Skip to content

Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world’s policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world’s midwife to democracy when the birth is scheduled to take place under conditions of guerrilla war.

— Jeane Kirkpatrick Dictatorships and Double Standards (1979)

Another quote →

More quotes by Jeane Kirkpatrick

Russia is playing chess, while we are playing Monopoly. The only question is whether they will checkmate us before we bankrupt them.

Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.

Decades, if not centuries are normally required for people to acquire the necessary disciplines and habits [for democracy]. In Britain, the road [to democratic government] took seven centuries to traverse.

Dictatorships and Double Standards (1979)

Neither nature, experience, nor probability informs these lists of "entitlements", which are subject to no constraints except those of the mind and appetite of their authors.

No idea holds greater sway in the minds of educated Americans that the belief that it is possible to democratize governments anytime and anywhere under any circumstances .

Dictatorships and Double Standards (1979)

All Jeane Kirkpatrick quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jeane Kirkpatrick (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.