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Cyrus Vance Branch of Service: U.S. Navy Rank: Gunnery Officer Hometown: Clarksburg, WV Honored By: Mike W. Reeser Biography Cyrus Vance was born on March 27, 1917. Vance graduated from Kent school in 1935. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1939. While at Yale he was a member of the secret society called "Scroll and Key". In 1942, Vance graduated from Yale Law school. Cyrus Vance served in the U.S. Navy as a gunnery officer aboard the destroyer USS Hale until 1946. After the war, Vance worked in a law firm in New York city before working for the government. Vance was Secretary of the Army in the Kennedy administration. He worked on sending U.S. Army units into Mississippi in 1962 to protect James Meredith and put down resistance to the court ordered integration of the University of Mississippi. As Deputy Secretary of Defence under President Lyndon Johnson, he at first supported Vietnam, then later changed his views by the late 1960's advising the President to pull out of South Vietnam. In 1968 he served as a delegate to peace talks in Paris. In 1969 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom...(shown above) As Secretary of State in the Carter administration, Vance pushed for negotiations and economic ties with the Soviet Union and clashed frequently with National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the SALTII agreement with Russia. He was heavily instrumental in Carter's decision to return the Panama Canal Zone to Panama, and in the Camp David Accords agreement between Israel and Egypt. After the Accords, Vance's influence in the administration began to wane. His role in talks with the People's Republic of China was marginalized and his advice for a response to the Shah of Iran's collapsing regime was ignored. Shortly thereafter, when 53 American hostages were held in Iran, he worked actively in negotiations, but to no avail. Finally, when Carter ordered a secret military rescue, Vance resigned in opposition. The rescue attempt failed. The hostages would be later released after Ronald Reagan took office. Vance returned to his law practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in 1980, but was repeatedly called back into public service throughout the 1980's and 1990's, participating in diplomatic missions to Bosnia, Croatia, and South Africa. Cyrus Vance died at the age of 84, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, and is interred at Arlington National Cemetary in Arlington, Va.