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A Stanford professor assesses Clinton's foreign policy record
A Lifetime of Service
- The son of a North Dakota banker, 14-year-old Christopher moves with his family to southern California in 1939. He takes a job delivering newspapers, joins the high school debate team and graduates from USC in 1945.
- At Stanford Law School, Christopher serves as
founding editor of
the
Stanford Law Review. He begins his Washington, D.C., career as a law
clerk for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in 1949.
- After 15 years as a lawyer with L.A.'s prominent firm O'Melveny & Myers, Christopher is appointed vice chairman of the panel investigating causes of the 1965 Watts riots. As deputy attorney general in the final two years of the Johnson Administration, he works to end the 1967 riots in Detroit. Back in L.A., he turns down the job as Watergate special prosecutor.
- As deputy secretary of state from 1977-81,
Christopher negotiates
the
release of U.S. hostages in Iran. President Carter lauds him as the
"best public servant in the administration."
- Now chairman of O'Melveny, Christopher builds consensus among big-ego partners. In 1991, L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley asks him to probe police behavior in the wake of the beating of motorist Rodney King. His report details misconduct and racism and leads to the dismissal of Police Chief Daryl Gates.
- At 67, Christopher runs the team that advises
President Clinton to select Sen. Al Gore as his running mate. Then he
manages Clinton's
first
transition and, beginning in 1993, serves as secretary of state. Upon
his resignation, Clinton hails him as a "tireless advocate" for "the
cause of peace and freedom."