The Secretary of State is the Cabinet member responsible for US foreign policy. As such, the office is one of the most important posts in the United States government. The Secretary of State is one of the senior members of the Cabinet, along with the Secretaries of Defense and the Treasury. The Secretary is nominated by the president along with other Cabinet members, usually at the start of an incoming administration; the appointment must be confirmed by both houses of Congress. Should a Secretary of State resign or be replaced in mid term, the same nomination and confirmation process is observed.

The Secretary of State was one of the four posts in George Washington’s original Cabinet. Early Secretaries of State were powerful political figures; Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both Secretaries of State, went on to become presidents. More recently, Secretaries of State have tended to be less overtly political, and have been picked by presidents on the basis of their loyalty to the latter.

To most people overseas, the Secretary of State is, after the president, the most visible figure in the US administration, and much of American prestige abroad depends on the character and effectiveness of the incumbent. Among the most high-profile Secretaries of State in recent years is the controversial Henry Kissinger, who served in Richard Nixon’s administration. Kissinger negotiated with the Vietnamese foreign minister, Li Duc Tho, in Paris to bring about the end of the Vietnam War, and was later jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The award caused outcry both within the US and abroad as Kissinger was widely seen as one of the architects of US war policy including the bombing of Cambodia. Kissinger was also largely responsible for the US rapprochement with China in the early 1970s.

Another controversial Secretary of State was the former general Alexander Haig, appointed by President Reagan in 1980. In the confusion following the assassination attempt of 1981, Haig famously declared, “I’m in charge at the White House,” thus appearing to usurp the authority of the vice-president, to whom control ordinarily passes when the president is incapacitated. Haig was dismissed soon after.

Haig’s successor, George Schultz, had a demanding role as Secretary of State during the last years of the Cold War and then the thawing of relations with the Eastern bloc.

However, he was able to exercise little or no influence over the warring parties in the Middle East. Schultz was often at odds with other members of the administration, and was hampered by the fact that Reagan ran what amounted to a parallel foreign policy through the National Security Council and his own private office, employing officials such as Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North.

James Baker, Secretary of State under George Bush, was widely hailed as a success— his tenure included the revolutions in Eastern Europe of 1989–90 and the beginnings of a peace process in the Middle East. Warren Christopher held the post during Bill Clinton’s first term of office; perceived as a compromise candidate, his influence was limited. He was replaced in the second term by Madeleine Albright, former US ambassador to the United Nations, the first woman ever to hold the post.