Cyrus Vance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| Cyrus Vance | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|
| In office January 20, 1977 – April 28, 1980 |
|
| President | Jimmy Carter |
| Deputy | Warren Christopher |
| Preceded by | Henry Kissinger |
| Succeeded by | Edmund Muskie |
|
|
|
| In office July 5, 1962 – January 21, 1964 |
|
| President | John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Ailes |
|
|
|
| Born | March 27, 1917 Clarksburg, West Virginia |
| Died | January 12, 2002 (aged 84) New York City |
| Political party | Democrat |
| Spouse | Grace Sloane |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Cyrus Roberts Vance (Clarksburg, West Virginia, March 27, 1917 – January 12, 2002) was the United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. He approached foreign policy with an emphasis on negotiation over conflict and a special interest in arms reduction. In April of 1980, Vance resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw, the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. He was succeeded by Edmund Muskie.
Vance was the nephew (and adoptive son) of 1924 Democratic Presidential Candidate and noted lawyer John W. Davis.
Contents |
[edit] Education
Vance graduated from Kent School in 1935, and received a bachelor's degree in 1939 from Yale University, where he was a member of the secret society, Scroll and Key. He also earned three letters in ice hockey at Yale. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1942.
[edit] Military and legal career
Vance served in the U.S. Navy as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Hale until 1946, and then joined the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, before entering government service.
[edit] Political career
Vance was the Secretary of the Army in the Kennedy administration. He worked on sending United States Army units into northern Mississippi in 1962 to protect James Meredith, and put down the resistance to the court ordered integration of the University of Mississippi. As Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson, he at first supported the Vietnam War but changed his views by the late 1960s, advising the president to pull out of South Vietnam. In 1968 he served as a delegate to peace talks in Paris. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.
As Secretary of State in the Carter administration, Vance pushed for negotiations and economic ties with the Soviet Union, and clashed frequently with the more hawkish National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the SALT II agreement with the USSR, which he saw as the central diplomatic issue of the time. He was heavily instrumental in Carter's decision to return the Canal Zone to Panama, and in the Camp David Accords agreement between Israel and Egypt.
After the Accords, Vance's influence in the administration began to wane as Brzezinski's rose. His role in talks with People's Republic of China was marginalized, and his advice for a response to the Shah of Iran's collapsing regime was ignored. Shortly thereafter, when fifty-three American hostages were held in Iran, he worked actively in negotiations but to no avail. Finally, when Carter ordered a secret military rescue, Operation Eagle Claw, Vance resigned in opposition after the rescue attempt failed.
In 1997 he was made the original honorary Chair of the American Iranian Council.
[edit] Later life and death
Vance returned to his law practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in 1980, but was repeatedly called back to public service throughout the 1980s and 1990s, participating in diplomatic missions to Bosnia, Croatia, and South Africa. His plan Z-4 was never accepted by Croatia, which wanted to control all of its territory, which resulted in Operation Storm of Croatian and NATO forces in 1995.
In 1993, he was awarded the United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award.
He died aged 84 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Vance also was a member of the Trilateral Commission.
[edit] External links
- Transcript, Cyrus R. Vance Oral History Interview, 11/3/69, by Paige E. Mulhollan, InternetmCopy, LBJ Library. Accessed April 3, 2005.
- Interview on French TV : Cartes sur table, 31/03/1980 (40 minutes).
- American Iranian Council AIC
| Preceded by Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr. |
United States Secretary of the Army Served Under: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson July 1962–January 1964 |
Succeeded by Stephen Ailes |
| Preceded by Henry Kissinger |
United States Secretary of State Served Under: Jimmy Carter 1977—1980 |
Succeeded by Edmund Muskie |
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||
