George Ball (diplomat)



George Wildman Ball (December 21, 1909 – May 26, 1994) was an American diplomat and banker.

On the Vietnam War

 * If we go down that road we might have, within five years, 300,000 men in the rice paddies of the jungles of Viet-Nam and never be able to find them.
 * At a Nov. 7, 1961, meeting with President John F. Kennedy. Ball is objecting to the recommendations of Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor and Deputy National Security Advisor Walt W. Rostow to, among other things, increase the US troop presence in Vietnam (see the Taylor-Rostow report).

On the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty

 * ... the ultimate lesson of the Liberty attack had far more effect on policy in Israel than in America. Israel's leaders concluded that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America's leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything.

The "Ball Rule of Power"

 * Nothing propinks like propinquity.