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James A. Baker, III, has served in senior government positions under
three United States presidents. He served as the nation's 61st
Secretary of State from January 1989 through August 1992 under
President George Bush. During his tenure at the State Department, Mr.
Baker traveled to 90 foreign countries as the United States confronted
the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post–Cold War
era. Mr. Baker’s reflections on those years of revolution, war, and
peace—The Politics of Diplomacy—was published in 1995.
Mr. Baker served as the 67th Secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to
1988 under President Ronald Reagan. As treasury secretary, he was also
chairman of the President's Economic Policy Council. From 1981 to 1985,
he served as White House chief of staff to President Reagan. Mr.
Baker's record of public service began in 1975 as under secretary of
commerce to President Gerald Ford. It concluded with his service as
White House chief of staff and senior counselor to President Bush from
August 1992 to January 1993.
Long active in American presidential politics, Mr. Baker led
presidential campaigns for Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush over the
course of five consecutive presidential elections from 1976 to
1992.
A native Houstonian, Mr. Baker graduated from Princeton University
in 1952. After two years of active duty as a lieutenant in the United
States Marine Corps, he entered the University of Texas School of Law
at Austin. He received his JD with honors in 1957 and practiced law
with the Houston firm of Andrews and Kurth from 1957 to 1975.
Mr. Baker’s memoir—Work Hard, Study . . . and Keep Out of
Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public
Life—was published in October 2006.
Mr. Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and has
been the recipient of many other awards for distinguished public
service, including Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Award, the
American Institute for Public Service's Jefferson Award, Harvard
University's John F. Kennedy School of Government Award, The Hans J.
Morgenthau Award, The George F. Kennan Award, the Department of the
Treasury's Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of State's
Distinguished Service Award, and numerous honorary academic
degrees.
Mr. Baker is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker
Botts. He is Honorary Chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy at Rice University and serves on the board of the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute. From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Baker served as the
personal envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek a
political solution to the conflict over Western Sahara. In 2003, Mr.
Baker was appointed special presidential envoy for President George W.
Bush on the issue of Iraqi debt. In 2005, he was co-chair, with former
President Jimmy Carter, of the Federal Commission on Election Reform.
Since March 2006, Mr. Baker and former U.S. 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.
Mr. Baker was born in Houston, Texas in 1930. He and his wife, the
former Susan Garrett, currently reside in Houston, and have eight
children and 17 grandchildren.
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