Soviet foreign ministers would come in to see the president all the time, routinely. Jimmy Carter stopped that after the invasion of Afghanistan. Ron….

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..

If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience..

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 po….

My last visit to China as secretary, January of 2011, I told President Hu Jintao, just like this, "President of the United States wanted me to tell y….

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

There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the wor….

I don't know General Michael Flynn well, but it's hard for me to believe anybody would allow themselves to be blackmailed by the Russians because the….

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

I didn't think this whole business with Director James Comey was handled well. So there are sort of day-to-day aspects of the operation that I think ….

On the foreign policy side, there's the risk of being too spontaneous and too disruptive where you end up doing more harm than damage. And figuring o….

I think that Vladimir Putin is certainly getting a lot of publicity for what the Russians are doing. And I'm not sure that's unwelcome to him. I thin….

We should never lose sight of the ethos that has made the Marine Corps - where 'every Marine is a rifleman' - one of America's cherished institutions….

Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel..

What I know concerns me. What I don't know concerns me even more. What people aren't telling me worries me the most..

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 unilat….

I think when it comes to the issues, I'd advise him to stick to the script. But, I mean, Donald Trump is going to have some very tough conversations ….

One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home every weekend. They used to play golf toge….

I think, on the foreign policy side, that there is a need for disruption. We've had three administrations follow a pretty consistent policy toward No….

There will be boots on the ground if there's to be any hope of success in the strategy..

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