Humorous Encounter with Shultz

Re: Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80’s remembrance of George Shultz ’42, I had a memorable encounter with him in Paris during his stint as Secretary of State in the mid-1980s. Prior to his giving a speech at a Stanford Business School alumni event, I managed to get a former Foreign Service colleague to introduce me. I reminded him that a portion of my class walked out when he was awarded an honorary degree at my graduation in June 1973 (in protest of the Vietnam War).  Secretary Shultz smiled and replied, “Oh, that was a pretty minor protest — I have been the target of much bigger ones since then.”

The same former colleague told me about the plush tiger with a small portrait affixed to its posterior, mentioned by Dean Slaughter. It apparently was left on the Secretary's airplane seat by one of the press corps during a trip abroad. Secretary Shultz lifted it up, turned it around, and promptly moved the picture from one side of the posterior to the other, saying to his staff assistant, “Tell them to do their homework next time.”