"But the drains have great power, and there are cases where adults have been held down and drowned because of them. Secretary Bakers position used to be fairly standard among Republicans, but the party, led especially by President Trump, has moved away from him to the point where loyalty to Israel is seen as a litmus test.. Stop settlement activity. He later gave informal advice to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and suggested the appointment of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. A native Houstonian, Baker graduated from Princeton University in 1952. [55] To promote greater safety in pools and spas, Nancy Baker gave testimony to the Consumer Product Safety Commission,[56] and James Baker helped form an advocacy group,[57] which led to the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool And Spa Safety Act (15 USC 8001). Journalism power-couple Susan Glasser, a staff writer at the New Yorker, and Peter Baker, the New York Times' chief White House correspondent, have cowritten The Man Who Ran Washington, a biography of former Secretary of State and White House chief of staff James A. Baker III, arguably the 20th century's savviest DC power player.. Baker played a role in nearly every major event near the . While serving as Treasury Secretary, Baker organized the Plaza Accord of September 1985 and the Baker Plan to target international debt. [12] Baker resigned to serve as campaign manager of Ford's unsuccessful 1976 election campaign. "Mother of Secretary of State Baker dies here at 96". The war in Iraq may be a disaster for George W. Bush, but for James Baker III it has become an opportunity to seal his reputation as a statesman rather than a political fixer, which is how he's spent much of his career. American lawyer and statesman (born 1930), This article is about the politician. Before the 1988 election, he and a team of some Middle Eastern policies experts created a report detailing the Palestine-Israel interactions. James Baker, in full James Addison Baker III, (born April 28, 1930, Houston, Texas, U.S.), American government official, political manager, and lawyer who occupied important posts in the Republican presidential administrations of the 1980s and early '90s, including that of U.S. secretary of state (1989-92). 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. Kemp, for his part, told them that Bakers sentiment got mischaracterized by Koch and others as being anti-Israel. George Herbert Walker Bush then encouraged Baker to become active in politics to help deal with the grief of his wife's death, something that George Herbert Walker Bush himself had done when his daughter, Pauline Robinson Bush (19491953), died of leukemia. When Bush was elected, he only received 29% of Jewish voters' support, and his reelection was thought to be imminent, so there was little pressure on the administration to make bold moves in diplomatic relations with Israel. James Baker has been featured repeatedly in the Russian investigations launched by the Justice Department. James Addison Baker Work Hard, Study.and Keep Out of Politics! In 1995, Baker published his memoirs of service as Secretary of State in a book entitled The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 19891992 (ISBN 0-399-14087-5). They have one child. Work Hard, Study.and Keep Out of Politics! Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The event, sponsored by the James Baker . My wife Lori and I flew to California to attend the memorial service for Secretary George Shultz '42 at Stanford University on October 7. He is known for The American Ruling Class (2005), The Bush Years: Family, Duty, Power (2019) and Countdown to Zero (2010). On June 15, 2002, Virginia Graeme Baker, the seven-year-old granddaughter of Baker, daughter of Nancy and James Baker IV, was the victim of lethal suction entrapment in an in-ground spa. Mary Stuart Baker (Mary Stuart was her full first name) died of breast cancer in February 1970. Pursuing research and open debate to develop pragmatic drug policies based on common sense and driven by human rights interests. [26], Baker soon decided that Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer would be his principal aides in Middle Eastern policies. In 1981, Baker was named White House Chief of Staff by President Ronald Reagan, in spite of the fact that Baker managed the presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford in 1976 and of George Bush in 1980 opposing Reagan. In some cases, children who are trying to hold their breath underwater get pulled in and can't get out. Baker is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts. From 1997 to 2004, Baker served as the personal envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek a political solution to the conflict over Western Sahara. He left The Post in December 2020. [18] Privately, Bush ignored Baker's assurances and later pushed for NATO's eastwards expansion. Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life was published in October 2006. Major gifts provide the funds necessary for the Baker Institute to explore new areas of study and research, and expand current programs. As Treasury Secretary, he arranged the Plaza Accord and the Baker Plan. James Baker III was born on April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. He has been married to Susan Garrett Winston since 1973. He was previously married to Mary Stuart McHenry. James A. Baker, III entered the world in 1930 as the son, grandson, and great-grandson of distinguished lawyers all named James A. Baker,2 who each made a good living working at the Baker Botts law firm (formed by Baker's great-grandfather) in Houston. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The following year, he was selected as Gulf Coast Regional Chairman for the Richard Nixon presidential campaign. [22] The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity. As he remembered it, the presidents team was discussing a controversial policy in the Oval Office. His team included Dennis Ross and many others who were soon appointed to the new Bush Administration. He was named under secretary of commerce by Pres. They claimed that Baker, a former Democrat and a Bush political intimate, was undermining conservative initiatives in the administration. According to the new biography, its far from certain those words were actually ever used by Baker. However, another G. H. W. Bush Administration veteran, Robert Gates, was appointed instead, and only after the 2006 elections. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III responded to my question about NATO's eastward expansion. Baker is already getting kudos as a skilled diplomat who engineered a . Newhouse, John. "It was cleaned and inspected the day before the party.". Join Facebook to connect with James Baker III and others you may know. [31] However, despite having run two winning campaigns for Ronald Reagan and one for Bush, Baker was unsuccessful in the second campaign for Bush, who lost to Clinton by 370 electoral votes to 168.[32]. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. He served as the nation's 61st secretary of state from January 1989 through August 1992 under President George H.W. . He left behind the Baker II plan, accepted as a suitable basis of negotiations by the Polisario and unanimously endorsed by the Security Council, but rejected by Morocco. All of these confrontations with Israel and others that are mentioned in the book, such as the fight in Congress over the loan guarantees eventually took their toll on Bakers reputation. Doubleday; 720 pages; $35. BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times The Washington Post Fortune BloombergFrom two of America's most revered political journalists comes the definitive biography of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III: the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world.For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold . 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. Honorary Chair, Baker Institute for Public Policy, A bronze bust of former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III that will be part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of American Diplomacy was recently unveiled in Washington, D.C. Ron Sachs/CNP for NY Post After leaving the FBI, Twitter seemed eager to hire Baker. A Republican Party campaign leader, James Addison Baker, III (born 1930) helped elect as president both Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Israeli officials and public were highly offended due to the tone of his speech, though his address called for little more than his predecessors. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. When youre serious about peace, call us., A day later, the authors note, Baker sent flowers to the White House operators to apologize for subjecting them to a flood of calls by giving out their phone number instead of his own. James Baker est n le 28 avril 1930 Houston, au Texas. James Baker III looking through the Iraq Study Group report before delivering it to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, December 7, 2006. High-Powered D.C. After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, he pursued a legal career. In 1975, he was appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for Gerald Ford. [52], Baker began service on the Rice University board of trustees in 1993.[53]. He previously was The Post's education editor, and he worked as an investigative reporter, a military correspondent and covered crime and courts in Northern Virginia. They married in 1953. "No world leader has a bigger place in the history of the late 20th century than Mikhail Gorbachev, for the pivotal role he played in the peaceful end of the Cold War," wrote former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, in an op-ed. Baker's record of public service began in 1975 as under secretary of commerce to President Gerald Ford. Baker has a sister, Bonner Baker Moffitt. In this telling, the target of his ire was an interest group, not Jews as a whole. James Baker Oral History at Houston Oral History Project, November 20, 2007. His son, James A. Baker, Jr., served in World War II, became a lawyer in the family firm and continued the Baker commitment to Rice. Bush, left, and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III talking about the Gulf War and liberation of Kuwait, during an interview January 18, 2011, in Houston. It was a political comment, Baker said, not an anti-Semitic comment, not a slur.. His wife's influence led Baker to politics and the Republican Party. James Addison Baker III[note 1] (born April 28, 1930)[1] is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. Until 2005 he was senior counsel to the Carlyle Group and is currently a senior partner at the law firm of Baker Botts. Alternate titles: James Addison Baker III. She and Baker welcomed their daughter Mary Bonner Baker, born in 1977. Though Bush lost the race, Baker became deeply involved in Republican Party politics thereafter. 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. To promote greater safety in pools and spas, Nancy Baker gave testimony to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and James Baker helped form an advocacy group, which led to the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool And Spa Safety Act (15 USC 8001). Baker served as Undersecretary of Commerce under President Gerald Ford in 1975, and ran Ford's unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1976. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir came to visit the White House in April 1989, shortly after the new administration took office and whatever was said ended up driving an enduring wedge between the two sides. During that meeting, Shamir told Bush that settlements in the occupied West Bank shouldnt be a problem for the administrations plans to start peace talks between Israel and its neighbors. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. His father was a partner of Houston law firm Baker Botts. Baker, Peter, and Glasser, Susan, The Man Who Ran Washington Doubleday, 2020, at pp. "It was functioning perfectly," Lubas said. Phone: 713-348-4683 Two weeks later still more settlements were announced, the authors write. Also in 1993, the Enron Corporation hired Baker as a consultant within a month of his departure from the White House, and Enron said that Baker would have an opportunity to invest in any projects he developed. Baker's first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, was active in the Republican Party, working on the Congressional campaigns of George H. W. Bush. Secretary Baker himself is actually a pretty religious person, but hes not a favorite of the evangelical wing of the party, which has long viewed him with suspicion, Peter Baker added. Every time he speaks his mind on anything related to Israel, someone usually a right-wing pundit who supports the Netanyahu government quickly pulls the words Fuck the Jews, they dont vote for us anyway out of the archives, labeling Baker as anti-Israel or, worse, antisemitic. 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. After Bush accepted the vice presidential slot on a ticket headed by Ronald Reagan that year, Baker joined Reagans campaign staff as a senior adviser. After leaving government service, Baker became a partner in a law firm and served as a diplomatic envoy for United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan for the Western Sahara. In 1978, Baker ran unsuccessfully to become Attorney General of Texas, losing to future Governor Mark White. Baker was a member of the United States Marine Corps from 1952 to 1954, attaining the rank of first lieutenant as a naval gunfire officer serving in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the USSMonrovia. United States Secretaries of the Treasury, List of international trips made by secretaries of state of the United States, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Baker&oldid=1141376173, Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, George H. W. Bush administration cabinet members, United States Under Secretaries of Commerce, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Wikipedia neutral point of view disputes from November 2019, All Wikipedia neutral point of view disputes, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 19:21.