| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 46954 |
| QUOTATION: | When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), U.S. president. David Dallek, Franklin Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy: 1932-1945, p. 288, Oxford University Press (1979).
When the President wished to authorize the use of U.S. warships to seek out German submarines operating in the western Atlantic, this was the rationale he presented to the public. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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