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Ash Carter Quotes

Ashton Baldwin Carter is an American politician, physicist and former Harvard University professor of Science and International Affairs who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He was nominated by President Barack Obama in December 2014 and confirmed in February 2015 by the Senate to replace Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.Carter received a B.A. in his double-major of Physics and Medieval History from Yale University, summa cum laude, in 1976. He then became a Rhodes Scholar and studied at the University of Oxford, from which he received his D.Phil. in theoretical physics in 1979. He worked on quantum chromodynamics, the quantum field theory that was then postulated to explain the behavior of nuclear reactions and the structure of subatomic particles. He was a postdoctoral fellow research associate in theoretical physics at Rockefeller University from 1979 to 1980 and a research fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies from 1982 to 1984.

Carter taught at Harvard University, beginning in 1986. He ultimately rose to become chair of the International & Global Affairs faculty and Ford Foundation Professor of Science & International Affairs at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs within the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Carter is author or co-author of 11 books and more than 100 articles on physics, technology, national security, and management.

Carter served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during President Clinton's first term, from 1993 to 1996, responsible for policy regarding the former Soviet states, strategic affairs, and nuclear weapons policy. He was Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics from April 2009 to October 2011, with responsibility for procurement of all technology, systems, services, and supplies, bases and infrastructure, energy, and environment, and more than $50 billion annually in R&D. He was then Deputy Secretary of Defense from October 2011 to December 2013, serving as the chief operating officer of the DOD overseeing an annual budget in excess of $600 billion, 2.4 million civilian and military personnel, and global operations.

For his service to national security, Carter has on five occasions been awarded the DOD Distinguished Public Service Medal. He has also received the CJCS Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and the Defense Intelligence Medal for his contributions to Intelligence.

✵ 24. September 1954
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Ash Carter: 8   quotes 0   likes

Famous Ash Carter Quotes

“Our nightmare, any of us, which would change the way we lived our lives, was if we thought that any moment Al Qaeda might detonate a nuclear weapon in a city anywhere in the world, because we learned that they had gotten hold of some plutonium from the North Koreans by sale, or when the North Korean regime collapsed, somebody smuggled it out.”

Ash Carter

pbs.org interview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/interviews/acarter.html

“We need to change because the world is changing, and we need to anticipate what is next and be there first, as the US military has always been. So, the changes in our future, I think is something that we are all completely committed to.”

Ash Carter

archive.defensenews.com interview http://archive.defensenews.com/article/20131119/DEFREG02/311190032/Interview-Ashton-Carter-US-Deputy-Defense-Secretary

“There was never a conspiracy, never a tremendous fear. This is a society which is now in its third generation of severe political repression, so that children in North Korea have several hours of political education a day. Their parents did, and their grandparents did.”

Ash Carter

pbs.org interview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/interviews/acarter.html

“I don't know how long the North Korean regime can last. But we can't just wait for them to collapse, because in the meantime, they can do lasting damage to our security.”

Ash Carter

pbs.org interview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/interviews/acarter.html

“The military option will remain on the table. If there is a good agreement to have, obviously it's worth waiting for and completing the negotiations.”

Ash Carter

About the nuclear talks with Iran.
today.com http://www.today.com/news/ashton-carter-defeating-isis-talks-iran-bidens-close-talking-his-2D80578405

“That is what you wake up to every morning. It is what my wife and I think of when we go visit hospitals on the weekend. And so providing our people with all the support they can, you can possibly give them. And that does not always come naturally to this place, which is thinking in budgets and thinking in the future. You always have to remember that they are in danger.”

Ash Carter

archive.defensenews.com interview http://archive.defensenews.com/article/20131119/DEFREG02/311190032/Interview-Ashton-Carter-US-Deputy-Defense-Secretary

“We have been keeping the peace in the Asia-Pacific theater for decades now, and the essence of the rebalance is to keep that peace and stability going, of which we have been a pivotal part. You ask about India, yes it is difficult. We are two technical and military cultures that grew up on opposite sides of the fence during the Cold War.”

Ash Carter

archive.defensenews.com interview http://archive.defensenews.com/article/20131119/DEFREG02/311190032/Interview-Ashton-Carter-US-Deputy-Defense-Secretary

“I hope that the North Koreans understand that the conclusions that we came to are conclusions that are embedded in America's security situation.”

Ash Carter

pbs.org interview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/interviews/acarter.html

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