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 (First Lady) |
George Herbert Walker Bush, GCB, (born June 12, 1924 in Milton, MA) was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). Previously, 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). He has run unsuccessfully twice for the United States Senate, three times for President of the United States; including once for his reelection to that office. A decorated naval aviator he 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.
From a policy standpoint, 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 mebonerans 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. His father served as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut and was a partner in the prominent investment banking firm Brown Brothers Harriman. His grandfather, for whom he was named, was George Herbert Walker, a wealthy businessman and important figure in American golf history
George 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 team, 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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
He 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. Zapata Corporation was created by him in 1953 as Zapata Oil. He secured a position with Dresser Industries. His son, Neil Mallon Bush, is named after his employer at Dresser, Neil Mallon, who became a close family friend. Dresser Industries, decades later, merged with Halliburton, whose former CEOs include Dick Cheney, George H. W. Bush's Secretary of Defense and, as of 2005, Vice President of the United States.
Congressman and failed Senate campaigns
In 1964, Bush ventured into conventional politics by running 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. Therefore, he was 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 a "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. In retrospect, it is difficult to imagine either Bush or Tower having voted against the landmark civil rights legislation, considering their later racial moderation. 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.
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. In that there was no presidential election in 1970, turnout in Texas was unusually low in the general election, in which Bentsen defeated Bush by a similar margin to that which he had achieved over Yarborough in the primary. Coincidently, 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 1975, Ford brought Bush back to Washington to become Director of Central Intelligence. 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.[1] In 1999, the CIA headquarters facility in Langley, Virginia was renamed the George Bush Center for Intelligence.[2]
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 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.
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, causing him to tell the press that he had "Big Mo" (meaning momentum). However, Reagan came back to decisively win the following New Hampshire primary, and Bush's "mo" was gone.[3] With a growing popularity among the Republican voting base, Reagan won most of the remaining primaries and the nomination.
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 |
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.
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.[4] 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."[5]
The Reagan/Bush ticket won again 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.[6] 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 compared to Reagan, surprised many by giving possibly the best speech of his public career, widely known as the "Thousand points of light" speech[7] 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 the 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 lead 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 was widely criticized as 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 (Lloyd 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 1837
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."[8]
Leading up to the first Gulf War, on September 11, 1990 President Bush addressing a joint session of Congres
- ^ George Herbert Walker Bush - WorldRoots.com, accessed February 26, 2006
- ^ The George Bush Center for Intelligence - CIA, accessed February 26, 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