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Harold Holt citations

Harold Edward Holt, né le 5 août 1908 à Sydney et présumé mort le 17 décembre 1967, est un homme d'État australien, dix-septième Premier ministre d'Australie en 1966. Son mandat s'achève dramatiquement en décembre 1967 quand il disparaît alors qu'il se baigne à Cheviot Beach près de Portsea, dans l'État de Victoria. On suppose qu'il s'est noyé.

Holt passe 32 ans au Parlement, est ministre pendant de nombreuses années mais n'occupe la fonction de Premier ministre que pendant 22 mois, ce qui limite son impact politique personnel dans l'histoire australienne surtout si on le compare à son prédécesseur immédiat Robert Menzies, Premier ministre pendant 18 ans.

À l'heure actuelle, Holt reste surtout connu pour les circonstances tragiques de sa mort, pour son action controversée dans le renforcement de l'engagement de l'Australie aux côtés des États-Unis dans la guerre du Viêt Nam et par sa célèbre déclaration : « All the way with LBJ » ce qui a probablement fait oublier beaucoup d'autres réalisations importantes tout au long de sa carrière politique. Wikipedia  

✵ 5. août 1908 – 17. décembre 1967
Harold Holt photo
Harold Holt: 7   citations 0   J'aime

Harold Holt: Citations en anglais

“Look Tony, what are the odds of a prime minister being drowned or taken by a shark?”

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Harold Holt

private conversation recounted by his press secretary Tony Eggleton, after being confronted about the dangers of his hobby
As prime minister
Source: The Life and Death of Harold Holt, p. 273.

“One mistake and you're gone. You just don't make that mistake. With time one's skill increases and one learns hunting tricks. With greater knowledge the dangers diminish. It is wonderful to be free, alone down there.”

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Harold Holt

interview with journalist Nigel Muir in 1967, talking about the dangers of spearfishing
As prime minister
Source: The Life and Death of Harold Holt, p. 273.

“Anything but a yes vote to this question would do injury to our reputation among fair-minded people everywhere.”

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Harold Holt

statement on the referendum on Aboriginal Australians, 26 May 1967
As prime minister
Source: The Life and Death of Harold Holt, p. 213.

“Australia has, in its short history, paid a heavy price in human life in the cause of liberty and national survival. No one can foretell what the price will be in South-east Asia.”

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Harold Holt

statement on the death of Private Errol Noack, first Australian conscript killed in Vietnam, 25 May 1966
As prime minister
Source: The Life and Death of Harold Holt, p. 180.

“Australia cannot stand aside from the struggle to resist the aggressive thrust of Communism in Asia and to ensure conditions in which stability can be achieved. Our own national security demands this course. We cannot be isolationist or neutralist, placed as we are geographically and occupying, as we do, with limited national strength, this vast continent. We cannot leave it solely to our allies – and their national servicemen [conscripts] – to defend in the region the rights of countries to their own independence and the peaceful pursuit of their national way of life.”

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Harold Holt

statement on the creation of a self-contained Australian task force to fight in Vietnam, 8 March 1966
As prime minister
Source: The Life and Death of Harold Holt, p. 178.

“In the lonelier and perhaps even more disheartening moments which come to any national leader, I hope there will be a corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch ally that will be all the way with LBJ.”

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Harold Holt

address to President Johnson at the White House, 27 June 1966
As prime minister
Source: The Life and Death of Harold Holt, p. 181.

“This Australia of ours is a vast island continent inhabited largely by people of British or other European stock and with a heritage of national freedom, personal liberty and the institutions of a British parliamentary democracy. But geographically we are part of Asia, and increasingly we have become aware of our involvement in the affairs of Asia. Our greatest dangers and our highest hopes are centred in Asia's tomorrows. Already one Asian country [Japan] has become established as the largest purchaser, in terms of money value, of Australian exports. The only military operations in which we are now engaged or in which we have been engaged since the Second World War are located in Asia.”

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Harold Holt

address to federal parliament after returning from a tour of Asia, 12 April 1967
As prime minister
Source: http://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00001559.pdf