The cause was pneumonia, according to a spokeswoman for the family, Ana?s Haase, who said he died at the University of Virginia Medical Center after having a heart attack earlier in the week. He lived in Charlottesville, on a 40-acre estate.
Mr. Eagleburger, a Republican who rose to prominence as the top aide to Henry A. Kissinger in the Nixon and Ford administrations, was candid in his confidential advice and outspoken in his public comments, particularly regarding his unhappiness about the Iraq war started by President George W. Bush.
Over a Foreign Service career that began in the early 1960s, Mr. Eagleburger became known for his dry, sometimes caustic wit, rumpled suits and reliance on a cane, forced upon him by a knee injury and a muscle disorder. Chronic asthma required him to use inhalers, though he continued to smoke.
He specialized in crises, often in Europe and specifically in the Balkans, where he spent seven years over two tours of duty. In the early 1980s, when he served as the ambassador in Belgrade, he was unable to keep Yugoslavia from dissolving several years later.
During the first Bush presidency, Mr. Eagleburger was second in command at the State Department under James A. Baker III, and because of his previous experience in the Middle East as Mr. Kissinger’s aide, he was sent on a delicate mission to Israel in 1991, at the start of the Persian Gulf war, which had been mounted to eject Iraq from Kuwait.
Mr. Eagleburger’s task was to persuade the Israelis under Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to stay out of the fight, even though Iraqi Scud missiles were landing in Israel. The United States was concerned then, as it would be 12 years later in the war in Iraq, that Israel not be seen as a military partner, fearing that such a perception would alienate Arab and Muslim states willing to help. His success eventually led to his appointment as secretary of state, the first Foreign Service officer to be so elevated.
“Lawrence Eagleburger devoted his life to the security of our nation and to strengthening our ties with allies and partners,” President Obama said in a statement Saturday.
Mr. Eagleburger had retired from the Foreign Service in 1984 and was earning more than a million dollars a year working for Mr. Kissinger’s consulting firm when Mr. Baker persuaded him to return to government service as deputy secretary of state in 1989.
When Mr. Baker agreed somewhat reluctantly to step down to become Mr. Bush’s political adviser in his faltering re-election campaign in August 1992, Mr. Eagleburger was named acting secretary of state and ran the department. After losing the election to Bill Clinton, Mr. Bush officially named Mr. Eagleburger to the post. He served from Dec. 8, 1992, to Jan. 19, 1993. Only one other secretary served a shorter term, Elihu B. Washburne, who took office under President Ulysses S. Grant on March 5, 1869, and left 11 days later to head the American mission to France.
Overweight and a heavy smoker, Mr. Eagleburger did not fit the State Department mold. Time magazine wrote in 1992: “The common image of a U.S. secretary of state is that of Dean Acheson, Cyrus Vance, James Baker — a suave WASP lawyer, slender and urbane, who probably rowed at Yale or Princeton. But Lawrence Eagleburger, the new acting secretary, looks like the Michelin Man with a cane.”
His demeanor disguised an uncanny diplomatic ability to manage the difficult art of diplomacy, however. And his wit was legend. Asked at a Senate confirmation hearing if he had ever in public or private pinched a woman’s behind, Mr. Eagleburger replied: “Can I divide that into two questions?”
David E. Sanger and Edward Wyatt contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 5, 2011
An earlier version misstated the given name of the wartime resistance fighter who led Yugoslavia as an independent communist state. He was Josip Broz Tito, not Josef.
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