Former US secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger, a career foreign service officer who served briefly as the top diplomat under president George H.W. Bush at the end of the Cold War, died Saturday, officials said. He was 80.
"With the passing of former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, our nation has lost a distinguished diplomat and public servant," President Barack Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
Eagleburger, the first career foreign service officer to be named secretary of state, "devoted his life to the security of our nation and to strengthening our ties with allies and partners," Obama added, noting his "more than four decades of service" to US diplomacy.
At the State Department, he "helped our nation navigate the pivotal days during the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War," the president said. Current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Eagleburger as a strong voice and stalwart champion for America's values," noting that "his passing is America's loss."
Eagleburger, who ran the State Department for five months in 1992, was "one of the most capable and respected diplomats our foreign service ever produced," Bush said in a statement, according to CNN. "During one of the tensest moments of the Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein began attacking Israel with scud missiles trying cynically and cruelly to bait them into the conflict, we sent Larry to Israel to preserve our coalition," Bush recalled. "It was an inordinately complex and sensitive task, and his performance was nothing short of heroic," he said. "I mourn the loss of a true friend. He was a good man, and he will be missed."
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