If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience. — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
Soviet foreign ministers would come in to see the president all the time, routinely. Jimmy Carter stopped that after the invasion of… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
You know, if I were an - if I were a Taliban, I'd say, 'What did al-Qaida ever do for me except… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
Every time we have come to the end of a conflict, somehow we have persuaded ourselves that the nature of mankind and… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades. — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
“I was seething. I told him that “the clock is ticking” and that our patience with their lack of political progress was running out.… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
Some people have said, in so many words, that I'm kind of wooly-headed in believing that the Iranians would see not having nuclear weapons… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
“Obama was the fourth president I had worked for who said outright that he wanted to eliminate all nuclear weapons (Carter, Reagan, and Bush… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I had no concerns - I had no reason to have concerns based on what was available to me about North's contacts with the… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
“The passage of fourteen years had led to another significant change in the international environment. As I told Bush 43 and Condi Rice on… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States'… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I don't know General Michael Flynn well, but it's hard for me to believe anybody would allow themselves to be blackmailed by the Russians… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century. — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
