Francis P. Matthews Quotes
It would win for us a proud title—we would become the first aggressors for peace.
The Secretary argued for a preemptive war against the Soviet Union.
Francis P. Matthews, 1887-1952, Secretary of the Navy (Democrat), Quoted in The Nation, September 9, 1950
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was the week after he returned from his meeting with Hitler in Munich where he appeased the German Dictator. See {585941} for his famous naive statement.
The original 1909 title was Europe’s Optical Illusion but it was changed after the first printing.
Francis Patrick Matthews was an American who served as the 8th Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus from 1939 to 1945, the 50th United States Secretary of the Navy from 1949 to 1951, and United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1951 to 1952.