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Former Secretary of State Baker donates papers to PrincetonPrinceton NJ -- Former Secretary of State James Baker III is donating the papers of his long career in politics and public service to Princeton, where the rich collection of material documenting the end of the Cold War and other events in his distinguished career will join one of the nation's premier public policy collections.
Baker, a top-level official in the administrations of three U.S. presidents, was America's chief diplomat at the end of the Cold War and witnessed the collapse of Communism. "It was a time of revolution, war and peace," Baker recalled. "The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union dissolved and the ideology of Communism died. In 1991, we liberated Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion, then followed with the Madrid Peace Conference-- the first time Israel and its Arab neighbors sat down together to negotiate." President Tilghman said, "These papers are an extraordinary addition to Princeton's public policy collection, and we could not be more appreciative. Cold War diplomacy is a strength and focus of our public policy collection. Secretary Baker's gift provides an essential resource for historians and scholars, broadening our understanding of this pivotal time in history." "I selected Princeton as the home for these papers for two reasons," Baker said. "The first was out of appreciation for the University, which was not only my alma mater, but also that of both my father and my daughter. The education I received at Princeton provided a strong foundation for my life, both as a private citizen and as a public servant. "The second reason was to take advantage of the University's well-deserved reputation for organizing, cataloging and preserving papers related to American foreign policy," he said. "This will give scholars access to important papers that illuminate the historic transformation of the international system at the end of the Cold War." Baker served as secretary of state under President Bush from 1989 to 1992. He held a number of other important national positions, including secretary of the treasury under President Reagan, White House chief of staff under Presidents Reagan and Bush, and undersecretary of commerce under President Ford. He also played a leading role in the election campaigns of those three presidents. University Archivist Ben Primer said Baker's collection will be very helpful to historians as they turn their attention to the closing decades of the 20th century. "Baker stands astride two eras," Primer said. "When he joined the Reagan administration in 1981, Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Soviet Union and the world was dominated by superpower rivalries. When he left the Bush White House in 1993, the USSR was a thing of the past and the arms race was over. We are delighted that the Baker papers are coming to Princeton." Baker's papers will be maintained at the Seeley Mudd Manuscript Library, which already houses the papers of two other secretaries of state: Robert Lansing (1915-1920) and John Foster Dulles (1953-1959). Over the next three years, archivists at the Mudd Library will organize the papers to ensure their preservation and usability. The collection will be closed to researchers during this time. Additional papers belonging to Baker, as well as records from various departments of government relating to his work, will be added to the collection as they become available. The Mudd Library is a state-of-the-art facility that
houses about 27,000 feet of archival documents and
accommodates some 2,000 researchers each year. Its
20th-century public policy collection has been hailed as one
of the most comprehensive collections of its kind in the
country and has been widely used by students of American
statecraft, social and economic policy, and
jurisprudence. |
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