James A. Baker, III
"Work Hard, Study, ... and Keep Out of Politics!": Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Political Life
Time:7:00 PM
Location:Greenwich Libary
Cost: Free -- Sponsored by Friends of The Greenwich Library as a part of the Selective Eye Series
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James A. Baker III, served as Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan and George H. W.Bush; Under Secretary of Commerce to Gerald Ford; Secretary of the Treasury to Reagan; and Secretary of State to Bush. He has also undertaken special envoy missions for George W. Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on matters such as Iraqi debt relief and the conflict in the Western Sahara. He is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts, and honorary chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. His previous book is The Politics of Diplomacy.
The real inside story of why Gerald Ford did not ask Ronald Reagan to be his running mate in 1976 - and why Reagan did not pick Ford in 1980; the battle over Florida 2000; the aborted White House job switch that inadvertently opened the door to the Iran-Contra scandal; the Bush campaign's wish that Dan Quayle would offer to resign from the ticket in 1992; the White House turmoil in the dark days following the Reagan assassination attempt; and a great deal more . . .
White House Chief of Staff (twice), Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and campaign chairman for three different candidates in five successive presidential campaigns - few people have lived and breathed politics as deeply as James Baker. Now, with candor and Texas-style storytelling, and not a few surprises, he takes us into his thirty-five years behind the scenes.
None of it was planned. His grandfather, the "Captain," drilled this advice into him: "Work hard, study . . . and keep out of politics!" Then a personal tragedy changed the life of a forty-year-old Texas Democratic lawyer and he never looked back. From campaign horsetrading, which sometimes got rough ("Politics ain't beanbag,"says Baker), to the inner councils of the Reagan and Bush administrations to the controversies of today, Baker offers frank talk and spellbinding narratives, along with personal appraisals of six presidents and a constellation of others. It was a long, unexpected journey from Houston, Texas, to Washington, D.C. - and you'll want to travel it with him.
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