The most effective secretary of state of the past five decades? Not John Kerry, who came in last — behind Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Clinton and James Baker.
Foreign Policy’s 2014 Ivory Tower survey of 1,615 international relations scholars from 1,375 colleges in the United States posed the question: “Who was the most effective U.S. secretary of state of the past 50 years?”
And the clear winner, with more than 32 percent of the vote, was Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger, The Washington Post reported.
The second most common answer was “Don’t Know,” the box checked by a little more than 18 percent of the respondents.
But third? James Baker, with almost 18 percent of the vote, The Post reported.
Mr. Baker was followed by Madeleine Albright and Mrs. Clinton, who tied for fourth, with 8.7 percent of the vote; George Schultz, with 5.7 percent; Dean Rusk, at 3.5 percent; Warren Christopher and Cyrus Vance, both with 1.5 percent; Colin Power, with a little more than 1 percent; Ms. Rice, with about half a percent; and Lawrence Eagleburger, with .3 percent.
Mr. Kerry was dead last, with only two votes. He technically tied Mr. Eagleburger at .3 percent, but Foreign Policy listed him last nonetheless.
As The Post noted: “This is all truly odd … [R]ecall Eagleburger was only secretary of state for six weeks, from Dec. 8, 1992, to Jan. 20, 1993. To be sure, he was acting secretary for three months before that, but it’s hard to say he left a huge diplomatic footprint.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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