War & Peace Quote by Henry A. Wallace

Patriotism, Wallace suggests, is often a seasonal costume worn by people who can afford to take it off. The line lands because it refuses the comforting idea that national loyalty is a stable virtue. Instead, it frames “patriotic in time of war” as a transaction: war creates a moral and political premium on flag-waving, and certain actors - business interests, political opportunists, media gatekeepers - cash in on it. The bite is in the causality: “because it is to their interest.” Not belief. Not sacrifice. Incentive.

Then he pivots to peace, where the costume loses its value and the underlying allegiance shows. “They follow power and the dollar” is less a slogan than an x-ray of American political economy: when cannons stop, the real compass reappears. The phrase “wherever they may lead” widens the indictment. It’s not merely greed; it’s moral drift, a willingness to outsource principle to whichever force is winning.

As vice president during World War II, Wallace was positioned uncomfortably close to the machinery he’s critiquing. A New Deal progressive who warned about “American fascism,” he watched wartime unity harden into a postwar order where corporate influence, anti-union crackdowns, and Cold War conformity could be sold as “national security.” The intent isn’t to sneer at ordinary soldiers or sincere civic feeling; it’s to puncture the elite narrative that equates profit motives with patriotism. Wallace is arguing that peace is the real test of loyalty - because without the adrenaline of war, you can finally see who’s serving the country and who’s simply serving themselves.