Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership. — 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 think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel. — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think that Vladimir Putin is certainly getting a lot of publicity for what the Russians are doing. And I'm not sure… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think it's kind of a stretch. You know, it's one thing if somebody working for the U.S. government has sold secrets… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think that Vladimir Putin has decided, in a very strategic way, to turn the tables and do everything in his power… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think Donald Trump has gotten China's attention to a degree that his predecessors have not that this is a very serious… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
It's a very broad and not very well-disguised effort of Russians to create questions about the legitimacy of these Western elections. And,… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think, on the foreign policy side, that there is a need for disruption. We've had three administrations follow a pretty consistent… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
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
I think that - that the disruptive nature, the tough talk on North Korea, the military deployments, sending the missile defense system… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I fired a lot of senior people myself and I think the key, when you feel compelled to remove a senior official,… — 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
There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
It's clear the relationship between China and North Korea has hardly ever been worse. Kim Jong-un has never been to Beijing in… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I didn't think this whole business with Director James Comey was handled well. So there are sort of day-to-day aspects of the… — Robert M. Gates Copy Share Image
I think in the context of senior government positions, I think an anecdote of what I told President-Elect Barack Obama when we… — 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
