Stephen Ambrose Quotes

So with the end of the Cold War, it became increasingly obvious that there was no basis upon which any decision was being made, not in the White House, and certainly because of that, not in the Congress.

Eisenhower was quite supportive of Kennedy and Johnson in terms of foreign policy.

Fortunately, President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy disagreed with the estimate and chose a course of action less ambitious and aggressive than recommended by their advisers.

Most people give Kennedy a passing grade, a good grade on the Cuban Missile Crisis handling, but what they don't realize, if he had had strength, if he had showed strength before, there would never have been a Cuban Missile Crisis.

Our Cuba policy didn't make much sense during the Cold War and makes even less sense now.

Congress cannot—nor should it—run foreign policy on a day-to-day basis. That is a truism.

The last time you and I sat across a conference table in Potsdam [July-August, 1945], I must confess Sir, I held you in very low regard. I loathed your taking the place of Franklin Roosevelt. I misjudged you badly. Since that time, you more than any other man have saved Western Civilization.

It is the President alone who must make the major decisions of our foreign policy.

Ronald Reagan plays with fire! He sees the world like the theater.

World War II and the ensuing Cold War compelled the United States to develop a sustained commitment to Western Europe and the Far East.

Fear is not the basis for foreign policy.

I don't think anybody who is already with Donald Trump is going to be peeled off by his not knowing about NATO or why Japan does not have nuclear weapons, or things of that sort.

I think more to the point, these pivotal times means something other than a politician. I understand the economy. I understand the world. I have a lot of foreign policy experience. I understand bureaucracies. I understand technology, and I understand leadership.

Politics is the science of urgencies.

Bush doesn't present himself as a realpolitik politician.

Truman is now seen as a near-great president because he put in place the containment doctrine boosted by the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and NATO, which historians now see as having been at the center of American success in the cold war.

Nixon was an awful president in many ways, including in some of his foreign-policy choices. But he left no doubt that foreign policy and America's leadership in the world outside its borders was of paramount importance to him.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women's issues to the center of our foreign policy.

Roosevelt was the one who had the vision to change our policy from isolationism to world leadership. That was a terrific revolution. Our country's never been the same since.

I think the next president needs to lead on cultural issues and experience, particularly on foreign policy.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

Dean Acheson was one of the very best and brightest of the men who ever came to Washington.

We have a prime minister, I'm the foreign minister, I'm trying to get on with the job of doing Australia's foreign policy.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great sadness that I announce that I will resign as Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am sad because I love this job. I'm totally dedicated to the work that we are doing in Australia's name around the world, and I believe that we have achieved many good results for Australia, and I'm proud of them.

I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.