Oliver North Quotes

And so, the youngsters you have today, even though there are far fewer of them - in World War II 16.5 million men and women in uniform, today roughly a million in uniform in spite of the fact that the country is almost twice as large a population as we had in World War II.

President Reagan didn't always know what he knew.

I haven't, in the 23 years that I have been in the uniformed services of the United States of America, ever violated an order - not one.

We've got a very difficult situation created by this embrace of the so-called Arab Spring. And that's not getting better. It's getting worse. The carnage for the people of Syria is horrific, and it's quite frankly too little, too late to reverse a lot of that.

We've been in the nation-building business since World War I, and especially since WWII. The goal is not a Jeffersonian Democracy in Afghanistan, but a representative government that respects human rights, protects its own people, and is a friend of the West. These are very realistic - and necessary - goals.

We don't need a head of state who guts our defenses and draws phony red lines with a pink crayon.

I want to make it clear that I honestly answered every question put to me during the so-called Iran-Contra hearings. But if they didn't ask me about something, I wasn't about to reveal things that would put other people in jeopardy.

The average term length of a member of congress is approaching 15 years, and the average term length of a convicted criminal is less than three. We've got that backward.

All of my high school male teachers were WWII and/or Korean War veterans. They taught my brothers and me the value of service to our country and reinforced what our dad had shown us about the meaning of service.

I like to tell people that I have the best job in the media. All I do is hang around with heroes. I do that every week for my 'War Stories' documentary series - and when FOX News wants - I go off and cover the young Americans we send to places like Afghanistan or Iraq.

I don't think there is another person in America that wants to tell this story as much as I do.

The lesson of Pearl Harbor ought never to be forgotten, and of course the motto that came from that, 69 years ago, the war which my dad fought, was 'Remember Pearl Harbor, never again.' We need to keep that to mind.

I am here to accept responsibility for that which I did. I will not accept responsibility for that which I did not do.

The American people need to tell their member of Congress that we need a strong defense to protect us and to prevent wars. We can't get away with simply leading from behind and gutting our defenses.

I'm like John Wayne. I only play good guys. Describing his cameo role on a TV series.

The 2.4 million bright, brave, incredibly fit and remarkably talented young Americans who have served in our armed forces since we were attacked on 9-11-01 are all volunteers. As General Petraeus put it during a conversation we had in Afghanistan, 'They all came or stayed, knowing they were going to war.' For more than a decade, these patriots and their loved ones have made extraordinary sacrifices for this country. They embody the classical definition of heroes: those who put themselves at risk for the benefit of others.

The good Lord gave me eight grandchildren, and I am convinced that through schools like Desert Christian that we are going to overwhelm the adversaries, not just with bombs and bullets, but with the demonstration of Christian principles.

I'm trusting in the Lord and a good lawyer.

Without any intended hubris, I've lead a pretty exciting life. What I've tried to do in Mission Compromised is draw on those experiences to create a sense of excitement and realism within the story.

The United Nations passed so-called sanctions again on North Korea, and they've said they 'will exercise their preemptive right to a nuclear attack.' I don't think this ought to be taken kindly.

Writers are storytellers. So are readers.

I would have promised those terrorists a trip to Disneyland if it would have gotten the hostages released. I thank God they were satisfied with the missiles and we didn't have to go to that extreme.

Vladimir Putin is leading a dying country. Vladimir Putin's regime exports three things: petroleum products - coal, natural gas, and hydrocarbon energy in the form of petroleum. Number two, it exports arms, and, number three, it exports people.

Today, only 2 percent of the people know the name of someone serving in uniform. That means 2 percent of your listeners can actually conjure up the image of someone wearing the uniform of the military of the United States.

What's been happening in Iraq, what young Americans wearing flak jackets, helmets and flight suits have done is ... created the circumstances under which Iraq can become our closest ally in that part of the world and still have a representative government. And that's going to be a very good thing considering what's going on in that neighborhood.

One of the great upsides to a national book tour is the chance to break out of television's cocoon and interact directly with the American people.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

If you could have imagined that someone is happy that Obama is president, it has to be Jimmy Carter because he is no longer the worst president in our history.

My mom told me a long time ago, 'Never get in a fight with a lady.'

I thought using the Ayatollah's money to support the Nicaraguan resistance was a neat idea.

An easy life is rarely meaningful and a meaningful life rarely easy.

History and war are cruel pedants. Those who know too little of the former are likely to have too much of the latter.

I'm still in touch with a lot people who continue to serve our country well.

I can remember as a young lieutenant being sent into the DMZ in the divided Vietnam, from North Vietnam.

My wife said to me ... you never understood what we were going through back home, did you? And I didn't. And I have to confess that.

I came here to tell you the truth, the good, the bad and the ugly.

People don't like him (John Poindexter) for the same reason they don't like me ... If you get things done in this bureaucracy you step on toes.

I would not trade you a billion dollars for the kids I led to combat in Vietnam or in fact any of the Marines that I served with for a quarter of a century.

I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version.

For a radical Jihadist, this fight is all about dying the right way while killing an infidel. For us, it's all about living the right way because all the dying necessary was done for us two thousand years ago on a hill called Calvary.

The Bible says there is a time for peace and a time for war. Now is the time for war. I cannot wait to say it is now a time for peace." - MAJ James Brisson, Chaplain, 1-160th SOAR, 19 October 2001, Afghanistan

As a Marine officer in combat, I was responsible for the lives and safety of all the Marines who served with me.

There is no moral middle ground. Indifference is not an option ... For the sake of our children, I implore each of you to be unyielding and inflexible in your opposition to drugs.

The National Security Council's real role is to coordinate the various activities of the government of the United States in the furtherance of American foreign policy.