George Shultz, former US Secretary of State, dies at 100
Char'Nese Turner and Sean Noone
(NewsNation Now) — George Shultz, President Ronald Reagan’s longtime Secretary of State has died. He was 100.
Shultz died Saturday at his home on the campus of Stanford University, according to the Hoover Institution, a think tank where he was a distinguished fellow.
Shultz spent most of the 1980s trying to improve relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East. He held three major Cabinet posts in Republican administrations during a long career of public service.
He was labor secretary and treasury secretary under President Richard Nixon before spending more than six years as Reagan’s secretary of state. He had been the oldest surviving former Cabinet member of any administration.
“For a man so inked into the pages of our history, his mind was always keyed toward the future,” President Joe Biden said Sunday in a statement. “He focused on the possibilities of what could be, unhindered by the impasses or deadlocks of the past. That was the vision and dedication that helped guide our nation through some of its most dangerous periods and ultimately helped create the opening that led to the end the Cold War. And, while he and I sometimes argued the opposite sides of issues when I was a young senator, I was proud to often find common ground on issues vital to the security and prosperity of the American people.”
As the nation’s chief diplomat, Shultz negotiated the first-ever treaty to reduce the size of the Soviet Union’s ground-based nuclear arsenals. The 1987 accord was a historic attempt to begin to reverse the nuclear arms race.
Shultz lived his life by the advice given to him by Bryce Harlow, “Trust is the coin of the realm.” Shultz said when trust is in the room good things happen.
“When trust was in the room, whatever room that was—the family room, the schoolroom, the coach’s room, the office room, the government room, or the military room—good things happened. When trust was not in the room, good things did not happen. Everything else is details,” Shultz said.
BERLIN, GERMANY – MAY 24: A.Michael Hoffmann (R), Ch airman American Academy in Berlin, and former German President Richard von Weizaecker (L) pose with former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz after Schultz received the Henry Kissinger Prize at the Foreign Ministry on May 24, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The award is given annually by the American Academy in Berlin in recognition of outstanding contribution to transatlantic political relations. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
Former Secretaryof State George Shultz testifies before the US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on “Global Challenges and the US National Security Strategy” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, January 29, 2015. AFP PHOTO/JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) confers with former Secretary of State George Shultz (L) during a meeting with his Economic Recovery Council in Los Angeles 20 August 2003. Shultz and Warren Buffet are joining Schwarzenegger as his economic and financial advisors. AFP PHOTO / HECTOR MATA (Photo credit should read HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images)
Former US Secretary of State George Schultz (2nd R) and his wife, Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, arrive for funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on March 11, 2016, in Simi Valley, California. AFP PHOTO/FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP / FREDERIC J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – MAY 19: (AFP OUT) US President Barack Obama (R) meets with former US Secretary of the Treasury George Schultz (L) in the Oval Office of the White House May 19, 2009 in Washington, DC. The group discussed the key priorities in US nonproliferation policy. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-POOL/Getty Images)
Former Secretaryof State George Shultz testifies before the US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on “Global Challenges and the US National Security Strategy” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, January 29, 2015. AFP PHOTO/JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
FILE – In this July 13, 1982, file photo Secretary of State designate George Shultz, right, speaks with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee prior to the start of the afternoon session of the panel on Capitol Hill in Washington. From left. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Sen. Charles Percy, R-Ill., chairman of the panel and Sen. Edward Zorinsky, D-Neb. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz, File)
FILE – In this Jan. 9, 1985 file photo, Secretary of State George Shultz, center, walks with President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush upon his arrival at the White House in Washington, after two days of arms talks with the Soviet Union in Geneva. Shultz, former President Reagan’s longtime secretary of state, who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East, died Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021. He was 100. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma, File)
