"Well, we want to do everything with welfare and everything else ahead of the primary responsibility of government which is to govern and to protect the people. It's a long, long step ahead there, but once you've lost that national independence, you never regain it. We never have come very close to it but we almost did in our revolutionary period in gaining our independence. Our leadership for many years was willing to take a chance on not spending the money and making the effort to rebuild our military forces, in favor of diverting the funds to other purposes. You couldn't get the money out of the Congress, and I don't think the presidents of the United States after Truman made any great effort to do it. They went along with the general feeling to which the Congress was completely responsive."
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Military leaders from the United StatesMilitary leaders of World War IICommanders of the United States Southern CommandNATO Supreme Allied CommandersCommanders of the United States European Command
Original Language: English
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Sources
"An Interview with General Matthew B. Ridgway" (1982)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Ridgway
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Matthew Ridgway
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