George H. W. Bush
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For other persons of the same name, see George Bush.
George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924), was the forty-first President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. Before his presidency, Bush was the forty-third Vice President of the United States in the administration of Ronald Reagan. Bush was born in Massachusetts to Senator Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. He became involved in politics soon after graduating from Yale University, serving as a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 7th district of Texas (1967–1971), the United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973), chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973–1974), Chief of the United States Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China (1974–1976), and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976–1977). After an unsuccessful 1980 presidential run, Bush was chosen by party nominee Ronald Reagan to be candidate for vice president. During his tenure (1981–1989), Bush was the first person ever to serve as Acting President of the United States. In 1989, Bush succeeded Reagan as president, defeating challenger Michael Dukakis. He is the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd and current president of the United States, and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida. Upon the death of Gerald Ford in 2006, Bush became the oldest living United States president.
Early yearsGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts[2] on June 12, 1924. The Victorian house where he was born is privately owned and not open to the public. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut shortly after his birth. George began his formal education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Beginning in 1936, Bush attended Phillips Academy[3] in Andover, Massachusetts, where he held a large number of leadership positions including being the president of the senior class and secretary of the student council, president of the community fund-raising group, the Society of Inquiry, a member of the editorial board of the school newspaper, the Philippian, captain of both the varsity baseball and soccer teams.[4] It is said that he was a member of A.U.V., or "Auctoritas, Unitas, Veritas" (Latin for "Authority, Unity, Truth"), an exclusive fraternity. World War IIAfter graduating from Phillips Academy in June 1942, he joined the United States Navy on his 18th birthday to become a naval aviator. After completing the 10-month course, he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve at Corpus Christi, Texas on June 9, 1943, just three days before his 19th birthday, which made him the youngest naval aviator to that date. After finishing flight training, he was assigned to Torpedo Squadron (VT-51) as the photographic officer in September 1943. As part of Air Group 51, his squadron was based on the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) 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 at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Shortly after takeoff Bush's aircraft made a forced water landing. A destroyer rescued the young pilot and his crew, although the plane was lost. On July 25, Bush and another pilot received credit for sinking a small cargo ship off Palau.[5][6] Image:TBF GeorgeBush.jpg
George Bush in his TBM Avenger on the carrier USS San Jacinto in 1944
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Captain-elect "Poppy" Bush as featured in a 1948 Yale Banner
After Bush's promotion to lieutenant junior grade on August 1, the San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. On September 2, 1944, Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger 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 Avengers from VT-51 encountered intense antiaircraft fire. While starting the attack, Bush's aircraft was hit and his engine caught on fire. Despite the fact that his plane was 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 USS Finback. For this action Bush received the Distinguished Flying Cross. During the month he remained on the USS Finback, Bush participated in the rescue of other pilots. 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% 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. Because of his 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. Marriage and educationAlmost immediately upon his return from the war in December 1944, George Bush married Barbara Pierce. Their marriage produced six children: George Walker Bush, Pauline Robinson Bush ("Robin," 1949–1953, died of leukemia), John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, Neil Mallon Bush, Marvin Bush, and Dorothy Bush Koch. While at Yale, he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and was elected president. He also captained the Yale baseball team, and as a left-handed first baseman, played in the first College World Series. Late in his junior year he was, like his father Prescott Bush (1917), tapped for membership by the Skull and Bones secret society. Some people believe that through this organization, also known as "the Order", Bush made connections with other influential people and families which would shape his career. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale in 1948 with a Bachelor's degree in economics.[7] Business venturesAfter graduating from Yale, Bush went into the Texas oil exploration business. He was given a position with Dresser Industries, a subsidiary of Brown Brothers Harriman, where his father served on the board of directors for 22 years. His son, Neil Mallon Bush, is named after his employer at Dresser, Henry 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. Campaigns for Senate and CongressIn 1964, Bush won the Republican Party's nomination for U.S. senator from Texas. His opponent was incumbent Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough. Yarborough made several personal attacks against Bush, calling him a "tool of the eastern kingmakers" and a right-wing extremist. Bush lost the general election. Image:George Herbert Walker Bush and Eisenhower 1.jpg
Bush with President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bush did not give up on elective politics and was elected in 1966 to the United States House of Representatives from the 7th District of Texas, defeating Democrat Frank Briscoe with 57% of the vote. Despite being a first-term congressman, Bush was appointed to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.[8] In 1970, President Nixon convinced Bush to relinquish his House seat to again run for the Senate against Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough, a fierce Nixon critic. In the Republican primary, Bush easily defeated conservative Robert Morris, a defeated 1964 candidate, by a margin of 87.6% to 12.4%. However, former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen, a native of Mission, Texas, defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary, 816,641 votes (53%) to 724,122 (47%). Yarborough then endorsed Bentsen. With Yarborough defeated in the primary, Nixon's support for Bush's campaign waned. 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. 1970sAfter the 1970 election loss, President Richard Nixon appointed Bush Ambassador to the United Nations, where he served from 1971 to 1973. After Nixon was re-elected 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, Vice President Gerald R. Ford became President, and Bush was one of the two leading contenders to be appointed vice president by Ford, but he lost to the other leading contender, Nelson Rockefeller. Bush had the support of many conservative elements in the Republican Party, particularly Barry Goldwater, against Rockefeller for the vice presidency. 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 People's Republic of China, 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 claimed the appointment was "a real shocker" and denied any prior involvement with the agency. Interestingly, initially Bush's confirmation as Director of Central Intelligence was opposed by many pundits and politicians still reeling from the Watergate scandal (when Bush was head of the Republican National Committee, and a steadfast defender of Nixon) and the Church Committee investigating whether CIA-ordered foreign assassinations were being directed towards domestic officials, including President Kennedy. Many arguments against Bush's initial confirmation were that he was too partisan for the office. The Washington Post, George Will, and Senator Frank Church were some notable figures opposed to Bush's nomination. After a pledge by Bush not to run for either president or vice president in 1976, opposition to his nomination died down. Bush served in this role for 355 days, from January 30, 1976 to January 20, 1977.[9] The CIA had been rocked by a series of revelations, including revelations based on investigations by the Senate's Church Committee, about the CIA's illegal and unauthorized activities, and Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale.[10] In his capacity as DCI, Bush gave national security briefings to Jimmy Carter both as a Presidential candidate and as President-elect, and discussed the possibility of remaining in that position in a Carter administration.[11] 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 USA Representative Office to China, and an oil exploration company. Just months before Bush hit the presidential campaign trail, he was also candid about his internal debate to enter the primaries.[citation needed] He also became a board member of the Committee on the Present Danger. 1980 presidential campaign and vice presidency
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Bush with President Ronald Reagan
In the 1980 presidential election, Bush ran for the presidency, 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 actor and governor of California who was running for his third presidential bid. In the primary election, Bush represented the centrist wing in the GOP, whereas Reagan represented the conservative wing. He labeled Reagan's supply side-influenced plans for massive tax cuts "voodoo economics." During the election, Reagan once famously described Bush as a "Brooks Brothers Republican," in response to which Bush opened his jacket at a press conference, smiling, to reveal a J. Press logo. 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 New Hampshire primary, and Bush's "mo" subsided.[12] With a growing popularity among the Republican voting base, Reagan won most of the remaining primaries as well as the nomination. After some preliminary discussion of choosing former President Gerald Ford as his running mate, Reagan selected Bush as his Vice Presidential nominee, placing him on the winning Republican presidential ticket of 1980. Four years later, the Reagan-Bush ticket won again in a landslide in 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, like the President, stated that he had been "out of the loop" and unaware of the Iran initiatives related to arms trading.[13] 1988 presidential campaign
In 1988, after nearly eight years as Vice President, Bush again ran for President. His challengers for the Republican presidential nomination included U.S. Senator Bob Dole and Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson. Though considered the early frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Bush came in third in the Iowa caucus, beaten by winner Dole and runner-up Robertson. However, Bush rebounded to win the New Hampshire primary, perhaps 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, 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. Image:George H.W. Bush campaign 1988.jpg
Bush campaigns in Omaha, Nebraska, 1988
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[14] 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. Bush blamed Dukakis for polluting the Boston Harbor as the Massachusetts governor. Bush also pointed out that Dukakis was opposed to 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, a man who had 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 U.S. 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 contributed toward the characterization of him as "soft on crime." These images helped enhance Bush's stature as a possible Commander-in-Chief compared to the Massachusetts governor. Bush 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 Martin Van Buren in 1836. Presidency 1989-1993President Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet Union came early in his presidency. That combined with military successes in Panama and the Persian Gulf led to a record-high approval rating of 89%.[15] However economic recession and breaking his "No New Taxes" pledge caused a sharp decline in his approval rating, and Bush was defeated in the 1992 election. Image:George H. W. Bush inauguration.jpg
Chief Justice William Rehnquist administering the oath of office to Bush during Inaugural ceremonies at the United States Capitol, January 20, 1989.
Foreign policyForeign policy drove the Bush Presidency from its first days. In his Inaugural Address, 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."[16] 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"[17] With these words President Bush gave the order to start the military action which would later be known as the Gulf War. PanamaOperation Just Cause was the U.S. military invasion of Panama that deposed General Manuel Noriega in December 1989. Involving an expeditionary force of 25,000 troops and state-of-the-art military equipment, the invasion was a large American military operation. General Manuel Noriega was at one time a U.S. ally, who was increasingly using Panama to facilitate the drug traffic from South America to the United States. In the 1980s, dictator Manuel Noriega was one of the most recognizable names in the United States, being constantly covered by the press. The deteriorating situation in Panama was a growing embarrassment for the Reagan Administration, which President Bush inherited. The military implementation took place under supervision of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Colin Powell who—as National Security Advisor for President Reagan—knew well the Panama situation and dictator Noriega. The invasion was preceded by massive protests in Panama against Noriega. Bush's Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney visited American troops in Panama right after the invasion. President Bush visited Panama with his wife in June 1992, to give support to the first post-invasion Panamanian government. Gulf War
As President, Bush is perhaps best known internationally for leading the United Nations coalition in the 1990–1991 Gulf War. In 1990, Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein invaded its oil-rich neighbor to the south, Kuwait. The broad coalition, in an operation known as Desert Shield, sought to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait and ensure that Iraq did not invade Saudi Arabia. Bush summed up his position 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.[18] On February 24, coalition ground troops attacked Iraq, and on February 26, Iraqi forces began retreating from Kuwait. Coalition troops pursued the retreating Iraqi troops into Iraq, to within 150 miles (240 km) of Baghdad before withdrawing. President Bush declared a cease-fire on February 27. 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. 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".[19][20] Post-Soviet breakup
After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev declared a U.S.-Soviet strategic partnership at the summit that July, 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.
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