Warren Christopher Dies at 85

Posted on Mar 19, 2011

Wikimedia Commons

Tenacious, poised and cautious, Christopher served in the administrations of three U.S. presidents.

Warren Christopher, secretary of state in the Clinton administration, died Friday at the age of 85. Christopher was a skilled negotiator and figured prominently in helping resolve a number of crises during the Clinton and Carter years. —JCL

The Guardian:

Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner, said Christopher died at his home in Los Angeles on Friday due to complications from bladder and kidney cancer.

As the top American statesman under Bill Clinton, Christopher was a behind-the-scenes negotiator. Often called the “stealth” secretary of state, Christopher was known for his understated, self-effacing manner. He had taken the job in January 1993 at the age of 68 and clocked up 704,487 air miles travelling the world.

A loyal Democrat and meticulous lawyer, Christopher told the Associated Press his proudest accomplishments included a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and the extension of curbs on the proliferation of weapons technology.

Read more

More Below the Ad

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.