[Our] people are not a warlike nation.  It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want war but does not fear it.  It loves peace, but also its honor and freedom.

—— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

       We are not a warlike people.  Quite the opposite.  We always seek to live in peace.  We resort to force infrequently and with great reluctance–and only after we have determined that it is absolutely necessary.

—— Ronald W. Reagan, July 17, 1980.

       Commodore Hiram Paulding, commanding a squadron composed of the USSs Fulton, Saratoga, and Wabash—without orders—invades Nicaragua, and rescues soldier of fortune William Walker, after he had been thwarted in his second attempt to take over that nation in less than a year.

       NOTE: Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, was forced to apologize to Nicaragua for Paulding’s unauthorized violation of their sovereignty.  As punishment, Paulding was retired from the Navy of the united States.

       [restored 2/26/2022] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.

       From my experience in the U.S.  Navy, if Paulding had been an enlisted man he would have been hanged or shot.  Voluntary retirement means he got to keep his skin and any pay and benefits due Commodores in 1857.  At least the U.S.  government had the grace to at least apologize to the sovereign state of Nicaragua.  Look at us today.  Is our government as gracious?  To anybody? –– JL