| “We have to get tough with the Russians. They don’t know how to behave. They are like bulls in a china shop. They are only 25 years old. We are over 100 and the British are centuries older. We have got to teach them how to behave.” Harry Truman, April 1945 “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” “The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want.” “People of this world, look upon this city and see that you should not and cannot abandon this city and this people.” “The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because the enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer – the finest homes, the finest college educations, and the finest jobs in Government we can give.” “In the simplest of terms, what we are doing in Korea is this: We are trying to prevent a third world war.” “He suddenly opened his eyes and looked at everyone in the room. It was a terrible gaze, mad or maybe furious and full of fear of death… Then something incomprehensible and frightening happened. … He suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. … The next moment, after a final effort, the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh.” “Senator; you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” “If you don’t like us, don’t accept our invitations and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.” “America has been in existence for 150 years and this is the level she has reached. We have existed not quite 42 years and in another seven years we will be on the same level as America. When we catch you up, in passing you by, we will wave to you.” “The Earth is blue… how wonderful. It is amazing” “Nobody intends to put up a wall!” “A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.” “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” “I am a Marxist-Leninist and I will be one until the last day of my life.” “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.” “Berlin is the testicles of the West, every time I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin.” “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner.” “There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.” “[Communism] has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or internal corruption or both.” “The survivors (of a nuclear war) would envy the dead.” “In free society art is not a weapon…Artists are not engineers of the soul.” “If you (the USA) start throwing hedgehogs under me, I shall throw a couple of porcupines under you.” “We are not going to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” “Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.” “You have opened a new chapter in the relations of the American and Chinese people… I am confident that this beginning of our friendship will certainly meet with majority support of our two peoples.” “There can be no whitewash at the White House.” “No words can describe the depths of my regret and pain at the anguish my mistakes over Watergate have caused the nation and the presidency – a nation I so deeply love and an institution I so greatly respect.” “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” “Under Lenin the Soviet Union was like a religious revival, under Stalin like a prison, under Khrushchev like a circus, and under Brezhnev like the U.S. Post Office.” “This is the moment of your defeat; you have just put in the last nails in the coffin of communism.” “Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.” “I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together.” “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” “The threat of a world war is no more.” “By the grace of God, America won the cold war.”
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