Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
Preparation for defense is an inalienable prerogative of a sovereign state.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Vol. 5, Random House, 1938, p. 291.
A common modern political issue is the relative efficiency of State verses the Federal government in the spending of tax resources, but in the area of defense, it is today assumed that this is a Federal role. However, in 1814, in the midst of a war, there were those who argued for State operation of the nation's defense. See Artemas Ward for a similar view.
Karsh was arguing that Arab citizens of Israel should be required to serve in the Israeli army and fight against other Arabs who have repeatedly attacked Israel. The Israeli tradition has been not to require Arab citizens to fight against what might be their own relatives. Karsh and others argue that Italian-Americans fought against other Italians in WWII, German-Americans fought against Germans.
Plan Orange was the code name of the united states plan for possible war with Japan. In this ironic quotation, American military planners realized five years before Pearl Harbor that surprise attack was the major vulnerability. We were surprised and had no help from our intelligence service which despite the recommendations was almost nonexistent.
One difficulty of diplomacy with many Islamic leaders is that the culture produces very aggressive rhetoric and very aggressive actions like Islamic terrorism. This quotation is often cited to demonstrate that it is the Iranians that had decided that America is it’s enemy; that America is to be humbled; and that their weapons development are targeted at America. This along with the most frequent Iranian slogan, “Death to America,” for many argues for preemptive military action or maintenance of a high state of readiness. Given statements like this from the leading soldier of the theocracy, there is little doubt that Iranian nuclear weapons would be a great danger to America. Therefore when Iran complains that America did not object to the fact that other nations have the nuclear bomb, they do not take their own rhetoric into account. No other nation with possible nuclear capability has made America its major military adversity and claims as an objective to humble the United States.
If we replace the word “socialist” with “capitalist” this statement would be approved by almost every American Senior Military officer and Defense Official as well as most members of Congress. The reality was that the basic defense posture of the Soviet Union and the United States was essentially the same during the Cold War.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.
