Shultz

George Shultz has passed away.

George P. Shultz, who presided with a steady hand over the beginning of the end of the Cold War as President Ronald Reagan’s often-embattled secretary of state, died on Saturday at his home in Stanford, Calif. He was 100.

His death was announced by the Hoover Institution, where he was the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow. He was also professor emeritus at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Shultz, who had served Republican presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower, moved to California after leaving Washington in January 1989. He continued writing and speaking on issues ranging from nuclear weapons to climate change into his late 90s, expressing concern about America’s direction.

There are only so many good things that you should say about someone who served in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, but he played an extremely important role in the arms control diplomacy that marked the second half of the Reagan presidency, and that set the stage for the Soviet Union’s (relatively) peaceful dissolution. Shultz was widely believed to have been a strong internal critic of the Iran-Contra Affair. His post-governmental record was chequered, marred by strong support for the Iraq War and an association with the rise of George W. Bush. FWIW, he’s 12th on this list.