“I'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed, it was only because I was betrayed. The so-called genocide was nothing more than just a war in defence of the revolution and a system from which all have benefited.”

—  Mengistu Haile Mariam

As quoted in Riccardo Orizio, Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators, (Walker and Company, 2003), p. 150

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed,…" by Mengistu Haile Mariam?
Mengistu Haile Mariam photo
Mengistu Haile Mariam18
Former dictator of Ethiopia 1937

Related quotes

Robert O'Hara photo

“I did, not only because of that, but also because there was no value placed on education in my family. My mother just assumed I was smart, and I had glasses so I was called “four eyes,” and I was always reading a book, and so the outsider feeling came from the fact that I really loved school…”

Robert O'Hara American playwright and theatre director

Source: On feeling like an outsider both at his school and in his home life in “Artist Interview with Robert O'Hara” https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/trailers/artist-interview-robert-ohara/ in Playwrights Horizon

Neamat Imam photo

“I wanted to save my face because only that was what I had.”

Neamat Imam book The Black Coat

The Black Coat (2013)

Frances Burney photo

“No, Madam,' cried I, '—only—only I did not know that gentleman,—and so,—and so I thought—I intended—I—'
Overpowered by all that had passed, I had not strength to make my mortifying explanation; — my spirits quite failed me, and I burst into tears.”

Frances Burney book Evelina

Letter XIII
Evelina (1778)

Benjamín Netanyahu photo

“But then the question came up of just who would define what Defined Military Sites were. I received a letter – to my and to Arafat, at the same time – which said that Israel, and only Israel, would be the one to define what those are, the location of those military sites and their size. Now, they did not want to give me that letter, so I did not give the Hebron Agreement. I stopped the government meeting, I said: “I’m not signing.” Only when the letter came, in the course of the meeting, to my and to Arafat, only then did I sign the Hebron Agreement. Or rather, ratify it, it had already been signed. Why does this matter? Because at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo Accord.”

Benjamín Netanyahu (1949) Israeli prime minister

Benjamin Natenyahu, Israeli settlement of Ofra, 2001, speaking to a family of West Bank settlers whose 10 year old son had just returned from the hospital after being injured in a Palestinian attack. http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2010/07/14/bibi-the-bamboozler-to-settlers-america-wont-get-in-our-way-its-easily-moved/,(Hebrew video source) http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=731034 <br class="br">2000s, 2001

Tupac Shakur photo

“The only way I've been practicing my whole life, to live my life is to be responsible for what I do. I don't know how to be responsible for what every black male did, I don't know. And yes, I am gonna say that I'm a thug, that's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here! I'm not saying I'm a thug because I wanna rob you or rape people and things. I'm a business man, I mean, you know I'm a business man because you find me at my places of business.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

1990s, Interview outside courthouse (1994)

Merian C. Cooper photo

“I just heard what was said, it isn't strictly accurate by any means, I'm a man who's just been lucky on having wonderful partners, Schoedsack alot more than I did on Grass and Chang, and right down the line I've only had John Ford as a partner, Thomas is a great friend on technicolor, and for cinerama, Fred Waller invented it, Thomas picked up the ball and ran with it, and there's a young man in this audience, Bob Bendick, that most of you have never heard, that did far more of the production then I did. I want to thank all the great partners I've had in my life, thank you. I just want to add I'm still John Ford's partner.”

Merian C. Cooper (1893–1973) American aviator, actor, director and producer

Speech after receiving an Honorary Academy Award at the 25th Academy Awards (March 19, 1953)

Eminem photo

“I maybe made some mistakes, but I'm only human. But, I'm man enough to face 'em today. What I did was stupid, no doubt it was dumb. But, the smartest shit I did was take the bullets out of that gun. Because I'd have killed them. Shit, I'd have shot Kim and them both. It's my life, I'd like to welcome you all to 'The Eminem Show.'”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Cleanin' Out My Closet"
2000s, The Eminem Show (2002)

Woodrow Wilson photo

“We are constantly thinking of the great war … which which we think to-day as a war which saved the Union, and it did indeed save the Union, but it was a war that did a great deal more than that. It created in this country what had never existed before — a national consciousness. It was not the salvation of the Union, it was the rebirth of the Union.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Memorial Day Address (31 May 1915)
1910s

Neville Chamberlain photo

“Never for one single moment have I doubted the rightness of what I did at Munich, nor can I believe that it was possible for me to do more than I did to prepare the country for war after Munich, given the violent & persistent opposition I had to fight against all the time.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to Stanley Baldwin (17 October 1940), quoted in Keith Feiling, Neville Chamberlain (London: Macmillan, 1946), p. 456.
Post-Prime Ministerial

Albert Szent-Györgyi photo

“When I received the Nobel Prize, the only big lump sum of money I have ever seen, I had to do something with it. The easiest way to drop this hot potato was to invest it, to buy shares. I knew that World War II was coming and I was afraid that if I had shares which rise in case of war, I would wish for war. So I asked my agent to buy shares which go down in the event of war. This he did. I lost my money and saved my soul.”

Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893–1986) Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937

[Szent-Györgyi, Albert, The Crazy Ape: Written by a Biologist for the Young, 1970, 20-21, The Universal Library Crosset & Dunlap, A National General Company, New York, https://archive.org/details/isbn_0448002566, July 24, 2017, Internet Archive]

Related topics