There is too much stock put in diplomacy. I don’t particularly care who LIKES us, as long as they FEAR us!
“Diplomacy without force of arms is like music without instruments.”Diplomacy and subservience never have been at any time one and the same.
— Attributed to Frederick II of Prussia
“There is a rank due to the United States among nations, which will be withheld—if not absolutely lost—by the perception of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”
— George Washington, 5th Annual Message to Congress, 1793