“The dilemma is this: We all know that this aid cannot materially affect the course of events of China. We are obliged to put the bill before Congress by virtue of our past commitments and of the pressures that exist in favor of aid to China.”

—  George F. Kennan

January 27, 1948
The Kennan Diaries

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The dilemma is this: We all know that this aid cannot materially affect the course of events of China. We are obliged t…" by George F. Kennan?
George F. Kennan photo
George F. Kennan 46
American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and histori… 1904–2005

Related quotes

Hung Hsiu-chu photo

“If we don't put forward such a proposal (signing a peace pact with Mainland China) and start negotiating with (Mainland) China, how can we know we will not achieve any results?”

Hung Hsiu-chu (1948) Taiwanese politician

Hung Hsiu-chu (2015) cited in " Cross-strait status quo is 'one China, same interpretation': KMT's Hung http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201505060036.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 6 May 2015

Ma Ying-jeou photo

“We know that Hong Kong, after the handover to mainland China, has been trying for universal suffrage … We know that mainland China has made promises and we're of course pleased to see Hong Kong changing in this direction.”

Ma Ying-jeou (1950) Taiwanese politician, president of the Republic of China

Source: Ma Ying-jeou (2013) cited in: " Ma says meeting with Xi Jinping rests on popular approval http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan-relations/2013/07/27/384866/Ma-says.htm" in The China Post, 27 July 2013.

Statement made at the Presidential Office in Taipei commenting on the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, 25 July 2013.

Ma Fuxiang photo

“Our Party [the Guomindang] takes the development of the weak and small and resistance to the strong and violent as our sole and most urgent task. This is even more true for those groups which are not of our kind [Ch. fei wo zulei zhe]. Now the peoples [minzu] of Mongolia and Tibet are closely related to us, and we have great affection for one another: our common existence and common honor already have a history of over a thousand years…. Mongolia and Tibet's life and death are China's life and death. China absolutely cannot cause Mongolia and Tibet to break away from China's territory, and Mongolia and Tibet cannot reject China to become independent. At this time, there is not a single nation on earth execept China that will sincerely develop Mongolia and Tibet.”

Ma Fuxiang (1876–1932) Chinese politician

Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China, Jonathan Neaman Lipman, 2004, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 167, 0-295-97644-6, 266, 2010-06-28 http://books.google.com/books?id=90CN0vtxdY0C&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=ma+fuxiang+our+party&source=bl&ots=gMwLItF3rt&sig=Y4eKstUC_TGgOelKv60xxJb-J2I&hl=en&ei=968WTL_0DYKBlAecxOCjDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Our%20Party%20%5Bthe%20Guomindang%5D%20takes%20the%20development%20of%20the%20weak%20and%20small%20and%20resistance%20to%20the%20strong%20and%20violent%20as%20our%20sole%20and%20most%20urgent%20task.&f=false,

Mao Zedong photo

“People who try to commit suicide — don't attempt to save them!... China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Attributed by Wang Li, “历史将宣告我无罪” (History Will Pronounce Me Innocent), manuscript, Beijing, 1993, p. 7. This source is a privately printed collection of letters and documents concerning Wang Li's expulsion from the CCP. Cited in Mao's Last Revolution (2006) by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals, ISBN 0674023323
Attributed

Sadao Araki photo

“In order to have enough of the raw materials…which will be lacking in wartime, we should plan to acquire and use foreign resources existing in our expected sphere of influence, such as Sakhalim, China, and the Southern Pacific.”

Sadao Araki (1877–1966) Japanese general

1933. Quoted in "Carriers in Combat: The Air War at Sea" - Page 43 - by Chester G. Hearn - History - 2007

Nancy Pelosi photo

“I have said to people when they ask me, if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain would be our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it our aid, our cooperation with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.”

Nancy Pelosi (1940) American politician, first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, born 1940

2010s
Source: 12 December 2018 https://mondoweiss.net/2019/01/acknowledges-pressure-solution/ in 2018 IAC National Conference.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Proclamation Calling Militia and Convening Congress on (15 April 1861) http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/proc-1.htm
1860s

George Bernard Shaw photo

“We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence… on pain of liquidation”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Wu Den-yih photo

“Of course, we are against Taiwan's independence, but we don't think right now is the time to talk about reunification (with Mainland China).”

Wu Den-yih (1948) Taiwanese politician

Wu Den-yih (2018) cited in: " Taiwan opposition ditches pro-China overtures ahead of poll https://www.ft.com/content/515fc4f0-51bd-11e8-b24e-cad6aa67e23e" in Financial Times, 8 May 2018.

Menachem Begin photo

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

Menachem Begin (1913–1992) Israeli politician and Prime Minister

The much less verbose true quote, from Begin's "acerbic" visit to the US Congress in 1982 (during the Lebanon War), as found in Time Magazine's contemporary report http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,925497-6,00.html (George J. Church, July 05, 1982):
"Don't threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles!"
"Sir, do not threaten us with cutting aid. First of all, you should know that this is not a one-way street. You help us, and we are very grateful for your help; but this is a two-way street: We do a lot for you. And also in recent battles we did a lot for the United States; and I gave some examples, but this is not the place to go into them. Therefore, do not threaten us with cuts in aid, but take note: That if at any time you demand of us to yield on a principle in which we believe, while threatening to cut aid, we will not abandon the principle in which we believe - and propose cutting aid. The argument went approximately thus."
On the other hand, contemporary reports give the true quote as also being far less verbose.
Source: attributed as alleged reply to Senator Joe Biden in Ronn Torossian's op-ed "Menachem Begin To Joe Biden: I Am Not A Jew With Trembling Knees" https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/menachem-begin-to-joe-biden-i-am-not-a-jew-with-trembling-knees/2015/04/03, in 2015 without source. Possibly of earlier origin.
Source: As found in Time Magazine's contemporary report http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,925497-6,00.html

Related topics