ticipated in the 2000 Sydney Olympics), he retired in
2001, a five-time world and Olympic champion. He
has since pursued a successful career as a motiva-
tional speaker and chief executive officer (CEO) of
a sports marketing firm.
Impact At a time when Canadian track and field
was reeling from the international scandal involving
the doping allegations leveled against its 1988 Olym-
pic gold sprinter Ben Johnson, Bailey, with his brash
charisma and unwavering confidence in his own
abilities, became an instant national hero. In addi-
tion, he inspired a generation through his meteoric
rise to prominence, his gritty determination to pur-
sue his athletic dreams despite the conventional wis-
dom of starting much earlier, and his resilience in
the face of numerous injuries.
Further Reading
Hannigan, Glenn, and Robert Mashburn.One Glori-
ous Summer: A Photographic Histor y of the 1996 At-
lanta Olympics. Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1996.
Howell, Colin D.Blood, Sweat, and Cheers: Sports and
the Making of Modern Canada. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 2001.
Joseph Dewey
See also Canada and the United States; Minorities
in Canada; Olympic Games of 1996; Sports; Televi-
sion.
Baker, James
Identification U.S. secretary of state, 1989-1992
Born April 28, 1930; Houston, Texas
James Baker served in senior government positions under
three U.S. presidents and managed George H. W. Bush’s
presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992. As secretar y of
state for most of the Bush presidency, he directed American
foreign policy in an that included the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the end of the Cold War, and the Gulf War.
James Addison Baker III attended Princeton Univer-
sity and the University of Texas School of Law and
served two years as an officer in the United States
Marine Corps (1952-1954). In 1975, he became
undersecretary of commerce under President Ger-
ald R. Ford and managed Ford’s unsuccessful elec-
toral campaign in 1976. In 1979 and 1980, he led
George H. W. Bush’s unsuccessful campaign for the
Republican presidential nomination. Under Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan, Baker served as White House
chief of staff and later as secretary of the Treasury.
In the 1988 election, Baker managed Bush’s suc-
cessful campaign for the presidency, and he served
from 1989 to 1992 as Bush’s secretary of state. Be-
cause of his close personal relationship with Bush,
he was a trusted adviser with easy access to the presi-
dent’s ear. Baker, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney,
and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft were
colleagues who had served together in the Ford ad-
ministration, and this threesome provided Bush
with experienced, pragmatic advisers in dealing with
foreign policy and national security issues.
As secretary of state, Baker traveled to more than
ninety nations. His rapport with Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev and Soviet foreign minister
Eduard Shevardnadze helped maintain a positive re-
lationship between the United States and the Soviet
Union as that nation began to break into separate
entities. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Baker
led the effort to put together a multinational alli-
ance to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait in the Gulf War.
After the Iraqis were expelled from Kuwait, Baker
was among those who counseled Bush to forgo in-
vading Iraq to drive Saddam Hussein from power.
In August, 1992, Baker left the State Department
to become White House chief of staff and to take
over direction of Bush’s reelection campaign.
Impact Baker’s management of the 1988 Bush
campaign helped to put George H. W. Bush in the
White House; his leadership at the State Depart-
ment from 1989 to 1992 was instrumental in the cre-
ation of the “new world order” that emerged with
the decline of the Soviet Union and the emergence
of the United States as the world’s lone superpower.
Further Reading
Baker, James A., and Thomas DeFrank.The Politics of
Diplomacy: Revolution, War, and Peace, 1989-1992.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1995.
Baker, James A., with Steve Fiffer. “Work Hard,
Study... and Stay Out of Politics!”: Adventures and
Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life. New York:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006.
Moore, Raymond A. “Foreign Policy.” InThe Bush
Presidency: Triumphs and Adversities, edited by
Dilys M. Hill and Phil Williams. New York: St. Mar-
tin’s Press, 1994.
Mark S. Joy74 Baker, James The Nineties in America