Vance Honored as a Patriot at Funeral
Former Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance was remembered as an old-fashioned patriot, a peacemaker and a humanitarian as dignitaries representing at least six administrations mourned at his funeral Saturday.
About 1,000 people attended the service at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan.
Vance, who was secretary of State under President Carter, died Jan. 12 at the age of 84 after battling Alzheimer’s disease. He was to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“It will be the end of a long journey that advanced the cause of peace,” former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger said in his eulogy.
Kissinger escorted Vance’s flag-draped coffin along with former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, former Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor, former presidential speech writer Theodore Sorenson, and Najeeb Halaby, father of Jordan’s Queen Noor.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, presidential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., former National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger and numerous ambassadors also attended the service.
After the service, Christopher, who had been Vance’s deputy, remembered his former boss as “an old-fashioned patriot.”
Albright called Vance a superb secretary of State.
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