 | |
| Born | December 13, 1920 New York City, New York, USA |
|---|---|
| Died | February 6, 2021 North Canberra, ACT |
| Title | United States Secretary of State |
| Term | May 8, 1984 to 1996 |
| Predecessor | Alexander Haig |
| Political party | Republican |
| Occupation(s) | Economist, businessman, statesman |
| Spouse | Helena O'Brien (m. 1946; died 1995) |
Overview[]
George Pratt Shultz was an American economist, businessman, diplomat, and political figure. Shultz was the US Secretary of State on Doomsday. He later continued in this role as part of the American Provisional Administration.
Pre-Doomsday[]
George Pratt Shultz was born on December 13, 1920 in New York City and raised in Englewood, NJ. He graduated from Princeton University in 1942 and served in the Pacific theater of World War II from 1942 to 1945. After his service in the Marines, Shultz earned a Ph.D. in industrial economics from MIT and became a professor at the University of Chicago. After serving as a dean there, he was appointed Secretary of Labor by President Richard Nixon and implemented the Philadelphia Plan to diversify the construction workforce. Shultz then served as Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury until 1974, when he left the Nixon Administration.
In 1982, Shultz accepted President Ronald Reagan's offer to be his new Secretary of State, replacing the outgoing Alexander Haig.
George Shultz would still be serving in that position on Doomsday.
Doomsday[]
The above-ground sections of the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center.
When the military detected the incoming Soviet missiles on Doomsday, Shultz was in New York City with President Reagan at a reception in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. He was quickly evacuated with the President. They eventually joined the rest of Reagan's Cabinet in the emergency bunker under Mount Weather.
Post-Doomsday[]
When the decision was first made for top US officials to evacuate the mainland in 1984, Shultz was flown ahead to Mexico City to meet with President Miguel de la Madrid and establish reliable contact with the emergency state government of Hawaii. He also discussed ways to support the large and growing population of American refugees in Mexico.
A month and a half later, Reagan and four other members of the Cabinet joined him and prepared to leave for Hilo. In Mexico City, it was decided that, for security purposes, the Cabinet members would be split up during the trip. President Reagan would be with Agriculture Secretary John Block on Air Force One, while Shultz would fly on a second plane, dubbed "Air Force Three," with Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldridge and Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole. It would be a twist of fate that ultimately saved his life.
When Air Force Three arrived in Hawaii, Shultz, Baldridge and Dole were immediately escorted into a private meeting with the emergency governor Louis Goldblatt, who informed them that both Hawaii and nearby RAAF forces had lost all contact with Air Force One. As the constitutional leader on the ground, Shultz immediately assumed the duties of Acting President but insisted on waiting a few days to declare that Reagan was dead. He soon had to accept the reality that the plane had gone down. He sent word (via Mexico and NORAD) to George Bush, who had just arrived in Leadville, Colorado to establish another emergency U.S. administration. Bush began preparations to be sworn in as President in the Lake County Courthouse.
Back in Hawaii, Shultz began the work of setting up the new federal administration. The political climate in Hawaii was marked with tension from the start. Shultz had to work with Goldblatt, an agricultural labor leader who had set up an extralegal and extra-constitutional emergency government based on his union's control of the food supply. Shultz, as Acting President, was serving in a role that was permitted under U.S. law, but which no cabinet member had ever tried to exercise. The authority of both men was questionable, and their political ideologies and instincts clashed utterly with one another. Nevertheless, necessity required that they cooperate. They began the work of restoring the country starting in the fiftieth state.
Shultz also communicated with Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand's PM Robert Muldoon sent a transport plane immediately with both military and humanitarian supplies, a few soldiers, and the beginning of an embassy staff. His counterpart in Australia, Bob Hawke, was unable to be quite so generous but also dispatched a team to lead diplomatic relations with the new U.S. government.
Shultz had to serve as chief executive for less than a month. President Bush soon decided that he should carry out Reagan's plan and lead the country from the Pacific. He left Speaker O'Neill in charge in Colorado and flew to Hawaii, landing safely on May 30, 1984. Shultz stepped down and resumed his Cabinet duties.
Bush reportedly considered Shultz to be his Vice President, but ultimately chose US Ambassador to Australia Robert Nesen, due to Nesen's already-existing relationship with Australian officials. Shultz had already started to form working relationships with several officials from across the wider world outside Australia before Doomsday, and it was decided that he could best serve Bush by remaining in his post as Secretary of State.
President George H.W. Bush in his official portrait, taken in the Hilo Federal Building.
American Provisional Administration[]
President Bush asked the members of the Cabinet to remain in their posts as he continued the work of establishing the American Provisional Administration. Secretary Shultz would be one of the APA's most crucial members, as his experience as Secretary of State would prove vital as he became the APA's chief diplomat to the surviving world community. Shultz would take the lead in negotiations with the governments of Australia and New Zealand and other diplomatic communications over the next several years. It was Shultz who negotiated access to the funds and supplies that were necessary to the APA. Shultz also accompanied Bush in his trip to Brisbane in July 1984, stopping off at American Samoa, where the pair confirmed the islands' loyalty to the APA.
The territory governed by the APA during the early 1990's.
In 1987, Shultz led the American delegation in Sitka, Alaska to negotiate the treaty that put a formal end to World War III. He was greeted enthusiastically as the representative of the federal government that had saved Alaska and driven back the Soviet invasion. Sitka's Harbor Drive is now called Shultz Drive in his honor.
Bush spent much of his time in office in Australia and New Zealand, and this was even more true of Shultz, who had to work closely with both governments on matters of war and recovery. Both were in Australia when The Hawaiian Crisis of 1987 broke out. They returned to the Big Island to demonstrate strong federal leadership. Shultz became President Bush's point man for negotiations with the factions in the Hawaiian Islands while Bush himself, as Commander-in-Chief, led US troops in the field. Secretary Shultz helped negotiate the final surrender of the various partisan factions. Two years later, he helped supervise Hawaii's first free elections since Doomsday.
During the dissolution process of the APA, Shultz supervised the transfer to facilities into the custody of the ANZC government. He spent some months in Alaska as the state was deciding whether to become a new federal seat or follow Hawaii in becoming an independent republic. He helped Alaska to draft a Treaty of Free Association with the Commonwealth that included a clear path to rejoining a restored United States in the future.
Shultz was also going through a painful personal struggle around this time. His wife Helena, who had been evacuated with him on Doomsday, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and passed away in 1995 at a hospital in Canberra.
In a later interview about this time period, Shultz would tell the Canberra Times that "That was a very low point for me. By the mid-90's, we in the APA were all feeling rather demoralized by the situation we faced. And then when my wife got sick...it took a toll. By the time President Bush decided to fold operations at the APA, I had already lost Helena and I was in a a very depressed state. I didn't know if I really wanted to stay on board anymore, I really wanted to quietly mourn. But the final year of the APA needed steady hands to make sure things went as planned, so I stayed at my post and led our final negotiations with the ANZC government about property transfers and the like. When it was all over and the APA had officially ceased all operations, I went home to my apartment. I remember opening the door and I just sort of stood there, staring in; no wife to come home to, no Secretary of State duties to go out for. I went to bed and slept for a long time the next day.
But in the end, I had to put one foot ahead of the other and go on living. I had to find new purpose. I found it in teaching, in consulting for the ANZC government, and in supporting my children who'd evacuated with my wife and I on Doomsday."
After the APA[]
Following the end of the administration in the mid-1990's, Shultz spent some time in Alaska but eventually moved permanently to Australia, like George Bush and many other former APA officials. He became a consultant to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He maintained a warm friendship with former President Bush and the two often corresponded, occasionally meeting at various official functions. Notably, the two have appeared together at most of the annual American Diaspora Conventions in Canberra.
Shultz has also consulted for various Australian businesses during the 2000's.
George Shultz in 2018, during an interview with Australian journalists.
Also during the 2000's, former Secretary Shultz taught a class on industrial economics for several years at the University of Canberra and also has given several interviews about his time as Secretary of State. He continued to reside in a home in the Canberra suburbs until his passing on February 6, 2021 at the age of 100. The US Embassy in Canberra transmitted the news back to Torrington, where the President announced his death to the American public via radio and requested a moment of silence for Secretary Shultz. Because he had made a written request in his will, Secretary Shultz's remains were sent by ship back to the United States, where his remains were interred at Torrington National Cemetery.
Legacy[]
George Pratt Shultz has been remembered for his leadership of the US foreign service during the chaotic years directly after Doomsday. "Against incredible odds, Secretary Shultz worked to preserve America's relationships, secure its troops and surviving territories, and protect her people," stated George W. Bush in a statement released in many American newspapers. "My father was lucky to have him at his side."