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Biography
George Pratt Shultz (1920–) was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Princeton University before serving in World War II. He then completed a PhD in industrial economics and taught at MIT and the University of Chicago until President Richard M. Nixon appointed him secretary of labor in 1969, then director of the Office of Management and Budget, and then secretary of the treasury. Shultz was teaching management and public policy at Stanford University when President Ronald Reagan asked him to be secretary of state.
During his lengthy six and one-half year tenure in office, Shultz played a crucial role in guiding U.S. diplomacy. He focused his efforts on resolving the conflict in the Middle East, negotiating an agreement between Israel and Lebanon. In Latin America, he managed increasingly tense relationships and helped to broker agreements regarding Nicaragua’s civil war. He defused trade disputes with Japan and stabilized relationships with China. But his greatest achievements came in crafting U.S. responses to the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and the new Soviet policies of perestroika (restructuring the economy) and glasnost (opening to the West). Shultz drafted and signed landmark arms control treaties and other agreements that helped to diminish U.S.-Soviet antagonism. Under Shultz’s leadership, U.S. diplomacy helped to pave the way for the end of the Cold War.
Following the Reagan administration, Shultz remained active in Republican politics, offering support and advice to President George W. Bush.