George Shultz, who has died at the age of 100, held a remarkable number of cabinet posts under presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, culminating in his six and a half years as secretary of state under the latter.
Shultz lacked the glamour, the flair for publicity (and the deviousness) of one of his predecessors, Henry Kissinger, but had other assets. He was more straightforward and more naturally American. He had wide experience in labour law and industrial relations as well as economics before having to apply himself seriously to foreign policy.
He was also lucky. During the Reagan administration the leadership of the Soviet Union changed. It was much easier for the US to deal with the new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, than it had been with the old regime, notably the longstanding foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko. Shultz’s relations with Shevardnadze were friendly and productive. As a result, there were…