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| James Baker | |
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| In office August, 1992 – January 20, 1993 |
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| President | George H.W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Samuel Skinner |
| Succeeded by | Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty |
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| In office January 20, 1989 – August 23, 1992 |
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| President | George H.W. Bush |
| Preceded by | George P. Shultz |
| Succeeded by | Lawrence Eagleburger |
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| In office February 4, 1985 – August 17, 1988 |
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| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Donald Regan |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas F. Brady |
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| In office January 20, 1981 – February 3, 1985 |
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| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Jack Watson |
| Succeeded by | Donald T. Regan |
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| Born | April 28, 1930 Houston, Texas |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Susan Garrett Baker (second wife) |
| Profession | Lawyer/Politician |
| Religion | Episcopalian Alma mater=Princeton University |
| Signature |  |
James Addison Baker, III (born April 28, 1930), served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush. He served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1985-1988 in the second Reagan administration, and Secretary of State in the George H. W. Bush administration. He is also the namesake of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
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Education
Baker attended The Hill School, a boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Princeton University in 1952. Afterwards, he earned a J.D. (1957) from the University of Texas at Austin and began to practice law in Texas.[1]
Early political career
Baker served in the United States Marine Corps (1952-1954), attaining the rank of First Lieutenant and later rising to Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Originally a Democrat, Baker switched to the Republican party and managed the ultimately unsuccessful Senate campaign of his longtime friend, George H.W. Bush in 1970.
He served as Undersecretary of Commerce under President Gerald Ford in 1975 and ran Ford's unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1976. In 1978, Baker ran unsuccessfully to become State Attorney General of Texas, having been defeated by future Governor Mark Wells White.
Reagan administration
After serving as George H.W. Bush's campaign manager in the 1980 Republican primaries, Baker was named White House Chief of Staff by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. He served in that capacity until 1985. Baker is seen as wielding a high degree of influence over the successes and failures of the first Reagan administration, particularly in domestic policy.
Baker managed the president's 1984 re-election campaign which Reagan won with a record 525 electoral votes total (of 538 possible), and received 58.8% of the popular vote to Mondale's 40.6%. [1]. In the new administration Baker "switched roles" with Secretary of the Treasury Donald Regan, who replaced Baker as Chief of Staff. While serving as Treasury Secretary, he organized the Plaza Accord of September 1985 and the Baker Plan to target international debt. He tapped Richard Darman as his deputy secretary of the treasury. Darman would continue in the next administration as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
During the Reagan administration Baker also served on the Economic Policy Council, where he played an instrumental role in achieving the passage of the administration's tax and budget reform legislation package in 1981.
Baker served on Reagan's National Security Council, and remained Treasury Secretary through 1988, during which year he also served as campaign chairman for Bush's successful presidential bid.
Bush administration
George H.W. Bush appointed Baker Secretary of State in 1989. Baker served in this role through 1992.
On January 9, 1991, during the Geneva Peace Conference with Tariq Aziz in Geneva, Baker declared that "If there is any user of (chemical or biological weapons), our objectives won't just be the liberation of Kuwait, but the elimination of the current Iraqi regime...". Baker later acknowledged that the intent of this statement was to imply the threat of a unilateral nuclear strike on Iraq's homeland.[2][3]
Baker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. From 1992 to 1993, he served as Bush's White House Chief of Staff, the same position that he had held during the first Reagan administration.
Post-cabinet career
1993-2000
In 1993 Baker became the founding chair of the James A. Baker III Institute of Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
He helped to construct the 34-nation alliance that fought alongside the United States in the Gulf War.
In 1995 Baker published his memoirs of service as Secretary of State in a book entitled The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989-1992 (ISBN 0-399-14087-5).
In March 1997 Baker became the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara[2]. In June 2004 he resigned from this position, frustrated over the lack of progress in reaching a complete settlement acceptable to both the government of Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front. 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.
In addition to the numerous recognitions received by Baker, he was presented with the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for public service on September 13, 2000 in Washington DC.
2000-present
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Baker served as chief legal adviser for George W. Bush during the 2000 election campaign and oversaw the Florida recount. A 2008 film Recount was made about the days following the election, during the making of which Baker and many others were consulted. He was until 2005 senior counsel to the Carlyle Group and is currently a senior partner at the law firm of Baker Botts.
State of Denial, a book by investigative reporter Bob Woodward, says that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card urged President Bush to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with Baker following the 2004 election.
On 15 March 2006, Congress announced the formation of the Iraq Study Group, of which he is the Republican co-chair along with Lee Hamilton. On 13 September 2006, a news report suggested that Baker is quietly involved with advising President George W. Bush on Iraq. [3] On October 8th, the Washington Post reported that Baker is "the Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan commission tasked by Congress with assessing U.S. options in Iraq," and quoted him as saying "our commission believes that there are alternatives between the stated alternatives, the ones that are out there in the political debate, of 'stay the course' and 'cut and run.'"[4]
On 8 October 2006 he said that there are alternatives in Iraq for the United States other than the stay-the-course-policy of President George W. Bush's administration.citation needed Baker was co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, a high-level panel of prominent former officials charged by members of Congress with taking a fresh look at America's policy on Iraq. The panel, co-chaired by former Democratic Representative Lee H. Hamilton, examined a number of ideas, including one that would create a new power-sharing arrangement in Iraq that would give more autonomy to regional factions.[5]
Baker has formal invovement with the country of Azerbaijan as he serves on the Honorary Council of Advisers for the U.S. Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce.
Personal life
He and his wife, the former Susan Garrett, have six sons and two daughters. His first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry of Dayton, Ohio, died of breast cancer in 1970.
On June 15, 2002, Graeme Baker, the 7-year-old granddaughter of Baker, daughter of Nancy and James Baker IV, was the victim of suction entrapment[6]. To promote safer pools and spas, Nancy Baker gave testimony to the Consumer Product Safety Commission [7] and James Baker helped formed an advocacy group [8] which led to the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (15 USC 8001)[9].
Further reading
Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate, Robert Bryce, New York: Perseus Books Group, 2004.
'Work Hard, Study... And Keep Out of Politics!': Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life, James A. Baker III, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2006.
The Politics of Diplomacy, James A. Baker III, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995.
Notes
- ^ James A. Baker, 3rd, Current Biography, March 2007. Accessed December 25, 2007. "Like his father, Jim Baker, as he prefers to be known, attended the Hill School, a college prep school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, then enrolled at Princeton University."
- ^ Plague war: Interviews: James Baker 1995
- ^ Sadam's Toxic Arsenal Planning the Unthinkable, ISBN 0-8014-3776-8, August 2000
External links
- "What the Baker Commission is Ignoring"
- Profile in the Daily Princetonian
- Biography on Baker Botts LLP website
- Article in the Guardian
- Baker Institute for Public Policy
- "Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics!" Video of James Baker discussing his memoirs. November 4, 2006.
- Troops Out, Oil Companies In: The Baker Agenda? Huffington Post article discussing the possible oil agenda in Iraq.
- Recount Movie
| Preceded by Jack Watson |
White House Chief of Staff 1981–1985 |
Succeeded by Donald Regan |
| Preceded by Donald Regan |
United States Secretary of the Treasury Served Under: Ronald Reagan 1985–1988 |
Succeeded by Nicholas F. Brady |
| Preceded by George P. Shultz |
United States Secretary of State Served Under: George H.W. Bush 1989–1992 |
Succeeded by Lawrence Eagleburger |
| Preceded by Samuel K. Skinner |
White House Chief of Staff 1992–1993 |
Succeeded by Mack McLarty |
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