"Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it, and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud."

“There had been many brave men in the ranks, but they were learning that bravery of itself has little to do with success in battle.”

“Collective security had a fine sound, but it was still little more than a word; it would still be the United States, and the United States alone, that held the far frontier. No one else had the will or the power.”

“Revolution and terror are synonymous; only with the passage of time does any revolution become respectable.”

“The problem is to see not what is desirable, or nice, or politically feasible, but what is necessary.”

“America is rich and fat and very, very noticeable in this world. It is a forlorn hope that we should be left alone.”

“If war is to have any meaning at all, its purpose must be to establish control over peoples and territories, and ultimately, this can be done only as Alexander the Great did it, on the ground.”