Dean Rusk Quotes

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.

For the maintenance of peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks which forerun cannon shots.

Soft power … cannot accomplish much in the absence of a willingness to use hard power.

You may meet commercial restriction with commercial restriction, but you cannot safely confront premeditated insult and injury with commercial restrictions alone.

Sanctions will not produce capitulation.

Now the situation is perilous, and the Powers are glaring at us like tigers eyeing their prey, all trying to barge into our country. Considering the financial and military situation in China today, we will of course try and avoid a war … But if our powerful enemies try and force us to yield to demands to which we cannot possibly consent, then we shall have no other alternative but to rely on the justice of our cause and to unite and fight.

Rogue regimes never respond to anything less than hardball.

In international affairs, you never threaten things you're not prepared to do.

Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.

There's no way in the world that the United States does not want to spread democratic ideals, but the first thing we have to do is that which is the interest of our security.

Poles understand perhaps better than anyone the consequences of making toothless warnings to brutal tyrants and terrorist regimes.

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

I never take a step in foreign policy unless I am assured that I shall be able to carry out my will by force.

I don’t care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass.

Menace not intended is an engine which Great Britain could never condescend to employ.

Diplomacy and force are two sides of the same coin.

There’s no reason to respect anyone’s word in that part of the world. The only thing they respect is force and the threat of force.

You cannot give an ultimatum to a powerful and proud people and not expect them to react violently.

America is different. It irks and domineers. But it does not conquer. It tries to call the shots and bend the rules, but it does not go to war for land and glory.

Foreign policy does not mean guns and rifles, but utilizing all legitimate international means to convince others.

If I am elected President I will immediately issue an ultimatum to the leaders in Chechnya. If they do not capitulate within 10 days, Chechen villages and the entire Chechnya will be covered with blue clouds of smoke from missiles and projectiles.

The reasons for disliking diplomacy are legion. Engaging in serious diplomacy would mean reviewing the way Washington advocates for and deploys its principles. It might necessitate a glance in the mirror and asking why the United States believes it is uniquely empowered to interpret the Creator's higher purpose for people in other lands.

Repel force by force