Quotes from Jeff Shaara

Wars are indeed fought by children, by young people who have little to say in where they are sent to die.

Around him the chorus had begun, great swarms of creatures that he guessed to be insects, frogs maybe, everything else in this infernal country that had a voice. Why night? he thought. They don't say a thing all day long. The sun goes down and they have some kind of contest to see who can croak and buzz the loudest. Just to keep us awake, I guess. Revenge for slapping at them all day, killing their cousins.

We believed we knew everything they were thinking. Those Magic intercepts made us feel invulnerable. No, a better word is cocky. Their diplomats are chatting back and forth with Tokyo about the weather or color of their new Cadillacs while their military put a plan together to kick us in the teeth. We thought we knew everything. We didn't. -President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

the hard look of a man who also understood, who had seen all the stupidity, who knew, after all, that the gold stars were often mindless decoration, that the army was led not by symbols, but by the fallible egos and blind fantasies of men.           I

he is appointed Lieutenant Colonel, second-in-command of the Twentieth Maine Regiment of Volunteers.

No one knew how to end it. The war had settled into unbearable, unwinnable battles. It had reached a point where there were no more victories, only death.

My one fear which I expressed to the President is that by reducing the fleet in Hawaii we have sent a signal to the Japanese that we are not as prepared to meet their threats as we once were. -Admiral Husband Kimmel, Commander US Pacific Fleet

A school yard full of unruly school children in which children don't always understand the consequences of what they do. -US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, on international relations

As has happened in the American Civil War and World War I, the technology for mass destruction has far outpaced man's ability to maintain the peace.

Burnside was in the best position on the field, could have moved at any time toward a weak defense, a defense that was weaker still

All I propose is an attack that will paralyze the Americans, for perhaps six months. This attack is not about victory, about winning a war...It is about delaying them, keeping them back, damaging their military might and pride. -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

In terms of the collective memory of the American people, the Korean War is not just forgotten. It was not remembered in the first place…." —HISTORIAN ALLAN MILLETT

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was not in favor of war and was under no illusion that Japan had the ability and the resources to outlast the US or Britain.

You may have increased the enthusiasm among our country's elite for finding other means of replacing what you've taken away. -Kichisaburo Nomura, Japanese Ambassador to the United States

Lee made small greetings to the others, saw the sour expression of Jubal Early, Ewell's division commander

I did not come into this Army to serve one man, to serve a friend.

see the strength of the blue lines in front of them. But it was

Go home, Sean. Go plant some flowers and mow your grass. And maybe hatch a couple more kids. You sound like Colleen. That's what she wants. It's what we all want. Some of us just don't know it yet.

anything that might be

worn-out shoes. Few of the men had anything solid on their feet, and the curses toward the supply officers went mostly unheeded by the officers, who had worries of their own.

Tis only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded or lacerated…that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.

responsibility, had been shifted from the president's weakening shoulders. It was now up

I always had the faith that this country would elect those who knew best, who could follow the best course through any situation.

who blamed Lee. Longstreet knew that somewhere