Action should be founded on contemplation, and those of us who act don't put enough time, don't give enough emphasis, to contemplation.

The indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will lead to the destruction of nations.

What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?

Kennedy was trying to keep us out of war. I was trying to help him keep us out of war. And General Curtis LeMay, whom I served under as a matter of fact in World War II, was saying "Let's go in, let's totally destroy Cuba."

They'll be no learning period with nuclear weapons. Make one mistake and you're going to destroy nations.

I formed the hypothesis that each of us could have achieved our objectives without the terrible loss of life. And I wanted to test that by going to Vietnam.

That's one of the major lessons: no president should ever take this nation to war without full public debate in the Congress and/or in the public.