Robert M. Gates Quotes

If you operate any kind of major diplomacy, you must run some risk.

Obama has made incredibly poor decisions that have made us less safe.

What you have in President Trump is someone who is willing to, and is, in fact, engaging the world, including Russia, and saying, where can we find common interests that will advance the security of the American people, the peace and prosperity of the world? And he is determined to come at that in a new and renewed way.

The rest of the world cares about how we conduct our affairs because they then take that lead. We're the only leader in the world today. Some are wishing us well, others think that we're down and are not going to get back up again, but they are all watching with great interest to see how we conduct our business over the next couple of years.

Foreign policy is about trying to deliver for them the best possible economic benefits, the chance to travel, to study, to work, the opportunity through trade to be able to sell their goods and services and as much peace and security so they can live and bring their kids up so they don't have to fear war.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned, it seems, to direct the Middle East policy of the Obama administration.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

Foreign policy matters cannot be intelligently decided in a large general meeting.

You do not build a foreign policy based on one man.

Under the Nixon-Ford administration, there has evolved a kind of secretive "Lone Ranger" foreign policy—a one-man policy of international adventure. This is not an appropriate policy for America.

As Secretary of Defense I have to be cautious and prudent.

The ability of the Congress of the United States to have any strategic view [of foreign policy] is virtually nil.

It is the President alone who must make the major decisions of our foreign policy.

No American President should ever take any option off the table.

Statecraft, as these cases convincingly illustrate, is demanding and often exhausting work. There are risks, and success is not guaranteed. It requires major governmental and political resources and the same kind of hourly, year-round planning and execution as the conduct of a military campaign.

People tend to leave foreign affairs to governments because they think the leaders of government have all the information and know better.

I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear is inactivity.

Beyond going around doing things as Secretary of State, you have to recognize that you had managerial responsibilities.

Foreign policy is like plumbing. You never notice it till it breaks and then all hell breaks loose.

For foreign policy it is necessary to have men who inspire confidence.

President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt always had a wider point of view, of necessity, than I did.

How can the United States preserve its financial and security leadership role when it conducts itself with such ineptitude and such disregard for the consequences for the world?

America needs an adult in the White House who knows how to deal with China.

I've always been interested in foreign relations. It's my belief that study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present rather than an escape from it.

I think what President [Barack] Obama has done is to chart a steady course. When I was there, the first four years we had a lot of cleanup to do. We inherited a lot of bad feelings from the [George W.] Bush administration, and much of what I spent my time doing was traveling around the world reassuring friends and allies.