"The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. We were the first to have this weapon in our possession, and the first to use it. There is a practical reality that potential enemies will have it in the future and that atomic bombs will sometime be used against us. That is why, as a professional military man with a half-century of service to his government, I come to the end of my war story with an apprehension about the future. These new concepts of "total war" are basically distasteful to the soldier and sailor of my generation. Employment of the atomic bomb in war will take us back in cruelty toward non-combatants to the days of Genghis Khan. It will be a war of pillage and rape of a society, done impersonally by one state against another, whereas in the Dark Ages it was a result of individual greed and terrorism. Thee new and terrible instruments of uncivilized warfare represent a modern type of barbarism not worthy of Christian man. One of the professors associated with the Manhattan Project told me that he had hoped the bomb wouldn't work. I wish that he had been right."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Military leaders from the United StatesUnited States Navy peoplePeople from IowaNavy Cross recipientsUnited States Ambassadors to France
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 441-442
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_D._Leahy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William D. Leahy
30 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William D. Leahy →
Related Quotes
"[MacArthur's "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech was of] such a superlative quality of excellence... that there is no oth…"
"I did not see Julius Caesar's return to Rome, but I am sure that in comparison it looked like a deuce of spades."
"I was there."
"Throughout the war, the four of us- Marshall, King, Arnold, and myself- worked in the closest possible harmony. In th…"
"In the Pacific we gave our enemies a costly lesson in amphibious warfare, just as in Europe we, with our allies, demo…"
"Once it had been tested, President Truman faced the decision as to whether to use it. He did not like the idea, but w…"
"Perhaps there is some hope that its capacity for death and terror among the defenseless may restrain nations from usi…"
"Far less known than other leaders of World War II, Leahy was content to perform his services for his country and for …"
"Always dependable, loyal, shrewd, and intelligent, Bill Leahy was next beside the president in the turbulent years of…"
"Everybody may have peace if they are willing to pay any price for it. Part of this any price is slavery, dishonor of …"