Baker, Howard Henry, Jr., 1925–2014, U.S. politician and public official, b. Huntsville, Tenn., grad. Univ. of Tennessee Law College 1949. The son of Howard Henry Baker, 1902–64, a lawyer, newspaper publisher, and U.S. Representative (1951–64) from Tennessee, he was a moderate Republican who served three terms as a U.S. senator (1967–85) from Tennessee. In 1973 he gained national attention as a member of the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair, becoming a key figure in discovering “what the president knew and when he knew it” despite the fact that he and President Nixon were in the same political party. He subsequently became (1977) Senate minority leader and then served (1981–85) as Senate majority leader after the Republican victory in the 1980 elections. He also was White House chief of staff (1987–88) under President Ronald Reagan. In 1996 he married Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (see Kassebaum-Baker, Nancy Landon). Baker served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2001 to 2005.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies
