A biography for Robert M. Gateshasn’t been written yet.
“He taught me early in life to take people one at a time, based on their individual qualities and never as a member of a group. That led, he said, to hatred and bias; that was what the Nazis had done.”
“I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong.”
“I have always voted for who I believed was the best person.”
“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' essentially unilaterally disarming.”
“I read in the press, and therefore it must be true, that no secretary of defense had ever been quoted as arguing for a bigger budget for State.”
“I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful.”
“The reality is, the United States has global interests. Our defense budget is about the same as the defense budgets or military budgets of every other country in the world put together.”
“If Poindexter made a comment to me like that, it would have been in the context of once the authorized program is approved there would be no point in having any of these private benefactors any longer.”
“A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book.”
“One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.'”
“I consider myself a Republican.”
“Health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive.”
“I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region.”
“Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership.”
“No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on.”
“I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written.”
“If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience.”
“Defense is not like other discretionary spending.”
“Things have gotten so nasty in Washington.”
“When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots.”