Secretary of State George Schultz under President Reagan in the '80s and Madeleine Albright under President Clinton in the '90s
George Schultz died on February 6, 2021, at the age of 100.
Announcing Schultz's death on Saturday, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University said: "Like President Ronald Reagan, Schultz played a key role in using diplomacy to end the Cold War and change the direction of history."
Schultz began serving the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s and remained a public figure even during the President Ma term of Oba. However, he is best known as Secretary of Labor in the Richard Nixon administration and Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan.
Schultz was considered a capable, steady, respected conservative, and as is often said, he was a rare stay-at-home man near colorful anecdotes.
John Patrick Dickins wrote in Ronald Reagan: The Creation of Fate, Freedom, and History: "Schultz had an analytical and managerial mind. "As secretary of state, he's good at choosing how to negotiate."
Schultz was most proud to help Reagan and Gorbachev reach a nuclear disarmament agreement during his tenure as secretary of state. Schultz said of Reagan in a 2015 New York Times op-ed. "Among the many measures of his success, the current number of nuclear weapons is about one-third of what Reagan and Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986."
Years after the nuclear negotiations, Schultz said in an interview for a documentary: "It's an honor for me to be able to hold a position in the office when the tectonic plates of the world change. Basically, the Cold War was over and the world economy began. All of this makes me feel very satisfied. ”
In the decades following the end of the Reagan era, he remained one of America's most influential politicians, for example, in 2015, when he visited China with Henry Kissinger, who is in his 90s.
Schultz's behavior, character, and reputation were all the same, and he was not affected by the two destructive scandals with Watergate (Nixon) and Iran-Contra (Reagan). This is no accident: Schultz is known as a smart, reasonable professional who is not influenced by political intrigue.
George Pratt Schultz was born in New York City on December 13, 1920, and grew up in Englewood, near New Jersey. After graduating from Princeton University in 1942, he joined the Marine Corps and served in the Pacific. Decades later, he told the Times of Israel that he learned a crucial lesson at boot camp that benefited him for life: "The sergeant handed me the rifle. He said, take good care of this gun, this is your best friend. But remember one thing: never point this gun at anyone unless you're going to pull the trigger. Don't make any vague threats. ”
During his wartime service, he met the medic Helena Maria O'Brien and married her in 1946. The couple has five children. Helena (whom he called "Obi") died of cancer in 1995.
Schultz became Nixon's Secretary of Labor in 1969. During his tenure, the Justice Department implemented the Philadelphia Plan, which required government contractors bidding on federal construction contracts to hire some non-white workers, effectively prohibiting all unions from being white.
In 1970, Nixon nominated Schultz as the first director of the Bureau of Management and Budget. Two years later, he succeeded John Connally Jr. as Treasury Secretary. The 1988 Yearbook of Contemporary Biographies says that "Schultz was probably the third most influential figure in the U.S. government in those years," after Nixon and Kissinger.
Schultz, however, became a thorn in Nixon's eye when he and IRS Commissioner Johnny Walters ignored the president's pleas to prevent the IRS from harassing Nixon's enemies. Later, the White House tape showed that the president began to think that Schultz was ungrateful and naïve. "George didn't know anything about politics," Nixon said in a recording of the Oval Office.
Senator Charles Percy, left, introduced George Schultz, nominated secretary of labor for the Nixon administration, to a Senate committee in January 1969
After Reagan was elected, he appointed Alexander Hague as secretary of state, but a year later, when Hager left office in July 1982, Reagan immediately appointed Schultz to succeed him.
"He has the potential to be one of the greatest secretaries of state in history," Illinois Sen. Charles Percy said when Schultz was confirmed 97-0. From the beginning, Schultz's professionalism put the State Department in a different position, and he loyally supported Reagan.
Then-Presidents Reagan and Schultz and Vice President George H.W. Bush
Schultz needed plenty of patience in dealing with Reagan's cabinet member, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberg. Weinberg is a belligerent veteran. The White House is rife with rhetoric about discord. In December 1984, the New York Times reported that the two men were "reported to be at odds on almost all foreign policy issues, often frustrating and worrying for the White House." On some issues, Schultz is tougher, while on others, Weinberg is tougher. At times, the issues they argue about seem trivial, such as the sale of computers to Romania.
The New York Times wrote that Schultz was "born a professor, a mediator, an ordinary man." "He likes reconciliation rather than confrontation. Schultz was a very confident man, and he often appeared indifferent — one colleague described him as a "sphinx." The same article also states: "He seems happy to stay out of the news."
During his 6 and a half years at the U.S. State Department, two things stand out. Worst of all was the 1986 Iran-Contra scandal, which involved selling weapons to Iran and funding guerrillas in Nicaragua, both of which were approved by Congress. Schultz found himself one of the few voices in the government to push the government back on track.
Schultz was asked to resign, but he later wrote: "I don't think any successor will be up to the job unless the bad situation is corrected." Schultz stayed, and the scandal made Oliver North a household name and ousted many Washington dignitaries, including Weinberg.
George Schultz poses with a statue of President Ronald Reagan in Sacramento, California, on June 22, 2015.
In the final moments of Reagan's presidency, Schultz received the Presidential Medal of Freedom: "His countrymen respected him because of his years of public service and the important role he played in ushering in a new era of foreign policy." ”
Over the next few decades, Schultz spoke behind the scenes on many international issues and served as an informal adviser, especially for George W. Bush.
Schultz, who has also returned to Berkethe and Stanford, confessed his fear of the world. "For centuries, we managed to separate the war from religion, and now it's back," he told The Times of Israel in February 2016. "Religion-based warfare is much more dangerous because it has the ability to spread, and it's doing that."
In 2011, he told the San Jose Mercury, "I've been trying to live in the future and think about things and how to make things better." If you have great-grandchildren around and their pictures are looking at you, well, that's the future. ”
Schultz, who published an opinion piece in the Washington Post on his 100th birthday, never lost the ability to impress others with his ideas.