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William Hyland, Who Guided Foreign Policy, Dies at 79

William G. Hyland, who helped shape United States foreign policy, particularly toward the Soviet Union, as a top-level bureaucrat and then became editor of the influential journal Foreign Affairs, died on March 25 in Fairfax, Va. He was 79.

The cause was an aortic aneurysm, his son James said.

Mr. Hyland, who lived in Vienna, Va., held high posts in the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and the White House. President Gerald R. Ford named him to a top-level panel to coordinate the intelligence community, and President Jimmy Carter chose him to represent the National Security Council on an interagency committee to guide relations with the Soviet Union.

In 1975, when the House Intelligence Committee accused Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger of withholding documents and moved toward holding him in contempt of Congress, Mr. Hyland defended him. Mr. Hyland brokered a compromise through which he personally briefed the committee on the contents of documents, but did not show them to representatives.

In a column in The New York Times in 1977, William Safire characterized Mr. Hyland as perhaps the most experienced presidential aide in determining what sensitive information goes into the Oval Office.
Read entire article at NYT