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US Former Secretary of State, Dies at 85

19 March 2011 10:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. Warren M. Christopher, secretary of state in President Clintonâ€™s first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85 and had been ill with kidney and bladder cancer, New York Times reported.

As a political operative, he headed Mr. Clintonâ€™s 1992 search committee for a vice presidential running mate, settling on Albert Gore, and subsequently directed the transition team of the president-elect, acting as an establishment counterweight on a team dominated by Arkansans new to the national scene. Eight years later, he directed for Mr. Gore, running for president, the search resulting in the selection of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman for the second spot on the Democratic ticket.

When the election stalemated, Mr. Christopher supervised the recount of disputed votes in Florida before George W. Bush emerged the winner by decision of the Supreme Court.

Warren Minor Christopher was born in the farming hamlet of Scranton, N.D., one of five children. His father, a local banker, suffered a stroke that the family believed was the result of overwork from his unsuccessful efforts keep the bank solvent during the Depression. The elder Christopher died four years later at 53 after the family had moved to California.