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George Bush brought to the White House a dedication to traditional American values and a determination to direct them toward making the United States "a kinder and gentler nation." In his Inaugural Address he pledged in "a moment rich with promise" to use American strength as "a force for good."
Coming from a family with a tradition of public service, George Herbert Walker Bush felt the responsibility to make his contribution both in time of war and in peace. Born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924, he became a student leader at Phillips Academy in Andover. On his 18th birthday he enlisted in the armed forces. The youngest pilot in the Navy when he received his wings, he flew 58 combat missions during World War II. On one mission over the Pacific as a torpedo bomber pilot he was shot down by Japanese antiaircraft fire and was rescued from the water by a U. S. submarine. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action.
Bush next turned his energies toward completing his education and raising a family. In January 1945 he married Barbara Pierce. They had six children-- George, Robin (who died as a child), John (known as Jeb), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy.
At Yale University he excelled both in sports and in his studies; he was captain of the baseball team and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation Bush embarked on a career in the oil industry of West Texas.
Like his father, Prescott Bush, who was elected a Senator from Connecticut in 1952, George became interested in public service and politics. He served two terms as a Representative to Congress from Texas. Twice he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate. Then he was appointed to a series of high-level positions: Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
In 1980 Bush campaigned for the Republican nomination for President. He lost, but was chosen as a running mate by Ronald Reagan. As Vice President, Bush had responsibility in several domestic areas, including Federal deregulation and anti-drug programs, and visited scores of foreign countries. In 1988 Bush won the Republican nomination for President and, with Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, he defeated Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the general election.
Bush faced a dramatically changing world, as the Cold War ended after 40 bitter years, the Communist empire broke up, and the Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union ceased to exist; and reformist President Mikhail Gorbachev, whom Bush had supported, resigned. While Bush hailed the march of democracy, he insisted on restraint in U. S. policy toward the group of new nations.
In other areas of foreign policy, President Bush sent American troops into Panama to overthrow the corrupt regime of General Manuel Noriega, who was threatening the security of the canal and the Americans living there. Noriega was brought to the United States for trial as a drug trafficker.
Bush's greatest test came when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, then threatened to move into Saudi Arabia. Vowing to free Kuwait, Bush rallied the United Nations, the U. S. people, and Congress and sent 425,000 American troops. They were joined by 118,000 troops from allied nations. After weeks of air and missile bombardment, the 100-hour land battle dubbed Desert Storm routed Iraq's million-man army.
Despite unprecedented popularity from this military and diplomatic triumph, Bush was unable to withstand discontent at home from a faltering economy, rising violence in inner cities, and continued high deficit spending. In 1992 he lost his bid for reelection to Democrat William Clinton.
As President, Bush is perhaps best known internationally for leading the United Nations coalition in the 1990–1991 Gulf War. In 1990, led by Saddam Hussein, Iraq invaded its oil-rich neighbor to the south, Kuwait. The broad coalition, in an operation known as Desert Shield, sought to Pardons (December 1992)
Bush's last controversial act in office was his pardon of six former government employees implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal on December 24, 1992, most prominently former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Weinberger had been scheduled to stand trial on January 5, 1993 for allegedly lying to Congress regarding his knowledge of arms sales to Iran and concealing 1700 pages of his personal diary detailing discussions with other officials about the arms sales.
As Weinberger's private notes contained references to Bush's
endorsement of the secret shipments to Iran, some believe that Bush's
pardon was an effort to prevent an order for Bush to appear before a grand jury
or possibly to avoid an indictment. Weinberger's indictment stated that
Weinberger's notes contradicted Bush's assertions that he had only
peripheral knowledge of the arms for hostages deal. Lawrence Walsh, the
Independent Counsel
assigned to the case, charged that "the Iran-contra cover-up, which has
continued for more than six years, has now been completed." Walsh
likened the pardons to President Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.
Bush responded that the Walsh probe constituted an attempt to
criminalize a policy dispute between the legislative and executive
branches. In addition to Weinberger, Bush pardoned Duane R. Clarridge, Clair E. George, Robert C. McFarlane, Elliott Abrams, and Alan G. Fiers Jr., all of whom had been indicted and/or convicted of charges by the Independent Counsel. remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait and ensure that Iraq did not invade Saudi Arabia.
Bush claimed that his position was summed up succinctly when he said,
"This aggression will not stand," and, "This is not a war for oil. This
is war against aggression." On November 29, the UN passed a resolution
establishing a deadline that authorized the nations allied with Kuwait
'to use all necessary means' if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by
January 15, 1991. Fighting began on January 17, 1991, when U.S.-led air
units launched a devastating series of air attacks against Iraq, with
this operation referred to as Desert Storm. [13]
In a foreign policy move that would later be questioned, President
Bush achieved his stated objectives of liberating Kuwait and forcing
Iraqi withdrawal, then ordered a cessation of combat operations
—allowing Saddam Hussein to stay in power. His Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
noted that invading the country would get the United States "bogged
down in the quagmire inside Iraq." Bush later explained that he did not
give the order to overthrow the Iraqi government because it would have
"incurred incalculable human and political costs... We would have been
forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq".[14][15]
In explaining to Gulf War veterans why he chose not to pursue the
war further, President Bush said, "Whose life would be on my hands as
the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the
international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going
to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an
occupying power — America in an Arab land — with no allies at our side.
It would have been disastrous."[16]
President Bush's popularity rating in America soared during and
immediately after the apparent success of the military operations, but
later fell dramatically due to an economic recession.
U.S.-Soviet cooperation, fall of the Soviet Union, and a "New World Order" (1989-1991)
As the Soviet Union was unraveling, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
declared a U.S.-Soviet strategic partnership at the summit of July
1991, decisively marking the end of the Cold War. President Bush
declared that U.S.-Soviet cooperation during the Persian Gulf War in
1990–1991 had laid the groundwork for a partnership in resolving
bilateral and world problems.
""While at Yale, he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and was elected President. He also captained the Yale baseball team. A left-handed first baseman, Bush played in the first College World Series. As a Senior he was, like his son George W. Bush (1968) and his father Prescott S. Bush (1917), inducted into the Skull and Bones secret society in 1948, helping him to build friendships and political support.
George Bush married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945. Their marriage produced six children: George W., Pauline Robinson ("Robin") (1949–1953, died of leukemia), John (Jeb), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy Walker.
Bush ventured into the highly speculative Texas oil exploration
business after World War II with considerable success. He secured a
position with Dresser Industries, where his father served on the board for 22 years. His son, Neil Mallon Bush, is named after his employer at Dresser, Neil Mallon, who was a close family friend dating back to Skull & Bones at Yale in 1918 along with Prescott. Zapata Corporation was created by Bush and the Liedtke brothers in 1953 as Zapata Oil. (Authors Kevin Phillips, Daniel Yergin, and others suggest that Bush had undercover ties to the CIA at this time.) Dresser Industries, decades later, merged with Halliburton, whose former CEOs include Dick Cheney, George H. W. Bush's Secretary of Defense and later Vice President of the United States under George W. Bush.
In 1964, Bush ran for the U.S. Senate. In the Republican primary,
Bush ran first with 62,985 votes, but his total was 44.1 percent, not
the required majority. He was thus forced into a runoff primary with
Jack Cox, also of Houston, the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee,
who had 45,561 votes (31.9 percent) in the primary. A third candidate,
Robert Morris of Dallas, who had been a staffer to the Senate Internal
Security Committee and an ardent constitutionalist and "cold warrior,"
polled 28,279 ballots (19.8 percent).
Bush easily prevailed in the GOP runoff, with 49,751 (62.1 percent)
to Cox's 30,333 (37.9 percent). As the Republican nominee, Bush then
aimed his campaign at the incumbent Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough, making an issue of Yarborough's support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the time many Southern politicians (including the Republican Sen. John Tower of Texas) opposed the legislation on constitutional or libertarian grounds.
Bush called Yarborough an "extremist" and a "left wing demagogue" while Yarborough said Bush was a "carpetbagger"
trying to buy a Senate seat "just as they would buy a seat on the New
York Stock Exchange." Bush lost in a Democratic landslide but ran
considerably ahead of the GOP presidential nominee, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona.
Although Bush later became a leader of the Republican party's
moderate wing, at the time he was a conservative Goldwater Republican.
He campaigned for Barry Goldwater and against Nelson Rockefeller in the
race for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964. He also
supported prayer in public schools and opposed civil rights.
Bush did not give up on elective politics, and was elected in 1966 and 1968 to the House of Representatives from the 7th District of Texas.
In 1970, Bush relinquished his House seat to seek the Republican
senatorial nomination. He easily defeated conservative Robert Morris, a
defeated 1964 candidate, by a margin of 87.6 percent to 12.4 percent.
Bush expected that he would again face Democratic Senator Yarborough.
But former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen, a native of Mission, Texas,
defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary, 816,641 votes (53
percent) to 724,122 (47 percent). Yarborough then endorsed Bentsen.
Because there was no presidential election in 1970, turnout in Texas
was unusually low in the general election. Bentsen defeated Bush by a
margin similar to that in his primary victory over Yarborough. Bentsen
would later became the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in
the 1988 presidential election and, teamed with Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, would lose to the Bush-Quayle ticket; in 1993, Bentsen became Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration.
During his career in the USA House of Representative Bush was very
supportive of contraceptives and family planning. So much so that he
was known as "Rubbers". He was a supporter of Planned Parenthood, of
which his father Prescott had been the financial chairman. He
criticized Pope Paul VI for his encyclical Humanae Vitae which
reiterated the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to contraceptives.
After the 1970 election loss, President Richard Nixon appointed Bush to United States Ambassador to the United Nations, at which he served from 1971 to 1973.
After Nixon was re-elected President in 1972, he asked Bush to become Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bush held this position during the Watergate scandal,
when the popularity of both Nixon and the Republican Party plummeted.
Bush defended Nixon steadfastly, but later as Nixon's complicity became
clear he focused more on defending the Republican Party while still
maintaining loyalty to Nixon.
After Nixon's resignation in 1974, Bush was considered for appointment as the replacement Vice President, but new President Gerald Ford chose Nelson Rockefeller instead. Ford appointed Bush to be Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China. (Since the United States at the time maintained official relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan
and not the PRC, the Liaison Office did not have the official status of
an embassy and Bush did not formally hold the position of "ambassador"
even though he unofficially acted as one.)
In 1976, Ford brought Bush back to Washington to become Director of Central Intelligence. Bush served in this role for 355 days, from 30 January 1976 to 20 January 1977.[3]
The CIA had been rocked by a series of revelations about illegal and
unauthorized activities, and Bush was cred with helping to restore
the agency's morale and integrity.[4]
Bush has since commented that he did not particularly enjoy this
string of jobs, saying he never wanted to be a "career bureaucrat."
However, he based his subsequent rise to national prominence in
politics and campaigns for national office in part on the experience he
gained from this succession of appointments after his Senate defeat in
1970.
After a Democratic administration took power in 1977, Bush became
Chairman of the First International Bank in Houston. He also became an
adjunct professor of administrative science at Rice University
in the Jones School of Business in 1978, the year it opened. The
course, Organization Theory, involved lectures from Bush regarding the
organizations he headed—the Central Intelligence Agency, the National
Republican Party, a U.S. congressional office, the United Emirates
Mission to China, and an oil exploration company. Just months before
Bush hit the presidential campaign trail, the former president was
candid about his internal debate to enter the primaries.[5]
He also became a board member of the Committee on the Present Danger.
1980 presidential campaign
In the 1980 presidential election, Bush ran for the office, stressing his wide range of government experience. In the contest for the Republican Party nomination, despite Bush's establishment backing, the front-runner was Ronald Reagan, former Governor of California who was now running for the third time for President.
In the contest Bush represented the Republican party's eastern
establishment liberal-moderate wing, whereas Reagan represented the
conservative portion of the Republican Party. Bush attacked Reagan as
being 'too' conservative, labeling the latter's supply side-influenced plans for massive tax cuts as "voodoo economics."
Bush won the Iowa caucus to start the primary season, then told the press that he had "Big Mo" (or momentum). However, Reagan came back to decisively win the first primary in New Hampshire, and Bush's "mo" was gone.[6] With a growing popularity among the Republican voting base, Reagan won most of the remaining primaries and the nomination.
After some preliminary discussion of choosing former President Gerald Ford
as his running mate, Reagan selected Bush as his Vice President,
placing him on the winning Republican Presidential ticket of 1980. Bush
had declared he would never be Reagan's VP. Bush was many things Reagan
had not been — a life-long Republican, a combat veteran, and an internationalist with UN, CIA, and China experience. Bush was also more moderate in his economic positions and political philosophy than Reagan.
When Reagan chose Bush as his vice presidential nominee Bush had to
change his stance on abortion, previously he had supported keeping it
legal but after becoming Reagan's vice presidential nominee he was
opposed to abortion.
As Vice President, Bush was loyal to Reagan and kept any policy
differences hidden. Bush did not wield strong power within the Reagan
administration, but had some influence on Reagan's staffing and was
given some line responsibilities.[7] Reagan kept Bush busy on overseas diplomatic trips; Bush attended so many state funerals that he famously quipped, "I'm George Bush. You die, I fly."[8]
The Reagan/Bush ticket won again by a huge landslide in 1984 against the Democrats' Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro ticket.
During his second term as Vice President, Bush became the first Vice President to become Acting President when, on July 13, 1985, President Reagan
underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon. Bush served as
Acting President for approximately eight hours, most of which he passed
playing tennis.
When the Iran-Contra Affair broke in 1986, Bush stated that he had been "out of the loop" and unaware of the Iran initiatives related to arms trading.[9] This claim met with some skepticism, but Bush was never charged with any wrongdoing.
""America needs
to be more like the Waltons.
We know what
works: Freedom works. We know what's right: Freedom is right. We know how
to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on Earth: through free
markets, free speech, free elections, and the exercise of free will unhampered
by the state.
America today
is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we cannot help but love.
We know in our hearts, not loudly and proudly, but as a simple fact, that
this country has meaning beyond what we see, and that our strength is a
force for good.
We cannot
hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We
must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a
loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town
better than he found it.
Great nations
of the world are moving toward democracy through the door to freedom. Men
and women of the world move toward free markets through the door to prosperity.
The people of the world agitate for free expression and free thought through
the door to the moral and intellectual satisfactions that only liberty allows.
We live in
a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better. |
