Gates rates the presidents he's known

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, May 16, 2011 - 6:51 AM Share

Defense Secretary Gates is loosening up in his public comments as the exit sign beckons. When Katie Couric asked him for a "60 Minutes" profile to briefly describe each of the presidents he's known, he did so, in an passage that for some reason was posted only on the web:

Nixon: "probably one of our strangest presidents," brilliant at foreign policy, but "a distorted personality"

Carter: "he could not establish priorities"

Reagan: One of his favorites:. "a historic president," "slyer," and "more manipulative" than he is perceived.

Bush the elder: "helped bring the Cold War to a peaceful close"

Bush the younger: Only knew him at the end of his term, found him at that point at least to be very non-political.

Obama: "very thoughtful…an easy decisionmaker."

In the main interview, which did air, Gates said that the Pentagon over last 10 years has had a culture of an "open checkbook."

The U.S. National Archives/Flickr

EXPLORE:MEDIA, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
 

JPWREL

2:07 PM ET

May 16, 2011

My mom used to say: If you

My mom used to say: If you have to say something about somebody say something nice.

"Reagan: One of his favorites:. "a historic president," "slyer," and "more manipulative" than he is perceived."

 

BILL KELLER

9:47 PM ET

May 16, 2011

Open checkbook and fiduciary responsibility.....

while Presidential selection remains with the public, SecDef can influence the process of acquisition, the verification of requirements, the certification of cost estimate creation and timeline for investment accomplishment. These remain as unexecuted fiduciary responsibilities for the Secretary and his predecessors. Rummey, before he became mentally addled by 911 and the hubris of wrecking non monarchy led Arab societies and treaty conventions, had a concept of being a CEO for the Pentagon beyond handling those known unknowns. Think he might have squeezed the uniform toadies and senior civil service agents for the weapons merchants into justifying the demands for treasury access without accountability. It appears to continue without abatement in the sunset of Gates' tenure and our national credit rating.

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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