Secretary Perry became the 19th secretary of defense and the first enlisted man to serve in that role. He had time in the highest ranks of the Pentagon and was instrumental in the dismantlement of the nuclear warheads in the United States and Russia. Throughout his career, he has devoted himself to protecting the interests of the nation.

Richard Lugar

There are no shortcuts to victory. We must commit ourselves to the slow, painstaking work of foreign policy day by day and year by year.

Richard Lugar

We must perfect a worldwide system of accountability for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Richard Lugar

There should be a response, clearly, if there was meddling. And it does appear that there was some, and therefore, we perhaps should wait for our own investigation by Mr. Mueller to continue and to come to a conclusion before we begin to take steps regarding the Russians.

Richard Lugar

I would like to raise my glass to friendship between Russia and the United States.

Richard Lugar

If I could offer but one helpful hint to young Hoosiers hoping to better their odds for success in life, I would simply note the importance of thoughtful reading.

Richard Lugar

Americans who may be going to the largest embassy we've ever had.

Richard Lugar

Despite elections and the experience of post-Soviet personal freedoms by the Russian people, the fate of democracy in Russia is perhaps more ambiguous now than at any time since the collapse of the Communist system.

Richard Lugar

Of other countries, to impose economic sanctions, it'd really begin to dry up the enormous amount of money coming into North Korea, a lot of it from China - from Chinese banks - whereas, if we sanction the Chinese banks, there could be friction with China. But this is something we're going to have to face.

Richard Lugar

The beginning of my political career was not promising. I ran for junior class president at Shortridge High school and was runner up. I ran again in the senior year with the same result. But opportunity came ironically, or fortunately, when I returned to Indianapolis after serving in the Navy.

Richard Lugar

I am convinced that the majority of American people do understand that we have a moral responsibility to foster the concepts of opportunity, free enterprise, the rule of law, and democracy. They understand that these values are the hope of the world.

Richard Lugar

The United States cannot feed every person, lift every person out of poverty, cure every disease, or stop every conflict. But our power and status have conferred upon us a tremendous responsibility to humanity.

Richard Lugar

By furthering the use of ethanol, farmers are presented with the opportunity to produce a cash crop by collecting their agricultural wastes.

Richard Lugar

Declining overseas admissions costs us not only much needed revenues for colleges and universities, but much more importantly, we lose the best opportunity we have to introduce foreign students to all that America has to offer the world.

Richard Lugar

Ethanol is a premier, high performance fuel. It has tremendous environmental benefits and is a key component to energy independence for our country.

Richard Lugar

The time frame is very small to disarm the militia, to bring about a security situation in which the governing council, the 24 Iraqis or however many others they appoint, can govern the country.

Richard Lugar

It's very unlikely that we're going to send more troops to Iraq. We are going to have to train the Iraqis faster and harder.

Richard Lugar

Grandchildren have taught me how important the future is. I try to look through their eyes and envision what's in their imagination. What's the world going to look like when they're my age? That really does take a huge imagination.

Richard Lugar

Very rarely does food enhance the conversation. If the food is really good, there'll be much less conversation because you'd be concentrating too much on the food.

Richard Lugar

That first responsibility as a school board member - meals for latch-key children - was absolutely critical in my understanding of the extraordinary problems of poverty.

Richard Lugar

Bilateral talks would have to achieve cessation of the missile work by the North Koreans. And it would have to include, as did the Iranian deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency or some other group coming in to assess that and to enforce that to give information about it internationally.

Richard Lugar