George H. W. Bush

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George H. W. Bush

White House Portrait
Order:	41st President
Term of Office:	January 20, 1989–January 20, 1993
Predecessor:	Ronald W. Reagan
Successor:	William J. Clinton
Date of Birth:	Thursday, June 12, 1924
Place of Birth:	Milton, Massachusetts
First Lady:	Barbara Bush
Profession:	Businessman
Political Party:	Republican
Vice President:	J. Danforth Quayle
Order:	43rd Vice President
Term of Office:	January 20, 1989–January 20, 1993
Predecessor:	Walter F. Mondale
Successor:	J. Danforth Quayle III
President:	Ronald W. Reagan

George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). Previously, he had served as ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973), director of the CIA 1976–1977, and the 43rd Vice President of the United States under President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989).

His son, George W. Bush, is the 43rd President of the United States. As a result, the elder Bush is referred with various nicknames and titles, including "former President Bush", "Bush the Elder", "Bush Senior", "Papa Bush", "Bush 41", or "the first President Bush" in order to avoid possible confusion between his presidency and that of his son. During his term of office he was known simply as President George Bush, without any initials, as his son had never held elective office and was not especially well-known to the public. Technically speaking, for official protocol, his son is "The President" and he is "President Bush". This will not change until his son leaves office. (Note that, because the son doesn't have "Herbert" in his name, the former President Bush and the current President Bush are not "senior" and "junior" but rather just father and son with very similar names.)

Personal background

George Herbert Walker Bush was born to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker. His father served as a Senator from Connecticut and was a partner in the prominent investment banking firm Brown Brothers Harriman. He was the first President to have two middle names, and the first President to be born in June. Now there are Presidential birthdays in each of the 12 months of the year.

George Bush met Babe Ruth as a student at Yale.

George 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 at Phillips Academy that Bush learned of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and after graduating in June, 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy.

He was a naval aviator during World War II, the youngest ever at that time. Awards and decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. While serving in the Pacific Theater as a torpedo bomber pilot, he was also shot down by Japanese antiaircraft fire and was rescued from the water by the submarine USS Finback.

After the War he attended Yale University where he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and was inducted into the Skull and Bones secret society, 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. They would remain friends and, at times, enemies, throughout their lives, though Coffin became a notable anti-war activist of the political left.

He married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945. Their marriage produced 6 children: George W., Pauline Robinson "Robin" (December 20, 1949–October 11, 1953, died of leukemia); John (Jeb); Neil; Marvin; and Dorothy Walker (August 18, 1959—). The family has built on his and his father's political successes, 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. 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 Texas oil business after the war with mixed results. He secured a position with Dresser through his father's investment banking relationship with the company. His son, Neil Mallon Bush, is named after his employer at Dresser, Neil Mallon, a close family friend. Dresser, decades later, merged with Halliburton, whose former CEOs include Dick Cheney, George H. W. Bush's Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War and now (2004) Vice President of the United States and former George W. Bush campaign manager.

Presidency

President Bush visited American troops in Saudi Arabia on Thanksgiving Day, 1990

As President of the United States, George Bush is perhaps best known 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.

In a foreign policy move that would come into question later, President Bush achieved an incomplete military victory, allowing Saddam Hussein to stay in power at the advice of Bush's "war cabinet," which included then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Cheney noted that invading the country would get the United States "bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq." Washington Institute Bush later explained that he did not give the order to invade Iraq because it would have "incurred incalculable human and political costs... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq," The Memory Hole, Snopes. In explaining to Gulf War veterans why he chose not to invade, he 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." fas.org

President Bush's popularity rating in America soared during and immediately after the apparent success of the military operations, but later fell due to an economic recession.

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. Several other factors were key in his defeat, including siding with Congressional Democrats 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. Another major factor, which may have helped Bill Clinton defeat Bush in the 1992 election was the candidacy of Ross Perot. Perot won 19% of the popular vote, and Clinton, still a largely unknown quantity in American politics, won the election.

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 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.

Major legislation signed

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Clean Air Act of 1990
• Whistle Blower Protection Act of 1989

Cabinet

Supreme Court appointments

Bush appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• David Souter – 1990
• Clarence Thomas – 1991

Post-presidency

The Bush family enjoyed a game of tee ball on the White House lawn on June 3, 2001.

After losing the election, Bush has retired from public life. After retiring, he did, however, notably parachute from an airplane for the first time since World War II. The Bushes live in Houston, Texas and their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

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 from his life (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.

(Left to right:) Presidents Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the Reagan Presidential Library.

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.

The tenth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier will be named USS George H. W. Bush when it is launched in 2009.

Five presidents and first ladies attended the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994, in Nixon's hometown of Yorba Linda, California. From left: Bill and Hillary Clinton, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Gerald and Betty Ford.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas was renamed after the former president in 1997.

He also holds his own fishing tournament in Islamorada, an island in the Florida Keys.

In 2000, he became the first president since John Adams to be father of another president when George W. Bush, his son, then Texas governor, was elected president of the United States.

On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named him and the other living former presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center. That same day, a plane enroute to pick him up crashed in Houston, Texas, killing three passengers.

Further reading

• 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.
• Bush, George H. W. All the Best, George Bush: My Life and Other Writings New York: Scribner, 1999.
• Duffy, Michail & Dan Goodgame Marching in Place: The Status Quo Presidency of George Bush New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
• Green, John Robert The Presidency of George Bush Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
• Hyams, Joe Flight of the Avenger: George Bush at War New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic Publishers, 1991.
• Podhoretz, John Hell of a Ride: Backstage at the White House Follies, 1989-1993 New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Related topics

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about George H. W. Bush.

Wikisource has original works written by or about George H. W. Bush.</div>

• Bush family
• U.S. presidential election, 1980
• U.S. presidential election, 1984
• U.S. presidential election, 1988
• U.S. presidential election, 1992
• George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas
• History of the United States (1980–1988)
• History of the United States (1988–present)

External links

• Inaugural Address
• Page discussing the scanner story
• George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
• [1] "Jet Crashes Before Picking Up Elder Bush (Washington Post article)

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