Cyrus Vance dies aged 84

US: The former US secretary of state and freelance diplomat, Mr Cyrus Vance, has died aged 84

US: The former US secretary of state and freelance diplomat, Mr Cyrus Vance, has died aged 84. He suffered for several years from Alzheimer's Disease, writes Patrick Smyth, Washington Correspondent

He is best remembered as a member of an extremely small group of secretaries of state - in fact, two - who resigned on principle. He resigned in 1980 over the decision by President Jimmy Carter to authorise a mission to free US hostages in Iran.

A quiet-spoken liberal, Mr Vance was a conciliator rather than an originator of new policy.

"A champion for peace and human rights, he was a superb statesman, who served me and other presidents well," Mr Carter said in a statement from himself and his wife. "We will miss his friendship, and the world will miss his humanitarian work and goodness."

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The Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said: "He was a man of principle, whose quiet contributions were often the difference between success and failure, as at the historic Camp David conference."

He resigned as secretary of state in April 1980 following the decision by Mr Carter to approve an attempt to free the 52 Americans who had been seized in Tehran.

Mr Vance believed the mission was ill-thought-out and could seriously damage diplomatic attempts to seek a rapprochement with the Iranians. He was proved right.

In accepting one assignment after another, Mr Vance was only doing what he believed was expected of him. He said: "A lot of us were raised in families where we were taught that we were very fortunate, that we were going to have a good education, and that we had the responsibility to return to the community some of the benefits and blessings we had."