Harry S. Truman Quotes

The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't.

The only use for an atomic bomb is to keep somebody else from using one.

Nuclear weapons are infinitely less important in our foreign policy than they were in the days of the Cold War. I don't think we need nuclear weapons any longer.

The decision to use the atom bomb on Japanese cities, and the consequent buildup of enormous nuclear arsenals, was made by governments, on the basis of political and military perceptions.

No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.

I could not conceive of any President engaging in all-out nuclear war unless we were in danger of all-out devastation ourselves.

I would not recommend the use of any atomic weapon, no matter how small, when both sides have the power to destroy the world.

The atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. It has made the prospect of future war unendurable.

You probably don't need more weapons than what's required to destroy every city on earth. There's only 2,300 cities. So, the United States, by that criteria, only needs 2,300 nuclear weapons - well, we've got more than 25,000!

We are told that the possession of nuclear weapons - in some cases even the testing of these weapons - is essential for national security. But this argument can be made by other countries as well.

But the first the general public learned about the discovery was the news of the destruction of Hiroshima by the atom bomb. A splendid achievement of science and technology had turned malign. Science became identified with death and destruction.

The whole idea of a nuclear system is to have a deterrent where we decide if we're going to use it.

So long as nuclear weapons continue to exist, so will the temptation to threaten others with overwhelming military force.

North Korea has taught a great lesson to all the countries in the world, especially the rogue countries of dictatorships or whatever: if you don't want to be invaded by America, get some nuclear weapons.

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.

Science has produced such powerful weapons that in a war between great powers there would be neither victor nor vanquished. Both would be overwhelmed in destruction.

I can't understand why anyone would want nuclear warheads. If you shoot them off, it's not like you can take over that country-all you do is kill millions of people.

There are some people that will be deterred by the fact that we have nuclear weapons... But those people are the folks we can deal with anyway.

In a world which is armed to its teeth with nuclear weapons, every quarrel or difference of opinion may lead to violence of a kind quite different from what is possible today.

This means that the only function of nuclear weapons, while they exist, is to deter a nuclear attack.

We still need to be conscious of the fact that Russia has intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Nuclear weapons are what make us a great power.

If an SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) system were to keep out ninety percent of incoming nuclear missiles, it would be a ninety percent success and most Americans would be dead.

There is only one thing worse than one nation having the atomic bomb -- that's two nations having it.

Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological nation plans for it.