Great Throughts Treasury

"There's something beyond one's self."

"We all make mistakes. We know we make mistakes. I don?t know any military commander, who is honest, who would say he has not made a mistake. There?s a wonderful phrase: ?the fog of war.? What ?the fog of war? means is: war is so complex it?s beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend all the variables. Our judgment, our understanding, are not adequate. And we kill people unnecessarily."

"Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues."

"Rationality will not save us."

"The major lesson of the Cuban missile crisis is this: the indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will destroy nations. Is it right and proper that today there are 7500 offensive strategic nuclear warheads, of which 2500 are on a 15 minute alert to be launched at the decision of ?one? human being?"

"They'll be no learning period with nuclear weapons. Make one mistake and you're going to destroy nations."

"We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo - men, women and children. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"

"We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people?s or country?s best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose."

"We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action ? should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community."

"We failed then ? and have since ? to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces, and doctrine. We failed, as well, to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture."

"We misjudged then ? and we have since ? the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries ? and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions."

"We see what we want to believe."

"We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values."

"We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions ? At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world."

"We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement ? before we initiated the action."

"We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience? We totally misjudged the political forces within the country."

"Why was it necessary to drop the nuclear bomb if LeMay was burning up Japan? And he went on from Tokyo to firebomb other cities. 58% of Yokohama. Yokohama is roughly the size of Cleveland. 58% of Cleveland destroyed. Tokyo is roughly the size of New York. 51% percent of New York destroyed. 99% of the equivalent of Chattanooga, which was Toyama. 40% of the equivalent of Los Angeles, which was Nagoya. This was all done before the dropping of the nuclear bomb, which by the way was dropped by LeMay's command. Proportionality should be a guideline in war. Killing 50% to 90% of the people of 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional, in the minds of some people, to the objectives we were trying to achieve."

"Were those who issued the approval to use Agent Orange criminals? Were they committing a crime against humanity? Let?s look at the law. Now what kind of law do we have that says these chemicals are acceptable for use in war and these chemicals are not. We don?t have clear definitions of that kind. I never in the world would have authorized an illegal action. I?m not really sure I authorized Agent Orange. I don?t remember it, but it certainly occurred, the use of it occurred while I was Secretary."

"You can never substitute emotion for reason. I still would allow a place for intuition in this process, but not emotion. They say I am a power gabber. But knowledge is power, and I am giving them knowledge, so they will have more power. Can't they see that?"

"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe that we should ever apply that economic, political, and military power unilaterally. If we had followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn?t have been there. None of our allies supported us. Not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can?t persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we?d better reexamine our reasoning."