“Be very careful what you recommend to the president because he will do what you say.” — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please. — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on. — 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… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
My last visit to China as secretary, January of 2011, I told President Hu Jintao, just like this, "President of the United… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think in the policies that have been followed since the president Donald Trump came into office, there really hasn't been any… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think when it comes to the issues, I'd advise him to stick to the script. But, I mean, Donald Trump is… — 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
In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or… — 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
