JAMES A. BAKER, III, TURNS EIGHTY-TWO

JAMES ADDISON BAKER, III

b. April 28, 1930

Soviet Foreign Minister EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE (l)

& U.S. Secretary of State JAMES A. BAKER, III (r)

in the cabin of a hydrofoil on Lake Baikal, USSR, August 1991

James Baker, Chief of Staff and then Secretary of the Treasury for President Ronald Reagan, in his role (above) as Secretary of State for President George Bush, on the eve of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, with his Soviet counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze. More information here (including a photograph of Baker in the White House) and here (Baker as tough negotiator) and here (with Shevardnadze in Irkutsk) and here (more about Baker, and especially the connection to Gulf War I).

IT IS FRIDAY. TIME FOR A BIT OF THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY: LAKE BAIKAL

IT IS FRIDAY

TIME FOR A BIT OF

THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY

LAKE BAIKAL

IN THE WAKE

OF A HYDROFOIL, 1984

ABOVE LAKE BAIKAL

IN SIBERIA

BACK TO BAIKAL, 1990

While we are in the area, a photograph taken a half-dozen years later that gives some idea of Siberian country living.

This time I had come to Baikal and Irkutsk to cover the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. I stayed to see a bit more of the area around the lake, including the infamous Baikalsk paper plant, now once again in the news.

INTERLUDE ON LAKE BAIKAL

LATE AFTERNOON 

ON LAKE BAIKAL 

TWO WOMEN & THEIR KNITTING 

Listvyanka (Russia), USSR, 1984

Lake Baikal is famous as the "Gem of Siberia." I had been so keen to see it that I flew straight from Moscow to Irkutsk, the nearest big city, on my first trip to the USSR. 

NASA has posted two striking images of Baikal from space, iced over, here. 

More to come in RUSSIA REDUX