# Quote — Lynn Compton, Call of Duty

> I told the reporter that these so-called "peace protesters" were all incipient assassins. Free speech does not embrace any form of physical force, whether passive or active. A mob blocking the streets is using physical force and is not the same thing as protected free speech. People who are willing to resort to any form of physical force (because they are frustrated by the failure of their words to be effective) have progressed up the rungs of the ladder of violence. As each level of this ladder is climbed, history has shown that progressive degrees of physical violence fail to produce a desired political result, and it becomes easier to take the next step. At the top of this ladder is assassination. Cases in point: JFK, MLK, and RFK.

- Author: [Lynn Compton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lynn-compton.md)
- Book: [Call of Duty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lynn-compton/call-of-duty.md)
- Page: 229
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lynn_Compton#Call_of_Duty:_My_Life_Before,_During_and_After_the_Band_of_Brothers_(2008)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/lynn-compton/call-of-duty/i-told-the

## More from this book

> As young people, my generation would see a lot of death. I don't think I ever grew accustomed to it. It came in darkness and fervor, by our airplanes, rifles, parachutes, and tanks. But there was something about that first death I experienced the summer of 1939 when I was just eighteen, years before the war, that stayed with me so strongly. Those first few seasons after my father died were dark indeed.

p. 54 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lynn-compton/call-of-duty/as-young-people.md)

> Sometimes the greatest signs of strength are demonstrated when you relive the hardest parts of your life. I'm not a man easily given to emotion. I hate to cry. Yet there are three things that cause me to tear up today. One is when I talk about the love I have for America. The second I'll tell you about later in this book. The third is whenever I remember by dad's suicide.

p. 53 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lynn-compton/call-of-duty/sometimes-the-greatest.md)

> Just before Christmas, 1944, we got word that the Germans had closed the circle around Bastogne. This meant that the 101st Airborne was now completely surrounded by the enemy. Dick Winters said once that being surrounded was no problem for paratroopers- we were used to that. For me, it's hard to describe the feeling of isolation. The heavy fog meant that we were cut off from any help from the sky. We were alone, out in the woods, surrounded, with desperately low supplies. We were in day-to-day survival mode. Build the occasional fire. Melt some snow. Find something to eat. Cook it in your helmet. Stay out of harm's way. Just do what you need to do to get through the day.

p. 138 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lynn-compton/call-of-duty/just-before-christmas.md)