Mutual Suspicion Quotes

My last words to you, my son and successor, are: Never trust the Russians!

Both say to the other "I don't trust you and will not take any chances, but I ask you to trust me and take the chances which that involves.

Let me speak for myself: The Russians are not our friends.

Many in China find it perplexing that the U.S. and Russian perceptions are still so heavily influenced by the Cold War.

An ally has to be watched just like an enemy

In 'A Scanner Darkly,' as in 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,' all intersubjective relations devolve into webs of suspicion and betrayal.

Two children of same cruel parent look at one another and see in each other the image of the cruel parent or the image of their past oppressor. This is very much the case between Jew and Arab: It's a conflict between two victims.

I must confess to the most profound distrust of Russia. I have no belief whatever in her ability to maintain an effective offensive, even if she wanted to.

The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.

Being closer to the genesis of this whole period, it captured the importance of the concept of making contact and accurately depicted the paranoia of the time. It's an excellent film.

I don't live in the Cold War. Some people maybe still live in the Cold War, but this is their problem, not mine.

We do not trust the goodwill of the U.S. They have cut the ties.

By the winter of 1945-1946, the Russian peoples were being warned of the dangers from the West.

Fear begets suspicion and distrust and evil imaginings of all sorts, till each government feels it would be criminal … of its own country not to take every precaution [armament], while every Government regards every precaution of every other government as evidence of hostile intent.

Conflict, of course, comes about because of the misuse of power and the clash of ideals, not to mention the inflammatory activities of unscrupulous and bigoted leaders. But it also arises, tragically, from an inability to understand and from the powerful emotions which, out of misunderstanding, lead to distrust and fear.

The Russians feared Ike. They didn't fear me.

When people are suspicious with you, you start being suspicious with them.

If the Cold War is really over, and the West really won, then continuing implicit deterrence does less to protest against a negligible threat from Russia than to feed suspicions that aggravate political friction. In contrast to during the Cold War, it is now hard to make the case that Russia is more a threat to NATO than the reverse.

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

The German people mistrust the Anglo-Saxons in the belief that they begrudge Germany her legitimate economic expansion…. Between Germany and France the gulf of mistrust is much deeper… the historical controversy between the two neighbors appears in French eyes as merely the result of permanent Teutonic aggression throughout the centuries.

Russia is not our friend.

It makes me very sad. Everyone's afraid of each other - Jews are afraid of Palestinians, Palestinians are afraid of Jews. Everywhere I see fear, not understanding. Reason went out of the window a long time ago.

It seems to me we have been in a rhetorical arms race in this country, with each side unwilling to lay down its weapons for fear - usually justified - the other side would beat them to a pulp.

If Jews don't come to Nazareth, Arabs don't go to Afula. There is fear on both sides.

The only peace that can be made with a dictator is once that must be based on deterrence. For today, the dictator may be your friend, but tomorrow he will need you as an enemy.