If the art of war were nothing but the art of avoiding risks, glory would become the prey of mediocre minds.... I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest.

We merely want to live in peace with all the world, to trade with them, to commune with them, to learn from their culture as they may learn from ours, so that the products of our toil may be used for our schools and our roads and our churches and not for guns and planes and tanks and ships of war.

We now have a broadly based and efficient defensive strength, including a great deterrent power, which... is, for the present, our main guarantee against war; but, unless we act wisely and promptly, we could lose that capacity to deter attack or defend ourselves.

The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

I have spent my life in the study of military strength as a deterrent to war, and in the character of military armaments necessary to win a war... We are rapidly getting to the point that no war can be won.

I am convinced that the French could not win the war because the internal political situation in Vietnam, weak and confused, badly weakened their military position.