Statesman helped to end Cold War
US diplomat
GEORGE SHULTZ was the US Secretary of State who survived bitter infighting in President Ronald Reagan’s administration to help forge a new era in AmericanSoviet relations and bring on the end of the Cold War.
He died on February 6, aged 100.
A man of broad experience and talents, Shultz achieved success in statesmanship, business and academia. Lawmakers praised him for opposing as sheer folly the sale of arms to Iran that were the cornerstone of the IranContra scandal that marred Reagan’s second term in office.
His efforts as America’s top diplomat from 1982 to 1989 under the Republican Reagan helped lead to the conclusion of the fourdecadelong Cold War that began after World War 2, pitting the United States and its allies against the Soviet Union and the communist bloc and generating fears of a global nuclear conflict.
“He focused on the possibilities of what could be, unhindered by the impasses or deadlocks of the past. That was the vision and dedication that helped guide our nation through some of its most dangerous periods and ultimately helped create the opening that led to the end the Cold War,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Shultz, a steady, patient and lowkey man who became one of the longestserving secretaries of state, steered to completion a historic treaty scrapping superpower mediumrange nuclear missiles and set a pattern for dealings between Moscow and Washington that made human rights a routine agenda item.
He achieved the rare feat of holding four cabinet posts, also serving as secretary of the Treasury, as secretary of labour and as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
His record as secretary of state was tempered by his failure to bring peace to the Middle East and Central America, areas in which he personally invested considerable effort.
Shultz remained active into his 90s through a position at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution thinktank and various boards. He also wrote books and took stands against the Cuban embargo, climate change and Britain’s departure from the European Union.
His most recent book, written with James Timbie, a longtime State Department adviser and published in November 2020, before Shultz’s 100th birthday, was entitled A Hinge of History. It suggested the world was at a pivot point not unlike the one it faced at the end of World War 2.
“We seem to be in an upset state of affairs where it’s hard to get things accomplished,” he told the New York Times, lamenting the Trump administration’s resistance to international accords.
“They seem to be sceptical of these agreements, of any agreement. Agreements aren’t usually perfect. You don’t get everything you want. You compromise a little bit. But they’re way better than nothing.”
Born in New York on December 13, 1920, the son of a historian, Shultz joined the Marine Corps in World War 2. He met Army nurse Helena O’Brien in the Pacific and they were married in 1946 and had three daughters and two sons.
Helena died in 1995 and Shultz married San Francisco socialite Charlotte Mailliard Swig in 1997.
He had a love of quirky clothes, such as a peachcoloured sports coat and multicoloured golf slacks.
He was said to have a tiger tattoo on his left buttock, a souvenir of his student days at Princeton University, whose mascot is a tiger. Shultz was coy about whether he really had one, but he did not deny it. — Reuters