Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger

Secretary Eagleburger capped a brilliant twenty-seven year career in the State Department when he was named Secretary of State by President Bush. He helped chart and guide U.S. foreign policy through the turbulent end of the Cold War, the conflict in the Balkans, the confrontation in the Persian Gulf and through revolutionary changes in the former Soviet Union and then Russia.

President Bush swore in Lawrence S. Eagleburger as U.S. Secretary of State on December 8, 1992.

Mr. Eagleburger was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 1, 1930. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1952, served as first lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954, and earned his M.S. degree, also from the University of Wisconsin, in 1957.

After his 1957 entry into the Foreign Service, he was assigned to the economic section of the embassy in Tegucigetoa, Honduras. In 1959, he became a political analyst of Cuba in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and, in 1961, was assigned to the economic section of the embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

In 1963, after a severe earthquake in Macedonia, Yugoslavia, he led the U.S. Government effort to provide medical and other assistance. In 1965, he was assigned to Washington, D.C. – first to the Secretariat staff dealing with European affairs and in March-July 1966, as special assistant to Mr. Dean Acheson (adviser to the President on Franco-NATO issues). In August 1966, he became acting director of the Secretariat staff. Mr. Eagleburger became a member of the National Security Council in October 1966, working on European affairs and kept that position until October 1967, when he was assigned as special assistant to Under Secretary of State Nicholas Katzenbach.

In November 1968, Mr. Eagleburger was appointed as Dr. Henry Kissinger’s assistant during the Nixon presidential transition. In January 1969, he became executive assistant to Dr. Kissinger at the White House, where he helped him set up the National Security Council staff. In September 1969, he was assigned as political adviser and chief of the political section of the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels.

Mr. Eagleburger returned to Washington as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in August 1971. Two years later, he became Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. The same year, he returned to the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Operations. He subsequently followed Dr. Kissinger to the State Department, becoming executive assistant to the Secretary of State. In 1975, he was made Deputy Under Secretary of State for Management.

In June 1977, President Carter appointed Mr. Eagleburger Ambassador to Yugoslavia, where he served for 3 years. In early 1981, Mr. Eagleburger was nominated by President Reagan to be Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs. In February 1982, he was appointed Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the third-ranking position in the Department.

Mr. Eagleburger was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal by the Department of Defense in 1978 and the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service in 1976. In 1984, the Department of State gave him the Wilbur J. Carr Award, which is presented to retiring career officers who have performed with unusual distinction at senior levels for 25 years or more – and the Distinguished Honor Award, then the Department’s highest honor. In 1991, President Bush awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal. In 1992, he received the Department of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the Department’s highest honor. In 1994, he received an honorary knighthood from Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Mr. Eagleburger retired from the Department of State in May 1984, after serving 27 years as a Foreign Service officer. After leaving the Department, he was elected to the boards of Josephson International and the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and was named president of Kissinger Associates, Inc., a firm founded by Dr. Kissinger in April 1982 to offer strategic consulting services to international companies. He rejoined the U.S. Government in 1989. Following his resignation as Secretary of State on January 19, 1993, he joined the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearrnan and Caldwell as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor. Baker Donelson is one of the largest firms in the southeast and was recently named one of the top 250 firms by the National Law Journal. He has joined the Boards of Phillips Petroleum Company, Halliburton Company and Universal Corporation.