“For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had a purpose being in the Navy. It wasn’t about money and rank or prestige. It was about raising the flag. We do what we do because no one else can or will do it. We fight so others can sleep at night. And I had forgotten that.”
Timothy Ciciora
“Word to the Nation: Guard zealously your right to serve in the Armed Forces, for without them, there will be no other rights to guard.”
John F. Kennedy
“Any survey of the free world’s defense structure cannot fail to impart a feeling of regret that so much of our effort and resources must be devoted to armaments.”
Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, 1/9/59
“But all history has taught us the grim lesson that no nation has ever been successful in avoiding the terrors of war by refusing to defend its rights — by attempting to placate aggression.”
Radio and Television Report to the American People: Security in the Free World, 3/16/59
“But all history has taught us the grim lesson that no nation has ever been successful in avoiding the terrors of war by refusing to defend its rights — by attempting to placate aggression.”
Radio and Television Report to the American People: Security in the Free World, 3/16/59
“In this hope, among the things we teach to the young are such truths as the transcendent value of the individual and the dignity of all people, the futility and stupidity of war, its destructiveness of life and its degradation of human values.”
Address at the Opening Session of the White House Conference on Children and Youth, College Park, Maryland, 3/27/60
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People, 1/17/61
“Morale is the greatest single factor in successful war.”
Crusade in Europe, page 210
“Nothing is easy in war. Mistakes are always paid for in casualties and troops are quick to sense any blunder made by their commanders.”
Crusade in Europe, page 450
“We need an adequate defense, but every arms dollar we spend above adequacy has a long-term weakening effect upon the nation and its security.”
Waging Peace, page 622
Dwight David Eisenhower
