Sisco, Joseph John, 1919-2004

<p>WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 - Joseph J. Sisco, a hard-charging senior diplomat who helped forge America's Middle East policy in the 1960's and 70's and later became president of American University here, died Tuesday at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. He was 85.</p>
<p>The cause was complications of diabetes, his family said.</p>
<p>Mr. Sisco joined the State Department in 1951, after a year as a Central Intelligence Agency officer, and retired after a quarter-century near the top of the department's bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger so respected Mr. Sisco's encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle East and his relentless drive that early in 1974 he talked him out of resigning to become president of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Instead, Mr. Sisco was promoted to under secretary of state for political affairs.</p>
<p>"He was unique," Dr. Kissinger said on Wednesday. "He had enormous energy, great imagination, and he knew how to get things done. He was indefatigable -- and lots of fun."</p>
<p>Although he often got by on only five hours sleep, Mr. Sisco had so much energy that he acquired the nickname "Jumping Joe." One Sunday in early 1966, as the Washington area was being buried under snow, Mr. Sisco received an urgent call at home concerning a political crisis in South Vietnam. Determined to get to the office, Mr. Sisco put on his warmest clothes and commandeered the only vehicle in the area that was moving: a snowplow.</p>
<p>Not afraid to be blunt ("He started every discussion by yelling at me," Dr. Kissinger recalled with a chuckle), he also infused his diplomacy with a personal touch. He liked to cook Italian dishes for foreign dignitaries in his home.</p>
<p>From 1951 to 1965, Mr. Sisco was a foreign affairs officer. In 1965, Secretary of State Dean Rusk appointed him assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.</p>
<p>In 1968, Mr. Sisco became the chief United States mediator in the Middle East. He based much of his diplomacy on trying to limit the Soviet Union's influence in the region, trying to persuade Israel to withdraw from Arab territory it had occupied after the 1967 war and trying to convince Arab nations that, their suspicions to the contrary, the United States was trying to be evenhanded.</p>
<p>President Richard M. Nixon named Mr. Sisco assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs early in 1969. That year, Mr. Sisco wrote a policy paper that became the basis for much of Mr. Nixon's Middle East policy.</p>
<p>Recognized as a tireless and tough negotiator, Mr. Sisco tried to use American influence to keep Syria's invasion of Jordan in 1970 and the India-Pakistan war of 1971 from widening. He also tried to help broker a peace between Israel and Egypt in 1974.</p>
<p>Mr. Sisco left government service in 1976 to become president of American University in Washington. During his presidency, private contributions to the school increased and a library was built. In 1980, he was named chancellor, a fund-raising post. He left a year later, citing his distaste for chasing after money.</p>
<p>In 1981, he became a partner in Sisco Associates, an international management and consulting firm that his wife, Jean, had started two years before. Mr. Sisco continued to express his opinions on foreign affairs in writing and in lectures and television appearances. Last June, he appeared on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and defended President Bush's foreign policy, including the invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>Joseph John Sisco was born in Chicago on Oct. 31, 1919, one of five children of Italian immigrants. His mother died when he was 9, and his father, a tailor and a connoisseur of opera, raised the children in modest circumstances.</p>
<p>In 1941, he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., where he also starred on the tennis team. Mr. Sisco paid for his schooling by working as a newspaper reporter; Sears, Roebuck salesman; bartender and laborer in a steel mill.</p>
<p>He served as an Army infantry officer in the Pacific during World War II, then earned a master's and a doctorate in international relations at the University of Chicago, specializing in Soviet affairs.</p>
<p>Mr. Sisco's wife, whom he married in 1946, died in 1990. Survivors include two daughters, Carol, of Riva, Md., and Jane, of Bethesda, Md.; and two brothers, Paul, of Bethesda, and George, of Broadview, Ill.</p>

<p>Diplomat Joseph J. Sisco Dies at 85</p>
<p>By Joe Holley November 24, 2004</p>
<p>Joseph John Sisco, 85, a diplomat who played a major role in then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East and whose career in the State Department spanned five presidential administrations and numerous foreign-policy crises, died Nov. 23 of complications from diabetes at his home in Chevy Chase.</p>
<p>In addition to his diplomatic career, Dr. Sisco served as president of American University from 1976 to 1980. He became a university president, he said, because he came from an impoverished background and wanted to acknowledge all that education had done for him.</p>
<p>As a State Department negotiator, Dr. Sisco was involved in diplomatic hot spots that included Syria's invasion of Jordan in 1970, the India-Pakistan war in 1971, and Egypt and Israel's peace negotiations in 1974.</p>

<p>A Chicago native, Dr. Sisco was the son of Italian immigrants. His mother died when he was 9, and his father, a tailor, raised the five Sisco children in modest circumstances.</p>
<p>He graduated from high school in 1937, briefly attended junior college and then transferred to Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1941. He worked for a short time as a high school teacher and then joined the Army, where he served as a first lieutenant with the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific. He was discharged in 1945.</p>
<p>At the University of Chicago, he received a master's degree in 1947 and a doctorate in 1950, specializing in Soviet affairs. He also played basketball as a scrappy 6-foot-1 center on the college's last Big 10 team.</p>
<p>He expected to pursue an academic career but felt he needed government experience before teaching and writing about international relations. He became a Central Intelligence Agency officer in 1950 and joined the State Department the next year.</p>
<p>From 1951 to 1965, he served as a foreign affairs officer, specializing in issues involving the United Nations and other international organizations. In 1965, Secretary of State Dean Rusk appointed Dr. Sisco assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.</p>

<p>His deep involvement in Middle East diplomacy began at about the time Arthur J. Goldberg succeeded Adlai Stevenson as ambassador to the United Nations. Because Rusk was devoting much of his time to Vietnam, Goldberg was, in essence, in charge of U.S. policy in the Middle East during and after the Six-Day War in June 1967. Dr. Sisco worked closely with Goldberg until the U.N. ambassador left government service in the spring of 1968. Dr. Sisco became the chief U.S. mediator in the Middle East.</p>

<p>On Jan. 30, 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed him assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs. Later that year, his policy paper on the Middle East became the basis for the president's Middle East policy.</p>
<p>As Marvin and Bernard Kalb explained in their book "Kissinger," Dr. Sisco's strategy involved containing the Soviet Union's growing influence in the Middle East, convincing the Arab states that the Nixon administration was being evenhanded and coaxing Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab territory.</p>

<p>In July 1974, as Kissinger's chief deputy, he was dispatched to seek a solution to the Cyprus crisis that erupted after a Greek-inspired coup deposing the country's president, Archbishop Makarios, triggered a Turkish invasion five days later. Shuttling between Athens and Ankara, he helped tamp down war rumblings between the two countries.</p>

<p>In 1981, he launched what he called his "third career," becoming a partner of Sisco Associates, an international management and consulting firm that his wife, Jean Head Sisco, founded two years earlier.</p>

<p>Dr. Sisco specialized in political and economic risk analysis for U.S. and foreign companies. He also wrote op-ed pieces and journal articles, made TV appearances and lectured. He continued to speak out on foreign policy issues until a few weeks ago.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 - Joseph J. Sisco, a hard-charging senior diplomat who helped forge America's Middle East policy in the 1960's and 70's and later became president of American University here, died Tuesday at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. He was 85.</p>
<p>The cause was complications of diabetes, his family said.</p>
<p>Mr. Sisco joined the State Department in 1951, after a year as a Central Intelligence Agency officer, and retired after a quarter-century near the top of the department's bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger so respected Mr. Sisco's encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle East and his relentless drive that early in 1974 he talked him out of resigning to become president of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Instead, Mr. Sisco was promoted to under secretary of state for political affairs.</p>
<p>"He was unique," Dr. Kissinger said on Wednesday. "He had enormous energy, great imagination, and he knew how to get things done. He was indefatigable -- and lots of fun."</p>
<p>Although he often got by on only five hours sleep, Mr. Sisco had so much energy that he acquired the nickname "Jumping Joe." One Sunday in early 1966, as the Washington area was being buried under snow, Mr. Sisco received an urgent call at home concerning a political crisis in South Vietnam. Determined to get to the office, Mr. Sisco put on his warmest clothes and commandeered the only vehicle in the area that was moving: a snowplow.</p>
<p>Not afraid to be blunt ("He started every discussion by yelling at me," Dr. Kissinger recalled with a chuckle), he also infused his diplomacy with a personal touch. He liked to cook Italian dishes for foreign dignitaries in his home.</p>
<p>From 1951 to 1965, Mr. Sisco was a foreign affairs officer. In 1965, Secretary of State Dean Rusk appointed him assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.</p>
<p>In 1968, Mr. Sisco became the chief United States mediator in the Middle East. He based much of his diplomacy on trying to limit the Soviet Union's influence in the region, trying to persuade Israel to withdraw from Arab territory it had occupied after the 1967 war and trying to convince Arab nations that, their suspicions to the contrary, the United States was trying to be evenhanded.</p>
<p>President Richard M. Nixon named Mr. Sisco assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs early in 1969. That year, Mr. Sisco wrote a policy paper that became the basis for much of Mr. Nixon's Middle East policy.</p>
<p>Recognized as a tireless and tough negotiator, Mr. Sisco tried to use American influence to keep Syria's invasion of Jordan in 1970 and the India-Pakistan war of 1971 from widening. He also tried to help broker a peace between Israel and Egypt in 1974.</p>
<p>Mr. Sisco left government service in 1976 to become president of American University in Washington. During his presidency, private contributions to the school increased and a library was built. In 1980, he was named chancellor, a fund-raising post. He left a year later, citing his distaste for chasing after money.</p>
<p>In 1981, he became a partner in Sisco Associates, an international management and consulting firm that his wife, Jean, had started two years before. Mr. Sisco continued to express his opinions on foreign affairs in writing and in lectures and television appearances. Last June, he appeared on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and defended President Bush's foreign policy, including the invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>Joseph John Sisco was born in Chicago on Oct. 31, 1919, one of five children of Italian immigrants. His mother died when he was 9, and his father, a tailor and a connoisseur of opera, raised the children in modest circumstances.</p>
<p>In 1941, he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., where he also starred on the tennis team. Mr. Sisco paid for his schooling by working as a newspaper reporter; Sears, Roebuck salesman; bartender and laborer in a steel mill.</p>
<p>He served as an Army infantry officer in the Pacific during World War II, then earned a master's and a doctorate in international relations at the University of Chicago, specializing in Soviet affairs.</p>
<p>Mr. Sisco's wife, whom he married in 1946, died in 1990. Survivors include two daughters, Carol, of Riva, Md., and Jane, of Bethesda, Md.; and two brothers, Paul, of Bethesda, and George, of Broadview, Ill.</p>

<p>Diplomat Joseph J. Sisco Dies at 85</p>
<p>By Joe Holley November 24, 2004</p>
<p>Joseph John Sisco, 85, a diplomat who played a major role in then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East and whose career in the State Department spanned five presidential administrations and numerous foreign-policy crises, died Nov. 23 of complications from diabetes at his home in Chevy Chase.</p>
<p>In addition to his diplomatic career, Dr. Sisco served as president of American University from 1976 to 1980. He became a university president, he said, because he came from an impoverished background and wanted to acknowledge all that education had done for him.</p>
<p>As a State Department negotiator, Dr. Sisco was involved in diplomatic hot spots that included Syria's invasion of Jordan in 1970, the India-Pakistan war in 1971, and Egypt and Israel's peace negotiations in 1974.</p>

<p>A Chicago native, Dr. Sisco was the son of Italian immigrants. His mother died when he was 9, and his father, a tailor, raised the five Sisco children in modest circumstances.</p>
<p>He graduated from high school in 1937, briefly attended junior college and then transferred to Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1941. He worked for a short time as a high school teacher and then joined the Army, where he served as a first lieutenant with the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific. He was discharged in 1945.</p>
<p>At the University of Chicago, he received a master's degree in 1947 and a doctorate in 1950, specializing in Soviet affairs. He also played basketball as a scrappy 6-foot-1 center on the college's last Big 10 team.</p>
<p>He expected to pursue an academic career but felt he needed government experience before teaching and writing about international relations. He became a Central Intelligence Agency officer in 1950 and joined the State Department the next year.</p>
<p>From 1951 to 1965, he served as a foreign affairs officer, specializing in issues involving the United Nations and other international organizations. In 1965, Secretary of State Dean Rusk appointed Dr. Sisco assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs.</p>

<p>His deep involvement in Middle East diplomacy began at about the time Arthur J. Goldberg succeeded Adlai Stevenson as ambassador to the United Nations. Because Rusk was devoting much of his time to Vietnam, Goldberg was, in essence, in charge of U.S. policy in the Middle East during and after the Six-Day War in June 1967. Dr. Sisco worked closely with Goldberg until the U.N. ambassador left government service in the spring of 1968. Dr. Sisco became the chief U.S. mediator in the Middle East.</p>

<p>On Jan. 30, 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed him assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs. Later that year, his policy paper on the Middle East became the basis for the president's Middle East policy.</p>
<p>As Marvin and Bernard Kalb explained in their book "Kissinger," Dr. Sisco's strategy involved containing the Soviet Union's growing influence in the Middle East, convincing the Arab states that the Nixon administration was being evenhanded and coaxing Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab territory.</p>

<p>In July 1974, as Kissinger's chief deputy, he was dispatched to seek a solution to the Cyprus crisis that erupted after a Greek-inspired coup deposing the country's president, Archbishop Makarios, triggered a Turkish invasion five days later. Shuttling between Athens and Ankara, he helped tamp down war rumblings between the two countries.</p>

<p>In 1981, he launched what he called his "third career," becoming a partner of Sisco Associates, an international management and consulting firm that his wife, Jean Head Sisco, founded two years earlier.</p>

<p>Dr. Sisco specialized in political and economic risk analysis for U.S. and foreign companies. He also wrote op-ed pieces and journal articles, made TV appearances and lectured. He continued to speak out on foreign policy issues until a few weeks ago.</p>