On Sunday night, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. One of the clips that wasn’t featured on the broadcast was a word association game that 60 Minutes correspondent Katie Couric played with Gates.

Gates joined the CIA in 1966 and, except for a hiatus during the Clinton administration, Gates has held one high-level Washington post after another for decades: CIA director, member of the National Security Council, Deputy National Security Adviser, Secretary of Defense (under both George W. Bush AND Barack Obama).

In this clip, Gates shares his candid perspective on the men who have occupied the Oval Office from LBJ, Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.