Wesley Clark Quotes

We have generals working on worst-case scenarios; we need statesmen on best cases.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

Fortunately, President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy disagreed with the estimate and chose a course of action less ambitious and aggressive than recommended by their advisers.

In foreign policy, the only thing worse than not doing something is doing something that fails or makes the situation worse.

People (political and military leaders) much prefer to speak of what they are going to do rather than what the outcome will be.

Personal pique is not a foreign policy.

Diplomats are only useful in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.

No American President should ever take any option off the table.

Statecraft, as these cases convincingly illustrate, is demanding and often exhausting work. There are risks, and success is not guaranteed. It requires major governmental and political resources and the same kind of hourly, year-round planning and execution as the conduct of a military campaign.

Cool, realistic diplomats are prepared to try to negotiate with any type of regime whenever the national interest calls for it; the last thing that should ever be done to turn emotional or "demonize" another foreign leader no matter how nasty he may be.

No two men ever devised plans of action to accomplish a particular object without finding that there were differences in their plans. That is peculiarly the case in international affairs.

I felt from the start that America was not likely to relinquish lightly positions established at the cost of such sacrifices, and I pressed the view that a high degree of preparation and willingness to make sacrifices would be necessary on our side, but everybody here always persists in facile optimism until the very worst actually happens.

Success in foreign policy, as in carpentry, requires the right tools for the job.

The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.

If you don’t have a good idea of what to do next after using military force, then don’t use it in the first place.

It would be a foolish high representative who worked that way.

The important thing is that we recognize our President's leadership, that he is not saying: I am going to walk away from this. He is saying: I am going to do the right thing.

In the long term, Germany didn't need a finance minister who was absent during important negotiations in the European Council. But the chancellor strongly encouraged me to stay. And everything did work out for the best in the end.

The world cannot be governed without juggling.

In an ideological age, diplomacy may seem weak and prosaic. But sometimes it is all we have.

Force is not inevitable. Diplomacy is still the desired means. Pressure is an element of the means.

I'm simply saying that there are advantages in sending a skilled diplomat who can always say, 'I'll get back to you on that, Mr. Minister'.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

In foreign policy you have to wait twenty-five years to see how it comes out.

Foreign policy is all about a universe of bad decisions, imperfect decisions; every situation is different. The dynamics, the atmospherics, the people, the pressures, the geopolitical realities shift.