No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.

Murrow’s line argues that mass intimidation is not sustained by a single demagogue alone but by the compliance, silence, or cooperation of ordinary people and institutions. “Accomplices” need not be active collaborators; they can be bystanders who accept fear as normal, repeat accusations uncritically, or allow due process and dissent to be eroded. The quote’s force lies in shifting responsibility from the tyrant to the civic body: a nation’s moral and political health depends on citizens refusing to participate in scapegoating and insisting on evidence, fairness, and courage in public life. It is often read as a warning about how democracies can enable their own coercion through apathy.