Born in Houston, Baker attended the Hill School and Princeton University before serving in the United States Marine Corps.

in history from Princeton University in 1952 after completing a 188-page senior thesis, titled "Two Sides of the Conflict: Bevin vs. Bevan", under the supervision of Walter P.

Baker was a member of the United States Marine Corps from 1952 to 1954, attaining the rank of first lieutenant as a naval gunfire officer serving in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the USS Monrovia.

[6] From 1957 to 1975, he practiced law at Andrews & Kurth after the anti-nepotism policy of his family firm, Baker Botts, prevented him from being offered a job there.

[7][8] Baker's first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, was active in the Republican Party, working on the congressional campaigns of George H. W. Bush.

Originally, Baker had been a Democrat but too busy trying to succeed in a competitive law firm to worry about politics, and considered himself apolitical.

Though Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen in the election, Baker continued in politics, becoming the finance chairman of the Texas Republican Party in 1971.

In 1973 and 1974, in the wake of the Nixon administration's implosion over Watergate, Baker returned to full-time law practice at Andrews & Kurth.

According to his wife, Baker was "so anxious to get out of [his job]" that he gave some consideration to the prospect of becoming Commissioner of Baseball, but he ultimately did not pursue that.

[15] In 1985, Reagan named Baker as United States Secretary of the Treasury, in a job-swap with then-Secretary Donald Regan, a former Merrill Lynch officer who became chief of staff.

In May 1990, Soviet Union's reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited the U.S. for talks with President Bush; there, he agreed to allow a reunified Germany to be a part of NATO.

On January 9, 1991, during the Geneva Peace Conference with Tariq Aziz in Geneva, Baker declared that "If there is any user of (chemical or biological weapons), our objectives won't just be the liberation of Kuwait, but the elimination of the current Iraqi regime...."[22] Baker later acknowledged that the intent of this statement was to threaten a retaliatory nuclear strike on Iraq,[23] and the Iraqis received his message.

Before the US presidential election on November 8, 1988, he and a team of some Middle Eastern policies experts created a report detailing the Palestine-Israel interactions.

[28] Baker soon decided that Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer would be his principal aides in Middle Eastern policies.

When Bush was elected, he only received 29% of Jewish voters' support, and his reelection was thought to be imminent, so there was little pressure on the administration to make bold moves in diplomatic relations with Israel.

All serious issues that Palestine sought to discuss, such as elections and representation in the Israeli government, were delegated to Egypt for decisions to be made.

[28] In the meantime, Baker also tried to negotiate with the Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, in order to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and Syria.

[30] However, Baker has been criticized for spending much of his tenure in a state of inaction regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which arguably led to further infringements on Palestinian rights and the growing radicalism of Arabs and Israelis.

[37] In 1995, Baker published his memoirs of service as Secretary of State in a book entitled The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992 (ISBN 0-399-14087-5).

[38] In June 2004, he resigned from this position, frustrated over the lack of progress in reaching a complete settlement acceptable to both the government of Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front.

[39] He left behind the Baker II plan, accepted as a suitable basis of negotiations by the Polisario and unanimously endorsed by the Security Council, but rejected by Morocco.

[40] In addition to the numerous recognitions received by Baker, he was presented with the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award for public service on September 13, 2000, in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, Baker served as chief legal adviser for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election campaign and oversaw the Florida recount.

[42] In December 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Baker as his special envoy to ask various foreign creditor nations to forgive or restructure $100 billion in international debts owed by the Iraq government which had been incurred during the tenure of Saddam Hussein.

[43] State of Denial, a book by investigative reporter Bob Woodward, says that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card urged President Bush to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with Baker following the 2004 presidential election.

[49] Baker told his biographers that his preference for Trump was firm, basing it on his commitment to the Republican party and his feeling that, as they paraphrased, "it was worth it to get conservative judges, tax cuts, and deregulation.

"[50] Despite his consistent intentions, he did briefly question his approach in 2019, after considering the Democratic primary candidate Joe Biden to be a possible choice.

The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

[58] Baker met his first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, of Dayton, Ohio, while on spring break in Bermuda with the Princeton University rugby team.

[citation needed] Raised as a Presbyterian, Baker became an Episcopalian after his marriage to Susan and attends St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston.