The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural.….

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with th….

When you travel as secretary, one problem you have is that the press comes with you and wants an immediate result because it justifies their trip. An….

Like any developing country, it has an inequality of wealth. In the Chinese case, it is particularly [pronounced] by the fact that they decided they ….

One has to remember that every progress that has been made towards peace in the Middle East has come under American leadership..

One thing I don't want around me is a military intellectual. I don't have to worry about you on that score..

People are now starting to explain the Cold War. Even in the crises at that time the survival of millions of people was at stake. And we (the USA) ha….

It is an act of insanity and national humiliation to have a law prohibiting the President from ordering assassination..

You're 18 points down [in the polls]... You might as well do what's right..

Some of the critics viewed Vietnam as a morality play in which the wicked must be punished before the final curtain and where any attempt to salvage ….

China is a country with a record of continuous self-government going back 4,000 years, the only society that has achieved this. One must start with t….

I had an opportunity to express my views, yes. I agreed with the approach which we took, namely, to make a distinction between the loss of life of th….

The Chinese, on the other hand, were in the position of having an American military spy plane on a Chinese military base and they had their own inter….

It is steady, reliable, tough. It never yields to panic. It is never defeated one-sidedly. It achieves everything attainable by character and tenacit….

There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane: Either you have diarrhea, or you're anxious to meet people who do..

China had never had to deal in a world of countries of approximately equal strength, and so to adjust to such a world, is in itself a profound challe….

It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true..

They [American forces] are there as an expression of the American national interest to prevent the Iranian combination of imperialism and fundamental….

Countries do not assume burdens because it is fair, only because it is necessary..

I do not stand on protocol. If you just call me Excellency, it will be okay..

The position is that stability and peace in Asia depend on a cooperative relationship between China and the United States..