to carry out that objective.

I think one of the reasons I'm standing here instead of other people is that, frankly, I talked about it, we have to have a strong military.

The National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.

We do need our defense capabilities. It is a fact that the cuts we are facing today and the cuts that Senator [Ted] Cruz would have supported would leave us with an even smaller Air Force and a smaller Navy than the one we are going to be left with.

If your basic premise about the fundamental purpose of our government is that it must provide for the common defense, then no other position is possible.

But the federal government, our collective government, has responsibilities that none of these other levels of government can fulfill; and chief among these is national defense.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

The Pentagon budget, like all government spending, is an expression of priorities.

Getting our military back on stable footing won't happen overnight. We must start this process now, since future engagements are likely and allies are scarce.

Defense is not like other discretionary spending.

I want to compliment The Heritage Foundation for its work on behalf of a strong national defense.

It seems to me worth while for this Government to try whether it will not work on a large enough scale to be of use in the event of war.

Japan is the only country in the world that does not call its defense organizations a military. That is absurd, when the government is spending 5 trillion yen a year for self-defense.

Our national-security strategy must drive our military budget, rather than the budget setting our strategy.

I'm very, very pro-defense.

We will not negotiate with anyone about our weapons and defenses, and we will make and store as many weapons, facilities, and missiles as we need.

I believe that wholeheartedly - that we have to maintain a strong national defense.

The No. 1 purpose of the federal government is national defense.