Manfred von Richthofen Quotes
One can become enthusiastic over anything. For a time I was delighted with bomb throwing. It gave me a tremendous pleasure to bomb those fellows from above.
Richthofen, Manfred von. The Red Battle Flyer. Translated by J. Ellis Barker, Robert M. McBride & Co., 1918, p. 57.
Referring to then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey who was popular with the left wing of the Democratic party when Johnson was Majority Leader.
Islamic extremists had killed thousands on Russian citizens and military men in Chechen, one of the states in Russia. At the time--before 9-11--Americans in the homeland had never been attacked by Islamic religious extremists as the Russians had. Some Americans were very critical of the Russians for using force and troops to deal with the terrorists and urged Putin to negotiate. This was Putin's reply. It was taken by many Americans as an unnecessarily hard line then. After 9-11, however, American views towards negotiations with terrorists generally resembled Putin in this quotation. Many Americans then developed much more sympathy with the Russian position on terrorism inside Russia.
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, known in English as Baron von Richthofen, and most famously as the "Red Baron", was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.
