(Walter Matthau) "Do you believe that Communism is not our mortal enemy?"
(Dan O'Herlihy) "You're justifying murder."
(Walter Matthau) "Yes, to keep from being murdered."
(Dan O'Herlihy) "In the name of what? To preserve what? Even if we do survive, what are we? Better than what we say they are? What gives us the right to live, then? What makes us worth surviving, Groeteschele? That we are ruthless enough to strike first?"
(Walter Matthau) "Yes. Those who can survive are the only ones worth surviving."
(Dan O'Herlihy) "Fighting for your life isn't the same as murder."
(Walter Matthau) "Where do you draw the line once you know what the enemy is? How long would the Nazis have kept it up, General, if every Jew they came after had met them with a gun in his hand? But I learned from them, General Black. Oh, I learned."
(Dan O'Herlihy) "You learned too well, Professor. You learned so well that now there's no difference between you and what you want to kill."
From Fail Safe 1964
(Walter Matthau) "Do you believe that Communism is not our mortal enemy?" (Dan O'Herlihy) "You're justifying murder." (Walter Matthau) "Yes, to keep from being murdered." (Dan O'Herlihy) "In the name of what? To preserve what? Even if we do survive, what are we? Better than what we say they are? What gives us the right to live, then? What makes us worth surviving, Groeteschele? That we are ruthless enough to strike first?" (Walter Matthau) "Yes. Those who can survive are the only ones worth surviving." (Dan O'Herlihy) "Fighting for your life isn't the same as murder." (Walter Matthau) "Where do you draw the line once you know what the enemy is? How long would the Nazis have kept it up, General, if every Jew they came after had met them with a gun in his hand? But I learned from them, General Black. Oh, I learned." (Dan O'Herlihy) "You learned too well, Professor. You learned so well that now there's no difference between you and what you want to kill."
Now who are the communists in this war?