The president often clears his throat with "Let me be perfectly clear" and "Make no mistake about it" -- as if we, his schoolchildren, have to be warned to pay attention to the all-knowing teacher at the front of the class.

Let me be perfectly clear

An infa­mous line by Richard Nixon that has been used since in many reper­toires.

And...

From Harry S. Truman, no less...

"I have another secret intelligence report here. This one tells what another Communist officer in the Far East told his men several months before the invasion of Korea. Here is what he said: 'In order to successfully undertake the long-awaited world resolution, we must first unify Asia . . . Java, Indochina, Malaya, India, Tibet, Thailand, Philippines, and Japan are our ultimate targets. . . . The United States is the only obstacle on our road for the liberation of all the countries in southeast Asia. In other words, we must unify the people of Asia and crush the United States.'

* * *

"The dangers are great. Make no mistake about it. Behind the North Koreans and Chinese Communists in the front lines stand additional millions of Chinese soldiers. And behind the Chinese stand the tanks, the planes, the submarines, the soldiers, and the scheming rulers of the Soviet Union."


Source: The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Vol. 1 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), p. 588-89



BOTH of those phrases have been used again and again by EVERY President since Truman, and everyone here knows it.  There's nothing "elite" or "arrogant" about either one.  And everyone here knows THAT, too.

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SGT. JIRI TREBISSKY H&D SAS

"When the winds of change blow, some people
build walls and others build windmills."
~ Chinese proverb