"The acceptance of the legitimacy of the overt use of power comes hard in some segments of our citizenship. In some of the expressions of concern over our behavior in Vietnam, we are seeing curious aspects of our national character in this regard. They often contain a note of reluctance or of regret over the use of the vast power represented by the resources of the United States at home and abroad. In some quarters there seems to even be what amounts to a certain feeling of guilt arising from our possession of this power and an uneasiness about the morality of our conduct. One consequence of this attitude in the Vietnam situation is that our government must constantly defend its actions to critics and, in so doing, is often obliged to disclose its plans and purposes to a degree which must be vastly helpful to our opponents. Inevitably in a situation such as Vietnam, where we are using limited means to gain limited ends, it is essential to keep the adversary in doubt with regard to the full scope of our intentions."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
General Maxwell D. Taylor, Responsibility and Response (1967), p. 79
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Vietnam War
236 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Vietnam War →
Related Quotes
"Intelligence on Vietcong positions and movements frequently arrived too late to be actionable, delayed in an informat…"
"The war is simply an obscenity, a depraved act by weak and miserable men, including all of us who have allowed it to …"
"You sense a strong sense of mission among the fighting men in Viet Nam, an enormous compassion for all victims of Com…"
"By Thanksgiving, 1967, we still had not made any really final decision about whether or not we'd return for another t…"
"The Vietnam war literally brought this country to its knees because, without going into the technicalities of what Co…"
"Now then, the question is, How can we move to begin to change what's going on in this country. I maintain, as we have…"
"We thought, We will go to Vietnam and be Audie Murphies. Kick in the door, run in the hooch, give it a good burst- ki…"
"And for the men in the audience, hands down, the worst PTSD in the war is in the women who served as surgical nurses …"
"The Road to Viet Nam, and to the other important places Mr. Hope visits at Christmas, had to end for Bob and me after…"
"There were only two types of people when I came home- those who were against what we did and those who said nothing. …"