“I know I will be severely criticized by the interventionists in America when I say we should not enter a war unless we have a reasonable chance of winning…. We are no better prepared today than France was when the interventionists persuaded her to attack the Siegfried Line….
It is not only our right but it is our obligation as American citizens to look at this war objectively and to weigh our chances for success if we should enter it. I have attempted to do this, especially from the standpoint of aviation; and I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot win this war for England, regardless of how much assistance we extend.”

— Burton K. Wheeler

Speech, reported in Robert G. Torricelli, Andrew Carroll, In Our Own Words: Extraordinary Speeches of the American Century (2000), p. 126.

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Burton K. Wheeler 2

American politician and lawyer 1882–1975

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