I'd learned a lot in the Army. I knew that above all things in the world I had to become so big, so strong that people and their hatred could never touch me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
But I would have executed much greater things, had not government always opposed my exertions, and placed others in situations which would have suited my talents.
I'd come out of the army after five years as a medic. I was a medical administrator and we ran hospitals, and I was a Captain in the army at the end, in 1945.
The things I learned from the army - and I think it was a lesson for life - was how to work in unison with other people. How to take responsibility.
I think I'd be a better president because I was in combat.
The hate and scorn showered on us Negro officers by our fellow Americans convinced me that there was no sense in my dying for a world ruled by them. I made up my mind that if I got through this war I would study law and use my time fighting for men who could not strike back.
I would have benefited a lot from proper training. I could have done with a strong wake-up call about getting jobs.
I would go to war with words, not weapons. I would die talking before I lifted a weapon.
I may have made my reputation as a general in the Army and I'm very proud of that. But I've always felt that I was more than one-dimensional.
I was a grunt, walking around in the jungle of Vietnam, trying not to find the enemy. Because I am so big, they were going to give me either a heavy radio or a huge machine gun to carry. I carried a radio.
I would have been a disastrous soldier.