Don't like to do anything half-heartedly, even if it is a wicked and self-destructive avocation like smoking cigars

You [President Kennedy] have made some pretty strong statements about their being defensive and that we would take action against offensive weapons. I think that a blockade and political talk would be considered by a lot of our friends and neutrals as being a pretty weak response to this [the Cuban missile crisis]. And I'm sure a lot of our own citizens would feel that way too. In other words, you're in a pretty bad fix at the present time.

Sometime in the future - 25, 50, 75 years hence - what will the situation be like then? By that time the Chinese will have the capability of delivery too.

Don't like to do anything half-heartedly, even if it is a wicked and self-destructive avocation like smoking cigars

I don't mind being called tough, since I find in this racket it's the tough guys who lead the survivors.

If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.

My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power - not with ground forces.