Cyrus Vance
57th United States Secretary of State
In office January 20, 1977 – April 28, 1980
President	Jimmy Carter
Deputy	Warren Christopher
Preceded by	Henry Kissinger
Succeeded by	Edmund Muskie
7th United States Secretary of the Army
In office July 5, 1962 – January 21, 1964
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr.
Succeeded by	Stephen Ailes
11th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
In office January 28, 1964 – June 30, 1967
President	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Roswell Gilpatric
Succeeded by	Paul H. Nitze
Personal details
Born	Cyrus Roberts Vance March 27, 1917 (1917-03-27) Clarksburg, West Virginia
Died	January 12, 2002(2002-01-12) (aged 84) New York City
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia 38°52′37″N 77°04′15″W / 38.876806°N 77.070795°W / 38.876806; -77.070795Coordinates: 38°52′37″N 77°04′15″W / 38.876806°N 77.070795°W / 38.876806; -77.070795
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Grace "Gay" Sloane
Children	Elsie, Camilla, Grace, Cyrus
Alma mater	Yale University Yale Law School
Profession	Lawyer
Signature
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1942–1946
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	USS Hale (DD-642)

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Cyrus Roberts Vance (March 27, 1917 – January 12, 2002) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. Prior to that position he was the Secretary of the Army^[1] and the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

As Secretary of State, Vance approached foreign policy with an emphasis on negotiation over conflict and a special interest in arms reduction. In April 1980, Vance resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw, the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. He was succeeded by Edmund Muskie.

Vance was the cousin (and adoptive son) of 1924 Democratic presidential candidate and lawyer John W. Davis. He was the father of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Early life and education[link]

Vance was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia.^[1] He graduated from Kent School in 1935^[1] and earned a bachelor's degree in 1939 from Yale University,^[1] where he was a member of the secret society Scroll and Key. He also earned three varsity letters in ice hockey at Yale. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1942.^[1]

Military and legal career[link]

This section requires expansion.

Vance served in the United States Navy as a gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Hale (DD-642) until 1946, and then joined the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City,^[1] before entering government services.

Political career[link]

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Vance was general counsel of the Defense Department and then the Secretary of the Army during the John F. Kennedy administration.^[1] He was Secretary when Army units were sent to northern Mississippi in 1962 to protect James Meredith and ensure that the court-ordered integration of the University of Mississippi took place.^[1]

As Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon Johnson, he first supported the Vietnam War but by the late 1960s changed his views and resigned from office advising the president to pull out of South Vietnam. In 1968 he served as a delegate to peace talks in Paris.^[1] He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.^[1] He was a professor at Georgetown University afterwards.^[specify]

Secretary of State Vance talks with President Carter on the White House lawn in March 1977

As Secretary of State in the Jimmy Carter administration, Vance pushed for negotiations and economic ties with the Soviet Union, and clashed frequently with the more hawkish National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the SALT II agreement with the Soviet Union, which he saw as the central diplomatic issue of the time. He was heavily instrumental in Carter's decision to return the Canal Zone to Panama, and in the Camp David Accords agreement between Israel and Egypt.^{[citation needed]}

After the Camp David Accords, Vance's influence in the administration began to wane as Brzezinski's rose.^{[citation needed]} His role in talks with People's Republic of China was marginalized, and his advice for a response to the Shah of Iran's collapsing regime was ignored. Shortly thereafter, when 53 American hostages were held in Iran, he worked actively in negotiations but to no avail. Finally, when Carter ordered a secret military rescue - Operation Eagle Claw - Vance resigned in opposition. Vance felt the rescue attempt was too risky, and did not even wait to see its failure before announcing his resignation.^[2] The second rescue was planned but never carried out.

The Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi meeting with Arthur Atherton, William H. Sullivan, Vance, President Jimmy Carter, and Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1977.

In 1997, he was made the original honorary chair of the American Iranian Council.^{[citation needed]}

Later career in law and as Special Envoy[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

From 1974 to 1976, Vance served as president of the New York City Bar Association.^{[citation needed]} Vance returned to his law practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in 1980, but was repeatedly called back to public service throughout the 1980s and 1990s, participating in diplomatic missions to Bosnia, Croatia, and South Africa.

In 1991 he was named Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Croatia and proposed a plan for solution of conflict in Croatia. Authorities of Croatia and Serbia agreed to Vance's plan, but the leaders of SAO Krajina rejected it, even though it offered Serbs quite a large degree of autonomy by the rest of the world's standards, as it did not include full independence for Krajina. He continued his work as member of Zagreb 4 group. The plan they drafted, named Z-4, was effectively superseded when Croatian forces retook the Krajina region (Operation Storm) in 1995.

In January 1993, as the United Nations Special Envoy to Bosnia, Vance and Lord David Owen, the EU representative, began negotiating a peace plan for the ending the War in Bosnia. The plan was rejected, and Vance announced his resignation as Special Envoy to the UN Secretary-General. He was replaced by Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg.

Later life and death[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In 1993, he was awarded the United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award.

In 1995, Cyrus Vance again acted as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and signed the interim accord as witness in the negotiations between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece.

Vance was a member of the Trilateral Commission.^[when?]

He died aged 84 after a long battle of pneumonia in New York after having Alzheimer's disease for many years,^{[citation needed]} and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

His mother's house, known as the Stealey-Goff-Vance House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.^[3] It is home to the Harrison County Historical Society.

References[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cyrus Vance

External links[link]

• Oral History Interviews with Cyrus Vance, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
• Cyrus R. Vance and Grace Sloane Vance Papers, 1957-1992, held at Yale University Library, Manuscripts & Archives
• Cyrus Vance at Find a Grave
• Interview on French TV: Cartes sur table, 31 March 1980 (40 minutes)

v t e Cabinet of President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)   Cabinet Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (1977–1980) Edmund Muskie (1980–1981) Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal (1977–1979) G. William Miller (1979–1981) Secretary of Defense Harold Brown (1977–1981) Attorney General Griffin Bell (1977–1979) Benjamin Civiletti (1979–1981) Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus (1977–1981) Secretary of Agriculture Robert Bergland (1977–1981) Secretary of Commerce Juanita M. Kreps (1977–1980) Philip Klutznick (1980–1981) Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall (1977–1981) Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph A. Califano, Jr. (1977–1979) Patricia Roberts Harris (1979–1979) Secretary of Health and Human Services Patricia Roberts Harris (1979–1981) Secretary of Education Shirley M. Hufstedler (1979–1981) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Patricia Roberts Harris (1977–1979) Maurice "Moon" Landrieu (1979–1981) Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams (1977–1979) Neil Goldschmidt (1979–1981) Secretary of Energy James R. Schlesinger (1977–1979) Charles Duncan, Jr. (1979–1981)   Cabinet-level Vice President Walter Mondale (1977–1981) Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young (1977 – 1979) Donald McHenry (1979 – 1981) Director of the Office of Management and Budget Thomas "Bert" Lance (1977) James T. McIntyre (1978 – 1981) Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Charles Schultze (1977 – 1981) Advisor to the President on National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski (1977 – 1981)

v t e State Secretaries of the United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1781–1789 R. Livingston Jay Secretary of State 1789–present Jefferson Randolph Pickering J. Marshall Madison Smith Monroe Adams Clay Van Buren E. Livingston McLane Forsyth Webster Upshur Calhoun Buchanan Clayton Webster Everett Marcy Cass Black Seward Washburne Fish Evarts Blaine Frelinghuysen Bayard Blaine Foster Gresham Olney Sherman Day Hay Root Bacon Knox Bryan Lansing Colby Hughes Kellogg Stimson Hull Stettinius Byrnes G Marshall Acheson Dulles Herter Rusk Rogers Kissinger Vance Muskie Haig Shultz Baker Eagleburger Christopher Albright Powell Rice Clinton

v t e Deputy Secretary of Defense of the United States of America Early · Lovett · Foster · Kyes · Anderson · Robertson · Quarles · Gates · Douglas · Gilpatric · Vance · Nitze · Packard · Rush · Clements · Duncan · Claytor · Carlucci · Thayer · Taft · Atwood · Perry · Deutch · White · Hamre · de Leon · Wolfowitz · England · Lynn · Carter

v t e Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army Secretaries at War B. Lincoln Knox Secretaries of War Knox Pickering McHenry Dexter Dearborn Eustis Armstrong Monroe W. Crawford Calhoun Barbour P. Porter Eaton Cass Poinsett Bell Spencer J. Porter Wilkins Marcy G. Crawford Conrad J. Davis Floyd Holt S. Cameron Stanton Schofield Rawlins Belknap A. Taft J. Cameron McCrary Ramsey R. Lincoln Endicott Proctor Elkins Lamont Alger Root W. Taft Wright Dickinson Stimson Garrison Baker Weeks D. Davis Good Hurley Dern Woodring Stimson Patterson Royall Secretaries of the Army Royall Gray Pace Stevens Brucker Stahr Vance Ailes Resor Froehlke Callaway Hoffmann C. Alexander Marsh Stone West Caldera White Harvey Geren McHugh Assistant Secretaries of War Scott Dana Eckert Grant Doe Meiklejohn Sanger Oliver Breckinridge Ingraham Crowell Williams Wainwright D. Davis MacNider Hurley Payne Woodring L. Johnson Patterson McCloy Petersen Under Secretaries of the Army Draper Gray Voorhees A. Alexander Bendetsen E. Johnson Slezak Finucane Milton Ailes Ignatius Resor McGiffert Beal BeLieu Staudt Augustine LaBerge Ambrose Stone Shannon Reeder Walker Rostker Dahlberg Brownlee Geren Ford Westphal

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Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.
New York County District Attorney
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1, 2010
Preceded by	Robert M. Morgenthau
Personal details
Born	(1954-06-14) June 14, 1954 (age 58) New York City United States
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Peggy McDonnell
Children	2
Residence	New York City
Alma mater	Yale University Georgetown University Law Center
Occupation	Attorney
Website	[2]

Cyrus Roberts Vance, Jr. (born June 14, 1954) is an American trial lawyer. He is the incumbent New York County District Attorney (Manhattan), and was previously a principal at the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Isaon, Anello & Bohrer, P.C. He is the son of Cyrus Vance, former Secretary of State to President Jimmy Carter.

Biography[link]

Youth, family, and education[link]

Vance grew up in New York City. His father, Cyrus Vance (Sr.), served as Secretary of the Army under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Johnson, then Secretary of State to President Jimmy Carter.

Vance attended Groton School, and then went on to graduate from Yale University. He then earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1982. While in law school, he planned campaign trips for Colorado Senator Gary Hart.

He moved to Seattle, Washington in 1988, and back to New York City in 2004. He and his wife, printer and photographer Peggy McDonnell, have been married for 25 years and have two children, both of whom attended high school in New York City.

Legal career[link]

Upon graduating from Georgetown, Vance joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as an Assistant District Attorney, where he supervised grand jury investigations and prosecuted cases involving murder, organized crime, career criminals, political corruption, international art fraud, and white-collar crime.

In 1988 Vance moved to Seattle because, according to Vance, he wanted to build a name for himself independent of his father's influence.^[1] In 1995 Vance co-founded McNaul Ebel Nawrot Helgren & Vance.^[2][3] During this time Vance taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law.

In 2004, Vance returned to New York, where he joined Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Isaon, Anello & Bohrer, P.C. as a principal.

Vance is admitted to the bar in New York State, Washington State, and Washington, D.C., and to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, and the U.S. Second and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Vance is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America – The New York Area’s Best Lawyers^[4] and New York’s Superlawyers – Manhattan Edition.^[5]

District Attorney Vance at a town hall meeting

Public service[link]

In addition to serving as an Assistant District Attorney, Vance has been actively involved in sentencing reform policy, conviction integrity and prosecutorial oversight, and has donated his time to the representation of indigent defendants.

Vance was a consulting expert to the Office of Family and Children Ombudsman in its investigation of the Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions, and served as Special Assistant Attorney General representing the state in investigations and litigation. He has served on sentencing commissions in two states, including New York, where he served on the Governor's Sentencing Commission, which helped overhaul New York’s Rockefeller drug laws.^[6]

Vance also served, by appointment of the Governor of New York, as a member of the New York State Appellate Division, First Department, Judicial Screening Panel which makes recommendations on judicial appointments. Vance is a member of the Criminal Justice Council of the New York City Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, and the New York Council of Defense Lawyers. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Modern Courts, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. Cyrus Vance Sr., Vance’s father died of Alzheimer's Disease in 2002.^[7]

2009 Manhattan District Attorney election[link]

In 2008, Vance announced his intention to seek the District Attorney’s office only if current District Attorney Robert Morgenthau decided to retire.^[8] On March 9, 2009, ten days after Morgenthau made his decision to retire public, Vance officially announced his candidacy for the office.^[9][10] On an April 8, 2009 appearance on Charlie Rose, Morgenthau said of Vance, “I think Vance is by far the best qualified. Good lawyer, fair.”^[11] Morgenthau officially endorsed Vance on June 25.^[12]

Other public figures who endorsed Vance included former Mayor David Dinkins,^[13] Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum,^[14] Gloria Steinem, Caroline Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of The Innocence Project. The New York Times,^[15] New York Daily News,^[16] New York Post,^[17] and New York Amsterdam News^[18] also endorsed Vance.

Vance stated that as Manhattan District Attorney he would develop a program of “Community Based Justice”^[19] in which teams of prosecutors would be aligned to specific precincts and communities so as to develop a working relationship with community members, police officers, and local organizations. According to Vance, the Community Based Justice Program would make crime reduction a central measure of performance. Vance has also proposed a plan designed to reduce the year-long case backlog in the New York Criminal Court where the overwhelming majority of criminal cases are brought.^[20] In addition to processing cases, Vance has expressed his commitment to establishing a conviction integrity panel to carefully review allegations of wrongful conviction and promoting alternatives to incarceration that do not compromise public safety.^[21]

Vance states that he has always been opposed to the death penalty.^[22]

Vance emerged victorious after facing former judge and 2005 D.A. candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder, and Richard Aborn, another former Assistant District Attorney and gun control advocate, in the September 15, 2009 Democratic primary.^[23] The victory ensured that Vance became the fourth person to run the office since 1941, given the traditional absence during Morgenthau's tenure of a Republican backed opponent.^[24]

On November 3, 2009, Vance won the general election with a 91 percent share of the votes cast.^[25]

Manhattan District Attorney[link]

Vance was sworn into office as the Manhattan District Attorney on January 1, 2010. Within a few months, he established or consolidated numerous new bureaus and units in an effort to modernize the District Attorney’s Office. Vance’s administration established a Conviction Integrity Program,^[26] Crime Strategies Unit,^[27] Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau,^[28] Forensic Sciences/ Cold Case Unit,^[29] Hate Crimes Unit,^[30] Public Integrity Unit,^[31] Special Victims Bureau,^[32] and Vehicular Crimes Unit.^[33][34]

District Attorney Vance speaks at a February 2011 press conference

Notable Cases[link]

Vance’s recent successes include the sentencing of a serial rapist to 428 years to life in prison;^[35] sentencing of a man to 23 years to life in prison for a domestic violence murder;^[36] indictments against 26 individuals living in Manhattan who possessed graphic images of child sexual assault;^[37] the sentencing of a man to at least 15 years in prison for a 2000 rape; a sentencing of a man to 25 to life in prison for a 1997 home invasion and murder;^[38] an indictment against another man for a 1986 rape and murder;^[39] and the guilty plea of a man for attacking a woman in the restroom of a bar in Hell’s Kitchen.^[40]

Vance has also won convictions in an October 2009 drunk-driving incident that killed 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, resulting in the creation of Leandra's_Law; and a case of two men in a 2005 murder-for-hire plot. In January 2011, the District Attorney’s Forensic Sciences/ Cold Case Unit announced an indictment against noted serial killer Rodney Alcala for two Manhattan homicides in the 1970s.

District Attorney Vance at June 2011 press conference on child assault

Vance’s newly created Major Economic Crimes Bureau has won convictions in the $120 million-dollar art fraud prosecution of the Salander-O’Reilly Gallery, the gallery's president Lawrence Salander and director Leigh Morse, in which Robert De Niro, Jr. was one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution;^[41] a $100 million-dollar securities fraud scheme in which Yale University was one of the victims;^[42] a $100 million-dollar mortgage fraud case;^[43] and a $7 million-dollar Ponzi scheme.^[44] The District Attorney’s Office in June 2011 announced indictments in a conspiracy involving 11 corporations who evaded U.S. economic sanctions on Iran by funneling tens of millions of dollars through Manhattan banks.^[45] To date, Vance’s administration has brought hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to New York City.^[46]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Case[link]

Vance initially came under criticism by the media for his handling of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, where the French head of the International Monetary Fund was arrested based on the accusations of an employee of the Sofitel hotel.^[47] However, Vance was praised by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,^[48] former Mayor Ed Koch, former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau,^[49] and other prominent litigators and government officials for adhering to prosecutorial protocol and acting with integrity.^[50] Vance has also been applauded in editorials by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Daily News for making a "tough but fair and just call" in "an exceptional case" in which a woman made a credible accusation against a very powerful man.^{[51][52][53][54]} The Wall Street Journal wrote: "DSK got neither more nor less than he deserved—something for which he can blame, and thank, Cy Vance and America's justice system."^[52]

Affiliations[link]

Vance serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Police Athletic League of New York City, a non-profit youth development agency that helps inner-city children.^[55]

References[link]