Lithuanian president, 1998?2003, 2004?2009
"Adamkus" redirects here. For other people with the same surname, see
Adamkus (surname)
.
Valdas Adamkus
(
Lithuanian:
[?v????d?s
??d?m?k?s]
ⓘ
; born
Voldemaras Adamkavi?ius
; 3 November 1926)
[2]
is a Lithuanian politician, diplomat and civil engineer who served as the fifth and seventh
president of Lithuania
from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.
Adamkus' first tenure as president lasted for five years, from 26 February 1998 to 28 February 2003, following his defeat by
Rolandas Paksas
in the 2003 presidential election. Paksas was later impeached and removed from office by a parliamentary vote on 6 April 2004. Soon afterwards, when a new election was announced, Adamkus again ran for president and was re-elected. His approval ratings increased during this period
[3]
and become a highly regarded
moral authority
in the state.
[4]
He was succeeded as president on 12 July 2009 by
Dalia Grybauskait?
. He is considered by some as being one of the best Lithuanian leaders in modern history.
[5]
He was married to
Alma Adamkien?
, who was involved in charitable activities in Lithuania. Following the end of his term as president, Adamkus remained involved in international development, and is a member of the European Academy of Diplomacy.
Biography
[
edit
]
Valdas Adamkus was born on 3 November 1926, into a
Roman Catholic
family in
Kaunas
. He was originally given the name "Voldemaras Adamkavi?ius" but had it changed to "Valdas Adamkus" in 1955.
[6]
His father was one of the first heads of the Lithuanian Air Force School in the
Republic of Lithuania
. His uncle was
Edvardas Adamkavi?ius
, who was a general in the
Lithuanian Armed Forces
during the
interwar period
.
[7]
During his youth, Adamkus was interested in track and field. He also set the national record for running 100 meters.
[8]
As a young man, Adamkus joined the underground resistance against the first
Soviet
occupation of Lithuania in 1940. Under the Nazi occupation, while attending high school, he distributed an anti-German underground newspaper. In 1944, as the Soviets were invading Lithuania for a second time in four years, he fought against the second occupation by joining the
Fatherland Defense Force
, which was crushed by the numerically superior Soviet forces. He and his family fled Lithuania in order to avoid the second Soviet occupation.
[9]
He attended the
University of Munich
in Germany before emigrating to the United States in 1949. Fluent in five languages ?
Lithuanian
,
Polish
, English, Russian, and
German
? he served as a senior
non-commissioned officer
with the United States
5th Army Reserve
's military intelligence unit in the 1950s. In 1951, Adamkus married Alma Nutautaite. They had no children.
After
arriving in Chicago, Illinois
as a
displaced person
, he first worked in an automobile factory and later as a
draftsman
. Adamkus graduated as a
civil engineer
from
Illinois Institute of Technology
in 1961. While a student, Adamkus, together with other
Lithuanian Americans
, collected about 40,000 signatures petitioning the United States government to intervene in the ongoing
deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia
by the Soviets.
[10]
The petition was presented to then-Vice President
Richard Nixon
. Adamkus also raised concerns about other Soviet activities in occupied Lithuania to United Nations Secretary General
Dag Hammarskjold
in 1958, and to President
John F. Kennedy
in 1962.
[10]
Career in the United States Environmental Protection Agency
[
edit
]
He joined the
United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) at its inception in 1970, working in
Cincinnati
. In 1981, he was appointed regional administrator by President
Ronald Reagan
, and was responsible for all air, water, hazardous waste, and other pollution control programs in
Illinois
,
Indiana
,
Michigan
,
Minnesota
,
Ohio
, and
Wisconsin
. In 1985, President Reagan presented him with the
Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award
– the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a civil servant.
In 1972, Adamkus visited Lithuania for the first time in almost thirty years. He was a member of the official delegation from the United States attending an environmental conference in Moscow. As
perestroika
took root in the Soviet Union, Adamkus's visits to his homeland became more frequent. Valdas Adamkus served as regional administrator of the EPA for sixteen years, and retired in 1997, after twenty-nine years of service. Upon his retirement, he received a congratulatory letter from
President Clinton
and a Distinguished Career Award from EPA Administrator
Carol Browner
. EPA Region 5 presented him with the newly established "Valdas V. Adamkus Sustained Commitment to the Environment Honor Award".
Lithuanian presidency, 1998?2003
[
edit
]
Shortly after leaving the EPA, Valdas Adamkus moved back to Lithuania. Soon after his decision to run for presidency in 1998, he faced a legal battle in the Lithuanian courts. Doubts arose whether Adamkus was eligible to run for the presidency due to having spent over half a century abroad, raising the possibility that he might not meet minimum residency requirements. However, the court resolved the case in Adamkus' favor, and no other obstacles remained other than his U.S. citizenship, which he
officially renounced
at the American Embassy in
Vilnius
.
[11]
He was elected as President of Lithuania in 1998, defeating
Art?ras Paulauskas
in the runoff, serving from then until 2003, when he ran for re-election, but was unexpectedly defeated by
Rolandas Paksas
.
He returned to politics after the presidential scandal of 2003 and 2004, when his former rival Paksas was impeached and removed from office. In the
first round of the 2004 election
, held on 13 June 2004, Adamkus securing 30% of the vote ? more than any other candidate. Paksas could not run for office again, because a ruling from
Lithuania's Constitutional Court
disallowed him from running for public office and he was, therefore, unable to register as a candidate. A runoff election was held on 27 June 2004, which Adamkus won with about 52% of the votes against
Kazimira Prunskien?
. By 2009, he had served the two presidential terms permitted by the
Constitution of Lithuania
and was succeeded as president by
Dalia Grybauskait?
.
In 2003, Valdas Adamkus was named
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
for the Construction of Knowledge Societies. The Director-General of UNESCO,
Koichiro Matsuura
, noted that Adamkus was named as Ambassador "in recognition of his dedication to the Organization's aims and ideals and with a view to benefiting for the construction of knowledge societies from his wisdom and extensive experience in many of UNESCO's areas of concern, in particular promotion of social development, cultural diversity, dialog and international cooperation."
[12]
Lithuanian presidency, 2004?2009
[
edit
]
Foreign affairs
[
edit
]
Under the presidency of Valdas Adamkus, Lithuania actively promoted democracy in the formerly Soviet Eastern European and Asian nations. President Adamkus, together with President
Aleksander Kwa?niewski
,
Javier Solana
,
Boris Gryzlov
and
Jan Kubi?
, served as a mediator during
Ukraine's political crisis
, when two candidates in the 2004 presidential election,
Viktor Yanukovych
and
Viktor Yushchenko
, each claimed victory. President Adamkus recalled in an interview that "when I asked what we could do to help,
Kuchma
said the friends of the Ukrainian people should drop whatever they were doing and come to Kiev immediately.".
[13]
The next day international mediators met in Ukraine. The crisis was resolved after a new election was held.
Valdas Adamkus and his Estonian counterpart
Arnold Ruutel
rejected an invitation to participate in a commemorative celebration of the end of World War II in Europe in 2005. President Adamkus expressed the view that the war's end, in Lithuania, marked the beginning of a fifty-year Soviet occupation and repression. In response, on 22 July, the
United States Congress
unanimously passed a resolution that Russia should "issue a clear and unambiguous statement of admission and condemnation of the illegal occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1991 of the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania",
[14]
but Russia refused.
President Adamkus supports an active dialog between
European Union
member states and former Soviet republics such as
Georgia
,
Ukraine
, and
Moldova
, that are actively seeking membership in the EU. He expressed support for these candidate members during the
Community of Democratic Choice
in 2005, at the
Vilnius Conference 2006
, and on several other occasions.
Valdas Adamkus is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
Domestic affairs
[
edit
]
Valdas Adamkus enjoyed a very high approval rating in Lithuania. He was also recognized for the second time for his support of Lithuanian youth. President Adamkus was actively involved in government reorganizations in 2004 and 2006. In his 2006 State of the Nation address,
[15]
Adamkus stated that his top priorities were:
- Increasing public participation in the political realm
- Targeted and transparent use of the EU funds and opportunities for building a greater well-being in Lithuania
- Reforms in public governance, education and science, social support and health care
- The development of professional competence among civil servants, especially in assessing regulatory impacts
- Approval of a political
code of ethics
- Direct mayoral elections, and elimination of the
county system
- Construction of a new
nuclear power unit in Ignalina
- Legislation regulating the selection, appointment, and promotion of judges
- Controlling "
brain drain
" by supporting research and higher education infrastructure
Honours and awards
[
edit
]
National honours
[
edit
]
Foreign honours
[
edit
]
Honorary doctorates
[
edit
]
Adamkus holds
honorary doctorates
at universities in
Lithuania
, the
United States
, and other countries, including:
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Miles, Lee (2003).
The European Union: Annual Review 2002/2003
. Blackwell Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-4051-2986-2
.
- ^
Suziedelis, Saulius A. (7 February 2011).
Historical Dictionary of Lithuania
. Scarecrow Press.
ISBN
9780810875364
.
- ^
V. Adamkus i?lieka populiariausiu Lietuvos politiku (Adamkus Remains the Most Popular Politician in Lithuania)
, Baltic News Service (BNS), 22 July 2006,
Delfi.lt
. Accessed 7 September 2006.
- ^
Leonidas Donskis,
U?sikim?usios politin?s lyderyst?s arterijos (Clogged Arteries of Political Leadership)
, Klaip?da, 24 April 2006, Delfi.lt. Accessed 7 September 2006.
- ^
"Raimundas Lopata: Prezidento Valdo Adamkaus istorijos samprata (II)"
.
- ^
"Sportas ? neatsiejamas Prezidento Valdo Adamkaus gyvenimo palydovas"
[Sport is an integral part of President Valdas Adamkus' life].
Lietuvos olimpinis muziejus
(in Lithuanian). 3 November 2016. Archived from
the original
on 3 October 2017
. Retrieved
2 October
2017
.
- ^
Bartasevi?ius, Valdas (29 March 2014).
"Vyties Kry?iaus kavalieriai istorij? ra?? narsa ir krauju"
.
lrytas.lt
. Archived from
the original
on 20 August 2017
. Retrieved
20 July
2017
.
- ^
Mindaugas Augustis (19 April 2011).
"Knygoje ? V. Adamkaus sportinis kelias"
(in Lithuanian). sportas.info
. Retrieved
27 March
2011
.
- ^
Augminas (16 October 2006).
"Laisv?s kry?kel?s (XXX). Sedos kautyn?s"
.
Bernardinai.lt
(in Lithuanian)
. Retrieved
29 November
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Simas Su?ied?lis, ed. (1970?1978). "Valdas Adamkus".
Encyclopedia Lituanica
. Vol. I. Boston, Massachusetts:
Juozas Kapo?ius
. p. 16.
LCCN
74-114275
.
- ^
"Lithuanian Return U.S. Passport"
.
The Washington Post
. 26 February 1988. Archived from
the original
on 18 October 2016.
- ^
Roni Amelan,
Valdas Adamkus to be named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Knowledge Societies
, Bureau of Public Information,
UNESCO
. Accessed 7 September 2006.
- ^
Steven Paulikas,
A House Divided
,
Newsweek
, 24 January 2006. Accessed 7 September 2006.
- ^
"U.S. House of Representatives Passes H. Con. Res. 128"
.
jbanc.org
. Archived from
the original
on 7 March 2016.
- ^
Valdas Adamkus,
State of the Nation 2006
(PDF), Office of the President of Lithuania. Accessed 7 September 2006.
- ^
"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement"
.
achievement.org
.
American Academy of Achievement
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Fredriksen, John C. ed. Biographical Dictionary of Modern World Leaders: 1992 to the Present
(Facts on File Library of World History) (2003) pp 5?6
- Eastern Europe
. ABC-CLIO. 2005. p. 196.
ISBN
9781576078006
.
External links
[
edit
]
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