George P. Shultz, U.S. Secretary of State, July 16, 1982 to January 20, 1989 ( Credit: U.S. Department Of State)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state during the peak of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, died Saturday at the age of 100. Schultz served in four different cabinet posts under three U.S. presidents. But it was in his position as Reagan’s top diplomat that Shultz made his name in presiding over the peaceful end to the Cold War. After leaving government, Shultz taught at Stanford University in California where he died. Schultz was a distinguished fellow at Stanford and also professor emeritus at the university’s Graduate School of Business.
“George Shultz was a legend. As Secretary of State, he helped achieve the greatest geopolitical feat of the age: a peaceful end to the Cold War. He negotiated landmark arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and, after leaving office, continued to fight for a world free of nuclear weapons. He also urged serious action on the climate crisis at a time when too few leaders took that position. He was a visionary.”
-Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken
Dec. 04, 1986. President Reagan walking with Secretary of State George Shultz outside the Oval Office White House (Reagan White House Photographs / Public Domain)
Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Reagan administration. From 1974 to 1982, he was an executive of the Bechtel Group, a multi-national engineering and services company based in San Francisco. Born in New York City, he graduated from Princeton University before serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. After the war, Shultz earned a Ph.D. in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1955 he took a position on President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisers. In 1972, Schultz served in President Richard Nixon’s administration as United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1982, Schultz, who was serving as president and director of the Bechtel Group, left the company to accept Reagan’s offer to become U.S. Secretary of State. He held that office from 1982 to 1989. Shultz pushed for Reagan to establish relations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which led to a thaw between the United States and the Soviet Union. He opposed the U.S. aid to rebels trying to overthrow the Sandinistas using funds from an illegal sale of weapons to Iran that led to the Iran–Contra affair.
Schutz Was An Ardent Champion of Diplomacy: Secretary of State Blinken
“An ardent champion of diplomacy, Secretary Shultz strengthened America’s relationships and advanced our interests with strategic brilliance and great patience. Every Secretary of State who came after George Shultz has studied him – his work, his judgment, his intellect. I know I have. Few people came to the role with as much experience as he. He had also served as Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Labor, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and he was a Marine in World War II. It’s as distinguished a record of public service as any in American history. Perhaps most of all, George Shultz was a patriot. He took pains to remind his fellow diplomats that their first duty was always to the American people. Before he sent new U.S. ambassadors to their overseas posts, he would invite them to his office and direct them to a huge globe in the corner. “Point to your country,” he would say. The ambassador would spin the globe and point to the country where he or she was heading. Then the Secretary would gently place their finger on the United States. “That’s your country.” He never forgot it. George Shultz was a towering figure in the history of the State Department. The work we do now is shaped by his legacy. Our thoughts today are with Secretary Shultz’s family and all those who loved him. He will be deeply missed.”
-U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
