By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
From his election as Tennessee’s first Republican senator in 1966 through his tenure as  President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff 20 years later, Howard H. Baker Jr. had a role in many of America’s critical policy decisions in the latter part of the 20th century.
Baker, who served as both minority and majority leader during his three Senate terms, gained national attention as vice chairman of the Senate Watergate hearings and in 1980 sought the Republican nomination for president. He was an early advocate of federal revenue sharing, helped draft the landmark Clean Air Act and split with many members of his party by supporting the Panama Canal treaties.
Baker will share his experiences in Washington when he delivers the spring Charter Lecture Jan. 23. His talk, at 4 p.m. in the Chapel, is open free to the public.
“Howard Baker was one of the Senate’s most capable and effective members, and he served our nation with great diligence and distinction,” says UGA President Michael F. Adams, who served on Baker’s staff from 1975 to 1979, including three years as chief of staff. “It is a privilege for the University of Georgia to have someone with his wealth of knowledge and experience in national affairs to present our Charter Lecture.”
The son of a seven-term Tennessee congressman, Baker lost his first senatorial bid in 1963, but won two years later to become his state’s first popularly elected Republican senator. Re-elected in 1972 and 1978, he retired from the Senate in 1985, but returned to Washington in 1987 to serve for 17 months as Reagan’s chief of staff.
Among his major first-term accomplishments were winning passage of legislation requiring that federal revenue be shared with states and helping draft the 1970 law that set standards to fight air pollution. He was also instrumental in siting the world’s first nuclear-breeder-reactor power plant in Tennessee.
A friend and adviser to Richard Nixon, Baker—as vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Watergate Committee)--was in the awkward position of having to investigate the president for possible illegal activities. He won praise for his objective demeanor in the nationally televised hearings, though many Republicans criticized him for not supporting Nixon more strongly.
The keynote speaker at the 1976 Republican convention, Baker became Senate minority leader in 1977. But his backing of President Jimmy Carter’s Panama Canal treaties cost him support in his party and among conservatives, and helped spur his withdrawal from the 1980 presidential primaries.
He worked instead for the election of Reagan and Senate Republicans, and when Reagan was elected became majority leader, helping unify Republican support for Reagan’s tax bill, budget cuts and increased federal debt limit. He also helped win Senate approval for Reagan’s plan to sell AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia.
Baker retired from the Senate at the end of his third term, but in 1987 accepted Reagan’s request to serve as White House chief of staff, a position he held until July 1988 when he returned to private life.
Baker, who holds a law degree from the University of Tennessee, continues to practice law in the firm his grandfather started in his hometown of Huntsville, Tenn. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs.
The Charter Lecture was started in 1988 to honor the high ideals expressed in the 1785 charter that founded the University of Georgia as the first chartered state university in America. The series brings to campus speakers who discuss ideas of general importance to a free society. |
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