President-elect Barack Obama shakes hands with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, joined by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, December 1.

Washington – Days after the November elections, President-elect Barack Obama toured the White House with President Bush, then quietly met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the fire station next to the runway of Washington’s Reagan National Airport to ask Gates if he would consider staying on the job.

“They pulled the trucks out so that our cars could go in,” Gates told reporters December 2 about the confidential meeting.

By accepting Obama’s offer, Gates is poised to become the first secretary of defense in U.S. history to continue in office under a new administration, an occurrence unprecedented even when a newly elected president was from the same political party as the outgoing president.

“If a president asks me to help, there’s no way I can say no,” says Gates.

Historically, the president’s relationship with his defense secretary is one of the most important factors in sustaining successful security policy. Even though Gates has said he considers himself philosophically a Republican, he said that he never declared his political affiliation until after leaving Washington in 1993 to serve as president of Texas A&M University. That reticence reflected his belief that domestic political differences should be set aside in conducting foreign policy.

“I felt when I was at CIA, that as a professional intelligence officer, like a military officer, I should be apolitical, and so I didn't register with a party,” Gates said.

Secretary Gates joined the CIA in 1966 as an analyst and spent nearly 27 years serving five presidents of both political parties, a career he describes in detail in his 1996 memoir, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.

Placing pragmatic solutions above partisan differences in foreign policy is a traditional American ideal many experts also see at play in President-elect Obama’s decision to assemble a philosophically diverse national security team — one that crosses party lines with Gates — and inviting Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, to serve as secretary of state. (See “National Security Team Announced by Obama.”)

“I think the president-elect has made it pretty clear that he wanted a team of people around him who would tell him what they thought and give him their best advice,” Gates said. “There will no doubt be differences among the team, and it will be up to the president to make the decisions.”

Political and security progress in Iraq, as reflected in the conclusion of a new security agreement between Iraq and the United States, Gates said, has fundamentally changed conditions on the ground and is setting the stage to start reducing U.S. forces in the country – a top priority for Obama’s incoming administration.

Under the terms of the U.S.-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement, U.S.-led coalition forces will redeploy to bases outside Iraqi towns by June 2009, with a full withdrawal by 2011 — a timetable that Obama would like to complete within 16 months of taking office by April 2010. (See “United States Hails Iraqi Ratification of Security Pact.”)

“So the question is how do we do this in a responsible way? Nobody wants to put at risk the gains that have been achieved, with so much sacrifice, on the part of our soldiers and the Iraqis,” Gates said. “We just have to work with the commanders and make our best recommendation to the president.”

Helping the people of Afghanistan to secure and rebuild their country is another top priority, says Gates, one that will require intensified training to strengthen Afghan security forces and expanded partnerships with Pakistani authorities who are struggling to confront extremists operating in the border region between the two South Asian nations. (See “Afghan Army Becoming More Effective Force, U.S. General Says.”)

Another high-priority policy challenge will be closing the detainee center at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which Gates says may require legislative support from Congress. (See “U.S. Court Orders Release of Five Guantánamo Bay Detainees.”)

“The president-elect will be the eighth president I've worked for,” Gates said. “All I can say is, I look forward to it.”

For additional information, see a transcript of Gates’ remarks on America.gov.