[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 23 (Monday, February 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S563-S564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering George Shultz

  Madam President, on a completely different matter, on Saturday, we 
lost a great statesman and scholar who gave more than 80 of his 100 
years to his country.
  George Shultz's service began in the U.S. Marine Corps. From the 
beaches of Palau, he was among the Americans who helped retake the 
Pacific from Japan. Back home, he earned a Ph.D. in economics. He 
taught at MIT and would later helm the University of Chicago's Graduate 
Business School. But public service beckoned, and George Shultz began a 
decades-long run of ping-ponging prolifically between academia and top 
government posts.
  The first of three Presidents who would benefit from his expert 
counsel, Dwight Eisenhower, hired him as a senior staff economist back 
in 1955. A decade and a half later, he was back, this time as President 
Nixon's Secretary of Labor, where he worked on desegregation and, 
later, as OMB Director. Then, at a pivotal moment for the U.S. and 
world economies, George Shultz was tapped to lead the Treasury 
Department. He fought inflation and worked

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to modernize our monetary policy so American leaders could control 
America's destiny.
  After an interlude in the private sector, Secretary Shultz's country 
came calling again. He spent 6\1/2\ of President Reagan's 8 years as 
Secretary of State. He helped steer the smart and strong foreign policy 
that clinched the free world's victory over the Soviet Union, but even 
as the Reagan administration nudged communism into a box canyon, this 
top diplomat's master touch was vital in making sure that tensions did 
not rise too high.
  As amazing as it sounds, this impressive resume doesn't fully explain 
George Shultz's incredible reputation. It wasn't just all he did. It 
was how he did it. He led with thoughtfulness, fairness, and, above 
all, integrity. He lived by the maxim he shared in his centennial 
reflection just a few weeks ago.
  Here is what he said:

       Trust is the coin of the realm.

  His honesty and thoughtfulness won wide admiration that transcended 
politics. He won the trust of career diplomats and State Department 
staff, including those who did not naturally lean to the Reagan right.
  Famously, when new Ambassadors met with him on their way abroad, the 
Secretary would spin a globe and ask them to point out ``their 
country.'' The unlucky ones who fell for the trap and pointed to their 
foreign destinations were swiftly corrected. ``No,'' he said. ``Your 
country is always America.''
  At the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, we host a 
distinguished speaker series. George Shultz honored us as our very 
first ever distinguished speaker back in 1993, and he kept right on 
writing and speaking and mentoring young people up until just a few 
weeks ago.
  America was his country, all right. He loved it deeply and served it 
always. The Senate's prayers are with the Shultz family and all the 
friends and colleagues he leaves behind, a truly remarkable life.