There is no more important task in a democracy than resolving the differences among people and finding a course of action that will be supported by a sufficient number to permit the nation to achieve a better life for all.

Poor planning or poor execution of plans is simply to let some force other than reason shape reality.

The war in Vietnam is going well and will succeed.

To this day we seem to act in the world as though we know what's right for everybody.

The commitment of government to deal with the population issue is of course essential....There are many ways to make the death rate increase.

All the evidence of history suggests that man is indeed a rational animal, but with a near infinite capacity for folly. . . . He draws blueprints for Utopia, but never quite gets it built. In the end he plugs away obstinately with the only building material really ever at hand--his own part comic, part tragic, part cussed, but part glorious nature.

I don't object to its being called "McNamara's war." I think it is a very important war and I am pleased to be identified with it and do whatever I can to win it.