McGeorge Bundy - We can't assume what we don't believe.

We can't assume what we don't believe.

Context

Bundy was discussing various Vietnam scenarios with a former White House aide who challenged several assumptions and asked Bundy what would happen if the North Vietnamese would escalate their ground war in the South in retaliation for U. S. bombing. Bundy sated that he didn't believe that would happen, but Hughes asked him to assume it would and discuss the consequence.

Topics

Citations

McGeorge Bundy, 1919-1996, Presidential Assistant for National Security (Democrat), Remark to Emmett John Hughes

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

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About the Author

McGeorge Bundy

Born: March 30, 1919
Died: September 16, 1996
Nationality:
Profession:

Biography

McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was an American academic who served as United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 through 1966. He was president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979. Despite his career as a foreign-policy intellectual, educator, and philanthropist, he is best remembered as one of the chief architects of the United States' escalation of the Vietnam War during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

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