Elihu Root Quotes

…the Army stood in need of talent as never before… the whole department is unscientifically managed, over officered and wastefully conducted.

Military capability, viewed in terms of the history of its own development, has constantly been found wanting. Renewal and regeneration of military capability seems to be an indispensable part of the military doctrine, conceived to address what turns out inevitably to be the insatiable need of fear. For every level of fear addressed through a military strategy or state of readiness, a further threat comes to be conceived for which further military capability is sought.

… you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

As head of a military structure I am responsible for the realization of military issues. If you want to have everlasting peace, you must be ready for war. We must be ready to face any provocation.

Let us assume that the ideal were reached; let us imagine a state of international life in which the danger of war no longer exists. Then no one would dare to demand a penny for obviously completely superfluous armaments.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

That is the best Government, which best provides for war.

Everything starts and finishes with the soldier.

I came here as a practical man, to talk, not simply on the question of peace and war, but to treat another question which is of hardly less importance - the enormous and burdensome standing armaments which it is the practice of modern Governments to sustain in time of peace.

From 1836, down to last year, there is no proof of the Government having any confidence in the duration of peace, or possessing increased security against war.

A war regarded as inevitable or even probable, and therefore much prepared for, has a good chance of eventually being fought.

Nature creates few men brave; industry and training makes many. Discipline in war counts more than fury.

For the remote contingency by which a national army must be always judged, namely, the contingency of war with a first class power, the Army is practically unprepared.

The National Defense Act of 1916 left the United States with a General Staff of 19 officers, against Germany's 650.

The campaign we are launching today is dedicated to peace through preparedness.

... a caricature of Mr. Military Industrial Complex.

Woe to them ... that trust in chariots!

… a degeneracy of representation in the great council of America .… Many members of it are no doubt men in every respect, fit for the trust, but this cannot be said of it as a body. Folly, caprice a want of foresight, comprehension and dignity, characterize the general tenor of their actions…. Their conduct with respect to the army especially is feeble indecisive and improvident

Light at the end of the tunnel? We don’t even have a tunnel. These generals don’t even know where the tunnel is.

I must have money to get ready for war. I am doing everything possible to prevent war but it must come, and we are not prepared.

We’d continue to pay them. Using army allows us not to demobilize it immediately and put a lot of unemployed people on the street.

I regret that on my arrival in Mesopotamia I was too much occupied with military matters, and too ill-informed regarding the political problem….[We had] a scratch and somewhat incongruous team of administrators with the majority possessing little exact knowledge of the people they were called upon to monitor

Any idea that you can have a league for security is nuts, and all people who favor it are potential murderers… as long as man is man, there will be war and the only way to avoid trouble is to have the best army and navy, which we now have.

As long as I am president, we will maintain the greatest fighting force that the world has ever known.

Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the frontiers to be destroyed: when the object is to preserve them, it is no longer so