James McBride Quotes

I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.

Americans, particularly after World War II, tended to romanticize war because in World War II our cause was the cause of humanity, and our soldiers brought home glory and victory, and thank God that they did. But it led us to romanticize it to some extent.

The notion of American exceptionalism is effective in part because there is little on the face of it that is offensive.

I've always had a keen interest in the world. My father was in Patton's 3rd Army, and he helped liberate Dachau in the 7th Army.

Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people and that most of them seemed to come from Texas.

I remember the 1940s as a time when we were united in a way known only to that generation. We belonged to a common cause-the war.

A few weeks ago we were reminded that other peoples - in particular the United States of America - fought so that we Germans could live in liberty. That we should never forget.

I have a friend that is a WWII buff, and we sat and talked a lot about stuff like the war and the reasons behind it, and you now it's all in the uniform. Once you're in it, it usually does all the work for you.

After 9/11, I knew I wanted to write about power and identity and the way Americans on all sides of the political spectrum often mythologize our leaders, which are themes that the superhero genre has always handled really well.

Anzac Day, it seems, must now be done with bluster, hoopla and media hypnotism.

In 'The King's Speech,' patriotism is utterly contained within a historical moment, the third of September, 1939, where the aggressor is clear, the fight is clear, it hasn't become complicated over time.

War is America's central liturgical act necessary to renew our sense that we are a nation unlike other nations.

After the Second World War, people in Japan no longer died for their country, and even that expression was no longer used.

I think the reaction to a World War II situation would be the same today as it was in 1942. Initially, people would question, but once patriotism got stirred up, the whole thing would gather momentum and we'd all pull together.

I know that I have been denounced as a traitor and I resent the accusation, as I conceive myself to have been guilty of no underhand or deceitful act against Britain, although I am also able to understand the resentment that my broadcasts have, in many quarters, aroused.

I can hardly repress our press and our people too. They are thirsting for war against England.

The Yanks are coming And we won’t come back till it’s over Over there!

The unnecessary result of wartime hysteria.

Newspapers at that time did not necessarily try to flatter those in power. Rather, they wrote to please readers. I may sound evasive. but there certainly existed some kind of mechanism that aggravated the situation through subtle interactions between newspapers and the public. Readers were waiting for articles reporting the exploits of the victorious Imperial Forces, Newspapers indulged themselves in a competition to appear more patriotic and to see who could print the most articles urging and exalting victory. Newspaper companies cooperated through the dispatch of entertainers, calls for patriotic songs, campaigns for contributions to build more airplanes, and various other ways. The heavy responsibility that the newspapers bear is second only to that of the government.

Speeches made to the people are essential to the arousing of enthusiasm for a war.

You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead.

Arise Americans. Your country and liberty are in danger.

America is unique in the history of the world. During this last century, there was only one nation that laid down hundreds of thousands of lives of its own sons and daughters and asked for nothing for itself …. America is unique. You took no land from the Germans, no land from the Japanese. All you asked for was enough land to bury your dead.

All you have to do is anesthetize the masses by telling them they’re an elite, that they’ve got a mission, that they’re making history, that they’re fulfilling their destiny and fighting for a better world — and they swallow it like lambs — even when a guttersnipe says it.

The French are simply not reliable partners in a world where the good people in it ought to be working together. The French managed to lose the 2nd World War in 20 minutes. Along with the British, we got into the war and had about 150,000 guys killed getting their country back for them.