Conflict Deterrence Quotes

Knowing what an opponent values is a necessary condition for deterrence success.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It's this -- no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

The lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis is plain: Strength prevents war; weakness invites it. We need a commander-in-chief who understands that - and who won't leave us facing a foe who thinks he doesn't.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

To be well prepared for war is the best guarantee of peace.

If we can cultivate in the world the idea that aggressive war-making is the way to the prisoner's dock rather than the way to honors, we will have accomplished something toward making the peace more secure.

Without a near-peer competitor (or several) to deter or a major war on the horizon, Washington found a new foreign policy calling: renovating weak or failed states.

I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.

Vengeance is not necessarily successful because wrong has been done, or strength sure because it is confident; but the incalculable element in the future has the widest influence, and is the most treacherous, and yet in fact the most useful of all things, as it frightens us all equally, and thus makes us consider before attacking each other.