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See Also

See Also in This Set

George H. W. Bush

Dick Cheney

End of Cold War

1992 Elections in the United States

Foreign policy of the United States

Gulf War

Middle East and North America

Colin Powell

Russia and North America

The 1990s in America

James Baker

by Mark S. Joy

Identification U.S. secretary of state, 1989-1992

James Baker served in senior government positions under three U.S. presidents and managed George H. W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992. As secretary of state for most of the Bush presidency, he directed American foreign policy in an that included the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the Gulf War.

James Addison Baker III attended Princeton University and the University of Texas School of Law and served two years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps (1952-1954). In 1975, he became undersecretary of commerce under President Gerald R. Ford and managed Ford’s unsuccessful electoral campaign in 1976. In 1979 and 1980, he led George H. W. Bush’s unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Under President Ronald Reagan, Baker served as White House chief of staff and later as secretary of the Treasury.

James Baker, left, stands with President George H. W. Bush and U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union Robert Strauss during a White House press conference in August, 1991, to discuss the coup by Soviet hard-liners to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from power.

ph_Baker_James.jpg

(AP/Wide World Photos)

In the 1988 election, Baker managed Bush’s successful campaign for the presidency, and he served from 1989 to 1992 as Bush’s secretary of state. Because of his close personal relationship with Bush, he was a trusted adviser with easy access to the president’s ear. Baker, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft were colleagues who had served together in the Ford administration, and this threesome provided Bush with experienced, pragmatic advisers in dealing with foreign policy and national security issues.

As secretary of state, Baker traveled to more than ninety nations. His rapport with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze helped maintain a positive relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union as that nation began to break into separate entities. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Baker led the effort to put together a multinational alliance to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait in the Gulf War. After the Iraqis were expelled from Kuwait, Baker was among those who counseled Bush to forgo invading Iraq to drive Saddam Hussein from power.

In August, 1992, Baker left the State Department to become White House chief of staff and to take over direction of Bush’s reelection campaign.

Impact

Baker’s management of the 1988 Bush campaign helped to put George H. W. Bush in the White House; his leadership at the State Department from 1989 to 1992 was instrumental in the creation of the “new world order” that emerged with the decline of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the world’s lone superpower.

Further Reading

1 

Baker, James A., and Thomas DeFrank. The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War, and Peace, 1989-1992. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995.

2 

Baker, James A., with Steve Fiffer. “Work Hard, Study . . . and Stay Out of Politics!”: Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006.

3 

Moore, Raymond A. “Foreign Policy.” In The Bush Presidency: Triumphs and Adversities, edited by Dilys M. Hill and Phil Williams. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Joy, Mark S. "James Baker." The 1990s in America, edited by Milton Berman, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1990_1043.
APA 7th
Joy, M. S. (2009). James Baker. In M. Berman (Ed.), The 1990s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Joy, Mark S. "James Baker." Edited by Milton Berman. The 1990s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.