George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush | |
|---|---|
| File:Georgebush.jpg | |
| 41st President | |
| In office January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 | |
| Vice President | J. Danforth Quayle |
| Preceded by | Ronald Reagan |
| Succeeded by | Bill Clinton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 12, 1924 Milton, Massachusetts, USA |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Barbara Bush |
George Herbert Walker Bush, GCB, (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). Prior to being President, he had served as a U.S. congressman from Texas (1967–1971), ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973), Republican National Committee chairman (1973–1974), Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China (1974–1976), Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976–1977), Chairman of the First International Bank in Houston (1977–1980), and the 43rd Vice President of the United States under President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989).
A decorated naval aviator, Bush is the last World War II veteran to date to have served as President. Bush is the father of the 43rd and current president, George Walker Bush. His father, Prescott Bush, was a United States Senator.
President Bush pursued moderate policies in both domestic and foreign policy. During the final days of the Cold War, he was responsible for managing US foreign policy during the delicate transition of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe from being communist states to being liberal democracies. He championed the concept of a New World Order where international law and global consensus would replace military and strategic confrontation as a means of accomplishing diplomatic objectives. This idea was exemplified during the Gulf War, when the US rallied a global coalition to reverse the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. In domestic policy, Bush's most notable initiative was the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, a controversial compromise with congressional Democrats that traded spending controls for tax increases, to balance the federal budget.
Early life
George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. He was named for his maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker, Sr..
Bush began his formal education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich, Connecticut. Bush attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts from 1936 to 1942, where he demonstrated early leadership, captaining the baseball and soccer teams, and was a member of an exclusive fraternity called the A.U.V, or "Auctoritas, Unitas, Veritas" — Latin for "Authority, Unity, Truth". His roommate at the boarding school was a young man named Edward G. Hooker. It was while at Phillips Academy that Bush learned of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
World War II: decorated naval pilot
After graduating from Phillips Academy in June, 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday to become an aviator. After completing the 10-month course, he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 9 1943, several days before his nineteenth birthday, which made him the youngest naval aviator to that date.
After finishing flight training, he was assigned to Torpedo squadron (VT-51) as photographic officer in September 1943. As part of Air Group 51, his squadron was based on U.S.S. San Jacinto in the spring of 1944. San Jacinto was part of Task Force 58 that participated in operations against Marcus and Wake Islands in May, and then in the Marianas during June. On June 19 the task force triumphed in one of the largest air battles of the war. On his return from the mission Bush's aircraft made a forced water landing. A submarine rescued the young pilot, although the plane was lost as well as the life of his navigator. On July 25 Bush and another pilot received credit for sinking a small cargo ship off Palau.
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After Bush's promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade on August 1, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. On September 2, 1944, Bush piloted one of four aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichi Jima. For this mission his crew included Radioman Second Class John Delaney and Lieutenant Junior Grade William White, who substituted for Bush's regular gunner. During their attack four TBM Avengers from VT-51 encountered intense antiaircraft fire.
While starting the attack, Bush's aircraft was hit and his engine caught on fire. He completed his attack and released the bombs over his target, scoring several damaging hits. With his engine on fire, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member on the TBM Avenger bailed out of the aircraft. However, the other man's parachute did not open, and he fell to his death. It was never determined which man bailed out with Bush. Both Delaney and White were killed in action. While Bush waited four hours in his inflated raft, several fighters circled protectively overhead until he was rescued by the lifeguard submarine U.S.S. Finback. For this action Bush received the Distinguished Flying Cross. During the month he remained on Finback, Bush helped rescue other pilots.
However, some people have expressed skepticism of the official story, asking if Bush bailed-out unnecessarily, causing the needless deaths of his crewmates. The primary witness against the official story are Charles Bynum and Chester Mierzejewski.[1][2]
Bush subsequently returned to San Jacinto in November 1944 and participated in operations in the Philippines. When San Jacinto returned to Guam, the squadron, which had suffered 50 percent casualties of its pilots, was replaced and sent to the United States. Through 1944 he had flown 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation awarded aboard the San Jacinto.
After this valuable combat experience, Bush was reassigned to Norfolk Navy Base and put in a training wing for new torpedo pilots. He was later assigned as a naval aviator in a new torpedo squadron, VT-153. With the surrender of Japan, he was honorably discharged in September 1945 and then entered Yale University.
Postwar: Yale, family, oil business
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. Joining the Skull and Bones a year after him at Bush's request was William Sloane Coffin, a fellow classmate from the Phillips Academy. Throughout their lives, they have remained friends despite political disagreement, as Coffin became a notable anti-war activist of the political left. (Bush father Prescott Bush also a member of Skull & Bones is supposed to have dug up the skull and thigh bones of Geronimo that are the keepsakes this club is named for. See story
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. The family has built on Bush's political successes, effectiveness as Rockefeller tributaries for four generations of Walkers and Bushes, and those of his father Sen. Prescott Bush, with his son George W. Bush's Governorship of Texas and subsequent election as president, and his son Jeb Bush's election as Governor of Florida.
The Bush political "dynasty" has been compared to that of John Adams and the Kennedy family. Bush's maternal grandfather was George Herbert Walker Sr., the founder of G.H. Walker & Co. and namesake of golf's Walker Cup. Bush's uncle George Herbert Walker, Jr. is the current head of the company. Bush's first cousin George Herbert Walker III is the U.S. ambassador to Hungary.
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.
Congressman and failed Senate campaigns
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 margin 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.
1970s appointive offices
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 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 credited with helping to restore the agency's morale and integrity.[4] In 1999, the CIA headquarters facility in Langley, Virginia was renamed the George Bush Center for Intelligence.[3]
Bush has since commented that he did not particularly enjoy this string of jobs, saying he never wanted to be a "career bureaucrat." However, had Bush not received this succession of appointments after his Senate defeat in 1970, it is unlikely he would have risen to a level of national prominence in politics.
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.
Bush was not above criticizing Reagan, 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 crowed to 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.
Immediately following Reagan's inauguration in 1981, the Iran hostage crisis came to an end with the release of the American hostages held in Iran. Conspiracy claims surfaced in the US, alleging Bush's involvement in delaying the hostages' release until after the election, but these claims were investigated and discredited by the US Congress as well as prominent press organizations.
Vice President
| Order: | 43rd Vice President |
|---|---|
| Term of Office: | January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989 |
| Preceded by: | Walter Mondale |
| Succeeded by: | Dan Quayle |
| President: | Ronald W. Reagan |
| Political party: | Republican |
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 had the distinction of becoming 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.
1988 presidential campaign
In 1988, after eight years as Vice President, Bush ran for President. Though considered the early frontrunner for the nomination, Bush came in third in the Iowa caucus, beaten by winner U.S. Senator Bob Dole and runner-up televangelist Pat Robertson. However, Bush rebounded to win the New Hampshire primary, partly because of television commercials portraying Dole as a tax raiser. Once the multiple-state primaries such as Super Tuesday began, Bush's organizational strength and fundraising lead were impossible for the other candidates to match, and the nomination was his.
Leading up to the 1988 Republican National Convention, there was much speculation as to Bush's choice of running mate. In a move anticipated by few and later criticized by many, Bush chose little-known U.S. Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. On the eve of the convention, Bush trailed Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, then Massachusetts governor, by double digits in most polls.
Bush, often criticized for his lack of eloquence when compared to Reagan, surprised many by giving perhaps the best speech of his public career, widely known as the "Thousand points of light" speech[10] for his use of that phrase to describe his vision of American community. Bush's acceptance speech and a generally well-managed Convention catapulted him ahead of Dukakis in the polls, and he held the lead for the rest of the race. Bush's acceptance speech at the convention included the famous pledge, Read my lips: no new taxes.
The campaign was noted for its highly negative television advertisements. One advertisement run by the Bush campaign showed Dukakis awkwardly riding in a U.S. Army tank. Bush blamed Dukakis for polluting the Boston Harbor as the Massachusetts governor. Bush also pointed out that Dukakis was against the law that would require all students to say the pledge of allegiance. Another, produced and placed by an independent group supporting Bush, referred to murderer Willie Horton who committed a rape and assault while on a weekend furlough from a life sentence being served in Massachusetts.
Dukakis's unconditional opposition to capital punishment also led to a pointed question during the US Presidential debates. Moderator Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis hypothetically if Dukakis would support the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered. Dukakis's response appeared to many oddly wooden and technical, and helped characterize him as "soft on crime." These images helped enhance Bush's stature as a possible Commander-in-Chief compared to the Massachusetts governor.
The Bush-Quayle ticket beat Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen soundly in the Electoral College, by 426 to 111 (Bentsen received one vote). In the nationwide popular vote, Bush took 53.4% of the ballots cast while Dukakis gained 45.6%. Bush was the first serving vice president to be elected president since 1836.
Presidency 1989-1993
Policies
Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency from its first days. In his January 20, 1989 Inaugural Address upon taking the Presidency, Bush said, "I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be taken."[11]
Leading up to the first Gulf War, on September 11, 1990 President Bush addressing a joint session of Congress stated: "Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a New World Order — can emerge: a new era"[12]
Tiananmen Square (April–June 1989)
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The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, June 4th Incident, or the Political Turmoil between Spring and Summer of 1989 by the Chinese government, were a series of demonstrations led by students, intellectuals and labor activists in the People's Republic of China between April 15, 1989 and June 4, 1989, leaving (according to Chinese authorities) between 400 and 800 civilians dead, and between 7,000 and 10,000 injured. An initial report from local hospitals put the number at around 2000.
Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989)
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Invasion of Panama (December 1989)
Operation Just Cause was the U.S. military invasion of Panama that deposed Manuel Noriega in December 1989. Noriega was a one time U.S. ally, who was implicated for cooperating with the illegal narcotics trade. The invasion was preceded by massive protests in Panama against Noriega.
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Gulf War (January-February 1991)
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 sought to 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..."[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.
- Arms control: START I, Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction
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NAFTA (1992)
Bush's government, along with the Progressive Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, spearheaded the negotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Bill Clinton signed in 1993.
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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.
Administration and Cabinet
| OFFICE | NAME | TERM |
| President | George H. W. Bush | 1989–1993 |
| Vice President | J. Danforth Quayle | 1989–1993 |
| State | James A. Baker III | 1989–1992 |
| Lawrence Eagleburger | 1992–1993 | |
| Treasury | Nicholas F. Brady | 1989–1993 |
| Defense | Richard B. Cheney | 1989–1993 |
| Justice | Richard L. Thornburgh | 1989–1991 |
| William P. Barr | 1991–1993 | |
| Interior | Manuel Lujan, Jr. | 1989–1993 |
| Commerce | Robert A. Mosbacher | 1989–1992 |
| Barbara Hackman Franklin | 1992–1993 | |
| Labor | Elizabeth Hanford Dole | 1989–1991 |
| Lynn Martin | 1991–1993 | |
| Agriculture | Clayton K. Yeutter | 1989–1991 |
| Edward Madigan | 1991–1993 | |
| HHS | Louis W. Sullivan | 1989–1993 |
| Education | Lauro Cavazos | 1989–1990 |
| Lamar Alexander | 1991–1993 | |
| HUD | Jack F. Kemp | 1989–1993 |
| Transportation | Samuel K. Skinner | 1989–1992 |
| Andrew H. Card | 1992–1993 | |
| Energy | James D. Watkins | 1989–1993 |
| Veterans Affairs | Edward J. Derwinski | 1989–1993 |
Supreme Court appointments
Bush appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
- David Souter – 1990
- Clarence Thomas – 1991, making Bush the first Republican president to appoint an African American Supreme Court justice. Thomas was nominated to replace Thurgood Marshall and add a conservative vote. However, a controversy was stirred up when Anita Hill, a previous secretary, accused Thomas of sexually harassing her in the workplace. Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee were televised for the whole nation to see. Thomas was able to get a chair on the Supreme Court by a very close vote.
1992 re-election campaign
The tail end of the late 1980s recession, that had dogged most of Bush's term in office, was a contributing factor to his defeat in the 1992 Presidential election. The coalition victory in the Persian Gulf War led to a feeling that Bush's re-election was a sure thing, but the economic recession led to Bush's becoming less and less popular. The precipitious decline in popularity was also due to a perception that Mr. Bush was "out of touch" with the American worker. One incident that led credence to this suspicion was an incident in which President Bush did not know how a supermarket scanner worked.
Several other factors were key in his defeat, including agreeing in 1990 to raise taxes despite his famous "Read my lips: No new taxes" pledge not to institute any new taxes. In doing so, Bush alienated many members of his conservative base, losing their support for his re-election. However, Mr. Bush raised taxes to address an ever increasing budget deficit, caused by the tax cuts put into effect by President Reagan, Bush's predecessor. Ironically, when campaigning against Reagan in 1980, Bush referred to Reagan's tax proposals as voodoo economics.
Another major factor, which may have helped Bill Clinton defeat Bush in the 1992 election, was the candidacy of Ross Perot. Ross Perot ran a maverick independent campaign, focusing on the budget deficit as a primary issue. Some conservatives and populists, disillusioned by the tax increase and continued increases in federal spending, supported him. Perot won 19% of the popular vote, and Clinton, still a largely unknown quantity in American politics, won the election with a plurality. Perot's social conservatism may have taken votes from Governor Clinton, however, so it is hard to tell what effect a protest vote such as Perot's may have had on the election. Perot did not win any votes in the electoral college.
Despite his defeat, George H.W. Bush left office in 1993 with a 56 percent job approval rating.[18]
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Post-presidency
Since his final election campaign, Bush has largely retired from public life. The Bushes live most of the year at their home in upscale River Oaks in Houston, with a presidential office nearby, and the remainder at their summer home Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Maine. He holds his own fishing tournament in Islamorada, an island in the Florida Keys.
In April 1993, the Iraqi Intelligence Service attempted to assassinate former President Bush via car bomb during a visit to Kuwait. However, Kuwaiti security foiled the car bomb plot. On June 26, 1993, the U.S. launched a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the attempted attack against Bush.
Bush has never written a memoir of his political life, and says he does not plan to. He has, however, published a book containing a series of collected letters (All The Best, George Bush, 1999), and co-authored a book on recent foreign policy issues with his former National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft (A World Transformed, 1998). He has given a number of paid speeches and participated in business ventures with the Carlyle Group, a private equity fund with close ties to the government of Saudi Arabia.
The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located on the Southwest corner of the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas was renamed after the former president in 1997. The tenth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier will be named USS George H. W. Bush when it is launched in 2009.
In 2001, he became the first president since John Adams to be father of another president when his son George W. Bush, previously Governor of Texas, took office as President of the United States. During his term of office, George H. W. Bush was simply known as President George Bush, since his son had never held elective office and was not especially well-known to the public. He is now referred to by various nicknames and titles, including "Former President Bush," "Bush the Elder," "the first President Bush," "Bush 41," "Papa Bush," and simply "41", in order to avoid confusion between his presidency and that of his son. Although the names of the two men are similar, they are not identical — George W. Bush lacks his father's middle name Herbert — so they are not known as "senior" and "junior."
On June 12, 2004, he went skydiving in honor of his 80th birthday. It was his third parachute jump since World War II. He also made a jump on June 9, 1999, before his 75th birthday, and told reporters then he had also parachuted in Arizona two years earlier. The day before his 80th birthday jump, he and his son both took part in eulogizing his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, at the latter's state funeral.
On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Bush and the other living former presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.
On January 3 2005, Bush and Bill Clinton were named by the current President Bush to lead a nationwide campaign to help the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Bush and Clinton both appeared on the Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show on Fox in support of their bipartisan effort to raise money for relief of the disaster through the USA Freedom Corps, an action which Bush described as "transcending politics." Thirteen days later, they both traveled to the affected areas to see how the relief efforts are going.
In August 31, 2005, following the devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, Bush again teamed with Clinton to coordinate private relief donations. Reports were common that Bush and Clinton had developed a friendship by now, despite the latter having defeated the former in the 1992 election. (Such friendships were not unknown, as Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter had developed one despite a similar history.)
Bush and his wife Barbara could also be seen sitting in the front row behind home plate at Minute Maid Park in Houston, supporting the Houston Astros during the 2005 World Series. This is something the couple has enjoyed doing for several years and continue to do.
Trivia
- He was the first President to have two middle names.
- On January 8, 1992, Bush vomited on the lap of the Prime Minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa, during a state dinner. He then fainted. The incident, which Bush claimed was nothing more than the flu, was caught on camera and raised questions about his health, in addition to being a major source of embarrassment. The Japanese named a verb for this incident: "bushu-suru", meaning "to commit an instance of embarrassing public vomiting", or literally "to do the Bush thing".[19]
- On October 22, 1994, Bush appeared on Saturday Night Live, via satellite. He joined guest host Dana Carvey as the latter did his trademark impression of Bush.
- Bush is one of two former presidents to be given the honorary title Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) by Queen Elizabeth II.
- G.H.W. Bush is the only president to have been CIA director, and the only president to have been ambassador to the People's Republic of China.
- G.H.W. Bush is the only president to have been a World War II U.S. Navy combat aviator. He was the last U.S. President to have been a veteran of that war.
- In the television series The Simpsons' seventh-season episode "Two Bad Neighbors", the character George H. W. Bush was featured. He, Mrs. Bush and Bart Simpson interacted in a manner modeled on the relationships between Dennis The Menace Mitchell and Mr. & Mrs. Wilson. Furthermore, he was (before the dissolution) a member of the Stonecutters world council alongside Orville Redenbacher, Mr. T and Jack Nicholson. He is currently a member of the Ancient Society of No-Homers.
- Bush was diagnosed with Graves disease in 1991.
- There was a Bush or Bob Dole on EVERY Republican presidential ticket from 1976 to 2004. (Ford-Dole, Reagan-Bush, Reagan-Bush, Bush-Quayle, Bush-Quayle, Dole-Kemp, Bush-Cheney, Bush-Cheney).
- G.H.W. Bush was the first president born in June, according to the Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (2001 edition), and now presidents have been born in all 12 months.
- Bush banned broccoli from the White House and Air Force One: "I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!" This spawned a routine on the TV show Histeria which portrayed him doing a Green Eggs and Ham-type routine. Also, because of this, an article was printed in Taste of Home magazine for February and March 1998 that talked about a Presidential theme party whose menus said, "No broccoli permitted."
- Bush was the first serving vice president to be elected president since 1837.
References
- O'Brien, Cormac. Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents. Quirk Books (2004). Philadelphia, PA. ISBN 1-931686-57-2. pp. 251-255.
Notes
- ^ http://users.aristotle.net/~mstandridge/ckbrnsn2.htm
- ^ http://www.the7thfire.com/bush6.htm
- ^ a b The George Bush Center for Intelligence - CIA, accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ George Herbert Walker Bush - WorldRoots.com, accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ Rice University: Fact or Fiction? - accessed May 9, 2006
- ^ Expectations, momentum, fatal mistakes - Tom Curry, MSNBC, January 15, 2004
- ^ The Vice Presidency Grows Up - Alvin S. Felzenberg, PolicyReview.com, accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ George Herbert Walker Bush - WorldRoots.com, accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ Transcript - New York Times, June 30, 1997
- ^ George H.W. Bush: 1988 Republican National Convention Acceptance Address - transcript, speech delivered August 18, 1988, Superdome, New Orleans
- ^ George H.W. Bush: Inagural Address - transcript, speech delivered January 20, 1989
- ^ George H.W. Bush: Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the Persian Gulf Crisis and the Federal Budget Deficit - transcript, speech delivered September 11, 1990
- ^ After the Storm, Anthony H. Cordesman
- ^ Reasons Not to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr. - The Memory Hole, accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ A Word Transformed - accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ Bush tells Gulf vets why Hussein left in Baghdad - S. H. Kelly, United States Army News Center, March 3, 1999
- ^ Transcripts from Malta Summit - CNN
- ^ Poll: Clinton Legacy Mixed - Gary Langer, ABC News, January 17, 2001
- ^ Open Mic - Scandal Scope - Richard von Busack, Metroactive Features, accessed February 26, 2006
Further reading
- Tarpley, Webster G. and Chaitkin, Anton. 2004. George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography. Tree of life publications.
- Barilleaux, Ryan J. and Mary E. Stuckey, eds. Leadership and the Bush Presidency: Prudence or Drift in an Era of Change. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1992.
- Stephen J. Ducat. 2004. The Wimp Factor. Boston: Beacon Press.
- Bush, George H. W., 1999. All the Best: George Bush: My Life and Other Writings. New York: Scribner.
- Duffy, Michail & Dan Goodgame 1992. Marching in Place: The Status Quo Presidency of George Bush. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Green, John Robert. 2000. The Presidency of George Bush. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
- Hyams, Joe. 1991. Flight of the Avenger: George Bush at War. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic Publishers.
- Kelley, Kitty. 2004, 2005. The Family: The True Story of the Bush Dynasty. Doubleday, Anchor.[1]
- Podhoretz, John. 1993. Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies, 1989-1993. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Jean Edward Smith. 1992. George Bush's War. New York: Henry Holt & Company.
See also
- October surprise conspiracy
- Iran hostage crisis
- Ken Taylor
- Iran Contra
- George Bush family conspiracy theory
- Fahrenheit 9/11 controversy
- Fahrenheit 9/11½ Sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11
- Michael Moore
- U.S. presidential election, 1980
- U.S. presidential election, 1988
- U.S. presidential election, 1992
External links
- Inaugural Address
- The American Presidency Project at UCSB: The Most Comprehensive Resource on the Web
- Audio recordings of Bush's speeches
- Page discussing the scanner story
- George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
- Remote Viewing Timeline
- George Bush's political donations
- White House biography
- Medical and Health History of George H. W. Bush
- Works by George Bush at Project Gutenberg
- 1924 births
- Alpha Phi Omega honorary brothers
- Ambassadors of the United States
- American World War II veterans
- Bonesmen
- Bush family
- Delta Kappa Epsilon brothers
- Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency
- Episcopalians
- George H.W. Bush
- Knights Grand Cross of the Bath
- Living people
- Members of the Trilateral Commission
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas
- Naval aviators
- People from Connecticut
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- People from Massachusetts
- Phi Beta Kappa members
- Phillips Academy alumni
- Presidents of the United States
- Pro-gun politicians
- Pro-life politicians
- Recipients of US Distinguished Flying Cross
- Republican National Committee chairmen
- Republican Party (United States) presidential nominees
- Republican Party (United States) vice presidential nominees
- Silver Buffalo awardees
- Texas politicians
- Time Magazine Person of the Year
- United States Navy officers
- United States Senate candidates
- Vice Presidents of the United States
- Yale College alumni