Pierre Trudeau Quotes
The army is a poor school for democracy.
Pierre Trudeau, 1919-2000, Canadian Prime Minister (Liberal), October 1970
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The irony is that it is just for the lack of this fundamental principle that Napoleon eventually became the Government and the Military in France.
His statement was on the issuance of Executive Order 9981 which outlawed military segregation and granted equal treatment and opportunity to all service members regardless of their race:
There was a fear of standing armies in early America that lasted to some extent until the 20th century.
In early America and up to WWII, generally it was the conservatives like Fisher who were opposed to a strong military and many wanted no military at all except in times of war. It was President Dwight Eisenhower who turned the right wing of America into a pro military force.
The Army and the other power centers of the country did not appreciate this idea. He was assinated in a coup 4 year later.
In principle few disagree. However, in practice the norm of American polity is that the civilian leaders must consult the military and or intelligence leaders and take their advice seriously. If they President and his civilian leadership to not take the advice, they pay a heavy political price as there is a sometimes contradictory norm that says that you must allow the military experts to run the battles. In the given case, the Iraq War, the President and Vice President made the decision to invade Iraq. However, if we believe them literally, they were heavily influenced by the intelligence agencies who assured them that Iraq had a nuclear weapon about to be completed. It was a “slam dunk” in the words of the CIA director— {633093}. JFK as a young president did not feel that he could override the CIA and DOD people who had assured him that the Bay of Pigs lading would trigger a massive uprising in Cuba. He was misled but had to take the responsibility for the fiasco where not a single person in Cuba rebelled. The President can and should override the best military advice when it is wrong, but how does he know? If he does, he always pays a short term price—even if he is right, for that is not clear for some time. Politics in a democracy is not easy in a democracy.
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau PC CC CH QC FRSC, also referred to by the initials PET, was a Canadian politician who was the 15th prime minister of Canada and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1968 to 1984, with a brief period instead as Leader of the Opposition between 1979 and 1980. His tenure of 15 years and 164 days makes him Canada's third longest-serving Prime Minister, behind William Lyon Mackenzie King and John A. Macdonald.
