Warren Christopher

Biography

Warren Minor Christopher was born in Scranton, North Dakota, in 1925. He attended the University of Redlands and graduated from the University of Southern California in 1945, served in the Naval Reserve in the Pacific, and at Stanford Law School founded the Stanford Law Review. He clerked for Justice William O. Douglas in 1949-1950, then joined the Los Angeles firm O'Melveny & Myers, where he became a partner in 1958.

Christopher was Deputy Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson from 1967 to 1969. As Deputy Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981 he negotiated the Algiers Accords that freed the American hostages in Iran, and worked on relations with China and the Panama Canal treaties. In 1991 he chaired the Christopher Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King beating, and in 1992 he ran Bill Clinton's running-mate search and transition.

As Secretary of State from 1993 to 1997 he pushed NATO enlargement through the Partnership for Peace, signed the Oslo Accords for the United States as a witness, promoted the Israel-Jordan peace treaty and normalisation with Vietnam, and with Richard Holbrooke negotiated the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War. Later he led Al Gore's Florida recount effort in 2000 and taught at UCLA. He died in Los Angeles in 2011.