American - Public | April 24, 1941 - December 13, 2010
World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.
Richard Holbrooke
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Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.
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As countries grapple with modernization, people who are left behind tend to hold firmer and firmer to their view of the evil of modernity.
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You will never catch up with the spread of AIDS no matter how much money, no matter how many antiretrovirals are put into the system, unless you stop its growth. And the only way to stop its growth is prevention.
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In short, you can't let the deadline define the mission. The mission has to define the duration.
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You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.
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There are certain kinds of second-tier confrontations which the U.S. does not need to get directly involved in. However, even in the second tier of problems, our intervention as a friend to both sides is important.
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I think history is continuous. It doesn't begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.
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I'm a product of the Kennedy era. Kennedy's Inaugural plus the accident of Dean Rusk brought me into the government. Those were my values.
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The World War II generation believed the United States could do anything - anything... And Vietnam was a shattering experience for everyone.
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I still believe in the possibility of the United States, with all its will and all its strength, and I don't just mean military, persevering against any challenge. I still believe in that.
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Our enemy is Al Qaeda and its allies, people who have publicly said they wish to attack the United States again, people who have publicly called on nuclear physicists and engineers to help them gain access to nuclear weapons, which, as the whole world knows, Pakistan has.
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