Talk:James Baker as Secretary of State
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 | On 26 April 2026, it was proposed that this article be moved from James Baker as Secretary of State to James Baker's tenure as Secretary of State. The result of the discussion was not moved. |
 | A fact from James Baker as Secretary of State appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 June 2026 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 15:48, 26 April 2026 (UTC)
Did you know nomination
- The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 (talk) 01:14, 8 June 2026 (UTC)
( )
- ... that when he was Secretary of State, James Baker banned Benjamin Netanyahu from the department?
- Source: As head of the State Department under president George H.W. Bush in 1990, Baker said that Netanyahu, then deputy foreign minister, was barred from the building after saying American foreign policy in the Middle East was “based on lies and distortions.” “I barred him,” Baker said. “That may not be widely known.” The Republican administration’s snub of Netanyahu was reported at the time, but Baker’s comments provide an institutional perspective on the US-Israel relationship as reports surface of unprecedented tensions between the two governments.
- ALT1: ... that James Baker, as Secretary of State, became the first major American official to visit Albania? Source: "It was the first visit ever by a senior American official to this tiny Balkan country, which in March became the last in Eastern Europe to begin instituting democratic reforms." https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/23/world/300000-albanians-pour-into-streets-to-welcome-baker.html
- ALT2: ... that Mikhail Gorbachev defended James Baker's tenure as Secretary of State from criticisms by Vladimir Putin? Source: "President Vladimir V. Putin and other Russian officials have asserted that Mr. Baker ruled out NATO expansion into Eastern Europe when he served as President George H.W. Bush’s top diplomat. The West’s failure to live up to that agreement, in this argument, is the real cause of the crisis now gripping Europe [...}The issue was foreign troops in eastern Germany. “Baker’s statement” about not one inch “was made in that context,” Mr. Gorbachev said. “Everything that could have been and needed to be done to solidify that political obligation was done. And fulfilled.”" https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/us/politics/russia-ukraine-james-baker.html
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Claudia Aster inscription
Dizzycheekchewer (talk) 18:54, 1 May 2026 (UTC).
Article is long/new enough and hooks are interesting. There are no AI signs based on the work done in the article so far and copyright violations are minimal (pulls 38%, but I checked that source and the matches were org names, the long quote included in the article, and incidental mentions, nothing of concern). The hooks are interesting. Below are a few concerns before addressing:- 1. Medium is an unreliable source. Would you be able to add a better source?
- 2. ALT0 claims he was banned from the department, but the article says he was banned from the state building. Could you please rephrase the hook per the source?
- 3. Per MOS:LEADCITE and MOS:INFOBOXCITE, everything in the lead/infobox has to be mention and cited elsewhere in the body. Found a few instances where this wasn't the case: Kissinger's death in 2003, the dates January 1989 until August 1992, Bush's re-election campaign, his position as White House chief of staff, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 687, mention of Lawrence Eagleburger in the infobox, etc. Please make sure everything in the lead is found elsewhere as the lead is meant to summarize what is already cited.
- 4. I added several "Citation needed" tags to standalone paragraphs and sentences where the paragraph ended and no citation was at the end.
- Ping me when this is done and I can stake a second look. The rest of the hooks are cited and interesting. Morogris (✉ • ✎) 19:45, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
- Thank you for the fixes user:Morogris. I addressed the CN tags, the lead/infobox (I took the Kissinger mention out, as I don't know that there is a source that explicitly says that), and the Medium source. For ATL0, I imagined it as "the department" being a metonym, like "he went to the State Department today" would mean that someone went to the headquarters of the State Department (at the time, the building was called "Main State").
- ALT0a: ... that when he was U.S. secretary of state, James Baker banned Benjamin Netanyahu from the department's headquarters?
- Let me know if that's better or if you think it needs more calibrating. Thanks again! Dizzycheekchewer (talk) 18:16, 4 June 2026 (UTC)
