As President Barack Obama, our 44th U.S. president confronts severe challenges with Syria in ensuring chemical weapons are indeed destroyed, while remaining vigilant in monitoring the danger of radical elements taking root in this tumultuous Arab republic -I often wonder how many of the former U.S. presidents (if living today) would have handled the challenges the president is facing?
As luck would have it, Chicago historian Pierce Word, has just come out with a timely new book: ``Wisdom From the Oval Office’’, a compilation of presidential quotes organized under a wide range of subjects from democracy, education, and happiness to life, liberty, trust, truth, and yes, even war.
Based on Word’s superb research in hunting down the origin of these timely quotes, let’s pretend, for a moment, that in light of the crisis in Syria, many of the former U.S. presidents (including one living president) gathered around a campfire in Washington, where they have agreed to field questions from the press corp.
Perhaps, such a press conference would have unfolded in the following manner:
Q. Was President Obama correct in asking for congressional approval before launching a strike against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria?
A. ``The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress.’’
-George Washington, (letter to William Moultrie, August 28, 1793).
Q. If you were in President Obama’s shoes, how would you have handled the Syrian crisis?
A. ``Gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitions men who would involve their country in civil wars.’’
-Andrew Jackson (letter to Rev. A.J. Crawford. May 1, 1883).
A. ``I have never advocated war except as a means of peace.’’
-Ulysses Grant (Speech in London, June 15, 1887).
A. ``War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.’’
-William McKinley Jr., (Inaugural Address, March 4, 1897).
A. ``More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars-yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.’’
-Franklin Roosevelt (Undelivered Address, Prepared for Jefferson Day, April 13, 1945).
A. ``We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of weapons of war.’’
-Jimmy Carter, Statement to Arms Control Association during the 1976 Presidential Campaign.
Q. Why do you think President Obama faced such passionate criticism at home over launching an attack against Syria, even if it were ``unbelievably small’’ to use Secretary of State John Kerry’s words? Most public opinion polls were overwhelming against the United States striking Syria.
A. ``There is a power in public opinion in this country-and I thank God for it.’’
-Martin Van Buren, (Speech at the U.S. Senate, December 5, 1837).
A. ``Public opinion in this country is all-powerful.’’
-James Buchanan (Speech to Congress; January 8, 1861).
A. ``I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.’’
-Abraham Lincoln (speech to the House of Representative, January 12, 1848).
A. ``The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressman and government officials, but the voters of this country.’’
-Franklin Roosevelt, Address at Marietta, Ohio, July 8, 1938
Q. Many are of the strong belief that if President Obama had not threatened to strike Syria and asked for a congressional authority for such an act, it would not have resulted in a non-aggression peace agreement like the one that was hammered out between Russia, the United States and the Assad regime in Geneva. Do you agree with that argument?
A. ``It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.’’
-John F. Kennedy, (Speech Civic Auditorium, Seattle Washington, September 6, 1960).
Q. With a military strike against Syria having been abated, at least for the time being, and the American public’s distaste for war having reached a fever pitch, are we entering a new phase of American diplomacy in which peaceful solutions, if given enough time to develop, will take center stage?
A. ``Time and the world do not stand still.’’
-John F. Kennedy (Speech in the Assembly Hall at Paulskirche in Frankfurt, Germany, June 25, 1963).
A. ``No one need think that the world can be ruled without blood. The civil sword must be red and bloody.’’
-Andrew Jackson, statement during tenure as Florida’s Military Governor, circa 1821.
A. ``We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.’’
-Benjamin Harrison, (Statement to Congress, 1888).
A. ``If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships-the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.”
-Franklin Roosevelt, (Undelivered Jefferson Day Address, April 13, 1945).
Q. What would you say to those who argue the United States has overextended itself abroad (consider Iraq, Afghanistan, and now potentially Syria), and should therefore devote more of its attention and financial resources to domestic needs, such as education, unemployment, and taking a hard look at the plight of America’s inner cities? Our military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, after all, hasn’t exactly earned us many friends around the world.
A. ``Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.’’
-John F. Kennedy, (Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961).
A. ``The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.’’
-John Adams, (In his ``Defense of Constitutions of Government’’ (1787).
A. ``Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.’’
-Thomas Jefferson, (Letter to Isaac Tiffany, April 4, 1819).
A. ``The only sure way of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protects the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.
-Franklin Roosevelt (Fireside Chat, April 14, 1938).
A. ``We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society.’’
-Lyndon Johnson (Remarks at the dedication at the Crossland Vocational Center in Camp Springs, Maryland, April 27, 1967).
Q. Why has President Obama received such heavy criticism, not only with in his initial threats of striking Syria, but even with his stewardship of the economy?
A. ``I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad.’’
-Lyndon Johnson, (State of the Union Address, January 17, 1968).
``He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.’’
-Abraham Lincoln (As quoted in Forbes Magazine, 1960).
Q. What type of counsel would you give President Obama on the agreement that was reached between Russia and the United States in which Syria will allow its stockpile of chemical weapons to be removed or destroyed by next year?
A. ``Trust, but verify.’’
-Ronald Reagan, (remark at the signing of the INF treaty, Washington D.C., December 8, 1987).
A. ``Actions, not words, are the true criterion.’’
-George Washington, (letter to Major-General Sullivan, December 15, 1779).
Q. Do you have any sage words of advice for President Obama as he confronts many domestic and foreign policy challenges in the coming months and years ahead?
A. ``Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.’’
-Herbert Hoover (as quoted in Forbes Magazine, 1923).
A. ``Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.’’
-Theodore Roosevelt, (Speech delivered in Lincoln, Nebraska, June 14, 1917).
A. ``Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.’’
-James Garfield, (as quoted in The Lutheran Standard, 1969).
-Bill Lucey
September 17, 2013
All I can say is that Bill is a clever writer who put this article together in a brilliant way. Thanks for making our day, Bill.
Posted by: Lynda O'Connor | 09/17/2013 at 09:16 PM
Great piece Bill!
Sounds like an interesting book you've got there!
Posted by: John M. | 09/19/2013 at 03:04 PM