Command Authority Quotes

He is a butcher, and is not fit to be at the head of an army.

Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.

The social power of the Presidency is one of the most powerful tools a President can use.

I've got to tell you what, the soldier doesn't fight very hard for a leader who is going to shoot him, okay, on his own whim. That's not what military leadership is all about.

As to mere power I have been for years in the daily exercise of more personal authority than any President habitually enjoys.

Generals who can write always make me nervous.

My dear McClellan: If you don't want to use the Army I should like to borrow it for a while.

Mr. President. You ought to fire him [General Douglas MacArthur.]

The roots of power in the White House are often bourbon and branch water taken with the President at the end of the day.

A commander in chief with military experience might be able to prod a conservative military into thinking more imaginatively.

Of your own indefatigable labor from early dawn and of your explicit instructions, that the batteries should reserve their ammunition, until the grand charge should commence, for which the enemy were undoubtedly preparing.

If worse comes to worst, I say clearly - a soldier must follow military orders.

Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.

Even military ministers have no more than a certain amount of control. It is customary that they have the right and the power to participate, from a political and military point of view, in the planning of actual operations.

As the Senator from Vermont was kind enough to note, I did have the experience of being commander in chief of our National Guard in Missouri for 8 years.

When you are talking to Dick Cheney, you are talking to me.

It was necessary to bluff the Japanese camp commanders, with whatever authority I could muster, that I had come officially to ensure that the surrender terms were being complied with and that living conditions for the POWs were being immediately improved.

Whereas all particulars cannot be foreseen, nor positive instructions for such emergencies so before hand given but that many things must be left to your prudent and discreet management, as occurrences may arise upon the place, or from time to time fall out, you are therefore upon all such accidents or any occasions that may happen, to use your best circumspection and (advising with your council of war) to order and dispose of the said Army under your command as may be most advantageous for the obtaining the end for which these forces have been raised, making it your special care in discharge of the great trust committed unto you, that the liberties of America receive no detriment.

The President has full responsibility, which cannot be shared, for military decisions in a world in which the difference between safety and cataclysm can be a matter of hours or even minutes.

The admiral, or commander in chief of a squadron, being frequently invested with a great charge, on which the fate of a kingdom may depend, ought certainly to be possessed of abilities equal to so important a station and so extensive a command.

General Sherman looked upon journalists as a nuisance and a danger at headquarters and in the field, and acted toward them accordingly, then as throughout his great war career.

The commander ought to lead every important movement.

I never expected to be Defence Secretary. It's a great privilege.

I have never issued an order since I have been the operating head of the corporation.

If there is disturbance in the camp, the general's authority is weak. If the banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot. If the officers are angry, it means that the men are weary.