James Addison Baker, III, was born April 28, 1930, into a wealthy Houston, Texas, family. "G.O.P. The authors explain that as the quote spread, it would be repeated by others without the brackets, shortened to Fuck the Jews, an even cruder version than Koch originally alleged., The real story behind the inflammatory comment, the authors write, stemmed from Bakers long-running feud with [Housing Secretary] Jack Kemp, who had told Koch about the episode. The following year, he was selected as Gulf Coast Regional Chairman for the Richard Nixon presidential campaign. Mary had breast cancer in 1968 and died in February 1970 when . In this August 11, 1990 file photo, President George H. W. Bush is pictured with his advisers on the Middle East crisis, including Secretary of State James Baker III, right. [33] During his time at Enron, Baker tried to warn against the company's involvement with the Dabhol Power Station in India. 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. 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. Long active in American presidential politics, Baker led presidential campaigns for Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush over the course of five consecutive presidential elections from 1976 to 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 threaten a retaliatory nuclear strike on Iraq, and the Iraqis received his message. As a result, we missed the multiple Nobel Prize . The authors write that in his speech Baker wanted to call for a reasonable middle ground on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. President George H.W. Baker served as Fords campaign manager that year and went on to direct Bushs campaign for the presidential nomination in the Republican primaries of 1980. He also played a prominent role in the Florida recount for the current president. Plan a gift that will ensure lasting, meaningful support for policy programs important to you. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton have served as the co-chairs of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan blue-ribbon panel examining a forward-looking approach to Iraq. Proud grandfather and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III dared graduates of his alma mater, The Hill School, on Saturday to be revolutionaries. George Kennan, James Baker, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Sam Nunn, and Thomas Friedman, among others, all warned in the 1990s of a new Cold War if NATO was expanded without including Russia. 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. The 7-year-old granddaughter of former secretary of state James A. Baker III died when she became trapped in a whirlpool and drowned in McLean, Fairfax County police said yesterday. Baker, however, was happy with the reception, The tension between the two governments became a full-blown crisis a year later in 1990 when, as described in the book, a deputy foreign minister named Benjamin Netanyahu openly assailed the United States for being too gullible in its dealings with the Palestinians., Netanyahu, then in his early 40s and a rising star in Likud, said in remarks to the media: It is astonishing that a superpower like the United States, which was supposed to be the symbol of political fairness and international honesty, is building its policy on a foundation of distortion and lies.. 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). Bush at St. Martin's Episcopal Church,. He graduated cum laude with an A.B. A family member found her, and it took two adults to dislodge her, authorities said. In August 1975, he was appointed Under Secretary of Commerce by President Gerald Ford, succeeding John K. Baker became chairman of Bush's Senate campaign in Harris County. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Baker voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and said prior to the 2020 election that he would do so again. Baker, Peter, and Glasser, Susan, The Man Who Ran Washington Doubleday, 2020, at pp. She was stuck underwater and was unable to free herself, police said. His positions on Israel would be considered anti-Israeli, perhaps even heretic, in todays GOP and the former secretary of state knows it. Baker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. Former Secretary of State James Baker III gives a eulogy during the funeral for former President George H.W. Read more at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. They have six sons and two daughters, and 18 . They have one child. 15 of 23 16 of 23 James Baker III speaks to King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Thursday afternoon during an appearance at Rice University. In 1991 Baker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (1957) from The University of Texas at Austin and began to practice law in Texas. In March 1997, Baker became the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara. He was a fifth generation. In this November 21, 1990 file photo, Secretary of State James Baker is seen whispering to National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft during a press conference by President George H. W. Bush. James Addison Baker was born in Houston, Texas at 1216 Bissonnet, to James A. Baker, Jr. (1892-1973) and Ethel Bonner (born Means) Baker (August 6, 1894 - April 26, 1991). [18] Privately, Bush ignored Baker's assurances and later pushed for NATO's eastwards expansion. While serving as Treasury Secretary, Baker organized the Plaza Accord of September 1985 and the Baker Plan to target international debt. He later gave informal advice to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and suggested the appointment of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. [51] In 2017, this group of "Republican elder statesmen" proposed that conservatives embrace a fee and dividend form of carbon tax (in which all revenue generated by the tax is rebated to the populace in the form of lump-sum dividends), as a policy to deal with anthropogenic climate change. James Baker III was born on April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. 01/31/1978 - James Baker III, candiidate for Texas Attorney General, speaks to news media. After the Gulf War, Baker served another stint as White House Chief of Staff from 1992 to 1993. Fax: 713-348-5993. In March 1997, Baker became the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara. 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. Screw them, they dont vote for us, Baker recalled replying. "It was functioning perfectly," Lubas said. "The FBI's top lawyer, James Baker, is being reassigned one of the first moves by new director Christopher A. Wray to assemble his own team of senior advisers as he tries to fend off. The first James Addison Baker arrived in Texas in 1852, a 31-year-old widower who came from Alabama at the urging of his late wife's family. He has said that to be an honest broker means the United States should not be perceived as too one-sided. . He earned a Bachelor of Laws (1957) from the University of Texas School of Law and began to practice law in Texas. They had four sons together. Several people who were at the party then tried to revive the girl, who was taken by helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital and pronounced dead. [54] Mary Stuart Baker (Mary Stuart was her full first name) died of breast cancer in February 1970. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. A 2008 film Recount covers the days following the controversial election. Baker served in the United States Marine Corps (19521954), attaining the rank of First Lieutenant and later rising to Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Baker blocked the recognition of Palestine by threatening to cut funding to agencies in the United Nations. Bush believed Shamir had lied to him and never forgave him., A month after that incident, Baker gave a speech at the annual AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, his first-ever appearance before the large pro-Israel gathering. Though Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen in the election, Baker continued in politics, becoming the Finance Chairman of the Republican Party in 1971. [46] During a 2016 memorial service for Nancy Reagan, he commented to former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that he believed there were parallels between the rise of Trump and the rise of Reagan. James A. Baker III., Capt. When Bush decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 1969, he supported Baker's decision to run for the Congressional seat he was vacating. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir conferring following meetings at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, September 17, 1991. He has been married to Susan Garrett Winston since 1973. On June 15, 2002, Virginia Graeme Baker, the 7-year-old granddaughter of Baker, daughter of Nancy and James Baker IV, was the victim of suction-pump entrapment in an in-ground spa. [26] In the meantime, Baker also tried to negotiate with the Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, in order to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and Syria. Baker also advised George W. Bush on Iraq. Haaretz.com, the online English edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, gives you breaking news, analyses and opinions about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. 's Baker Hints Iraq Plan Needs Change". [23], Baker also spent considerable time negotiating one-on-one with the parties in order to organize the Madrid Conference of October 30-November 1, 1991, in an attempt to revive the IsraeliPalestinian peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Arab countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.[24]. The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III was published Tuesday after a seven-year journey, during which the authors New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker (no relation to James Baker) and New Yorker senior columnist Susan Glasser conducted more than 200 interviews. Geni requires JavaScript! In this telling, the target of his ire was an interest group, not Jews as a whole. U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir conferring following meetings at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, September 17, 1991. Credit: AP Amir Tibon Follow Sep 29, 2020 It's a quote that has haunted former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker for almost three decades. The conference is covered extensively in the book, ending with a quote by James Baker telling his close aides he would like to move even further on the peace process after helping Bush win reelection. 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. His wife, Susan, listens at right. The tall Texan with the impassive stare ranks as the only person to have served as White House chief of staff,. 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. Going it alone is not an option.. However, Baker changed his mind about running for Congress when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer; she died in February 1970. A lawyer by training, he practiced law in Houston with the firm of Andrews & Kurth for more than twenty years. The elder Baker was treasury secretary and chief of staff under President Ronald Reagan and secretary of state under former President George Bush. His wife's influence led Baker to politics and the Republican Party. They married in 1953. Hall. View the profiles of people named James Baker III. James A. Baker, III, has served in senior government positions under three United States presidents. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. James Addison Baker, III, was born April 28, 1930, into a wealthy Houston, Texas, family. 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 package in 1981. In 1978, with George H. W. Bush as his campaign manager, Baker ran unsuccessfully for Attorney General of Texas, losing to future Texas governor Mark White. From 1957 to 1969, and then from 1973 to 1975 he practiced law at the law firm of Andrews & Kurth. Neither Koch nor Safire named a source, but the former mayor later acknowledged in a book that Kemp was the one who tipped him off., Peter Baker and Susan Glasser interviewed both Kemp and James Baker about the episode. From 1992 to 1993, he served as Bush's White House Chief of Staff, the same position that he had held from 1981 to 1985 during the first Reagan Administration. Indeed, Baker's family was so well off that his doting. Born in Houston, Baker attended The Hill School and Princeton University before serving in the United States Marine Corps. Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life was published in October 2006. 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. James Addison Baker III, 61st Secretary of State Rise to Prominence Born in Texas on April 28, 1930, Baker attended prep school in Pennsylvania, and went on to graduate from Princeton University in 1952. All serious issues that Palestine sought to discuss, such as elections and representation in the Israeli government, were delegated to Egypt for decisions to be made. [18] He later revealed that he had agreed to do so because James Baker promised that NATO troops would not be posted to eastern Germany and that the military alliance would not expand into Eastern Europe. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. He married Mary McHenry in 1953 and they had four sons, James IV, Mike, John and Doug. Providing actionable policy analysis and recommendations that aim to expand the economy through private enterprise. Stop settlement activity. Baker is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts. Developing pragmatic policy approaches to the regions enduring political, economic and societal concerns. Bakers memoir Work Hard, Study . Well, AIPAC wont like that, someone said. James Baker III looking through the Iraq Study Group report before delivering it to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, December 7, 2006. 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. [19] Bush and US defence secretary Dick Cheney were proponents for Soviet dissolution. In 1973 and 1974, in the wake of the Nixon Administration's implosion over Watergate, Baker returned to full-time law practice at Andrews & Kurth.[9][10]. 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. Reagan rejected the Phillips-Wright request. [15], In 1985, Reagan named Baker as United States Secretary of the Treasury, in a job-swap with then-Secretary Donald Regan, a former Merrill Lynch officer who became chief of staff. In 1973, Baker and Susan Garrett Winston, a close friend of Mary Stuart's, were married. Virginia was the daughter of James A. Baker IV, who is the son of the former cabinet secretary. Contact him at bipp@rice.edu or (281) 348-4683. He served in that capacity until 1985. According to the Bethesda-based Consumer Product Safety Commission, the risks are largely from older-model drains that do not employ suggested safety measures, such as a secondary drain or a specialized cover. Baker is Senior Counselor for the Carlyle Group, and the bin Ladens are among its major investors. In May 1990, Soviet Union's reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited the U.S. for talks with President Bush; there, he agreed to allow a reunified Germany to be a part of NATO. His father was a partner of Houston law firm Baker Botts. James Baker Oral History at Houston Oral History Project, November 20, 2007. Browse 964 james a. baker iii stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. He was a regular tennis partner with Bush at the Houston Country Club in the late 1950s. Bush. 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. Bush later confirmed that he made such an offer to Baker but that he declined. 1990, statement of James A. Baker III. (Read James Bakers Britannica essay on isolationism.). After the campaign, he served in various positions for President Richard Nixon. James Addison Baker III was born in Houston at 1216 Bissonnet St., the son of James A. Baker Jr. (1892-1973) and Ethel Bonner (ne Means) Baker (August 6, . Bush and Baker had a strained relationship with Israeli leaders from the start, the book explains. The book also shows how much the Republican Partys approach to Israel has changed over recent decades. Baker served in this role through 1992. Former President George H.W. Josh White was The Washington Post's America desk editor. Kemp, for his part, told them that Bakers sentiment got mischaracterized by Koch and others as being anti-Israel. 492, 505. 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). 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 served as the nation's 61st secretary of state from January 1989 through August 1992 under President George H.W. For 12 years, from 1980 to 1992, James A. Baker III operated as one of the most powerful non-elected officials in Washington, serving first as President Ronald Reagan's chief of staff and later . The couple met while on in Bermuda for spring break. [27] Baker proved willing to confront Israeli officials on statements they made contrary to American interests. On September 11, 2001, Baker watched television coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington DC, where Baker and representatives of Osama bin Laden's family were among those attending the annual conference for the Carlyle Group. 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. Seventeen-year-old Mary Stuart. He earned a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1957 and then joined a major Houston law firm, eventually becoming a partner in it. In some cases, children who are trying to hold their breath underwater get pulled in and can't get out. Bush. Though Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen in the election, Baker continued in politics, becoming the finance chairman of the Texas Republican Party in 1971. After calming down a bit, he settled for declaring Netanyahu persona non grata, barring him from even entering the doors of the State Department. Despite pleas from his Middle East adviser, Dennis Ross, Baker refused to change the decision. Together they had four sons, including James Addison Baker IV, a partner at Baker Botts. According to the new biography, its far from certain those words were actually ever used by Baker. James Baker III was born on April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. The son of a prosperous Houston attorney, Baker graduated from Princeton University in 1952 and then spent two years in the U.S. Marine Corps. 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 package in 1981. At one level it narrowly focuses both on verbal commitments made by the US secretary of state James Baker under President George HW Bush and the terms of a treaty signed on 12 September 1990 . D URING THE confusion that followed the attempt on . [26], More tensions rose in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with a massive influx of Jewish people from the Soviet Union moved to Israel. 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. [42] Bush would appoint another G. H. W. Bush Administration veteran, Robert Gates, instead, after the 2006 midterm elections. [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]. 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 three have been reported as leaning toward the policies of the Israeli Labor Party. Baker met his first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, of Dayton, Ohio, while on spring break in Bermuda with the Princeton University rugby team. Two weeks later still more settlements were announced, the authors write. 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. As treasury secretary, he was also chairman of the President's Economic Policy Council. Originally, Baker had been a Democrat but too busy trying to succeed in a competitive law firm to worry about politics, and considered himself apolitical. By Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. [19], 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."[20] Baker later acknowledged that the intent of this statement was to threaten a retaliatory nuclear strike on Iraq,[21] and the Iraqis received his message.
