In Russia, quotation seeks you

June 29, 2009 9:19 PM

I'm looking for a quote and its source. Two hours of Google has gotten me nowhere. The quote is something like, "Russia is always a potential friend [or ally] hiding behind a potential enemy." It's not Churchill's "enigma" quote. Many thanks.
posted by bryon to writing & language (2 comments total)

Walter Lippmann, in his 1943 book U.S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic, writes a number of times that Russia and the U.S. are each to the other "a potential friend in the rear of its potential enemies." The phrase has been attributed to Lippmann, but he himself cites a September 1941 article by DeWitt Clinton Poole as the source of the phrase. Lippmann's book is available online at the Internet Archive; his first use of the phrase is on page 140.
posted by gubo at 10:20 PM on June 29 [2 favorites has favorites]

Perfect, gubo! Thank you so much.
posted by bryon at 11:18 PM on June 29