Quotes

[when the Soviet Union dissolved:] There is no guarantee that the new states of Central and Eastern Europe or those of the former Soviet Union will evolve into friendly, prosperous democracies. They face formidable obstacles along the path of reform, as Communism has driven these countries and their economies to the brink of ruin. In the final analysis, success will depend on the will and determination of the governments and peoples of the region. But Western assistance can make a difference, and we have an obligation before history and to future generations to do our part in helping to make their democratic experiment a success. What is at stake for us is whether the recent transformation of dangerous adversaries into friends and partners is a permanent or a passing phenomenon. [testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, March 11, 1992]

I grew up in a Republican family. My father was somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan. I can even remember, as a very young kid, his banging the table for Alf Landon one day [in 1936].

[asked if he thought that the Soviet Union would ever change:] Not in my lifetime. ... If I were sitting here forty years from now, having the same discussion, the answer would be the same. Not in my lifetime. ... The Soviet system for sixty years has demonstrated its inability to change. ... It cannot adapt. [U.S. News & World Report, June 11, 1984]

I don't care what anybody says about the domino theory having been discredited in Southeast Asia -- number one, if you were a Cambodian or a Laotian you might argue that there was something to the theory. [New York Times, April 22, 1984]

"...pot-induced behavior by an erratic leftist." [an offhand remark following an after-dinner speech in November 1983, when asked for his reaction to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's call for arms reduction talks; he later had to apologize].

They won't let you smoke down in the Sit Room anymore. Well, I better go see if they finally figured out the damn war.

You're going to have to change your approach if you want a close relationship with the United States. You can't hold Yugoslavia together by force.

We could not have been better represented in Yugoslavia during the tense period after Tito's death.

[on the Foreign Service examination]: I took it, passed it, took the oral exam, and passed that. Up until then, I had never even thought of the Foreign Service.

[on the Iraqi invasion]: I am scared to death that they are going to convince the president that they can do this overthrow Saddam Hussein on the cheap and we'll find ourselves in the middle of a swamp because we didn't plan to do it in the right way.