The Secretary of State who pushed Reagan toward dialogue with Gorbachev and helped end the Cold War
Over dinner with the Reagans, snowbound at the White House, Shultz listened to the president's relentless questions about Soviet leaders and realized: 'This man has never had a real conversation with a big-time communist leader, and he is dying to have one.'
George Shultz is one of only two Americans to have held four different Cabinet posts, serving as Labor Secretary, OMB Director, Treasury Secretary, and finally as Reagan's Secretary of State for six and a half years, reshaping the direction of U.S. diplomacy with the Soviet Union. Against the opposition of Defense Secretary Weinberger and CIA Director Casey, Shultz insisted that Reagan engage Gorbachev directly, laying the diplomatic groundwork for the Geneva (1985) and Reykjavik (1986) summits. The result was the 1987 INF Treaty, the first abolition of an entire class of nuclear weapons; Shultz then watched the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the unraveling of Moscow's hold on Eastern Europe, witnessing the end of the Cold War from the front row. His memoir Turmoil and Triumph remains an essential primary source for the diplomacy of the 1980s.
Career Timeline
- 1920Born in New York City, raised in Englewood, New Jersey
- 1942–1945Marine Corps officer; saw action at Angaur in the Pacific
- 1969–1974Labor Secretary → OMB Director → Treasury Secretary; ended the Bretton Woods system
- 1974–1982Bechtel president and director; expanded Middle East operations
- 1982–1989Secretary of State; Geneva and Reykjavik summits, INF Treaty
- 1989–2021Hoover Institution distinguished fellow; nuclear disarmament and carbon tax advocacy
- 1993Published Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State