Withdrawal of US troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public: The more US troops come home, the more will be demanded.
Interpretation
The return of US troops will create a continuous desire for more withdrawals by the public.
Henry A. Kissinger's quote reflects on the American public's appetite for the withdrawal of US troops from conflicts. It suggests that as troops return home, the public's expectations and demands for further withdrawals will increase, drawing a parallel to how salted peanuts create an insatiable desire for more due to their satisfying nature.
In practice
In a political speech discussing military strategy.
Every civilization that has ever existed has ultimately collapsed. History is a tale of efforts that failed, or aspirations that werenβt realized. So, as a historian, one has to live with a sense of the inevitability of tragedy.
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.
If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.
What political leaders decide, intelligence services tend to seek to justify.
Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people.
The misconception that aid falls straight into the hands of dictators largely stems from the Cold War era.
Presidential ambition is a disease that can only be cured by embalming fluid.
A government, the constitution of which renders it unfit to be trusted with all the powers which a free people ought to delegate to any government, would be an unsafe and improper depositary of the NATIONAL INTERESTS.
The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.
The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.