When Robert Gates urged Donald Trump to consider Rex Tillerson for his secretary of state, the former CIA director was one of the rare Russia hawks who was not concerned about criticism that the ExxonMobil chief executive was too close to the Kremlin.
In an interview, Mr Gates, who also served as defence secretary under Republican and Democratic presidents, said Mr Tillerson’s ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin could prevent further deterioration in relations with Moscow, as the US grapples with claims that the Kremlin orchestrated a hacking campaign to sway the US election.
“The new president is going to have to thread the needle between figuring out a way to stop the downward spiral in the US-Russia relationship that could become dangerous and, at the same time, push back on Putin’s aggressiveness, his bullying and his thuggery,” Mr Gates, whose consulting firm counts Exxon as a client, told the Financial Times. “Having somebody who understands how he thinks and how he approaches problems is a big asset and not a liability.”
Mr Gates, who was present in the room in Munich in 2007 when Mr Putin gave a blistering anti-US speech that heralded a decade of darker relations, said one of the key questions was whether Mr Tillerson and Mr Trump could alter the dynamic between Moscow and Washington in a way that would make Mr Putin, like Mr Gates a former spymaster, less eager to try to “poke the US in the eye”.
“It remains to be seen whether under new leadership of the US that . . . treats him respectfully, whether that arc we talked about, whether the direction of it can be altered. And what will it take to do that?”
Mr Trump, who has on occasion praised Mr Putin, described as “ridiculous” recent claims by the CIA that Russian hackers had attempted to sway the election in his favour. Mr Gates said there was broad agreement in the intelligence community that Russia had interfered in the election with hacking but he said he welcomed the news that a bipartisan panel would probe whether the Kremlin was trying to help Mr Trump.
“I suspect that he’s reacting to an assessment that he sees as questioning the legitimacy of his election,” Mr Gates said when asked about Mr Trump’s criticism.
Mr Gates pointed out that past presidents had disagreed with the CIA, including Richard Nixon, who asked: “What the hell do those clowns do out there at Langley?” He said it was “unusual” for a president-elect to target the intelligence agencies, but said the CIA would ultimately need to find a modus operandi to work with Mr Trump.
“The challenge for the new [CIA] director Mike Pompeo is how to get this relationship on track,” said Mr Gates. “It is clear that the president-elect has been dismissive of the daily brief and the materials he has been given . . . That is CIA’s challenge to fix. They work for him and not the other way around.”
Mr Gates said he agreed with Barack Obama’s telling Mr Trump that North Korea should be his top foreign policy priority. He said it amounted to the most immediate challenge because of how Pyongyang had in recent years improved both the range of its missiles and the technology to miniaturise nuclear warheads for delivery on missile systems.
Asked whether Mr Trump had erred in speaking to Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese president, in a call critics said threatened the “One China” policy underpinning China’s relations with Taiwan and the US, Mr Gates said it was incumbent on a new president to reassess all US foreign policy. But he suggested Mr Trump should have taken a more methodical approach on what is a delicate issue.
“As an institutional and process-oriented person, I would like to see a more thoughtful and structured approach to reassessing our current approach to China and in terms of determining if and where there might need to be some adjustments made,” he said. “But part of it might be just experience.”
Mr Gates, 73, who has spent almost half a century on foreign policy, said the unpredictable way Mr Trump used Twitter could spark complications.
“Unpredictability can be an asset to the president but . . . it can be a liability,” said Mr Gates. “Anybody who thinks he will walk away from Twitter is probably fooling himself. Actually, once in office, particularly on national security matters, [the question will be] is there a different approach to using Twitter?”
In his support of Mr Tillerson, Mr Gates has been joined by Republican heavyweights such as James Baker and Condoleezza Rice, two former secretaries of state, and Stephen Hadley, a former national security adviser.
Some experts believe the Republican old guard want to make sure that there are stable and experienced people around Mr Trump, a leader with no foreign policy experience who has named Michael Flynn, a controversial retired general, to the position of national security adviser. Last month Brent Scowcroft, one of the most respected Republican foreign policy experts who endorsed Mrs Clinton, urged Republicans to work for Mr Trump, saying: “This man needs help.”
Mr Gates said Mr Flynn — who drew criticism for chanting, “Lock her up” at rallies — had been “very professional” when they met recently. But he was effusive about James Mattis, the retired general chosen to run the Pentagon, and John Kelly, another retired general who has been tapped to head the homeland security department.
“They are all strong individuals, independent-minded. They are going to tell the president what he needs to know, not what he wants to know. They are not going to be rolled by White House staff,” said Mr Gates.
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