Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1258
AUTHOR:
Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)
QUOTATION:
But this very triumph of scientific annihilation—this very success of invention—has destroyed the possibility of war’s being a medium for the practical settlement of international differences. The enormous destruction to both sides of closely matched opponents makes it impossible for even the winner to translate it into anything but his own disaster…. Global war has become a Frankenstein to destroy both sides. No longer is it a weapon of adventure—the shortcut to international power. If you lose, you are annihilated. If you win, you stand only to lose. No longer does it possess even the chance of the winner of a duel. It contains now only the germs of double suicide.
ATTRIBUTION:
General DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, speech to a joint session of the Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, July 5, 1961.—Representative Speeches of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, p. 98 (1964). Senate Doc. 88–95.
