Cyrus Vance

**Cyrus Roberts Vance Sr.** (March 27, 1917 – January 12, 2002) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. He was the father of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Vance served on the board of directors of IBM, Pan American World Airways, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, U.S. Steel, and The New York Times, as a trustee of the Yale Corporation, as chairman of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation, and vice chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Vance suffered for several years from Alzheimer's disease before his death at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City on January 12, 2002, at age 84.

## Career

Cyrus Vance earned a bachelor's degree in 1939 from Yale College, being a member of the secret society Scroll and Key. Vance entered the military during World War II, serving in the United States Navy as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Hale (DD-642) until 1946. After the war, he worked for the Mead Corporation for a year before joining the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City.

In 1957, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson asked Vance to leave Wall Street to work for the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, where he helped draft the National Aeronautics and Space Act, leading to the creation of NASA.

In 1961, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara recruited Vance to become General Counsel of the Department of Defense. He was then made the Secretary of the Army by President John F. Kennedy. 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.

In 1964, Vance became the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense. President Johnson sent him to the Panama Canal Zone after student riots. After the 1967 Detroit riot, Johnson sent him to Michigan. Vance next attempted to delay the Cyprus dispute. In 1968, Johnson sent him to South Korea to deal with the USS Pueblo hostage situation.

Vance first supported the Vietnam War but by the late 1960s changed his views and resigned from office, advising President Johnson to pull out of South Vietnam. Vance served as a deputy to W. Averell Harriman during the Paris Peace Accords, which were a failure due to the duplicity of the South Vietnamese. Vance called the failed peace talks "one of the great tragedies in history". He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 1969.

In May 1970, Vance was appointed to serve as a commissioner in the Knapp Commission, formed and tasked by New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay with investigating systemic corruption of the New York Police Department. The Knapp Commission held televised hearings into police corruption.

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.

## Jimmy Carter

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, he resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw, the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. He was succeeded by Edmund Muskie.

Vance played an integral role as the Carter administration negotiated the Panama Canal Treaties, along with peace talks in Rhodesia, Namibia and South Africa. He worked closely with Israeli Ministers Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman to secure the Camp David Accords in 1978. Vance insisted that the President make Paul Warnke Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, over strong opposition by Senator Henry M. Jackson.

Vance also pushed for closer ties to the Soviet Union, and clashed frequently with National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union.