Robert Dallek Quotes

Eisenhower was quite supportive of Kennedy and Johnson in terms of foreign policy. — Robert Dallek

There are limits on what a president can achieve or do, but the expectations are so great. — Robert Dallek

Congress becomes the public voice of opposition. — Robert Dallek

I see a direct line between Kennedy and Richard Nixon and the opening to China and the detente with the Soviet Union. — Robert Dallek

Despite its flaws, the American electoral system has produced Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Harry Truman. — Robert Dallek

The institution of the presidency was profoundly affected by Watergate. — Robert Dallek

JFK to RFK: To survive in politics, you sometimes have to be willing to make fun of yourself. — Robert Dallek

Harry Truman wrote scathing letters, but he almost never sent them. — Robert Dallek

If Roosevelt didn't have World War II, he never would have had a third term. — Robert Dallek

In the late 19th century, the Populists - a protest movement of mainly disaffected farmers and workers - threatened to overturn established authority. — Robert Dallek

Like Lyndon Johnson, President Obama understands that timidity in a time of troubles is a prescription for failure. — Robert Dallek

Experience helped Richard Nixon, but it didn't save him, and it certainly wasn't a blanket endorsement. He blundered terribly in dealing with Vietnam. — Robert Dallek

Nowadays, everyone seems to have a blog that finds readers. — Robert Dallek

How many State of the Union addresses do people remember? They don't resonate that way. — Robert Dallek

For style and for creating a mood of optimism and hope - Kennedy on that count is as effective as any president the country has had in its history. — Robert Dallek

Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican nominee in 1952, made a strong public commitment to ending the war in Korea, where fighting had reached a stalemate. — Robert Dallek

The art of diplomacy is finding a reasonable route among imperfect alternatives. — Robert Dallek

There are examples of ex-presidents speaking out. Jimmy Carter has not held back on a variety of issues. Harry Truman didn't. — Robert Dallek

Access to presidential materials should be as wide as possible. — Robert Dallek

The Bay of Pigs is one of America's most infamous Cold War blunders, and it has been studied, debated, and dramatized endlessly ever since. — Robert Dallek

It's always valuable for someone running for president ... to have as much bipartisan support as possible. — Robert Dallek

The greatest presidents have been those who demonstrated astute judgment in times of crisis - often despite the advice they were getting. — Robert Dallek

Kennedy is remembered as a success mainly because of what came after: Johnson and Vietnam. Nixon and Watergate. — Robert Dallek

Joseph McCarthy and the John Birch Society launched an anti-Communist crusade that won the support of millions of Americans in the 1950s. — Robert Dallek

At the start of first terms, presidents invariably have a measure of goodwill. — Robert Dallek

The Cold War is over. The kind of authority that the presidents asserted during the Cold War has now been diminished. — Robert Dallek

Governing is one thing, campaigning is another - and the latter becomes far more pronounced in an election-year State of the Union. — Robert Dallek

My feeling is that it's a misreading of history to say that, as the Reagan supporters do, that Reagan won the Cold War. — Robert Dallek

What did in the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union. — Robert Dallek

If nobody trusts you as president, then you can't get anything done. — Robert Dallek

It is very difficult for [people] to accept the idea that someone as inconsequential as Oswald could have killed someone as consequential as Kennedy. — Robert Dallek

Political vitriol is a familiar enough characteristic of American history. — Robert Dallek

Flattery was one of Kissinger's principal tools in winning over Nixon, and a tool he employed shamelessly. — Robert Dallek

After one party loses two elections in a row, there's sort of blood in the water. — Robert Dallek

Full federal funding for presidential libraries should bring with it new rules of control over papers and artifacts. — Robert Dallek

Presidents need to be critically studied and analyzed. — Robert Dallek

Racial segregation in the South not only separated the races, but it separated the South from the rest of the country. — Robert Dallek

With television, you can make anyone look larger than life. — Robert Dallek

George Washington sets the nation on its democratic path. Abraham Lincoln preserves it. Franklin Roosevelt sees the nation through depression and war. — Robert Dallek

Presidents by six years have been there long enough for the media and the country to see their flaws. — Robert Dallek

Unity is Obama's theme. — Robert Dallek

Obama is cutting back on the idea that we're going to have Jeffersonian democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else. — Robert Dallek

Henry Kissinger never wanted the 20,000 pages of his telephone transcripts made public - not while he was alive, at any rate. — Robert Dallek

A president cannot sit on his hands and be seen as passive in the face of ruthless action by a foreign dictator. — Robert Dallek

What's in a person's heart and soul will not likely be changed by the ability to command a helicopter to land on the South Lawn. — Robert Dallek

How different our national perspective would be had Johnson, rather than Nixon, served from 1969 to 1973. — Robert Dallek

John Kennedy had so many different medical problems that began when he was a boy. He started out with intestinal problems ... spastic colitis. — Robert Dallek

Obama's endorsement of gay marriage is hardly as consequential as Johnson's legislative success on civil rights. — Robert Dallek

By the time a second term rolls around, the illusions about a president have largely evaporated. — Robert Dallek

In counterfactual history, nothing is certain. — Robert Dallek

I think experience is a terribly overrated idea when it comes to thinking about who should become president. — Robert Dallek

There's a certain clubbiness to the idea that you're an ex-president. You're no longer a politician. You're a statesman. — Robert Dallek

Concealing one's true medical condition from the voting public is a time-honored tradition of the American presidency. — Robert Dallek

They are pretty good at improvising, but God help us if they are given time to think. Dean Atchison — Robert Dallek

Presidential aspirants reach for the highest office to satisfy some yearning for greatness or even immortality. — Robert Dallek

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions. — Robert Dallek