“Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth, both for...” – Gen. Turgidson, Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ... Movie Quotes Database

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A scene from Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964

Gen. Turgidson

Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth, both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless distinguishable, post-war environments: one where you got 20 million people killed, and the other where you got 150 million people killed!

President Muffley

You're talking about mass murder, General, not war.

Gen. Turgidson

Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops! Uh, depending on the breaks.

President Muffley

I will not go down in history as the greatest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler.

Gen. Turgidson

Perhaps it might be better, Mr. President, if you were more concerned with the American people, than with your image in the history books.

In this scene

General "Buck" Turgidson George C. Scott More General "Buck" Turgidson quotes →

President Merkin Muffley Peter Sellers More President Muffley quotes →

More from Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Major T. J. "King" Kong Ain't nobody ever got the Go code yet. And old Ripper wouldn't be giving us plan R unless them Russkies had already clobbered Washington and a lot of other towns with a sneak attack. Major T. J. "King" Kong Well, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a set of earphones. Major T. J. "King" Kong Now, boys, we got three engines out; we got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule; the radio's gone and we're leakin' fuel, and if we's flying any lower, why, we'd need sleigh bells on this thing. But we got one little bulge on them Rooskies, at this height, why, they might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen.