Eugene McCarthy Quotes

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.

There are two things that will always be difficult for a democratic people to do: to start a war and to finish it

It is not every cause of war that should lead to war.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion … and you allow him to make war at pleasure. … If today he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may see no probability he would say to you, “Be silent!, I see if you don’t.”

We in America should see that no man is ever given, no matter how gradually or how noble and excellent the man, the power to put this country into a war

No war is inevitable until it breaks out.

You could argue that war is always an irrational act, and yet many states enter into military conflict out of rational calculation or national interest or the stability or longevity of their regime.

The Congress decides when to make war and the President decides how to make war.

Except in case of attack by armed forces … the people shall have the sole power by a national referendum to declare war or to engage in warfare overseas.

The way I read the Constitution,. the Congress is paid a salary to determine whether we should go to war ... Therefore, I don't think Congress is earning its money.

Mobilization is not aggression.… The aggressor is the one who renders inevitable the first shot, in other words the nation who first declares war.

There is going to be no involvement of America in war unless it is the result of the Constitutional process that is placed upon Congress to declare it.

Lightly armed nations can move toward war just as easily as those which are armed to the teeth, and they will do so if the usual causes of war are not removed.

But it cannot follow that because weapons and troops are now being deployed we are bound to go to war.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

We wanted this war and now we've got it, and I'm not sure that we know what to do with it.

What I've learned, and will try to remember from now on, is that defending your country's credibility is never sufficient reason to fight a war.

There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

Either a war has to be fought, or it doesn't.

While war is never anyone first choice, sometimes it is a necessary choice.

Today, war of necessity is used by critics of military action to describe unavoidable response to an attack like that on Pearl Harbor that led to our prompt, official declaration of war, while they characterize as unwise wars of choice the wars in Korea, Vietnam and the current war in Iraq.

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

I believe the military should be wary of diplomacy until war is declared; then the State Department should keep its nose out and let the military do whatever is necessary to win.

There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.