U.S. Foreign Policy Leaders We Lost in 2015

James M. Lindsay

Foreign Policy, United States

Here are ten Americans who died this year who through their vision, service, intellect or courage helped shape U.S. foreign policy.

Year’s end is a time for taking stock, counting successes, and assessing failures. It is also a time for remembering those who are no longer with us. Here are ten Americans who died in 2015 who through their vision, service, intellect or courage helped shape U.S. foreign policy. They will be missed.

Samuel R. Berger (b. 1945) was national security adviser during President Bill Clinton’s second term. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Law School, Berger became a successful trade lawyer in Washington, DC. He also was deeply involved in Democratic Party politics. His first government service came during President Jimmy Carter’s presidency, when he served as deputy director of policy planning at the State Department. Berger was a long-time friend of Bill Clinton; the two first met working at a McGovern-for-President rally at the Alamo in 1972. When Clinton became president, Berger was named deputy national security adviser. At the start of Clinton’s second term, Berger succeeded Anthony Lake, who had also been his boss at the Office of Policy Planning, as national security adviser. The appointment rankled some experts who preferred a career foreign-policy person in the job; Henry Kissinger said that “you can’t expect a trade lawyer to be a global strategist.” In 2005 Berger pled guilty and was fined $10,000 for illegally removing classified documents from the National Archives two years earlier. The day before he died, the World Food Program USA honored Berger with its first Global Humanitarian Award.