There is an international disease which feeds on the notion that if you have a cause to defend, you can use any means to further your cause, since the end justifies the means. As an international community, we must oppose this notion, whether it be in Canada, in the United States, or anywhere else. No cause justifies violence as long as the system provides for change by peaceful means.
Richard Nixon Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Speech on the October Crisis (October 1970), quoted in Louis, Fournier, F.L.Q: The Anatomy of an Underground movement (Toronto: NC Press Limited, 1984), p. 256
- form
- speech
- year
- 1970
- locator
- p. 256
Cite this record
“There is an international disease which feeds on the notion …” Richard Nixon. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-C0E9B297A7. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/c0e9b297a7
More from Richard Nixon
I am also aware of the plans you have for the future--the plans to move from 75 cities to 125 cities; the plans also to attempt to get at this whole problem of unemployment, and hard-core unemployment particularly, by moving perhaps as many as 500,000 into jobs--the time, as I understand now, June 1971, but because of the number of new cities, perhaps even sooner. This is an ambitious project. What I am here to say, and what the members of this Cabinet are here to say, is that it has the complete, unqualified support of this administration, just as it had of the previous administration. There is no partisanship in this program. All that we want and all that you want is to deal with this basically essential problem in an effective way; to move people from welfare rolls to payrolls. This we want; this you want; and you will have our support in that project.
Let me put it in historical perspective. When this Nation was founded in 1776-13 colonies, 3 million people, very weak militarily, poor economically--the men who founded this Nation said: "We act not just for ourselves, but for the whole human race." That was a presumptuous thing for them to say then. But some way that Spirit of '76 appealed to all the world. Today the United States of America, because of its power, because of its wealth, because of what we stand for, .does act for the whole human race. And that is the challenge that we face, and that is the challenge that I know that we can meet. I am proud to work with the Governors of the 50 States, Republican and Democrat alike, to see that America deals effectively with its problems at home, so that we can provide the example of leadership which will enable us to meet the challenges of keeping peace and freedom abroad.
I can't ever say that, but I believe it.