Editing Cyrus Vance (section)

===Secretary of State===
{{main|Foreign policy of the Jimmy Carter administration}}
[[File:Vance Carter 1977.gif|left|thumb|250px|Vance talks with [[President of the United States|President]] [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] on the [[White House]] lawn, March 1977]]
[[File:The Shah with Atherton, Sullivan, Vance, Carter and Brzezinski, 1977.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[Pahlavi dynasty|Shah of Iran]] [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] meeting with [[Alfred Leroy Atherton]], [[William H. Sullivan]], Vance, President [[Jimmy Carter]], and [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] in 1977]]
President [[Jimmy Carter]] initially wanted to nominate [[George Ball (diplomat)|George Ball]] to become  [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]], but, fearing Ball was too liberal to be confirmed, nominated Vance instead.<ref name=NYTmag>{{cite news |last1=Douglas Brinkley |title=THE LIVES THEY LIVED; Out of the Loop |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/29/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-out-of-the-loop.html |access-date=3 May 2017 |work=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |date=29 December 2002 |author1-link=Douglas Brinkley}}</ref> Vance played an integral role as the administration negotiated the [[Panama Canal Treaties]], along with peace talks in [[Rhodesia]], [[Namibia]] and [[South Africa]].  He worked closely with Israeli Ministers [[Moshe Dayan]] and [[Ezer Weizman]] to secure the [[Camp David Accords]] in 1978. Vance insisted that the President make [[Paul Warnke]] Director of the [[Arms Control and Disarmament Agency]], over strong opposition by Senator [[Henry M. Jackson]].<ref name=obit/>

Vance also pushed for détente with the Soviet Union, and clashed frequently with the more hawkish [[National Security Advisor (United States)|National Security Advisor]] [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]]. Vance tried to advance arms limitations by working on the [[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks|SALT II]] agreement with the Soviet Union, which he saw as the central diplomatic issue of the time, but Brzezinski lobbied for a tougher more assertive policy vis-a-vis the Soviets. He argued for strong condemnation of Soviet activity in Africa and in the Third World and successfully lobbied for normalized relations with the [[People's Republic of China]] in 1978.

As Brzezinski took control of the negotiations, Vance was marginalized and his influence began to wane. When revolution erupted in Iran in late 1978, the two were divided on how to support the United States' ally the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah of Iran]]. Vance argued in favor of reforms while Brzezinski urged him to crack down – the 'iron fist' approach. Unable to receive a direct course of action from Carter, the mixed messages that the Shah received from Vance and Brzezinski contributed to his confusion and indecision as he fled Iran in January 1979 and his [[Iranian Revolution|regime collapsed]].

Vance negotiated the [[SALT II]] agreement directly with Soviet Ambassador [[Anatoly Dobrynin]], bypassing American Ambassador [[Malcolm Toon]], who then criticized the agreement.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Goldstein |first1=Richard |title=Malcolm Toon Made Waves as a Diplomat, but His Death Went Largely Unreported |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/world/europe/malcolm-toon-dead-us-ambassador-to-soviet-union.html |access-date=3 May 2017 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2 May 2017 |page=B14}}</ref> In June 1979, President Carter and Soviet General Secretary [[Leonid Brezhnev]] signed the treaty in Vienna's [[Hofburg]] Imperial Palace, in front of the international press, but the Senate ultimately did not ratify it. After the [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] on December 27, 1979, Vance's opposition to what he had called "visceral anti-Sovietism" led to a rapid reduction of his stature.<ref name="NYTmag" /> 
[[File:Iran hostage negotiations, State Magazine 2006-04- Iss 500 (IA sim state-magazine 2006-04 500) (page 16 crop).jpg|thumb|Vance working to free hostages in the [[United States Department of State Operations Center|State Department Operations Center]], 1979]]
Vance's attempt to surreptitiously negotiate a solution to the [[Iran hostage crisis]] with Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini]] through the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] failed badly. Believing that diplomatic initiatives could see the hostages safely returned home, Vance initially fought off attempts by Brzezinski to pursue a military solution. Vance, struggling with [[gout]], went to Florida on April 10, 1980, for a long weekend. On April 11, the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] held a newly scheduled meeting and authorized [[Operation Eagle Claw]], a military expedition into Tehran to rescue the hostages. Deputy Secretary [[Warren Christopher]], who attended the meeting in Vance's place, did not inform him.<ref name=NYTmag/> Furious, on April 21 Vance handed in his resignation,<ref>{{cite book|title=Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President|date=October 1, 1982|first=Jimmy|last=Carter|publisher=Bantam Books|page=513}}</ref> calling Brzezinski "evil".<ref name="NYTmag" /><ref>{{cite book |author=Betty Glad |title=An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisors, and the Making of American Foreign Policy |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |url=https://archive.org/details/outsiderinwhiteh00glad |url-access=registration |year=2009 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outsiderinwhiteh00glad/page/264 264]–68|isbn=9780801448157 }}</ref> The only Secretaries of State who had previously resigned in protest were [[Lewis Cass]], who resigned in the buildup to the Civil War, and [[William Jennings Bryan]], who resigned in the buildup to World War I. 

President Carter aborted the operation after only five of the eight helicopters he had sent into the [[Dasht-e Kavir]] desert arrived in operational condition. As U.S. forces prepared to depart from the staging area, a helicopter collided with a transport plane, causing a fire that killed eight servicemen.<ref name="NYTmag" /> Vance's resignation was confirmed several days later, and he was replaced by Senator [[Edmund Muskie]]. A second rescue mission was planned but never carried out, and the diplomatic efforts to negotiate the release of the hostages were handed over to Deputy Secretary Christopher. The hostages were released during the [[first inauguration of Ronald Reagan]], after 444 days in captivity.<ref name="obit" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chriswallisblog.wordpress.com/cyrus-r-vance/|title=Cyrus R. Vance|date=Dec 22, 2016|website=chriswallisblog.wordpress.com|accessdate=Sep 17, 2022}}</ref>