Cyrus Vance Cyrus Roberts Vance ( March 27 , 1917 – January 12 , 2002 ) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980 . Prior to that position he was the Secretary of the Army and the Deputy Secretary of Defense . As Secretary of State , Vance approached foreign policy with an emphasis on negotiation over conflict and a special interest in arms reduction . In April 1980 , Vance resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw , the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran . He was succeeded in the position by Edmund Muskie . Vance was the cousin ( and adoptive son ) of 1924 Democratic presidential candidate and lawyer John W . Davis . He was the father of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance , Jr . Early life and family . Vance was born in Clarksburg , West Virginia to John Carl Vance and Amy Roberts Vance . He had an older brother . His father was an insurance broker and landowner who worked in a government agency during World War I . His mother had a prominent family history in Philadelphia , and she was active in civic affairs . He graduated from Kent School in 1935 and earned a bachelor ' s degree in 1939 from Yale University , where he was a member of the secret society Scroll and Key . He also earned three varsity letters in ice hockey at Yale . He graduated from Yale Law School in 1942 . Vance entered the US military during World War II , serving in the Navy as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS " Hale " ( DD - 642 ) until 1946 . Upon returning to civilian life he joined the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City , and later entered government services . At the age of 29 , he married Grace Elsie " Gay " Sloane on February 15 , 1947 . She was a Bryn Mawr graduate and daughter of the board chairman of the W . & J . Sloane furniture company in New York City . They had five children , Cyrus R . Jr . , Elsie , Amy , Grace Roberts and Camilla . Gay Elsie Vance died on March 22 , 2008 , at the age of 89 . Political career . Vance was general counsel of the Defense Department and then the Secretary of the Army during the John F . Kennedy administration . He was Secretary when Army units were sent to northern Mississippi in 1962 to protect James Meredith and ensure that the court - ordered integration of the University of Mississippi took place . As Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson , he first supported the Vietnam War but by the late 1960s changed his views and resigned from office , advising the President to pull out of South Vietnam . In 1968 he served as a delegate to peace talks in Paris . He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 . He was a professor at Georgetown University afterwards . As Secretary of State in the Jimmy Carter administration , Vance pushed for negotiations and economic ties with the Soviet Union , and clashed frequently with the more hawkish National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski . Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union , which he saw as the central diplomatic issue of the time . He was heavily instrumental in Carter ' s decision to return the Canal Zone to Panama , and in the Camp David Accords agreement between Israel and Egypt . After the Camp David Accords , Vance ' s influence in the administration began to wane as Brzezinski ' s rose . His role in talks with People ' s Republic of China was marginalized , and his advice for a response to the Shah of Iran ' s collapsing regime was ignored . Shortly thereafter , when 53 American hostages were held in Iran , he worked actively in negotiations but to no avail . Finally , when Carter ordered a secret military rescue — Operation Eagle Claw — Vance resigned in opposition . Vance felt the rescue attempt was too risky , and did not even wait to see its failure before announcing his resignation . The second rescue was planned but never carried out . In 1997 , he was made the original honorary chair of the American Iranian Council . Later career in law and as Special Envoy . From 1974 to 1976 , Vance served as president of the New York City Bar Association . Vance returned to his law practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in 1980 , but was repeatedly called back to public service throughout the 1980s and 1990s , participating in diplomatic missions to Bosnia , Croatia , and South Africa . In 1991 he was named Special Envoy of the Secretary - General of the United Nations for Croatia and proposed the Vance plan for solution of conflict in Croatia . Authorities of Croatia and Serbia agreed to Vance ' s plan , but the leaders of SAO Krajina rejected it , even though it offered Serbs quite a large degree of autonomy by the rest of the world ' s standards , as it did not include full independence for Krajina . He continued his work as member of Zagreb 4 group . The plan they drafted , named Z - 4 , was effectively superseded when Croatian forces retook the Krajina region ( Operation Storm ) in 1995 . In January 1993 , as the United Nations Special Envoy to Bosnia , Vance and Lord David Owen , the EU representative , began negotiating a peace plan for the ending the War in Bosnia . The plan was rejected , and Vance announced his resignation as Special Envoy to the UN Secretary - General . He was replaced by Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg . Later life and death . In 1993 Vance was awarded the United States Military Academy ' s Sylvanus Thayer Award . In 1995 he again acted as Special Envoy of the Secretary - General of the United Nations and signed the interim accord as witness in the negotiations between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece . Vance was a member of the Trilateral Commission . He died in Manhattan , New York in January 2002 , at age 84 , after a long battle with pneumonia . He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery . Legacy . In 1980 , Vance received the U . S . Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official , an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards . The house of Vance ' s mother , which was known as the Stealey - Goff - Vance House , was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 . It is home to the Harrison County Historical Society . In the 2012 movie " Argo " , Vance was portrayed by actor Bob Gunton .