George Shultz, American statesman, dies at 100

After the Nixon years, Shultz entered the corporate world, becoming an executive at the Bechtel Group, and returned to the academic world at Stanford University. When Reagan was elected, he installed Alexander Haig as secretary of state, but after a risky first year, the overblown Haig stepped down in July 1982 and Reagan immediately chose Shultz to replace him.

According to “Reagan: The Life” by HW Brands, the president was not willing to announce Haig’s departure until he had his replacement lined up. Brands wrote that when Reagan approached him, Shultz realized that he needed to respond immediately. “Sir. President, I’m on board,” he said.

“He has the potential to be one of the greatest secretaries of state of all time,” said Sen. Charles Percy from Illinois when Shultz was confirmed 97-0. From the start, Shultz’s professionalism put the State Department in a different position and he gave Reagan loyal support.

“Shultz, unlike Haig, was courteous and patient,” wrote Diggins in his 2007 book, “the right qualities for a diplomat who prefers negotiation to escalation.”

Shultz needed those qualities when it came to dealing with a colleague in Reagan’s office, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, a veteran colleague in confrontation with the Nixon and Bechtel governments. The Beltway was full of discord talk. In December 1984, The New York Times reported that the two “are reported to disagree on virtually all foreign policy issues, often to the White House’s frustration and concern” It did not help the fact that on some issues , Shultz was the most obstinate, and in others, Weinberger was. At times, the issues they were fighting for seemed trivial, like the issue of selling computers to Romania.

Shultz, wrote the Times, “is by nature and training a teacher, mediator and private man. He prefers conciliation to confrontation. Often impassive – a colleague described him as ‘similar to a sphinx’ – Shultz is a man of enormous self-confidence ”. The same article noted: “He seems content to stay out of the news.”

His six and a half years at the top of the State Department left him to deal with situations from the Caribbean to China, but two events stood out. The low point was the Iran-Contras scandal of 1986, which involved the sale of arms to Iran to finance guerrillas in Nicaragua, none of which was authorized by Congress. Reagan’s efforts to deal with the situation only seemed to make matters worse, and Shultz saw himself as one of the few voices in the government who was pressing to put the government back on course. “Reagan thought Shultz was blowing things out of proportion,” according to “Reagan: The Life”.

There were requests for Shultz to resign, but later he would write: “I felt that no successor could perform this role unless the dire situation was corrected.” So Shultz remained and part of the dishonest policy-making apparatus would return to his hands. The scandal would make Oliver North a household name and topple several key Washington figures, including Weinberger.

Ultimately, Shultz’s greatest influence with Reagan would come on the subject of gun control. In a March 1983 memo, Shultz listed several areas in which he thought the negotiations could lead to better US-Soviet relations, including arms control. This momentum gained momentum when Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, which Reagan had dubbed the “evil empire”.

“It always seemed to me that Gorbachev was a real realist,” wrote Shultz in his 2016 book, “Learning from experience,” noting that Gorbachev had risen through the ranks, unlike previous Soviet leaders.

When Shultz met Gorbachev, Reagan gave Shultz a chance to offer Gorbachev an opportunity to shake up the Cold War status quo. According to the Brands book, Shultz said: “President Reagan told me to look you straight in the eye and say, ‘Ronald Reagan believes that this is a very special moment in human history.'”

What followed were several summits with Gorbachev, leading to a drastic reduction in nuclear weapons and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan; this occurred at the same time that Gorbachev was pursuing a course of liberalization unrelated to the Soviet Union – in addition to indicating to the Warsaw Pact states that they were on their own. In 1989, less than a year after Reagan stepped down, the Berlin Wall fell. It was a heady time, marking the end of a Cold War that lasted decades and left many scars.

In the closing moments of Reagan’s presidency, Shultz received the Presidential Medal of Freedom: “For years of public service and his vital part in the inauguration of a new era of hope in foreign policy, his countrymen honor him. ”

In the decades that followed, Shultz would speak on many international issues behind the scenes and serve as an informal adviser, especially to George W. Bush. He would be required as a speaker and writer, someone he could count on to offer a convincing analysis of world crises. Whenever he stopped talking for more than a few minutes, it looked like someone would present him with an award or honorary title.

Shultz, who also returned to Bechtel and Stanford, was outspoken about his fears around the world. “For centuries, we have somehow managed to separate war from religion, and now it is back,” he told the Times of Israel in February 2016. “War on a religious basis is much more dangerous, because it has an ability to spread, which is doing. “

Shultz also spoke about domestic issues, promoting, for example, the legalization of recreational drugs and the benefits of driving a Prius. He called for climate change to be addressed.

“I’ve always tried to live in the future,” he told the San Jose Mercury News in 2011, “and to think about things and how to make them better. If you have great-grandchildren nearby and their pictures are looking at you, well, this is the future. “

And Shultz – who published an opinion piece in The Washington Post when he turned 100 – never lost his ability to impress others with his ideas.

“I was in a meeting with him about a week ago,” said Perry on Sunday, “where he was the most astute and provocative person in the room.”

Bryan Bender contributed to this report.