If a Chinese plane landed at Los Angeles Airport having just bought down an American military plane, he wouldn't be permitted to leave the next day. So then we developed a framework which should have been acceptable as a concept to the Chinese, namely to express regret for the loss of life and maintain our position that we had a right to fly these missions.

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

Well it did not make excessive sense to say that 20 million people are the recognized government of a billion people that have their own institutions. We did not change it in the sense that we said this has to end, but there was a U.N. vote that transferred the legitimacy of China from Taiwan to Beijing. Beijing was recognized as the government of all of China. Then, under President Carter, we followed what the U.N. had already done eight years earlier.

The idea of abstract power only exists for academics, not in real life.

I think Vladimir Putin will give up power.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

In my particular case foreign policy happens to be my hobby, my consuming interest. I had spent decades studying it.