Howard H. Baker, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Howard H. Baker, Jr. was sworn in as the 26th (13th
post-WWII) U.S. Ambassador to Japan on June 26, 2001. He presented his
credentials to Emperor Akihito on July 5, 2001.
Ambassador Baker served in the United States Senate from 1967 until January
of 1985, and as President Reagan's Chief of Staff from February 1987 until July
of 1988. He was born in Huntsville, Tennessee on November 15, 1925.
Following undergraduate studies at the University of the South and Tulane
University, Ambassador Baker received his law degree from the University of
Tennessee. He served three years in the U.S. Navy during WWII and subsequently
worked in the law firm founded by his grandfather, now the largest in Tennessee.
In 1966, Ambassador Baker became the first Republican ever popularly elected
to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, and he won re-election by wide margins in
1972 and 1978. (Ambassador Baker's father and mother both served in the U.S.
House of Representatives. His father-in-law, the late Everett Dirksen, was
Republican Leader of the U.S. Senate from 1959-1969).
Ambassador Baker first won national recognition in 1973 as the Vice Chairman
of the Senate Watergate Committee. He was the keynote speaker at the Republican
National Convention in 1976, and was a candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination in 1980. He concluded his Senate career by serving two terms as
Minority Leader (1977-1981) and two terms as Majority Leader (1981-1985).
Ambassador Baker was a delegate to the United Nations in 1976, and served on
the President's Foreign Intelligence Board from 1985 to 1987 and from 1988 to
1990. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Washington
Institute of Foreign Affairs. He serves on the boards of the Forum of
International Policy and is an International Councillor for The Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
He has received many awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
nation's highest civilian award, in 1984 and the 1982 Jefferson Award for
Greatest Public Service Performed by an Elected or Appointed Official. A noted
photographer, Ambassador Baker received The American Society of Photographers'
International Award in 1993, and was elected into the Photo Marketing
Association's Hall of Fame in 1994. He has received numerous honorary degrees
from educational institutions including Yale, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Bradley,
Pepperdine, and Centre College.
Ambassador Baker has published four books:
No Margin for Error in 1980
Howard Baker's Washington in 1982
Big South Fork Country in 1993
Scott's Gulf in 2000.
Ambassador Baker, a widower, married Nancy Landon Kassebaum, former United
States Senator (R) from Kansas, on December 7, 1996. He and his late wife, Joy
Dirksen Baker, have two children, Cynthia Baker and Darek Dirksen Baker, and
four grandchildren.
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