George P. Shultz

George P. Shultz served as Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989. An economist, Marine veteran, and university professor, he had led the Labor and Treasury departments and the Office of Management and Budget under Richard Nixon. Work in business and academia preceded his return to government as Alexander Haig’s successor. ¹

Shultz inherited war in Lebanon, disputes over Taiwan, and intensifying confrontation with the Soviet Union. He completed the negotiations leading to the August 1982 communiqué with China and worked on Middle Eastern settlements, although the agreement he helped negotiate between Israel and Lebanon did not produce a durable peace. He also managed commercial friction with Japan and conflicts in Central America. ¹

As Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze changed Soviet policy, Shultz supported sustained negotiations alongside the Reagan administration’s military posture. His work helped prepare the summit meetings and arms agreements that reduced tensions during Reagan’s second term. He opposed the arms-for-hostages transactions with Iran but could not stop the secret initiative that became part of the Iran-Contra scandal. His record therefore includes both important negotiated reductions in superpower confrontation and the limits of a secretary’s authority over operations conducted elsewhere in the administration. He left office with Reagan in January 1989. Shultz’s negotiations with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze helped produce the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in December 1987. ^{1, 2, 3}