US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s father Donald Blinken has died. Blinken’s parents separated in the 1970s, and his mother married an American Holocaust survivor, Samuel Pisar. The couple had met at a New York soiree. Pisar served as a lawyer and author.
Blinken’s first book, published in 1987, was about Europe’s plans to build a gas pipeline to Russia. While that situation may seem far away now, Blinken’s dilemma then bears some resemblance to the foreign policy challenges facing the Biden administration. Blinken also had stakes in the private sector. Prior to joining Biden’s political strategy advising firm, he was a partner at Pine Island Capital Partners. He later quit his private equity firm to work as a senior foreign policy adviser for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
Blinken was a highly regarded speech writer who worked for the Clinton administration. He met his future wife, Erin Ryan, while working in the Clinton administration. They were married in a bi-denominational ceremony at Georgetown University. In the wedding speech, Blinken thanked Bill Clinton’s voters for the election, and former-first lady Hillary Clinton was present.
Donald Blinken’s father, Antony Blinken, was a prominent member of the American foreign policy establishment. He had served in the State Department and the National Security Council. He was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) from 2001 to 2002, where he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq. He then served as Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. Blinken served in the US Senate until his death, and was close friends with Senator Joe Biden.
