Monday, May 28, 2007

Kennedy. Theodore C. Sorenson. Significant Sentences. Continued.

Significant sentences from Kennedy by Theodore Sorenson, a history of the words and philosophy of President Kennedy. Continued.

JFK: "When that day comes, and there is a massive exchange, then that is the end, because you are talking about...150 million fatalities in the first eighteen hours...the equivalent for this country of five hundred World War II's in less than a day." p. 597.

JFK: "We have to proceed with...care in an age when the human race can obliterate itself." p. 577.

Sorenson: "In 1963 he would cite the 1914 conversation between two German leaders on the origins and expansion of that war [WWI], a former chancellor asking, 'How did it all happen?' and his successor saying, 'Ah, if only one knew.' " p. 578.

JFK: "A total solution is impossible in the nuclear age." p. 578.

JFK: "If this planet is ever ravaged by nuclear war--if the survivors of that devastation can then endure the fire, poison, chaos, and catastrophe--I do not want one of those survivors to ask another 'How did it all happen?' and receive the incredible reply: 'Ah, if only one knew.' " p. 578.

Sorenson: "He did not expect [the Cold War] to be lost...simply desired to dampen it down, to outlast it, to make it possible for the long-run forces of liberty and truth to work their way naturally and peacefully, to prevent the Cold War from monopolizing our energies to the detriment of all other interests." p. 578.

JFK: "...expect only at best a long, slow process...of evolution 'away from Communism and toward national independence and freedom....' " p. 579.

JFK: "Our words need merely to carry conviction, not belligerence." p. 580.

JFK: "If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself; if we are weak, words will be of no help." p. 580.

JFK: "World peace...does not require that each man love his neighbor...only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement." p. 580.

JFK: "Negotiations are not a contest spelling victory or defeat." p. 581.

Sorenson: "Indeed, the most successful diplomacy, in his [JFK's] view, was more often dull than dramatic." p. 581.

Sorenson: "Drama usually came with what he called 'collision' courses,' direct confrontations." p. 581.

JFK: "Unless man can match his strides in weaponry and technology with equal strides in social and political development, our great strengths like that of the dinosaur, will become incapable of proper control, and man, like the dinosaur, will vanish from the earth." p. 584.

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