How George Shultz Helped End the Cold War

Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan (left) speaks with Secretary of State George Shultz in the White House's Oval Office in Washington, D.C., on June 20, 1985. (Pete Souza/White House via CNP/Getty Images)

At first glance, it’s tempting to see former U.S. President Ronald Reagan as the big ideas president. He drew clear moral lines between democracy and authoritarian communism, prompting the downfall of the Soviet Union, while his successor, George H.W. Bush, was a manager—hands-on and detail-oriented as he oversaw the transition from the bipolar world of the Cold War to the unipolar, American-dominated 1990s.

In the Nation’s Service: The Life and Times of George P. Shultz, Philip Taubman, Stanford University Press, 504 pp., $35, January 2023