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 most powerful deterrent to war in the world today lies in the retaliatory power of our Strategic Air Command and the aircraft of our Navy. They present to any potential attacker who would unleash war upon the world the prospect of virtual annihilation of his own country.

The keys of a fortress are always well worth the retirement of the garrison when it is resolved to yield only on those conditions. On this principle it is always wiser to grant an honorable capitulation to a garrison which has made a vigorous resistance than to risk an assault.

Everyone can see how communism rots the soul of a nation. How it makes it abject in peace and proves it abominable in war.

So long as war exists on earth there will be some danger that even the Nation which most ardently desires peace may be drawn into war.

When two nations are fighting, the duty of a votary of ahimsa is to stop the war.