Robert M. Gates

And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be…

— Robert M. Gates

“Obama answered, “Yes. I’m no peacenik.”

— Robert M. Gates

“I was seething. I told him that “the clock is ticking” and that our patience with their lack of political progress was…

— Robert M. Gates

Some people have said, in so many words, that I'm kind of wooly-headed in believing that the Iranians would see not having…

— Robert M. Gates

“Obama was the fourth president I had worked for who said outright that he wanted to eliminate all nuclear weapons (Carter, Reagan,…

— Robert M. Gates

I had no concerns - I had no reason to have concerns based on what was available to me about North's contacts…

— Robert M. Gates

Health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive.

— Robert M. Gates

“The passage of fourteen years had led to another significant change in the international environment. As I told Bush 43 and Condi…

— Robert M. Gates

I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the…

— Robert M. Gates

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

I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration.

— Robert M. Gates

The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century.

— Robert M. Gates

My one concern is that Hu Jintao may overestimate how much power China has in Pyongyang. They have - they do have…

— Robert M. Gates

“I thought you were my friend.”

— Robert M. Gates

“Soon after the raid was over, the White House released the now-famous photo of all of us watching the video in that…

— Robert M. Gates

One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home…

— Robert M. Gates

“and personally ate sixteen pounds of brisket. The Air Force keeps track of important things like that.”

— Robert M. Gates

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

“The Department of Defense is the largest, most complex organization on the planet: three million people, civilian and military, with a budget,…

— Robert M. Gates

“wanted to come right out of my chair at the witness table and scream, You guys have been in business for over…

— Robert M. Gates

I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to…

— Robert M. Gates

America's civilian institutions of diplomacy and development have been chronically undermanned and underfunded for far too long.

— Robert M. Gates

Future U.S. political leaders, those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me, may not…

— Robert M. Gates

We should never lose sight of the ethos that has made the Marine Corps - where 'every Marine is a rifleman' -…

— Robert M. Gates

I have always that there ought to be some kind of mandatory national service, not necessarily in the military but to show…

— Robert M. Gates