Reginald Bartholomew, a diplomat and ambassador who has served four presidents, negotiated nuclear disarmament with the Soviet Union and for the protection of U.S. military bases in Europe and survived an assassination attempt when he was ambassador to Lebanon in 1984, died Sunday in Manhattan.
The cause was cancer, said his wife, Rose Anne.
Mr. Bartholomew had spent 15 years advising presidents and secretaries of state, and parachuting in places like Moscow and Cyprus to extinguish fires diplomatic when he received his first assignment as ambassador in 1983, in Lebanon.
It was a refined political detachment. The day after arriving this October, the Marine barracks was bombed by terrorists, killing 241 people. Mr. Bartholomew was shot the scene the next day, his job complete.
The violence increased pressure from the U.S. to withdraw its troops. Mr. Bartholomew argued strongly against the idea. President Reagan delay the deportation order until February 1984.
In the same year, terrorists bombed the U.S. Embassy in East Beirut about new construction that was built to replace a bombed last year. Nine people were killed. Mr. Bartholomew was removed from the rubble, but not seriously injured, needed stitches and a cast on his arm.
Mr. Bartholomew has been in Lebanon for two years and was often forced to leave for security reasons. His followers often met firearm during a trip to the country with their personal safety "militia" as he and the name of his wife, leaning over the car windows with automatic weapons to return fire.
George P. Shultz, secretary of state at the time, of which Mr. Bartholomew as "the best" in the diplomatic corps.
In 1986, Mr. Bartholomew was appointed ambassador to Spain, where he led negotiations to maintain a military presence greatly reduced. He had worked in similar negotiations before and after would, in its final place, Italy, where he served as ambassador in 1993 and 1997.
"It's been very difficult," said Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times reporter, who also worked with Mr. Bartholomew Departments of Defense and State. "We wanted the basics, and foreign leaders wanted to prove that they were tough. They do not want their people to believe in the United States of its property."
He added, referring to Mr. Bartholomew:. "It would have been impolite, and a lot of diplomats are not so clumsy said:" I know you have your political problems, but try to find ways to keep the bases and deal with their political problems. '"
In 1964 took positions in government and in European education at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Mr. Gelb was teaching there at the time, and they became friends.
Mr. Gelb went to work as a political consultant for the Pentagon in 1967, and convinced Mr. Bartholomew to join them next year. Both then moved to and from different departments in different roles, with Mr. Bartholomew works at the National Security Council during the Carter administration and was succeeded by Mr. Gelb as director of political-military affairs at the Department of State.
Mr. Bartholomew has played a key role in the SALT II arms limitation with the Soviet Union in 1979. After his stay in Spain, he returned to Washington to serve as Secretary of Security Affairs with Secretary of State James A. Baker III.
Years before, Mr. Bartholomew was an assistant secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. A senior military official said Mr. Kissinger requested Mr. Bartholomew meetings in European politics.
"I realized quickly," the official said in an email to Mr. Gelb, "was an indispensable man."
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