George Shultz | |
|---|---|
 Shultz in the 1980s | |
| 60th United States Secretary of State | |
| In office July 16, 1982 – January 20, 1989 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Alexander Haig |
| Succeeded by | James Baker |
| 62nd United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
| In office June 12, 1972 – May 8, 1974 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | John Connally |
| Succeeded by | William E. Simon |
| 19th Director of theOffice of Management and Budget | |
| In office July 1, 1970 – June 11, 1972 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Bob Mayo(Bureau of the Budget) |
| Succeeded by | Caspar Weinberger |
| 11th United States Secretary of Labor | |
| In office January 22, 1969 – July 1, 1970 | |
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | W. Willard Wirtz |
| Succeeded by | James Day Hodgson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Pratt Shultz (1920-12-13)December 13, 1920 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 2021(2021-02-06) (aged 100) Stanford, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Dawes Cemetery,Cummington, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom (1989) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Marine Corps |
| Service years | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Battles/wars | |
George Pratt Shultz (/ʃʊlts/SHUULTS; December 13, 1920 – February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two differentRepublican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held four differentCabinet-level posts, the other beingElliot Richardson.[1] Shultz played a major role in shaping theforeign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration, and conservative foreign policy thought thereafter.
Born in New York City, he graduated fromPrinceton University before serving in theUnited States Marine Corps duringWorld War II. After the war, Shultz earned aPhD in industrial economics from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He taught at MIT from 1948 to 1957, taking a leave of absence in 1955 to take a position on PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower'sCouncil of Economic Advisers. After serving as dean of theUniversity of Chicago Graduate School of Business, he accepted PresidentRichard Nixon's appointment asUnited States Secretary of Labor. In that position, he imposed thePhiladelphia Plan on construction contractors who refused to accept black members, marking the first use ofracial quotas by the federal government. In 1970, he became the first director of theOffice of Management and Budget, and he served in that position until his appointment asUnited States Secretary of the Treasury in 1972. In that role, Shultz supported theNixon shock, which sought to revive the ailing economy in part by abolishing thegold standard, and presided over the end of theBretton Woods system.
Shultz left the Nixon administration in 1974 to become an executive atBechtel. After becoming president and director of that company, he accepted PresidentRonald Reagan's offer to serve asUnited States secretary of state. He held that office from 1982 to 1989. Shultz pushed for Reagan to establish relations withSoviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev, which led to a thaw between the United States and the Soviet Union. He opposed the U.S. aid toContras trying to overthrow theSandinistas by using funds from an illegal sale of weapons to Iran. This aid led to theIran–Contra affair.
Shultz retired from public office in 1989 but remained active in business and politics. He had already been an executive of theBechtel Group, an engineering and services company, from 1974 to 1982. Shultz served as an informal adviser toGeorge W. Bush and helped formulate theBush Doctrine ofpreemptive war. He served on theGlobal Commission on Drug Policy, California governorArnold Schwarzenegger's Economic Recovery Council, and on the boards of Bechtel and theCharles Schwab Corporation.
Beginning in 2013, Shultz advocated for a revenue-neutralcarbon tax as the most economically sound means of mitigatinganthropogenic climate change.[2][3][4][5][6] He was a member of theHoover Institution, theInstitute for International Economics, theWashington Institute for Near East Policy, and other groups. He was also a board member ofTheranos.[7] His grandsonTyler Shultz worked at the company before becoming awhistleblower about the fraudulent technology.[8][9]
Shultz was born December 13, 1920, in New York City, the only child of Margaret Lennox (née Pratt) and Birl Earl Shultz.[10] He grew up inEnglewood, New Jersey.[11] His great-grandfather was an immigrant fromGermany who arrived in the United States in the middle of the 19th century. Contrary to common assumption, Shultz was not a member of the Pratt family associated withJohn D. Rockefeller and theStandard Oil Trust.[12]
After attending the local public school, he transferred to the Englewood School for Boys (nowDwight-Englewood School), through his second year of high school.[13] In 1938, Shultz graduated from the private preparatory boarding high schoolLoomis Chaffee School inWindsor, Connecticut.[10] He earned abachelor's degree,cum laude, atPrinceton University, New Jersey, in economics with a minor in public and international affairs. His senior thesis, "The Agricultural Program of the Tennessee Valley Authority", examined theTennessee Valley Authority's effect on localagriculture, for which he conducted on-site research.[14] He graduated with honors in 1942.[11][12]
From 1942 to 1945, Shultz was on active duty in theU.S. Marine Corps. He was an artillery officer, attaining the rank ofcaptain. He was attached to the U.S. Army81st Infantry Division during theBattle of Angaur (Battle of Peleliu).[15]
In 1949, Shultz earned a PhD inindustrial economics from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.[16] From 1948 to 1957, he taught in theMIT Department of Economics and theMIT Sloan School of Management, with a leave of absence in 1955 to serve on PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower'sCouncil of Economic Advisers as a Senior Staff Economist.[17] In 1957, Shultz left MIT and joined theUniversity of ChicagoGraduate School of Business as a professor of industrial relations, and he served as the Graduate School of Business Dean from 1962 to 1968.[18] During his time in Chicago, he was influenced byNobel LaureatesMilton Friedman andGeorge Stigler, who reinforced Shultz's view of the importance of a free-market economy.[19] He left the University of Chicago to serve under President Richard Nixon in 1969.[20]
Shultz was PresidentRichard Nixon's Secretary of Labor from 1969 to 1970. He soon faced the crisis of theLongshoremen's Union strike. TheLyndon B. Johnson Administration had delayed the walkout with aTaft–Hartley injunction that expired, and the press pressed him to describe his approach. He applied the theory he had developed in academia: he let the parties work it out, which they did quickly. He also imposed thePhiladelphia Plan, which required Pennsylvaniaconstructionunions to admit a certain number of black members by an enforced deadline—a break with their past policy of largely discriminating against such members. This marked the first use ofracial quotas in the federal government.[21]
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Nixon's first choice for Secretary of Labor, was deemed unacceptable byAFL–CIO PresidentGeorge Meany, which pushed to fill the position with Shultz, then Dean ofUniversity of Chicago's School of Business, (with prior experience in another GOP administration, onPresident Eisenhower'sCouncil of Economic Advisers).[22]
Shultz became the first director of theOffice of Management and Budget, the renamed and reorganized Bureau of the Budget, on July 1, 1970.[23] He was the agency's 19th director.[24]
Shultz wasUnited States Secretary of the Treasury from June 1972 to May 1974. During his tenure, he was concerned with two major issues, namely the continuing domestic administration of Nixon's "New Economic Policy", begun under SecretaryJohn Connally (Shultz privately opposed its three elements), and a renewed dollar crisis that broke out in February 1973.[12][25]
Domestically Shultz enacted the next phase of the NEP, liftingprice controls begun in 1971. This phase was a failure, resulting in high inflation, and price freezes were reestablished five months later.[25]
Meanwhile, Shultz's attention was increasingly diverted from the domestic economy to the international arena. In 1973, he participated in an international monetary conference in Paris that grew out of the 1971 decision to abolish thegold standard, a decision Shultz andPaul Volcker had supported (seeNixon Shock). The conference formally abolished theBretton Woods system, causing all currencies tofloat. During this period Shultz co-founded the "Library Group", which became theG7. Shultz resigned shortly before Nixon to return to private life.[25]
Shultz was instrumental in handling relations withSoviet Jewry.[26][27]
In 1974, he left government service to become executive vice president ofBechtel Group, a large engineering and services company. He was later its president and adirector.[28]
Under Shultz's leadership, Bechtel received contracts for many large construction projects, including fromSaudi Arabia. In the year before he left Bechtel, the company reported a 50% increase in revenue.[29]
Shultz is one of only two individuals to have served in fourUnited States Cabinet positions within theUnited States government, the other having beenElliot Richardson.[30][31]
On July 16, 1982, Shultz was appointed by PresidentRonald Reagan as the 60thU.S. Secretary of State, replacingAlexander Haig, who had resigned. Shultz served for six and a half years, the longest tenure sinceDean Rusk's.[32] The possibility of a conflict of interest in his position as secretary of state after being in the upper management of theBechtel Group was raised by several senators during his confirmation hearings. Shultz briefly lost his temper in response to some questions on the subject but was nevertheless unanimously confirmed by the Senate.[33]
Shultz relied primarily on theForeign Service to formulate and implement Reagan's foreign policy. As reported in the State Department's official history, "by the summer of 1985, Shultz had personally selected most of the senior officials in the Department, emphasizing professional over political credentials in the process [...] The Foreign Service responded in kind by giving Shultz its 'complete support,' making him one of the most popular Secretaries sinceDean Acheson."[32] Shultz's success came from not only the respect he earned from the bureaucracy but the strong relationship he forged with Reagan, who trusted him completely.[34]
Diplomatic historianWalter LaFeber states that Shultz's 1993 memoir,Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State, "is the most detailed, vivid, outspoken, and reliable record we probably shall have of the 1980s until the documents are opened".[35]
Shultz inherited negotiations with the People's Republic of China overTaiwan from his predecessor. Under the terms of theTaiwan Relations Act, the United States was obligated to assist in Taiwan's defense, which included the sale of arms. The Administration debate on Taiwan, especially over the sale of military aircraft, resulted in a crisis in relations with China, which was alleviated only in August 1982, when, after months of arduous negotiations, the United States and the PRC issued a jointcommuniqué on Taiwan in which the United States agreed to limit arms sales to Taiwan and China agreed to seek a "peaceful solution".[36]
By the summer of 1982, relations were strained not only between Washington and Moscow but also between Washington and key capitals in Western Europe. In response to the imposition ofmartial law in Poland the previous December, the Reagan administration had imposed sanctions on a pipeline between West Germany and the Soviet Union. European leaders vigorously protested sanctions that damaged their interests but not U.S. interests in grain sales to the Soviet Union. Shultz resolved this "poisonous problem" in December 1982, when the United States agreed to abandon sanctions against the pipeline and the Europeans agreed to adopt stricter controls on strategic trade with the Soviets.[37]
A more controversial issue was the NATO Ministers' 1979 "dual track" decision: if the Soviets refused to remove their SS-20 medium range ballistic missiles within four years, then the Allies would deploy a countervailing force of cruise andPershing II missiles in Western Europe. When negotiations on these intermediate nuclear forces (INF) stalled, 1983 became a year of protest. Shultz and other Western leaders worked hard to maintain allied unity amidst anti-nuclear demonstrations in Europe and the United States. In spite of Western protests and Soviet propaganda, the allies began deployment of the missiles as scheduled in November 1983.[37]
U.S.–Soviet tensions were raised by the announcement in March 1983 of theStrategic Defense Initiative, and exacerbated by the Soviet shoot-down ofKorean Air Lines Flight 007 nearMoneron Island on September 1. Tensions reached a height with theAble Archer 83 exercises in November 1983, during which the Soviets feared a pre-emptive American attack.[38]
Following the missile deployment and the exercises, both Shultz and Reagan resolved to seek further dialogue with the Soviets.[37][39]
WhenGeneral SecretaryMikhail Gorbachev of theSoviet Union came to power in 1985, Shultz advocated that Reagan pursue a personal dialogue with him. Reagan gradually changed his perception of Gorbachev's strategic intentions in 1987, when the two leaders signed theIntermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.[40] The treaty, which eliminated an entire class of missiles in Europe, was a milestone in the history of theCold War. Although Gorbachev took the initiative, Reagan was well prepared by the State Department to negotiate.[41]
Two more events in 1988 persuaded Shultz that Soviet intentions were changing. First, the Soviet Union's initial withdrawal from Afghanistan indicated that theBrezhnev Doctrine was dead. "If the Soviets left Afghanistan, the Brezhnev Doctrine would be breached, and the principle of 'never letting go' would be violated", Shultz reasoned.[40] The second event, according to Keren Yarhi-Milo of Princeton University, happened during the 19th Communist Party Conference, "at which Gorbachev proposed major domestic reforms such as the establishment of competitive elections with secret ballots; term limits for elected officials; separation of powers with an independent judiciary; and provisions for freedom of speech, assembly, conscience, and the press."[40] The proposals indicated that Gorbachev was making revolutionary and irreversible changes.[40]
In response to the escalating violence of theLebanese civil war, Reagan sent a Marine contingent to protect thePalestinian refugee camps and support the Lebanese Government. TheOctober 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut killed 241 U.S. servicemen, after which the deployment came to an ignominious end.[32] Shultz subsequently negotiated an agreement between Israel andLebanon and convinced Israel to begin partial withdrawal of its troops in January 1985 despite Lebanon's contravention of the settlement.[42]
During theFirst Intifada (seeArab–Israeli conflict), Shultz "proposed ... an international convention in April 1988 ... on an interimautonomy agreement for theWest Bank andGaza Strip, to be implemented as of October for a three-year period".[43] By December 1988, after six months ofshuttle diplomacy, Shultz had established a diplomatic dialogue with thePalestine Liberation Organization, which was picked up by the next Administration.[32]
Shultz was known for outspoken opposition to the "arms for hostages" scandal that would eventually become known as theIran-Contra Affair.[44] In 1983 testimony before Congress, he said that theSandinista government inNicaragua was "a very undesirable cancer in the area".[45] He was also opposed to any negotiation with the government ofDaniel Ortega: "Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table."[46]
After leaving public office in 1989, Shultz became a faculty member at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where he taught international economics.[17] He "retained an iconoclastic streak" and publicly opposed some positions taken by fellowRepublicans.[47] He called theWar on Drugs a failure,[47] and added his signature to an advertisement printed inThe New York Times in 1998, headlined "We believe the globalwar on drugs is now causing more harm thandrug abuse itself." In 2011, he was part of theGlobal Commission on Drug Policy, which called for apublic health andharm reduction approach towards drug use, alongsideKofi Annan,Paul Volcker, andGeorge Papandreou.[48]
Shultz was an early advocate of the presidential candidacy ofGeorge W. Bush, whose father,George H. W. Bush, was Reagan's vice president. In April 1998, Shultz hosted a meeting at which George W. Bush discussed his views with policy experts includingMichael Boskin,John Taylor, andCondoleezza Rice, who were evaluating possible Republican candidates to run for president in 2000. At the end of the meeting, the group felt they could support Bush's candidacy, and Shultz encouraged him to enter the race.[49][50]
He then served as an informal advisor forBush's presidential campaign during the2000 election[47] and a senior member of the "Vulcans", a group of policy mentors for Bush that also included Rice,Dick Cheney, andPaul Wolfowitz. One of his most senior advisors and confidants was former ambassadorCharles Hill. Shultz has been called the father of the "Bush Doctrine" and generally defended theBush administration's foreign policy.[51] Shultz supported the2003 invasion of Iraq, writing in support of U.S. military action months before the war began.[52]
In a 2008 interview withCharlie Rose, Shultz spoke out against theU.S. embargo against Cuba, saying that U.S. sanctions against the island country were "ridiculous" in the post-Soviet world and that U.S. engagement with Cuba was a better strategy.[53]
In 2003, Shultz served as co-chair (along withWarren Buffett) of California's Economic Recovery Council, an advisory group to the campaign of California gubernatorial candidateArnold Schwarzenegger.[54]
In later life, Shultz continued to be a strong advocate fornuclear arms control.[47] In a 2008 interview, Shultz said: "Now that we know so much about these weapons and their power, they're almost weapons that we wouldn't use, so I think we would be better off without them."[47] In January 2008, Shultz co-authored (withWilliam Perry,Henry Kissinger, andSam Nunn) an op-ed inThe Wall Street Journal that called on governments to embrace the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.[55] The four created theNuclear Threat Initiative to advance this agenda, focused on both preventing nuclear terrorist attacks and a nuclear war between world powers.[56] In 2010, the four were featured in the documentary filmNuclear Tipping Point, which discussed their agenda.[57]
In January 2011, Shultz wrote a letter to PresidentBarack Obama urging him to pardonJonathan Pollard. He stated, "I am impressed that the people who are best informed about the classified material Pollard passed to Israel, former CIA DirectorJames Woolsey and former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence CommitteeDennis DeConcini, favor his release".[58]
_(cropped).jpg)
Shultz was a prominent advocate of efforts to fightanthropogenic climate change.[47] Shultz favored a revenue-neutralcarbon tax (i.e., acarbon fee and dividend program, in whichcarbon dioxide emissions are taxed and the net funds received are rebated to taxpayers) as the most economically efficient means of mitigating climate change.[4][6] In April 2013, he co-wrote, with economistGary Becker, an op-ed in theWall Street Journal that concluded that this plan would "benefit all Americans by eliminating the need for costlyenergy subsidies while promoting a level playing field forenergy producers."[2] He repeated this call in a September 2014 talk at MIT[3] and a March 2015 op-ed inThe Washington Post.[4] In 2014, Shultz joined the advisory board of the Citizens' Climate Lobby, and in 2017, Shultz cofounded theClimate Leadership Council, along with George H. W. Bush's Secretary of StateJames Baker and George W. Bush'sSecretary of the TreasuryHenry Paulson.[5] In 2017, these Republican elder statesmen, along withMartin S. Feldstein andN. Gregory Mankiw, urged conservatives to embrace a carbon fee and dividend program.[6]
In 2016, Shultz was one of eight former Treasury secretaries who called on the United Kingdom to remain a member of theEuropean Union ahead of the"Brexit" referendum.[59]
From 2011 to 2015, Shultz was a member of the board of directors ofTheranos, ahealth technology company that became known for its false claims to have devised revolutionaryblood tests.[7][60][61] He was a prominent figure in the ensuing scandal. After joining the company's board in November 2011, he recruited other political figures, including former secretary of stateHenry Kissinger, former secretary of defenseWilliam Perry, and former U.S. senatorSam Nunn. Shultz also promoted Theranos founderElizabeth Holmes at major forums, including Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and was on record supporting her in major media publications. This helped Holmes in her efforts to raise money from investors.[62][63]
Shultz's grandson,Tyler Shultz, joined Theranos in September 2013 after graduating fromStanford University with a degree inbiology.[64][65] Tyler was forced to leave the company in 2014 after raising concerns about its testing practices with Holmes and his grandfather. George Shultz initially did not believe Tyler's warnings and pressured him to keep quiet.[66][67] Shultz continued to advocate for Holmes and Theranos.[66] Tyler eventually contacted reporterJohn Carreyrou (who went on to expose the scandal inThe Wall Street Journal), but as summarized byABC Nightline, "it wasn't long before Theranos got wind of it and attempted to use George Shultz to silence his grandson."[68] Tyler went to his grandfather's house to discuss the allegations, but was surprised to encounter Theranos attorneys there, who pressured him to sign a document.[68] Tyler did not sign any agreements, even though George pressured him to: "My grandfather would say, like, things like 'Your career would be ruined if [Carreyrou's] article comes out.'"[68] Tyler and his parents spent nearly $500,000 on legal fees, selling their house to raise the funds, in fighting Theranos' accusations of violating the NDA and divulging trade secrets.[68]
When media reports exposed controversial practices there in 2015, the company moved their non-technical directors like Shultz to a "Board of Counselors" and replaced them with a technical board. In 2016 Theranos' "Board of Counselors" was "retired".[69] Theranos was shut down on September 4, 2018.[70] In a 2019 media statement, Shultz praised his grandson for not having shrunk "from what he saw as his responsibility to the truth and patient safety, even when he felt personally threatened and believed that I had placed allegiance to the company over allegiance to higher values and our family. ... Tyler navigated a very complex situation in ways that made me proud."[68]
_(cropped).jpg)
Shultz had a long affiliation at theHoover Institution atStanford University, where he was a distinguished fellow and, beginning in 2011, the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow; from 2018 until his death, Shultz hosted events on governance at the institution.[71][72] Shultz was chairman ofJPMorgan Chase's international advisory council.[52] He was co-chairman of the conservativeCommittee on the Present Danger.[52]
He was an honorary director of theInstitute for International Economics. He was a member of theWashington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) board of advisors, the New Atlantic Initiative, the Mandalay Camp at theBohemian Grove, and theCommittee for the Liberation of Iraq. He served as an advisory board member for thePartnership for a Secure America and Citizens' Climate Lobby.[73] He was honorary chairman of theIsrael Democracy Institute.[74] Shultz was a member of the advisory board ofSpirit of America, a501(c)(3) organization.[75]
Shultz served on the board of directors of theBechtel Corporation until 1996.[47] He served on the board ofGilead Sciences from 1996 to 2005.[76] Shultz sat on the board of directors ofXyleco[77] andAccretive Health.[78]
Together again with former secretary of defenseWilliam Perry, Shultz was serving on the board of Acuitus at the time of his death.[79] And he has been member of the advisory board of thePeter G. Peterson Foundation.
While on a rest and recreation break in Hawaii from serving in the Marines in theAsiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II, Shultz metmilitary nurse lieutenant Helena Maria O'Brien (1915–1995). They married on February 16, 1946, and had five children: Margaret Ann Tilsworth, Kathleen Pratt Shultz Jorgensen, Peter Milton Shultz, Barbara Lennox Shultz White, and Alexander George Shultz.[11][80] O'Brien died ofpancreatic cancer in 1995.[81]
In 1997, Shultz marriedCharlotte Mailliard Swig, a prominent San Francisco philanthropist and socialite.[82][83] They remained married until his death. Shultz was a member of an Episcopal church.[84]
Shultz died atage 100 at his home inStanford, California, on February 6, 2021.[85][86][87] He is buried next to his first wife at Dawes Cemetery inCummington, Massachusetts.[88]
PresidentJoe Biden reacted to Shultz's death by saying, "He was a gentleman of honor and ideas, dedicated to public service and respectful debate, even into his 100th year on Earth. That's why multiple presidents, of both political parties, sought his counsel. I regret that, as president, I will not be able to benefit from his wisdom, as have so many of my predecessors."[89]
|
|
Honorary degrees were conferred on Shultz from the universities of Columbia, Notre Dame, Loyola, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, City University of New York, Yeshiva, Northwestern, Technion, Tel Aviv, Weizmann Institute of Science, Baruch College of New York, Williams College, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tbilisi State University in the Republic of Georgia, and Keio University in Tokyo.[96]
The group, led by former secretary of stateJames A. Baker III, with former secretary of state George P. Shultz andHenry M. Paulson Jr., a former secretary of the Treasury, says that taxing carbon pollution produced by burning fossil fuels is "a conservative climate solution" based on free-market principles.
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Dean of theBooth School of Business 1962–1969 | Succeeded by Sidney Davidson |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of Labor 1969–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas Director of the Bureau of the Budget | Director of theOffice of Management and Budget 1970–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of the Treasury 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States secretary of state 1982–1989 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
