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James Addison Baker III is an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, and former Marine Corps officer. 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.
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politics · American lawyer and statesman (born 1930) · military officer · lawyer · diplomat · politician · jurist · foreign minister · also James Baker, James Addison Baker III, James Addison Baker, James A. Baker III, Baker
Born 28 April 1930 · Q223151
67 published statements · 0 followers
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You alone will have to bear the burden when the lead review in The New York Times Book Review begins something like this: 'In a colorful and readable memoir, James A. Baker, III manages to do as an author what he did so well in over twelve years in power in Washington: glorify his own successes, avoid any hint of failure, and skirt the truth.'
Jim Baker, man of the sterling reputation, has come to represent a Washington ideal. A competitor, in a city whose weightiest transactions are commonly described as a game; a gentleman, in an establishment whose highest value is that antagonists be able to drink together after 6 p.m.; a corporate lawyer, in a culture that reserves its harshest punishments for the incautious, he has much to tell us about Washington's values.
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“You alone will have to bear the burden when the lead review in The New York Times Book Review begins something like this: 'In a colorful and readable memoir, James A. Baker, III manages to do as an author what he did so well in over twelve years in power in Washington: glorify his own successes, avoid any hint of failure, and skirt the truth.'”
“Jim Baker, man of the sterling reputation, has come to represent a Washington ideal. A competitor, in a city whose weightiest transactions are commonly described as a game; a gentleman, in an establishment whose highest value is that antagonists be able to drink together after 6 p.m.; a corporate lawyer, in a culture that reserves its harshest punishments for the incautious, he has much to tell us about Washington's values.”
“I got the reputation in the Reagan administration for being an extraordinarily prolific leaker. I was. In that milieu, it was rat fuck. If you didn't leak, you didn't live.”
“...wait a minute. If [Baker] is using it as a lever [to influence the Bundesbank] and we believe it won't work, there is no bottom. If he isn't using it as a lever, and he just actually wants the dollar to go down, then there is no stability. And if he isn't clear whether it is one or the other of those, then he doesn't understand his own system and his own business, and we'll have a problem of confidence.”
“Let’s suppose you’re the CEO of G.M. and you get a call from Baker. You think, `Hey the former secretary of state wants to come out and have lunch with me. I’ll get the photographer out ... have my picture taken.’”
“The argument can be made, and has, that Baker and the others were pursuing contracts that, were it not for their special connections, would be awarded to Japanese or European concerns. Understood this way, the issue, to put it as Baker once did in justifying American involvement in the Gulf War, is jobs, jobs, jobs. And Bush’s sons and his former aides have, of course, broken no laws in attempting to do business in Kuwait.”
“getting killed on ‘count all the votes,’ who the hell could be against that?”
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“the field marshal mobilizing the troops, the chief strategist calling the shots.”
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“primary elections are won by organization!—almost regardless of candidate.”
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Legacy obituary: James A. Baker Obituary (2026) - Couch, MO - Clary Funeral Home - Alton
Benzinga: James Baker CPA Introduces 5 ITIN Application Mistakes That Cause Costly Delays for Non-Residents
Public attention spiked: 2,771 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.8× the usual 572, with 1 article edits. Editors noted: Public image and legacy typo
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Conservative lobbyist Michael McKenna wrote critically for The Washington Times that Baker was a "Rockefeller Republican with a Texas accent who did whatever he could to frustrate the Reagan agenda
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Is currently the oldest living former United States secretary of state, as well as the earliest serving and last surviving secretary of state to have served in the 20th century
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Baker told his biographers, during a forum at the Hamilton Lugar School at Indiana University, that he did not "buy into" Trump's attacks on the results, despite his own past litigating the 2000 election on behalf of Geo
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After considering the Democratic primary candidate Joe Biden to be a possible choice
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For the organization's 25th anniversary and with Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissinger in 2023 for the 30th anniversary
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This group of "Republican elder statesmen" proposed that conservatives embrace a fee and dividend form of carbon tax (in which all revenue generated by the tax is rebated to the populace in the form of lump-sum dividends
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For the 2016 Republican presidential nomination
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As the undisputed "tops" among chiefs of staff
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Baker replaced him with his former troika colleague Edwin Meese
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John Kerry in 2016, Mike Pompeo in 2019, and Antony Blinken in 2023—and former presidents George H
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The New York Times 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 'c
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Baker published a second memoir—written with ghostwriter Steve Fiffer—more focused on his entire political and personal life
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Due to the unpopularity of the Bush administration and controversies over conflicts of interest, Rubinstein asked Baker to leave the organization in 2005, after more than a decade of work at the firm
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Baker commented that though people "like to bitch about" his work with the Carlyle group, he felt that he should not be punished for wanting to make money in the private sector
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Was one of the Bush administration's first choices to direct the Coalition Provisional Authority, but he was deemed too old
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Virginia Graeme Baker, the seven-year-old granddaughter of Baker, daughter of Nancy and James Baker IV, drowned due to suction entrapment in a spa
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On June 15, 2002, Virginia Graeme Baker, the seven-year-old granddaughter of Baker, daughter of Nancy and James Baker IV, drowned due to suction entrapment in a spa.
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With Bush in Scotland to assist George W
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Conservative columnist Robert Novak reported that Bush officials were emphatic about avoiding old hands like Baker and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft
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Nelson Mandela in 1999, Vladimir Putin in 2001, and Barack Obama in 2018
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Baker published his memoirs of service as secretary of state in a book entitled The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992 (ISBN 0-399-14087-5)
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Baker returned to Baker Botts, which had revised its rule to allow for Baker and his descendants to join
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Career landmark: White House Chief of Staff (1992–1993).
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Washington Post columnist Marjorie Williams referred to Baker as "the most powerful [chief of staff] in political memory
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Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by George H. W. Bush (1991).
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Awarded Financial Times Person of the Year (1991).
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Political science professor Richard Stoll suggested that Baker would be a good alternative candidate should Bush lose re-election
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“The extent to which these individuals can play an instrumental role in fashioning strategies is now more limited... due to the recent appointment of Secretary Baker as the President's envoy on international debt, and the need to avoid an apparent conflict of interest.... We believe that with Secretary Baker's retirement from his temporary position [as debt envoy], that Carlyle and those leading individuals associated with Carlyle will then once again be free to play a more decisive role...”
And the administration worked to pass UN Resolution 678, which would authorize the formation of a military coalition to repel Iraqi forces
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Career landmark: United States Secretary of State (1989–1992).
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They bought the 1,555-acre (629 ha) property, known as Silver Creek Ranch, for $625,000 shortly after Baker's success in the 1988 presidential election.
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With a unanimous 95–0 vote in the Senate
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Career landmark: United States Secretary of the Treasury (1985–1988).
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Reagan named Baker as United States secretary of the Treasury, in a job-swap with then-Secretary Donald Regan, a former Merrill Lynch executive who became chief of staff
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Susan Garrett Baker was one of four "Washington Wives" who founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), a bipartisan United States government committee with the stated goal of increasing parental control over childr
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Election won: 1984 election.
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Campaign: 1984 election.
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Baker faced controversy, known as "Debategate," upon the revelation that Baker's debate team had received a binder with Carter's debate preparation and strategy
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But Baker believed that his rival Meese had pushed the plan
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Some Texas legislators attempted to draft Baker to run for the Senate seat that would open following John Tower's retirement, but Baker declined what he felt might be a demotion in power
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“s own initiative. Despite the rebuttal, conservatives continued to distrust Baker. Former administration official Lyn Nofziger wrote a letter to conservative Republicans in late 1982 to express concern that the 1984 race would be a”
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Career landmark: White House Chief of Staff (1981–1985).
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The night after Reagan's successful performance in the debate, Reagan campaign consultant Stuart Spencer proposed to Reagan that Baker should be his chief of staff, should he win
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1984, and 1988, Baker did not succeed in leading the 1992 campaign
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Campaign: 1980 presidential election.
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Saying that Bush should remember "what he did to your daddy
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Baker and Susan Garrett Winston, a divorcée and a close friend of Mary Stuart, were married
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Baker returned to politics as Finance Chair for Texas
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To conservative Democrat Lloyd Bentsen—who had defeated the more liberal Yarborough in the Democratic primary—53 percent to Bush's 47 percent
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The newspaper's owners required periodic exemptions to maintain their stake
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His father refused to put up his money, feeling that the property offered little value
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Together they had four sons, including James Addison Baker IV (1954), a partner at Baker Botts, as well as Stuart McHenry Baker (1956), John Coalter Baker (1960), and Douglas Bland Baker (1961) of Baker Global Advisory.
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Baker completed his history degree with a 188-page senior thesis, titled "Two Sides of the Conflict: Bevin vs
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And was also himself the namesake for Rice's first residential college, Baker College
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Born 1930-04-28.
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...wait a minute. If [Baker] is using it as a lever [to influence the Bundesbank] and we believe it won't work, there is no bottom. If he isn't using it as a lever, and he just actually wants the dollar to go down, then there is no stability. And if he isn't clear whether it is one or the other of those, then he doesn't understand his own system and his own business, and we'll have a problem of confidence.
The argument can be made, and has, that Baker and the others were pursuing contracts that, were it not for their special connections, would be awarded to Japanese or European concerns. Understood this way, the issue, to put it as Baker once did in justifying American involvement in the Gulf War, is jobs, jobs, jobs. And Bush’s sons and his former aides have, of course, broken no laws in attempting to do business in Kuwait.
Connections