First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"I want to go where the guns are."
"Where the Hell do you put the bayonet?"
"I want you to do one thing for me — write your people back home and tell 'em there's one hell of a damned war on out here, and that the raggedy-tailed North Koreans have been whipping a lot of so-called good American troops, and may do it again. Tell 'em there's no secret weapon for our country but to get hard, to get in there and fight. I want you to make 'em understand: Our country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any America — because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race."
"I wish I had a flair for writing, as then I am certain this regiment would get the credit due them when the history of this operation is finally written. Now everyone knows, but in a few years what is written will govern. I will do a better job of getting the facts in my reports than I did in the past war. I will also claim everything due the regiment."
"I assure you, Virginia, that I, never in my life, have ever made a statement that "I like to fight.""
"I have yet to encounter any officer here who has read an account of the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese armies went up through Korea, crossed the Yalu River and turned westward to capture Port Arthur. The Japanese forces found out what cold weather would do to the troops under field conditions."
"Our Eighth Army headquarters is still in Seoul. I don’t understand how they expect the troops to reach the Yalu River without their leaders."
"I'll take care of my men first. Frozen troops can't fight. If we run out of ammunition, we'll go to the bayonet."
"Let 'em get in close. Don’t waste ammo. Get your share! Remember, you don't hurt 'em if you don't hit 'em."
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things."
"The Continental Army never went through anything like those boys in Korea. The weather at the Chosin Reservoir averaged 25 degrees below zero. and it doesn't get that cold at Valley Forge."
"Those days in the woods saved my life many a time in combat."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.