John W. Vessey, Jr.

My job is to give the president and secretary of defense military advice before they know they need it.

Don't get small units caught in between the forces of history.

More has been screwed up on the battlefield and misunderstood in the Pentagon because of a lack of understanding of the English language than any other single factor.

Our strategy is one of preventing war by making it self-evident to our enemies that they're going to get their clocks cleaned if they start one.