George P. Shultz
The former secretary of state reflected on his service in the Reagan Administration
In 2002, the Miller Center sat down to interview George Shultz for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Oral History project. Shultz, who died today, served as Reagan's secretary of state for six and a half years.
In the conversation, Shultz evaluated the history of his relationship with Reagan, dating back to his experiences with the then-California governor in the late 1960s.
I remember coming away from [our first meeting] feeling, Well, this man obviously wants to be president, but he clearly wants to be president because he wants to do the job. Otherwise he wouldn’t be interested in all this stuff, because this is down in the dirt.
In that interview, Shultz also discussed the war in Lebanon, administration policy in Central America, and other major foreign policy topics. However, the overarching themes of the interview were U.S.-Soviet relations and the Reagan administration's impact on the Cold War.
They were thinking grand strategy in terms of—and I think rightly—that here we are with this Cold War. Do you think it’s a great idea for Europe to become dependent on gas coming from the Soviet Union? No. I completely agreed with the objections to it. But the Europeans were doing it and the sanctions were not stopping them. Even had Margaret Thatcher mad. So how do we work it through and get the toughest thing we can? Out of it we got a reasonable commitment to the restrictions on goods that would flow to the Soviet Union.
Shultz commented on the deployment of Pershing II missiles, the Reagan Doctrine, opposition to the Siberian pipeline, arms control summits, and other relevant issues, as well as how these policies, taken together, affected the Soviet government.
There was nothing covert about the Reagan Doctrine. It was an articulated view that we were in favor of freedom, that people living under the communist yoke we felt would want to get out from under it. To the extent that there were people willing to stand up and fight, we were ready to help them. How you help them, there are always lots of varieties.
Shultz also described Reagan as foreign policy leader, illustrating how he learns and disseminates information, his negotiating skills, and his general opinions on world affairs.