History Quotes / GunboatDiplomacy

->"The regional governors will have now direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line; fear of this battle station."

->"Bullets change governments far surer than votes."

->''Yang pulled out her best manic smile, hoping it made her look as inhuman as possible. She flashed her Semblance too, just because. Her irises flickered to blood red. The bandit's face paled rapidly.\\

Huh. Whoever said diplomacy was hard?''
-->--'''Fanfic/WhiteSheepRWBY'''

->"Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. [[GoodOldWays But I have to admit]], I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that."

-->-- '''Anti-Flag''', "Confessions of an Economic Hitman",

->There's a saying I like: 'One sword keeps another in the sheath.' Sometimes, the threat of violence alone is a deterrent.

-->--'''WebVideo/HistoryOfJapan'''

->"A fleet of British ships at war are the best negotiators."

->"You can get much farther with a kind word [[ShameIfSomethingHappened and a gun]] than you can with a kind word alone."

->"For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes."

->"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

->"Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephants trunk, whacked good."

->"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]]."

->'''Capt. Janeway:''' Your sensors should confirm [our holodecks have] been deactivated.

->'''Captain Janeway:''' Your sensors should confirm [our holodecks have] been deactivated.

-->Captain Janeway showing she's NotSoAboveItAll, ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Body and Soul"

->''"On the issue of "galactic peace", I am long past innocence, and fast approaching apathy. It's all a game--a paper fantasy of names and borders. Only one thing matters, Commander: Blood. It calls out for blood."''

->''No matter what foreign-policy stance the president takes, you can be certain that ol’ Johnny Boy will be there to call him a pussyfor either (a) not bombing people or (b) not bombing them enough. [=McCain=] requires ALL of the bombing. If we don’t keep bombing everyone, then the mad dictators will think we look weak! And if we’ve learned anything, it’s that when mad dictators think you’re tough, they’ll say sorry, dismantle all their anthrax guns, and buy everyone a box of kittens.''

->''"Speak softly and carry a big stick."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt'''

->"If [Hugo Chavez] he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."

->''"The regional governors will have now direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line, fear of this battle station."''

->''The use of force is easy to rationalize in terms of basic economics. ''[="We should make them PAY for what they've done!"'' It's just the law of demand: raise the price of crossing us, and fewer people will cross us. Make the price [[WorldWarIII another Hiroshima]], and perhaps the quantity demanded will fall to zero.''

->"As the ''Times'' editorial page hysterically described Reagan's first year in office: ''[[UsefulNotes;RonaldReagan Mr. Reagan]] looked at the world through gun sights.'' Yes, he did! And now the Evil Empire is no more."

->A fleet of British ships at war are the best negotiators.

->You can get much farther with a kind word [[ShameIfSomethingHappened and a gun]] than you can with a kind word alone.

->For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes.

->Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

->Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephants trunk, whacked good.

->Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered [[MoreDakka automatic weapons]].

->[[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]] managed to begin the UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam war}} by not following his normal instinct of staying out of mischief. In his memoirs, he tells us why we didn’t honor the Geneva accords and hold elections in Vietnam: because some 80 percent of the country would have voted for Ho Chi Minh. This is very candid. The sort of thing one might have found in [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin’s]] memoirs, had he not [[{{Unperson}} made ghosts even of ghosts]].

->You have no idea how much it contributes to the general politeness and pleasantness of diplomacy when you have [[FlauntingYourFleets a little quiet armed force]] in the background.

->I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I'll do ''anything'' to end the war. We'll just let slip the word to them that, 'for God's sake don't you know Nixon is obsessed with communists. We [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry can't restrain him when he's angry]]--and he's got his finger on the nuclear button', and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two weeks begging for peace.

->When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

->We never threaten anyone. We just [[DistinctionWithoutADifference explain the situation.]]

->International relations bears more than a slight resemblance to {{the mafia}}.

->If [Hugo Chavez] he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.

->The most used phrase in my administration if I were to be President would be 'What the hell you mean we're ''[[MacrossMissileMassacre out of missiles]]''?!'

->[='=]''Well, suck on this!!''[='=] That, Charlie, was what this war was about.

->The problem was that Panama technically belonged to Colombia, which refused to sign a treaty leasing it to the United States. So Roosevelt sent a gunboat filled with marines down to Panama, just on the off chance that a revolution might suddenly break out, and darned if one didn't, two days later. Not only that, but the leaders of the new nation of Panama--talk about lucky breaks!--were absolutely thrilled to have the United States build a canal there. 'Really, it's our pleasure,' they told the marines, adding, 'Don't shoot.'

->[[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Nixon]] has the audacity to tell me to do nothing in the interest of my country until he dictates where that interest lies. At the same time he threatens me that failure to follow his so-called advice will be to jeopardize the special relations between our two countries. I say to hell with such special relations.
-->--''Shah of Iran'''

->The use of force is easy to rationalize in terms of basic economics. [='=]'''We should make them PAY for what they've done!'''[='=] It's just the law of demand: raise the price of crossing us, and fewer people will cross us. Make the price [[WorldWarIII another Hiroshima]], and perhaps the quantity demanded will fall to zero.

->If we are willing to act violently in pursuit of a peripheral interest, everyone can be certain that, when a vital interest is at stake, we will be still more violent. 'Credibility' is defined as the willingness to kill a lot of people now for a not very good cause to assure the world that we’ll [[MakeAnExampleOfThem kill a lot more people]] if we can find a better one.

->''"Speak softly and carry a big stick."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt'''

->''"[[OhCrap Is - is that thing safe?]]" [[BrutalHonesty No. No, it is not. You'll be quite happy to take it away - once your requests have been accommodated.''

->Speak softly, and carry a big stick; you will go far.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt'''

->''Knock knock. It's the United States. With ''huge'' boats. With guns. Gunboats.\\

->"Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. [[GoodOldDays But I have to admit]], I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that."