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"It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives."
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"We cannot be any stronger in our foreign policy for all the bombs and guns we may heap up in our arsenals than we are in the spirit which rules inside the country. Foreign policy, like a river, cannot rise above its source."

"We haven't had a good energy policy in this country for decades and we're trying to get one."

"In a constructive policy, there is 'adjust everywhere' and in a destructive policy, there is a policy of disadjustment."

"Any intervention, such as that of the German Reichsbank in the Spring of 1923, in which only a small part of the increasing note-expansion was recovered by the banks through the sale of foreign bills, would necessarily be unsuccessful. Led by the idea of opposing speculation, inflationistic governments have allowed themselves to become involved in measures whose meaning is hardly intelligible. Thus at one time the importation of notes, then their exportation, then again both their exportation and importation, have been prohibited. Exporters have been forbidden to sell for their own country's notes, importers to buy with them."

"When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making."

"For almost twenty years, abortion policy in America has been controlled by the courts."

"Already, China has undermined U.S. foreign policy in efforts to gain access to oil resources in Iran and Sudan. We simply cannot separate the political and economic values of oil."

"Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently."

"The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions."

"On the other hand, it is not fair to say that changes in federal policy have caused our tuition to rise faster. Every economic argument imaginable would indicate that we should raise tuition at a faster rate than we do."
Explore more quotes by Robert McNamara


"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?"


"Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should or could be the global gendarme."


"A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage."


"It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives."
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