Former US Secretary of State dies

Former US Secretary of State George P. Schultz, a titan of American academic, business and diplomacy, who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve Cold War relations with the Soviet Union and creating a course of peace for the Middle East, was separated from life at the age of 100.

Mr. Schultz died Saturday in his home at Stanford University campus. He was a prominent associate of the Hoover Research Institute, held the professor's title at Stanford Passive Business School even after his retirement.

The Hoover Institute announced Mr. Schultz's death on Sunday, but did not reveal the causes of death.

A permanent republic, Mr. Schultz, held three key positions in government cabinets during the administrations headed by the Republicans.

He was Secretary of Labour, Secretary of Treasury and Director of the Management and Budget Office under President Richard M. Nixon spent more than six years on the duty of Secretary of State when the White House was run by President Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Schultz was Secretary of State for the longest time in his stay since World War II.

During his lifetime, Mr. Schultz had success in almost everything he touched, including academic, teaching, government services, and the corporate world. He was widely respected by his colleagues who belonged to both sides of politics.

After blowing up in October 1983 of the US military barracks in Beirut, where 241 soldiers were killed, Mr. Schultz worked hard to end the brutal civil war in Lebanon. He spent countless hours serving as mediators between the parties in an effort to ensure the withdrawal of the Israelite forces.

Experience led him to believe that stability in the region could only be provided with a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He left for an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful mission to sit down on the negotiating table.

Although Mr. Schultz failed to achieve his intention to introduce the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel into a course of peace agreement, he shaped the way for future administration efforts in the Middle East, legitimising Palestinians as a people with valuable aspirations and interests in determining their future.

As the nation's top diplomat, Mr. Shultz negotiated the first treaty on the reduction of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal, despite fierce objections from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to President Reagan's “Strategic Defence Initiative”.

The 1987 Nuclear Forces Treaty with Middle Ray was a historic attempt to change the course of the nuclear weapons race, a goal he never abandoned in private life.

And we already know so much about these weapons and their strength”, Mr. Schultz said in an interview in 2008 “those are almost weapons we wouldn't use, so I think we'd better be without to”.

Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kisinger, reflecting on his memories on what he named “Shultzi very analytical, quiet and altruistic”, dedicated him an extraordinary assessment in his diary: “If I chose an American who would believe the nation's fate in crisis, it would be George Schultz”.

George Prat Schultz was born on December 13, 1920, in New York City and grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. He studied economics, public and international affairs at Princeton University, where he graduated in 1942.

After Princeton, Mr. Schultz joined the Navy troops and climbed the captain's rank as an artillery officer during World War II.

In 1949 he received the doctor's degree in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technological (MIT) and taught there and at the University of Chicago, where he served as a dean of business school. His experience in administration included a post as one of President Dwight D's Council of Economic Consultants' leading economists. Eisenhower and director of the Office for Management and Budget during the Nixon administration.

Mr. Schultz was president of the construction and engineering company Bechtel Group from 1975-1982 and taught part-time at Stanford University before joining the Reagan administration in 1982, replacing Alexander Haig, who resigned after frequent clashes with other administration members.

In 1985 there was a rare public disagreement between Mr. Reagan and Mr. Schultz, when the president ordered thousands of federal government employees with access to classified information to conduct a test with the device identifying agents, this as a way to block information flow. Mr. Schultz told reporters that in that “ment this government has lost faith in me will be the day I leave”. Soon the administration withdrew the request. A more serious dispute was about Iran's secret arms sale in 1985 in hopes of securing the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by Hezbollah militia.

Although Mr. Schultz opposed him, Mr. Reagan continued the deal and millions of dollars from Iran went to right-wing guerrilla Contra in Nicaragua.

After Reagan left duty, Mr. Schultz returned to Bechtel Company.

He withdrew from the company's board in 2006 and returned to Stanford University and Hoover Institute.

In 2000, he became one of George W. Bush, whose father had been vice president while Mr. Schultz served as Secretary of State. Mr. Schultz served as informal adviser to his campaign.

Mr. Schultz remained a staunch weapon control lawyer in his later years, speaking against some of the republican's main attitudes. It caused controversy after calling the fight against drugs for fun purposes, supported by Mr. Reagan, a failure and rebuked the long-standing United States embargo on Cuba, naming it a mad “”.

He was also a prominent follower of efforts to combat the effects of climate change, warning that ignoring the risks was suicide.

Mr. Schultz, along with former Republican Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, drew the attention of the press during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he refused to support Republican candidate Donald Trump. He was quoted as saying “God will help us when asked about Mr. Trump's chances of coming to the top of the White House.

Mr. Schultz was married to Helena “Obie” O'Brien, an army nurse he met with during World War II and had five children. After her death in 1995, he married Charlotte Maillard in 1997.

In 1989, Mr. Schultz was given the nation's highest civilian title, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.