Sandy Berger, national security adviser to Clinton, dies

WASHINGTON – Former national security adviser Sandy Berger, who helped craft President Bill Clinton’s foreign policy and got in trouble over destroying classified documents, died Wednesday.

He was 70. The cause of death was cancer, said a statement by his consulting firm, the Albright Stonebridge Group.

Berger was White House national security adviser from 1997 to 2001, when the Clinton administration carried out airstrikes in Kosovo and against Saddam Hussein’s forces in Iraq. Berger, a lawyer, also was deeply involved in the administration’s push for free trade, and in the response to al-Qaida’s bombing of American embassies in East Africa.

He was deputy national security adviser during Clinton’s first term, and had previously worked in the State Department in President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

“Today, his legacy can be seen in a peaceful Balkans, our strong alliance with Japan, our deeper relationships with India and China,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Bill Clinton, in a joint statement with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, called Berger a “terrific public servant” who “embraced our common humanity and advanced our national interests.”

In 2005, Berger pleaded guilty to illegally removing classified documents from the National Archives by stuffing some papers in his pants leg. He cut up some of the documents with scissors, for reasons that remain unclear. He was sentenced to probation and a $50,000 fine. He expressed regret for his actions.

Out of government, he helped found an international consulting firm that in 2009 merged with one run by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“He cared deeply about where this country was going and what we could do to solve problems,” Albright said in a telephone interview. “That was the basis of his life, was to make a difference.”

Berger is survived by his wife, Susan, in addition to three children and five grandchildren, Albright said.