Dean Rusk Quotes
I don't myself, think, sir, that this is likely to lead to a major war.
The 6 Day War began less then 6 months later. This was another failure of U. S. Intelligence. Essentially, Rusk and others took the belligerent speeches of Nasser and other Arab leaders as rhetoric meant only for local consumption and did not realize that the Arabs had so deluded themselves that they thought that they could really destroy the state of Israel. American intelligence assumed that they knew better and their threats were just traditional Arab exaggeration and boasting.
Dean Rusk, 1909-1994, U.S. Secretary of State (Democrat), Testimony on the anti-Israeli terrorism taking place, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, January 16, 1967
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When the United Nations partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Muslim states, the armies of all the Arab countries attacked the new nation which did not even have a formal Army. The Israelis were able to win the war.
Nasser was indeed planning an attack. Israeli intelligence had discovered it, and the Israeli’s informed President Lyndon Johnson who in turn called Kosygin. Nasser and the Arabs had miscalculated again and ended up being not only defeated in the war they wanted but totally embarrassed by the incredibly poor performance of the Arab armies who greatly outnumbered the Israelis but had no stomach for a fight.
1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon. The pace of change in the world has been accelerating ever since the enlightenment. Even at the beginning of the 20th century to was making politics difficult and be the end of the century the pace of change was many times faster.
Ironically it was not the military situation that inhibited FDR. He did not fear the military of Germany, but he had a very isolationist Congress to contend with and a right wing America First movement of Nazi German sympathizers including hero Charles Lindbergh and Roosevelt’s own Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy. It was finally Germany who declared war on the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
At first glance, the reader might think that this quotation in a leading university newspaper was from the Vietnam War era. However, it was argument against U. S. involvement in World War II. There was a very negative reaction to Wilson’s visions and claims for the First World War which never did come to pass that stuck with many.
Although Great Britain had abolished slavery, British economic interests during the Civil War suffered because of the northern blockade of the South. Much political opinion in England was hostile to the blockade policies of the Union. Bright, a great admirer and supporter of the United Sates and the Union cause was concerned that the United States might drift into War with Great Britain. His letter to Senator Sumner was written with the understanding that it would be in shared with President Lincoln, and it was actually read at a cabinet meeting.
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is one of the longest serving U.S. Secretaries of State, behind only Cordell Hull.
