Howard Baker Best Quotations

It is not our purpose to second-guess what other agencies are doing or what the department's doing, but rather to make sure that we know the facts as best they can be ascertained, and to make appropriate recommendations to the secretary and to the president on how this can be avoided, how other challenges to national security may be dealt with,

Any time the United States government turns over an American citizen, including military personnel, to the government of another country, it is in our nature to want to make sure that they receive the best treatment, the fairest treatment, and the most humane treatment.

I intend to travel to Okinawa and to visit with Okinawa officials and the citizens of Okinawa at an early date. I will send my best analysis of that situation, including the local attitudes, back to Washington, to the government there.