On October 9, 2006, the Washington Post quoted co-chairman Baker 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'". More below about Doug Baker's appointment by Bush in Nov 2001. James A. Baker, III, has served in senior government positions under three United States presidents. 01/31/1978 - James Baker III, candiidate for Texas Attorney General, speaks to news media. [41], 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 presidential election. Indeed, Baker's family was so well off that his doting. Texas Hometown: Baker was born in Houston on April 28, 1930. . James A. Baker III Monument 400 Texas St. Houston, TX 77002 Find Parking The City of Houston named a small portion of Sesquicentennial Park Baker Common that includes a statue of James A. Baker III, as well as plaques commemorating the families contributions to the city. Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved, the fight in Congress over the loan guarantees. James A. Baker. 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). "Bob Dole was a true American patriot who represented the very best of our country. In 1978, Baker ran unsuccessfully to become Attorney General of Texas, losing to future Governor Mark White. [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. . Though Bush lost the race, Baker became deeply involved in Republican Party politics thereafter. But James Baker III, the Houston lawyer who rode shotgun for Jerry Ford, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan in their presidential campaigns, plans to keep a low profile in the White House. Pursuing research and open debate to develop pragmatic drug policies based on common sense and driven by human rights interests. Also in 1993, the Enron Corporation hired Baker as a consultant within a month of his departure from the White House, and Enron said that Baker would have an opportunity to invest in any projects he developed. 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. In this candid, revealing account, Baker uses his unique perspective to take us inside those events and the personalities involved in them: the collapse of Communism, the Berlin Wall, and the. James Addison Baker III was born in Houston at 1216 Bissonnet St.,[3] the son of James A. Baker Jr. (18921973) and Ethel Bonner (ne Means) Baker (August 6, 1894 April 26, 1991). 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. Ray Covey, HP staff / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 2 All of these confrontations with Israel and others that are mentioned in the book, such as the fight in Congress over the loan guarantees eventually took their toll on Bakers reputation. He is the 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. The authors write that in his speech Baker wanted to call for a reasonable middle ground on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Providing actionable policy analysis and recommendations that aim to expand the economy through private enterprise. "No world leader has a bigger place in the history of the late 20th century than Mikhail Gorbachev, for the pivotal role he played in the peaceful end of the Cold War," wrote former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, in an op-ed. Amidst the growing support of Saddam Hussein in Palestine, due to his opposition toward Israel, and his invasion of Kuwait, and the beginning of the Gulf War, Baker decided that he would make some moves towards developing communications between Israel and Palestine. "Most deaths from hot tubs and spas are drowning deaths that aren't related to entanglements or getting trapped," said Mark Ross, a spokesman for the consumer agency, adding that voluntary safety controls have cut down the number of dangerous drains. He graduated cum laude with an A.B. Virginia Graham Baker of McLean was playing with other children in a friend's whirlpool on Alps Drive during a graduation party Saturday when she accidentally got caught in the pool's drain. Originally Baker had been a Democrat, although he had been too busy trying to succeed in a competitive law firm to worry about politics and he considered himself apolitical. But the report about his comments had such resonance because his policies were perceived to be skeptical of Israel.. Though Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen in the election, Baker continued in politics, becoming the Finance Chairman of the Republican Party in 1971. When we were talking with him about this, he thought the two-state solution was still the right goal, and that there had to be compromise on both sides to reach a workable and enduring resolution of the issue.. Robert was born in 1735 and fought at King's Mountain and is believed to be the brother of the famous Rev. James Addison Baker, III born on: 28 April 1930 at 07:31 (= 07:31 AM ) Place: Houston, Texas, 29n46, 95w22 : Timezone: CST h6w (is standard time) Data source: BC/BR in hand: Rodden Rating AA: . He became a close friend of George H. W. Bush and worked for Bush's unsuccessful 1970 campaign for the United States Senate. Age: 79. James Baker III was born on April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. Biography of the GOP elder statesman chronicles his battles with Israel, including the time he barred Netanyahu from entering the State Department. Phone: 713-348-4683 with honors in 1957 and practiced law with the Houston firm of Andrews and Kurth from 1957 to 1975. He served until May 1976, ran Ford's 1976 presidential campaign, and unsuccessfully sought election as the Attorney General of Texas. 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. Together they had four sons, including James Addison Baker IV, a partner at Baker Botts. BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times The Washington Post Fortune BloombergFrom two of America's most revered political journalists comes the definitive biography of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III: the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world.For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold . American lawyer and statesman (born 1930), This article is about the politician. December 12, 2006. In 1991 Baker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan and the 61st U.S. Secretary of State before returning as the 16th White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. [27], During his first eight months under the Bush administration, there were five meetings with the PLO, which is far less than his predecessors. He also played a prominent role in the Florida recount for the current president. James A. Baker Iii, Baker, James Addison, 3d James Addison Baker, 3d, 1930-, U.S. political leader, b. Houston, Tex. "Profiles: The Tactician". 1990, statement of James A. Baker III. They have one child. James A. Baker III., Capt. They have six sons and two daughters. Vise, David A.. "Former Secretary of State Baker Joins Carlyle Group". After Bush accepted the vice presidential slot on a ticket headed by Ronald Reagan that year, Baker joined Reagans campaign staff as a senior adviser. 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). Tabor. She and Baker welcomed their daughter Mary Bonner Baker, born in 1977. Analyzing the influence of the transnational circulation of people, technologies, commodities and ideas in China. Baker also led presidential campaigns for Presidents Gerald Ford, Reagan and Bush over the course of five consecutive presidential elections . The authors, a married couple who previously co-authored a book about the rise of Vladimir Putin, present Baker as the face of what the Republican Party used to stand for and has lost in the era of Donald Trump. Shultz. It turns out the full story is more complicated than how most people remember it. Corrections? Amy Lubas, a police spokeswoman, said the whirlpool had been checked recently. Baker was a member of the United States Marine Corps from 1952 to 1954, attaining the rank of first lieutenant as a naval gunfire officer serving in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the USSMonrovia. Former secretary of state James Baker considered voting for Joe Biden in November but will instead keep backing Donald Trump, a new biography reveals, in the process outlining a key reason for. Kemp, for his part, told them that Bakers sentiment got mischaracterized by Koch and others as being anti-Israel. On the C-SPAN Networks: James A. Baker III has 241 videos in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a 1976 Statement as a Manager for the Ford Presidential Campaign . [28], However, Baker has been criticized for spending much of his tenure in a state of inaction regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which arguably led to further infringements on Palestinian rights and the growing radicalism of Arabs and Israelis. Heather Paul, executive director of the National Safe Kids Coalition, said the accident should make people aware of the dangers posed by whirlpools and other home recreational pools. In 1975, he was appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for Gerald Ford. My wife Lori and I flew to California to attend the memorial service for Secretary George Shultz '42 at Stanford University on October 7. [19] Bush and US defence secretary Dick Cheney were proponents for Soviet dissolution. by Peter Dreier. 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. James Baker III was born on April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was previously married to Mary Stuart McHenry. His father was a partner of Houston law firm Baker Botts. However, another G. H. W. Bush Administration veteran, Robert Gates, was appointed instead, and only after the 2006 elections. Bush administration. James A. Baker, III, has served in senior government positions under three United States presidents. He settled in Huntsville, where he practiced law,. . Bush Changed the Face of the Middle East. Baker became chairman of Bush's Senate campaign in Harris County, Texas. [39] When the U.S. occupation of Iraq began in 2003 he was one of the Bush administration's first choices to direct the Coalition Provisional Authority, but he was deemed too old. Baker ran Bush's unsuccessful campaign for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination, but made a favorable impression on the Republican nominee, Ronald Reagan. He previously was The Post's education editor, and he worked as an investigative reporter, a military correspondent and covered crime and courts in Northern Virginia. Hall. His wife's influence led Baker to politics and the Republican Party. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. During his tenure at the State Department, Baker traveled to 90 foreign countries as the United States confronted the . Secretary Baker himself is actually a pretty religious person, but hes not a favorite of the evangelical wing of the party, which has long viewed him with suspicion, Peter Baker added. Baker attended The Kinkaid School in Houston, before graduating from The Hill School, a boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The book also shows how much the Republican Partys approach to Israel has changed over recent decades. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-Chair for the World Justice Project. Baker remained active in business and public affairs after Bush's defeat in the 1992 presidential election. Gerald Ford in 1975, and that same year he helped Ford secure the Republican Partys presidential nomination for the 1976 election. "The whole thing is just a nightmare. A drowning can happen in nearly a blink of the eye.". 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. 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. Reagan rebuked Phillips and Wright for having waged a "campaign of sabotage" against Baker.[16]. The book also includes a detailed account of Bakers famous testimony before Congress on peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab world, during which he said the United States cant want an agreement more than the two sides themselves. 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. Secretary Bakers position used to be fairly standard among Republicans, but the party, led especially by President Trump, has moved away from him to the point where loyalty to Israel is seen as a litmus test.. I know he didnt mean it that way, Kemp said. He recalled that the discussion was indeed focused on the votes of the Jewish community, but that Baker didnt use the F word. In 1973 and 1974, Baker returned to full time practice of law at Andrews & Kurth. In order to understand what's going on in Ukraine from Vladimir Putin's point of view, you have to go back to 1990 when the Soviet Union was collapsing. In 1973, Baker and Susan Garrett Winston, a divorcee and a close friend of Mary Stuart, were married. Plan a gift that will ensure lasting, meaningful support for policy programs important to you. When Bush was elected, he only received 29% of Jewish voters' support, and his reelection was thought to be imminent, so there was little pressure on the administration to make bold moves in diplomatic relations with Israel. Baker served as Undersecretary of Commerce under President Gerald Ford in 1975, and ran Ford's unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1976. [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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 492, 505. Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East, McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth, Baker Briefing: A Diplomats Perspective on Russia, Addressing Climate Change in the Developing World: A Conversation with Rajiv Shah, Charting Paths Forward on Immigration Reform, The Strategic case for U.S. Clearly, constant adult supervision is the only solution to the dangers of having children around water, whether it's open water, pools or hot tubs. . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. President George H. W. Bush appointed Baker Secretary of State in 1989. The 2008 film Recount covers the days following the controversial election. Everybody over there should know that the [White House] telephone number is 1-202-456-1414, he said. Mr. Baker served as Chairman until his death on Aug. 2, 1941. President George H.W. Baker voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and said prior to the 2020 election that he would do so again. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. He served in that capacity until 1985. According to the new biography, its far from certain those words were actually ever used by Baker. Secretary of State James Baker warned publicly, I will recommend to the President that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any changes in the PLO's status as an observer organization.".