Baker was born and raised in
Connecticut. He served in the
United States Army during
World War II. After the war, he was educated at
Yale University, graduating in 1949, and the
Graduate Institute of International Studies in
Geneva. He joined the
United States Foreign Service in 1950. He was stationed as a political officer in
Belgrade 1951–52. From 1953 to 1956, he worked for
Voice of America as Chief of Yugoslav Broadcasts. He received
Russian language training in
Oberammergau in 1957 and was then posted in
Moscow as a political officer from 1957 to 1958. While vacationing with his wife in
Amsterdam, he was informed that he could not return to the
Soviet Union because the
Soviet government had declared him
persona non grata. Returning to the U.S., Baker worked in the
Bureau of Public Affairs from 1958 to 1960. He returned to the field in 1960, working in
Rome as a political officer and making a study of the
Italian Communist Party. Baker spent 1964 through 1967 working with the United States delegation to the
United Nations. Issues confronting the U.S. delegation during this time included the
Cyprus dispute (particularly the role of
Makarios III as president of Cyprus), the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, and the
Six-Day War. Baker spent 1967-68 teaching at
Harvard University as part of its International Affairs Fellows Program. From 1968 to 1970, Baker served as
Deputy Chief of Mission at the
U.S. Embassy, Prague. He thus witnessed first hand
The Two Thousand Words, the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the implementation of the
Moscow Protocol. Baker returned to the U.S. in 1970, and worked in the
Bureau of European Affairs until 1974 with a focus on Eastern European Affairs. In 1974, Baker accepted an appointment with the
United Nations, becoming Director of the
United Nations Office of Political Affairs. He held this position until 1977, when he became the U.S. representative to the
Food and Agriculture Organization in
Rome, a position he held until 1979. In 1979, Baker became the first Director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs, holding this office from August 26, 1979, until October 30, 1980. Baker joined the faculty of the
National War College and taught there until his retirement in 1986. Baker has been active in the activities of the
Atlantic Council. == Family life ==