Helmut Kohl Quotes
Our shared historical experiences led myself and Mitterrand to the decision that we must do everything to prevent further wars.
Kohl, Helmut. Aus Sorge um Europa: Ein Appell. Droemer, 2014, p. 18.
This was the week after he returned from his meeting with Hitler in Munich where he appeased the German Dictator. See {585941} for his famous naive statement.
This is one of the earliest instances in which formal American foreign policy called for aggressively preventing other nations from war. This speech was audio recorded -- quite unusual for the time -- and can be heard to this day.
The Russians were breaking diplomatic relations with Israel.
She was instrumental in forming the United Nations, but one of its weaknesses was and has been since that it was very difficult and cumbersome for the UN to mount a military force to defend a country or region against aggression. The situation has not improved much on that score since 1948. Israel had just been created by the United Nations, but over a dozen Arab State armies attacked the fledgling Jewish nation. The Israelis, against all odds, not only defended their territory but were able to seize key Arab military and strategic areas. Mrs. Roosevelt, and most of the world, assumed that under the circumstances, the Arabs would negotiate a peace treaty with Israel to regain their land. However, the Arab nations would not recognize the State of Israel and would not even negotiate with the Israelis. ER and most of the world was wrong. Instead, the Arab nations’ strategy was to have a cease fire and build their military strength to attack later in greater force. When that also failed and Israel won the subsequent wars, the Arabs then turned to Terrorism. 60 years later, the Israelis and the Arabs were further apart in many ways than in 1948.
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl was a German statesman and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany, 1982–1990; and of reunified Germany, 1990–1998) and as chairman of the CDU from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck, and oversaw the end of the Cold War, the German reunification and the creation of the European Union.
