I fired a lot of senior people myself and I think the key, when you feel compelled to remove a senior official, is essentially to have all your ducks in a row at the beginning. Have everybody understand what the rationale was.

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

Defense is not like other discretionary spending.

Often, loyalty means telling people things they don't want to hear. It's not being sycophantic, it's not telling them how wonderful they are every day. It's being willing to tell them the days they're not wonderful.

I have always voted for who I believed was the best person.

Development is a lot cheaper than sending soldiers.

No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on.