James Baker
James Baker | |
---|---|
Richard G. Darman M. Peter McPherson | |
Preceded by | Donald Regan |
Succeeded by | Nicholas F. Brady |
United States Under Secretary of Commerce | |
In office August 2, 1975 – May 7, 1976 | |
President | Gerald Ford |
Preceded by | John Tabor |
Succeeded by | Edward Vetter |
Personal details | |
Born | James Addison Baker III April 28, 1930 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Political party | Republican (since 1970) |
Other political affiliations | Democratic (before 1970) |
Spouses | Mary Stuart McHenry
(m. 1953; died 1970)Susan Garrett (m. 1973) |
Children | 5 |
Relatives | Rosebud Baker (granddaughter) |
Education | Princeton University (BA) University of Texas at Austin (LLB) |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Marine Corps |
Years of service | 1952–1954 (active) 1954–1958 (reserve) |
Rank | Captain |
James Addison Baker III[note 1] (born April 28, 1930)[1] is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan and the 61st U.S. Secretary of State before returning as the 16th White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush.
Born in
Baker ran Bush's unsuccessful campaign for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination, but made a favorable impression on the Republican nominee, Ronald Reagan. Reagan appointed Baker as his White House Chief of Staff, and Baker remained in that position until 1985, when he became the Secretary of the Treasury. As Treasury Secretary, he arranged the Plaza Accord and the Baker Plan. He resigned as Treasury Secretary to manage Bush's successful 1988 campaign for president. After the election, Bush appointed Baker to the position of Secretary of State. As Secretary of State, he helped oversee U.S. foreign policy during the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as during the Gulf War. After the Gulf War, Baker served another stint as White House Chief of Staff from 1992 to 1993.
Baker remained active in business and public affairs after Bush's defeat in the 1992 presidential election. He served as a United Nations envoy to Western Sahara and as a consultant to Enron. During the Florida recount following the 2000 presidential election, he managed George W. Bush's legal team in the state. He served as the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, which Congress formed in 2006 to study Iraq and the ongoing Iraq War. He serves on the World Justice Project and the Climate Leadership Council. Baker is the namesake of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.[2] Since the death of Henry Kissinger in 2023, he is currently the oldest living former United States secretary of state, as well as the earliest serving.
Early life, education, and pre-political career
James Addison Baker III was born in Houston at 1216 Bissonnet St.,[3] the son of James A. Baker Jr. (1892–1973) and Ethel Bonner (née Means) Baker (August 6, 1894 – April 26, 1991). His father was a partner of Houston law firm Baker Botts. Baker has a sister, Bonner Baker Moffitt.[4] His grandfather was attorney and banker Captain James A. Baker, and his great-grandfather was jurist and politician Judge James A. Baker.
Baker attended
From 1957 to 1975, he practiced law at Andrews & Kurth after the anti-nepotism policy of his family firm, Baker Botts, prevented him from being offered a job there.[7][8]
Early political career
Baker's first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, was active in the
Bush then encouraged Baker to become active in politics to help deal with the grief of his wife's death, something that Bush himself had done when his daughter,
Baker's time away from politics was brief, however. In August 1975, he was appointed
Reagan administration
White House Chief of Staff (1981–1985)
In 1981, Baker was named
In 1982, conservative activists Howard Phillips (founder of the Conservative Caucus) and Clymer Wright of Houston joined in an unsuccessful effort to convince Reagan to dismiss Baker as chief of staff. They claimed that Baker, a former Democrat and a Bush political intimate, was undermining conservative initiatives in the administration. Reagan rejected the Phillips-Wright request. Around 1983 Baker became heavily dispirited and tired due to the weight of his job; he attempted to become National Security Advisor, a change to which Reagan initially agreed, but some of Reagan's other advisers dissuaded him from naming Baker to the position. According to his wife, Baker was "so anxious to get out of [his job]" that he gave some consideration to the prospect of becoming Commissioner of Baseball, but he ultimately did not pursue that.[14]
Baker managed Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign in which Reagan polled a record 525 electoral votes total (of a possible 538), and received 58.8% of the popular vote to Walter Mondale's 40.6%.[15]
Secretary of the Treasury
In 1985, Reagan named Baker as
In 1985, Baker received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.[17]
During the Reagan administration, Baker also served on the Economic Policy Council, where he played an instrumental role in achieving the passage of the administration's tax and budget reform package in 1981. He also played a role in the development of the American Silver Eagle and American Gold Eagle coins, which both were released in 1986.
Baker also served on Reagan's National Security Council, and remained Treasury Secretary until 1988, during which time he also served as campaign chairman for George H. W. Bush's successful presidential bid.
Bush administration
Secretary of State
President George H. W. Bush appointed Baker Secretary of State in 1989. Baker served in this role through 1992. From 1992 to 1993, he served as Bush's White House Chief of Staff, the same position that he had held from 1981 to 1985 during the first Reagan administration.
In May 1990, Soviet Union's reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited the U.S. for talks with President Bush; there, he agreed to allow a reunified Germany to be a part of NATO.[18] He later revealed that he had agreed to do so because James Baker promised that NATO troops would not be posted to eastern Germany and that the military alliance would not expand into Eastern Europe.[18] On February 9, 1990, Baker, as the US Secretary of State, assured Gorbachev: "There would be no extension of… NATO one inch to the east". [19][20] But Bush ignored his assurances and later pushed for NATO's eastwards expansion.[18] In the Bush administration, Baker was a proponent of the notion that the USSR should be kept territorially intact, arguing that it would be destabilizing to have the USSR's nuclear arsenal in multiple new states.[21] Bush and US defence secretary Dick Cheney were proponents for Soviet dissolution.[21] Soviet states forced action by holding referendums on independence.[21]
When Ukraine became independent, Baker sought to ensure that Ukraine would give up its nuclear weapons.[21]
On January 9, 1991, during the
Baker also spent considerable time negotiating one-on-one with the parties in order to organize the
Baker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991.
Policies on the Israeli-Arab conflict
This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. (November 2019) |
Before the 1988 election, he and a team of some Middle Eastern policies experts created a report detailing the Palestine-Israel interactions. His team included Dennis Ross and many others who were soon appointed to the new Bush administration.
Baker blocked the recognition of Palestine by threatening to cut funding to agencies in the United Nations.[27] As far back as 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a "declaration of statehood" and changed the name of its observer delegation to the United Nations from the PLO to Palestine.
Baker warned publicly, "I will recommend to the President that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any changes in the PLO's status as an observer organization."
In May 1989, he gave a speech at the annual conference of the
Baker soon decided that
Baker was notable for making little and slow efforts towards improving the state of Israeli-Palestinian relations. When Bush was elected, he only received 29% of
During his first eight months under the Bush administration, there were five meetings with the PLO, which is far less than his predecessors. All serious issues that Palestine sought to discuss, such as elections and representation in the Israeli government, were delegated to Egypt for decisions to be made.[28]
More tensions rose in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with a massive influx of
Baker became the first American statesman to negotiate directly and officially with Palestinians in the
After this landmark event, he did not work to further improve Arab-Israeli relations. The administration forced Israel to halt the development of the 6,000 planned housing units, but the 11,000 housing units already under construction were permitted to be completed and inhabited with no penalty.[28] In the meantime, Baker also tried to negotiate with the Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, in order to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and Syria.[30]
However, Baker has been criticized for spending much of his tenure in a state of inaction regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which arguably led to further infringements on Palestinian rights and the growing radicalism of Arabs and Israelis.[28]
White House Chief of Staff (1992–1993)
The
Post-Cabinet career
1993–2000
External videos | |
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Booknotes interview with Baker on The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992, December 3, 1995, C-SPAN |
In 1993, Baker became the honorary chair of the
Also in 1993, the
Also in 1993, Baker joined
In 1995, Baker published his memoirs of service as Secretary of State in a book entitled The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992 (
In March 1997, Baker became the Personal Envoy of the
In addition to the numerous recognitions received by Baker, he was presented with the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for public service on September 13, 2000, in Washington, D.C.
2000 presidential election and recount
In 2000, Baker served as chief legal adviser for
Roles during the Bush administration and Iraq War
Baker also advised George W. Bush on Iraq.[41] When the U.S. occupation of Iraq began in 2003 he was one of the Bush administration's first choices to direct the Coalition Provisional Authority, but he was deemed too old.[42] In December 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Baker as his special envoy to ask various foreign creditor nations to forgive or restructure $100 billion in international debts owed by the Iraq government which had been incurred during the tenure of Saddam Hussein.[43]
State of Denial, a book by investigative reporter Bob Woodward, says that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card urged President Bush to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with Baker following the 2004 presidential election. Bush later confirmed that he made such an offer to Baker but that he declined.[44] Bush would appoint another G. H. W. Bush administration veteran, Robert Gates, instead, after the 2006 midterm elections. Baker was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.[45]
On March 15, 2006,
Donald Trump
Baker voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and said prior to the 2020 election that he would do so again.[48] During a 2016 memorial service for Nancy Reagan, he commented to former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that he believed there were parallels between the rise of Trump and the rise of Reagan. He later gave informal advice to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and suggested the appointment of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.[49]
Other advisory positions
Baker serves on the Honorary Council of Advisers for the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce.[50][51]
Baker also serves as an honorary director on the board of directors at the Atlantic Council.[52]
James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the
Baker is a leader of the
Baker began service on the Rice University board of trustees in 1993.[55]
Personal life
Baker met his first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, of Dayton, Ohio, while on spring break in Bermuda with the Princeton University rugby team. They married in 1953. Together they had four sons, including James Addison Baker IV (1954), a partner at Baker Botts[56] as well as Stuart McHenry Baker (1956), John Coalter Baker (1960), and Douglas Bland Baker (1961) of Baker Global Advisory.
Mary Stuart Baker died of breast cancer on February 18, 1970.[57]
In 1973, Baker and Susan Garrett Winston, a divorcée and a close friend of Mary Stuart, were married.[10] Winston had two sons and a daughter with her former husband. In September of 1977, she and Baker had a daughter, Mary Bonner Baker.[citation needed]
On June 15, 2002, Virginia Graeme Baker, the seven-year-old granddaughter of Baker, daughter of Nancy and James Baker IV, drowned due to
Awards and honors
- Jefferson Awards for Public Service (1985)
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (1991)
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1998)[63][64]
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (2015)
Notes
- generational suffix.
References
- ^ "Biographies of the Secretaries of State: James Addison Baker III". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
- ^ "About the Baker Institute". James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
- ^ City of Houston: Procedures for Historic District Designation Archived June 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. City of Houston. (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document). Retrieved: July 11, 2008.
- ^ "Mother of Secretary of State Baker dies here at 96". Houston Chronicle. April 26, 1991. Retrieved: July 11, 2008.
- ^ Baker, James Addison III (1952). Two Sides of the Conflict: Bevin vs. Bevan (Senior thesis). Princeton University.
- ^ Emmis Communications (October 24, 1991). "The Alcalde". Emmis Communications – via Google Books.
- ^ "Biography". Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. August 30, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-385-54055-1.
- ^ Newhouse, John. "Profiles: The Tactician". The New Yorker. May 7, 1990. pp. 50–82. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
- ^ a b "James A. Baker III Papers, 1957-2011, bulk 1972/1992". Princeton University Library. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ "President Ford Wednesday Nominated Edward O. Vetter of Dallas, Tex., to be undersecretary of commerce". Santa Ana Register. Santa Ana, CA. June 24, 1976. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ James A. Baker III, Work Hard, Study... and Keep Out of Politics! (New York, 2006), 122.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "James Baker: President Maker [documentary]". YouTube.
- ^ 1984 National Results U.S. Election Atlas.
- ^ "Phil Gailey and Warren Weaver, Jr., "Briefing"". The New York Times. June 5, 1982. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
- ^ "National Winners | public service awards | Jefferson Awards.org". jeffersonawards.org. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4711-4796-8.
- ^ Memorandum of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow, nsarchive.gwu.edu
- ^ The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace in the World, eisenhowermedianetwork.org
- ^ a b c d "Russia, Ukraine and the doomed 30-year quest for a post-Soviet order". Financial Times. February 25, 2022. Archived from the original on December 10, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
- ^ Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, The Gulf conflict: diplomacy and war in the new world order (New Jersey, 1993), p. 257.
- Frontline. PBS. 1995.
- ISBN 0801437768
- PBS. 2015.
- ^ Id., at pp. 430-454.
- ^ Bolton, John (June 3, 2011). "How to Block the Palestine Statehood Ploy". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ JSTOR 2537981.
- ^ OCLC 1112904067.
- ^ "AFTER THE WAR: DIPLOMACY; Baker and Syrian Chief Call Time Ripe for Peace Effort". The New York Times. March 15, 1991.
- ^ Baker, Peter, and Glasser, Susan, The Man Who Ran Washington Doubleday, 2020, at pp. 492, 505.
- ^ Id., at p. 493,
- ^ Id., at p. 494
- ^ Id., at p. 505
- Bloomberg Business News. February 23, 1993. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
- OCLC 57192973.
- ^ Vise, David A.. "Former Secretary of State Baker Joins Carlyle Group", The Washington Post, March 11, 1993.
- ^ "U.N. ENVOY: Asking Baker to resolve dispute is good choice". Houston Chronicle. March 20, 1997. p. 38. (subscription required)
- ^ Theofilopoulou, Anna (July 1, 2006). The United Nations and Western Sahara: A Never-ending Affair. Special Report 166. United States Institute of Peace. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
- ^ "Baker resigns as UN mediator after seven years". IRIN. June 14, 2004. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
- ^ "Baker surfaces as key adviser to Bush on Iraq". Insight Magazine. September 12, 2006.
- ISBN 978-0-307-27883-8.
- ^ King, John. "Bush appoints Baker envoy on Iraqi debt", "CNN.com", December 3, 2003, retrieved August 11, 2009.
- ^ Bush, George W. (2010). Decision Points. p. 92.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- Washington Post. October 9, 2006.
- New York Times. October 9, 2006.
- ^ Glasser, Susan B. "The Private Trump Angst of a Republican Icon". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
- ^ "The Private Trump Angst of a Republican Icon". The New Yorker. September 27, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
- ^ "Honorary Council of Advisers". Archived from the original on December 15, 2007.
- ^ "USACC". www.usacc.org.
- ^ "Board of Directors". Atlantic Council. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ John Schwartz (February 7, 2017). "'A Conservative Climate Solution': Republican Group Calls for Carbon Tax". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
The group, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, with former Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former secretary of the Treasury, says that taxing carbon pollution produced by burning fossil fuels is "a conservative climate solution" based on free-market principles.
- ^ "The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends" (PDF). Climate Leadership Council. February 2017.
- ^ "Guide to the Baker Family papers, 1853-1971 MS 040". Texas Archival Resources Online. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
- ^ "James A. Baker, IV," Baker Botts website.
- ISBN 9781101912164.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link - ^ Dumas, Bob (October 2003). "Troubled Waters". Pool & Spa News. Archived from the original on December 21, 2012.
The victim in this case was Graeme Baker, the granddaughter of James Baker III, former secretary of state under President George Bush.
- ^ Chow, Shern-Min. "Former Secretary of state pushes for hot tub safety standards". Vac-Alert. June 29, 2007.
- ^ Press Releases: "Former Secretary of State James Baker speaks in support of legislation intended to prevent accidental drowning" Archived August 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Safe Kids Worldwide. May 2, 2006.
- ^ "Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act" Archived May 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Consumer Product Safety Commission. at Vac-Alert Archived September 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document)
- ^ Sadie Dingfelder: During lockdown, comics Rosebud Baker and Andy Haynes have gotten sick and engaged, plus hosted a surreal podcast. Washington Post, May 18, 2020.
- American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ "Gen. Colin L. Powell Biography and Interview".
Awards Council member and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA presents the Golden Plate Award to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III at the 1998 Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Further reading
Works by
- 1995: The Politics of Diplomacy. with Thomas M. DeFrank. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780399140877.
- 2006: "Work Hard, Study... And Keep Out of Politics!": Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life. with Steve Fiffer. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780399153778.
Works about
- Bryce, Robert, (2004). Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate. New York: ISBN 9781586481889.
- Baker, Peter; Glasser, Susan (2020). The Man Who Ran Washington. ISBN 978-0-385-54055-1.
External links
- Baker, James III(Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX, US)
- James Addison Baker Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
- James A. Baker III Oral History Collection at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
- Profile in the Daily Princetonian
- Biography on Baker Botts LLP website
- Baker Institute for Public Policy
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- James Baker Oral History at Houston Oral History Project, November 20, 2007. Archived June 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine