Former US Secretary of State George Shultz (100) has died

Former US Secretary of State George Shultz (100) has passed away. In the 1980s, he was deeply involved in improving relations with the Soviet Union and slowing the arms race during the Cold War.

Before Republican Shultz focused on international politics, he was already Minister of Labor and later Finance under President Nixon. He then became Secretary of State under President Reagan for six years, the longest in that post since World War II.

Middle East and nuclear weapons

Among other things, he was committed to peace in the Middle East. He made efforts to end the civil war in Lebanon and the military conflict between Israel and Lebanon. He also tried to get Israel and the PLO to negotiate a peace deal.

Shultz received the greatest recognition for his role in concluding the first treaty with the Soviet Union in 1987 to limit the number of nuclear weapons in the two countries. Even after his political career, he continued to fight nuclear weapons. “Now that we know so much about these guns and how powerful they are, they’re actually guns we won’t be using anyway. So I think we’re better off without it,” he said in an interview. in 2008.

Trump distance

In December, Shultz made his voice heard in a Washington Post article calling for decency and respect for other opinions. The centennial coin was seen by many as an attack on President Trump’s style of government.

Shultz died yesterday at his home on the Stanford University campus, where he was professor emeritus, among others. He was also an honorary member of a think tank at this University of California.

Condoleezza Rice, herself Secretary of State from 2005 to 2009, calls her predecessor and party member a “great American statesman”. “He will be remembered as a man who made the world a better place,” she wrote in a statement.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also praises Shultz as a great man: