The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2021 103 Master Negotiator is not Eurocentric. Finely tuned chapters capture Baker’s crucial role in the diplomatic leadup to the Gulf War and in arranging the Madrid Arab-Israeli peace conference. The author, who has considerable experi- ence in Central America, also explores Baker’s successful efforts to promote democratization in El Salvador and Nicaragua. In explaining Baker’s effectiveness as America’s top diplomat, Negro- ponte emphasizes that he was “tough, determined and competitive.” She also highlights his laser-like focus on pivotal issues. Master Negotiator returns repeatedly to the point that Baker’s close relation- ship with George H.W. Bush, the 41st president who died in 2018, served as the bedrock of his empowerment as Secretary of State. Underscoring the connection, the former president wrote the book’s foreword, relating that the two went “back a long, long way,” having met in Texas in the 1950s. Bush adds that his choice of Baker to be his Secretary was a “gimme.” The book reports that the two were “like brothers” and were so much on the same wavelength that they could finish each other’s sentences. Negroponte makes adept use of “night notes” that Baker regularly wrote to keep the president briefed on daily events. The notes, often informal in style, serve to underline the intimacy of the Bush- Baker relationship. In a note from early 1990, for example, Baker lets off steam by grousing that “it was a long and at times difficult day” and then launches into the minutiae of arms control negotiations. Regarding his management style, Negroponte perceptively comments that “Baker was more of a single opera- tor, supported by a very small team.” This sparked some tension when career officers were not brought into Baker’s compact decision-making circle. One of the book’s more riveting chapters examines where Baker stood in relation to the long-running “idealist versus realist” clash over the direction of U.S. foreign policy. With verve, Negroponte describes how Baker’s senior thesis at Princeton University manifested the pragmatic outlook he took while in office decades later. The thesis probes policy debates involving midcentury British Labour Party leaders. In concluding his thesis, Baker made it clear why he preferred the policies and mindset of Ernest Bevin, the postwar foreign secretary, stating: “I favored the approach of the realist.” The book sketches how Baker’s realist perspective was tested in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989. Baker acknowledged the brutality of the crackdown but did not see concrete ways to influence Beijing’s behavior. Human rights advocates and political opponents excoriated the Bush administration for failing to confront the “Butchers of Beijing.” Baker dodged the incoming flak and stuck to his pragmatic approach. In doing so, he “showed that he remained a follower of Ernest Bevin,” as Negroponte skillfully puts it. Even as it delves into serious issues, the book exposes the lighter side of diplo- macy. To flag one example, the author mentions Baker’s occasional deploy- ment of Texas-style colloquialisms, such as “Don’t let a dead cat lie on your doorstep” and his references to winged bullfrogs. While perhaps readily under- standable in Abilene, Baker’s phrases tended to baffle his interpreters and international interlocutors. She also cites British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as referring to two visiting American emissaries as “Tweedledum and Tweedledee,” dryly noting that this “was not meant as a compliment.” While Master Negotiator places a spotlight on his years at Foggy Bottom, Baker was also the subject of a recent full-length biography, The Man Who Ran Washington , by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser (see June FSJ review). Both books, true to their respective titles, hold Baker in high esteem as they interweave examples of his professional compe- tence, realist perspective and power- broker status. Reflecting on how a singular figure can inspire others, W.H. Auden wrote that W.B. Yeats “became his admirers.” Through erudite books like Master Negotiator and The Man Who Ran Washington , James Baker is the subject of a similar process. n Joseph L. Novak is a Foreign Service officer serving with the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the State Department. In explaining Baker’s effectiveness as America’s top diplomat, Negroponte emphasizes that he was “tough, determined and competitive.”