Robert Gates

Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) was the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense (2006–11). Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W. Bush as Director of Central Intelligence. He formerly served as the President of Texas A&M University.

Most governments lie to each other. That’s the way business gets done.

Quotes

• I looked into his eyes and I didn't see his soul, but a cold-blooded killer. Gates to George W Bush, as quoted in "On GPS: Gates on Putin, 27 February 2022" (2006)

• It has become clear that America’s civilian institutions of diplomacy and development have been chronically undermanned and underfunded for far too long – relative to what we spend on the military, and more important, relative to the responsibilities and challenges our nation has around the world.
  • Speech to U.S. Global Leadership Campaign (Washington, D.C.), 2008-07-15.

• Most governments lie to each other. That’s the way business gets done.
  • CNN interview, 2011-06-19. [1]

• I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades
  • Gates says of Joe Biden in his book Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, 2014. [2]

• Tough-minded, realistic, and very pro-American.
  • About South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, as quoted in Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (12 May 2015), by R.M. Gates, p. 416.