Ed Koch Quotes

America needs an adult in the White House who knows how to deal with China.

I will make great deals with China and they will like us more than they do now. You know they don't even like us.

Every foreign policy of every major nation involves reason, common sense, carrots and sticks. You can't have all carrots and no sticks.

The Russian empire under czars and commissars has been hard to deal with for other countries.

Bowing to the Saudi king is not an energy policy.

My general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything purely domestic.

I've been saying for the last nine years, our power comes as much from - our respect in the world comes as much from the exercise of our power as it does from the power of our principles.

Israelis are wrong in not looking for a change in the relationship with the United States that would put it more in perspective - that we are the great power, they are the minor power. I don't think there are a great many American parents who will want to sacrifice their soldiers and children so Israel can maintain the West Bank. When that becomes clear, I think Israel's days are numbered as an ally that is never questioned or criticized.

I made a lot of money with the Chinese, and I know the Chinese very well. By the way, they don't love us. I will tell you that. Just in case anybody has any question. They don't. They always say, "Oh, but they have our debt." Think of it they take our money and then they loan it back to us and we have to pay 'em interest. It's very... It would be something to solve very easily, if you have the right messenger. We don't have the right messenger. Barack Obama is the wrong messenger.

Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And then of course there's the business of war.

The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government, because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such parts and at such times as will best suit particular views; and because the body of the people are less capable of judging, and are more under the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of any other. Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

Donald Trump foreign policy speech got good reviews, and it says we're going to defeat the people who are direct threats to us, but we're going to be a lot more cautious about getting involved in long-term, Wilsonian adventures.

Donald Trump praised Russia's strong man, Vladimir Putin, even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the Russian president to our American president. I was just thinking about all of the presidents that would just be looking at one another in total astonishment. What would Ronald Reagan say about a Republican nominee who attacks America's generals and heaps praise on Russia's president? I think we know the answer.

I think what we need to do is understand our number one obligation is to act in the national interest of the United States of America. I believe it is in our national interest to see democracy take hold on the island of Cuba. And so we examine our foreign policy, including all the changes that President Obama made, in that lens and through that lens.

we ought to realize by now (see Korea, see Vietnam, see Afghanistan, see Iraq, see Iran) that deploying the US military, or dealing billions of dollars a year of arms to our ally of the moment that can serve as a regional rival to our enemy of the moment, is not always the best way to make threats go away. Our military and weapons prowess is a fantastic and perfectly weighted hammer, but that doesn't make every international problem a nail.

Donald Trump is an American presidential nominee who was describing Russia in terms that they haven't heard almost ever. And so there is a belief that Donald Trump would be a collaborative, willing and I think perhaps quite able partner.

The president-elect seems to want Russia as a friend. President Obama arguably has not wanted to say that Russia is that great of a threat.

Foreign policy is now a huge field. It isn't just people who are studying political science. There are so many aspects to it in terms of understanding hard science for people who are studying climate change, or people who are interested in health policy or food security, or people who care about education.

When it comes to our foreign policy, Mitt Romney seems to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.

Our president's latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.

In order for us to solve many big problems around the world, it is in our interest to work with Russia and obtain their cooperation.

You know we armed Iraq. I wondered about that too, you know during the Persian Gulf war those intelligence reports would come out: "Iraq: incredible weapons - incredible weapons." How do you know that? "Uh, well... we looked at the receipts."

I've been all over the world. I've dealt with foreign countries. I've done very well, as an example, tremendously well dealing with China and dealing with so many of the countries that are just ripping America. They are just taking advantage of us like nobody's ever seen before.

Tomorrow you will say Donald Trump wants to get along with Russia, this is terrible! It's not terrible. It's good.

It's worth remembering George W. Bush, Barack Obama also came in thinking they had the magic key to better, warmer relations with Russia; those efforts ended in tears.