Robert Schwarz Strauss

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Robert Schwarz Strauss

Robert Schwarz Strauss (born October 19, 1918 in Stamford , Jones County , Texas , † March 19, 2014 in Washington, DC ) was an American diplomat and politician of the Democratic Party who, as long-time chairman of the Democratic National Committee, campaigned Jimmy Carter headed and was both United States Trade Representative and Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Russia , receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981 .

Life

After attending school, Strauss studied law at the Law School of the University of Texas at Austin , graduating in 1941. In 1945 he co-founded the Dallas- based law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and worked as a lawyer in the years that followed . He was also a temporary employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In the early 1970s he began to become increasingly politically active in the Democratic Party and was chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 1972 and 1977. In this role he also organized the successful election campaign for the Democrats in the 1976 presidential election . After the election, President Jimmy Carter appointed him US Trade Representative in March 1977; he held this office until August 1979. In this role he played a key role in the negotiations during the so-called Tokyo Round on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which were finally concluded in 1979 and passed in the USA as the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 .

In the 1980 presidential election , Strauss was campaign manager for Carters, who however suffered a severe electoral defeat against his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan and received only 49 of the 538 electoral votes. Shortly before the end of the presidency, Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 16, 1981. In the following years he worked in the private sector and was a member of the boards of directors of Archer Daniels Midland and Xerox .

In August 1991 he succeeded Jack Matlock as ambassador to the Soviet Union and from December 1991 to November 1992 in Russia. During his tenure there, on March 2, 1992, despite the food shortage in Moscow, he entertained the then President of Russia , Boris Yeltsin , with homemade nachos in his Spaso House residence .

At times he was also chairman of the American-Russian corporate council. He was also involved in numerous other institutions and organizations and was a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the George Bush Presidential Library . He was also an advisor to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) and the Washington Legal Foundation, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cordell Hull Institute and was a White House Fellow . In addition, Strauss, who became a member of the Academy of Achievement in 2003 , has worked for the Council of American Ambassadors, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission .

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personal data
SURNAME Strauss, Robert Schwarz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician, diplomat, and manager
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Stamford , Texas
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 2014
Place of death Washington, DC