James Baker

James Baker (born April 28, 1930, Houston, Texas, U.S.) is an 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).

(Read James Baker’s Britannica essay on isolationism.)

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. 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 1970 Baker’s longtime friend George H.W. Bush asked him to run Bush’s political campaign for the U.S. Senate. Though Bush lost the race, Baker became deeply involved in Republican Party politics thereafter. He was named under secretary of commerce by Pres. Gerald Ford in 1975, and that same year he helped Ford secure the Republican Party’s presidential nomination for the 1976 election. Baker served as Ford’s campaign manager that year and went on to direct Bush’s campaign for the presidential nomination in the Republican primaries of 1980. After Bush accepted the vice presidential slot on a ticket headed by Ronald Reagan that year, Baker joined Reagan’s campaign staff as a senior adviser. After Reagan won the election, he appointed Baker White House chief of staff, a post that Baker filled until he was made secretary of the Treasury in 1985.

Baker adroitly managed George H.W. Bush’s successful campaign for the presidential election of 1988 and thereupon was appointed secretary of state. In the latter post he helped the United States reach agreement with the Soviet Union on the reunification of East with West Germany in 1990. In 1990–91 he helped orchestrate the international coalition that opposed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Baker was a shrewd and highly effective political manager whose skills were a major factor in the Republicans’ retention of the presidency throughout the 1980s. He resigned his post as secretary of state in 1992 in order to serve as White House chief of staff while simultaneously directing Bush’s unsuccessful reelection campaign.

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. During the disputed presidential election of 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore, Baker played a leading role for the Bush campaign combating legal challenges filed by Gore’s campaign. In the mid-2000s Baker was active on a number of government investigative committees; he served as cochair of both the Federal Commission on Election Reform (with former president Jimmy Carter) and the Iraq Study Group (with former U.S. congressman Lee Hamilton).

In 1991 Baker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His memoir, Work Hard, Study…and Keep Out of Politics!, was published in 2006.