Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

The Mutual Security Act was intended not to fight a war but to prevent a war.

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

Peace and harmony with all nations is our sincere wish; but such being the lot of humanity that nations will not always reciprocate peaceable dispositions, it is our firm belief that effectual measures of defense will tend to inspire that national self-respect and confidence at home which is the unfailing source of respectability abroad, to check aggression and prevent war.

Moscow believes that using force constitutes strategic defense.

I work on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees to keep us safe at home and strong in the world.

Diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone would fail.

Let me remind you all that the first task of American foreign policy is to reduce threats to the United States.

So long as peace is not attained by law (so argue the advocates of armaments) the military protection of a country must not be undermined, and until such is the case disarmament is impossible.

The American people need to tell their member of Congress that we need a strong defense to protect us and to prevent wars. We can't get away with simply leading from behind and gutting our defenses.

We have to make sure that we are a force for peace and stability in the world, and that we're prepared to defend freedom and the security of the American people.

Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we know it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking... Never before was it possible for one nation to make war on another without sending armies across borders. Now with rockets and atomic bombs no center of population on the earth's surface is secure from surprise destruction in a single attack.... We cannot leave it to generals, senators, and diplomats to work out a solution over a period of generations… There is no defense in science against the weapon which can destroy civilization. Our defense is not in armaments, nor in science, nor in going underground. Our defense is in law and order… Future thinking must prevent wars.

The firmest security of peace is the preparation during peace of the defenses of war.

The Defense Department has a great deal of influence on foreign policy, and State has very little impact on defense policy.

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

The duty of defense is maintain peace and avoid war.

To insist on strength ... is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering.

A certain degree of preparation for war ... affords also the best security for the continuance of peace.

You have repeatedly asserted that you and the German people have no desire for war. If this is true there need be no war. Nothing can persuade the peoples of the earth that any governing power has any right or need to inflict the consequences of war on its own or any other people save in the cause of self-evident home defense.

In vain do they worship peace at home, who cannot defend themselves against foreigners.

Armchair generals assume that nations decide on their foreign policy objectives and then subordinate everything else to achieving them. Life is more complicated. Threats, opportunities and risks are always uncertain, but the economic costs of maximum preparedness are definite.

There is a rank due to the United States among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure the peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.

The organizing premise of any nation's foreign policy is the protection of the homeland.

Wars the United States starts do not necessarily end when and how it wants them to.

America remains the indispensable nation. There are times when America, and only America, can make a difference between war and peace, between freedom and repression.

The Lesson is Plain: If You Want WAR, vote for HUGHES! If You Want Peace With Honor, VOTE FOR WILSON.