"Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush" by Jon Meacham, 2016.
With the recent passing of George and Barbara Bush, I felt
this was a good time to examine if my own past opinions of him were justified
or just clouded by the recent unpleasant, undignified approach by our current
president- or Dana Carvey’s hilarious SNL impression. And I will admit that he is much more
deserving of my respect than he ever actually experienced while vice president
or president. His calm, dignified, “kinder,
gentler” leadership would be so refreshing today but he also began many of the
negative campaign tactics that we see today.
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| Boyhood home in Connecticut |
George H.W. Bush was born to Prescott and Dorothy Bush in
1924 in Massachusetts, but grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. His father was an extremely wealthy
investment banker and his mother came from an extremely wealthy family, led by
her father, George Herbert Walker, another investment banker. George H.W. Bush
had three brothers and one sister who constantly competed against each other in
sports, school, business- winning was a big thing in the Bush family. The family chauffeur took him to grade school
each day until he was old enough go to an exclusive boarding school. Summers
were spent at the Walker compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. George was a slightly above average student
but always respectful and tried hard. In
spite of this massive wealth, he was raised by his mother with the idea that with
great wealth came great responsibility. (I
find that so refreshing that he did not let this family wealth make him
arrogant or lazy.)
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| Bush, his bros and Dad posing like frat boys, which they actually were |
During his final year of high school, WWII broke out and he
wanted to immediately enlist. However,
he was only 17 so he had to wait until he graduated and turned 18. He joined
the Navy to become a naval aviator and was one of the youngest naval aviators
in the war. He trained very hard as a
bomber pilot and was sent to the Pacific fleet in 1944. He completed 58 missions and received many
medals. During one mission at Chic
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| Thank you for your service. |
hijima his plane was shot and he
had to bail out over the ocean. His crew
did not survive and Bush barely did after being rescued by a submarine. Bush was deeply affected by the loss of his
crew and always remembered them. He was
discharged from the military less than 2 months after the Japanese surrendered.
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| Beautiful Barbara |
George had met Barbara while they were both in high school
at a dance at the Greenwich Country Club in 1941. Her family was also pretty wealthy- her dad
was the publisher of Redbook and McCalls magazines. They became engaged in 1943 when he proposed
during a leave from the military at the Walker family compound in
Kennebunkport, Maine. They married in
January 1945, while he was on another leave in a church wedding in her
hometown. She left Smith College after only one semester to get married. In many ways, Barbara reminds me of Abigail
Adams. A hardworking political wife who
rolled with all the punches while raising their 5 kids. A warm, kind,
approachable woman, Barbara was more loved and respected than Bush most of the
time. Their large family of
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This is so "Leave it to Beaver"
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four sons
and one daughter is a rock solid, loving group to this day. The Bush’s had
another daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of 3, a tragedy that
made them rely on each other even more.
Their marriage of 73 years is a record for presidential couples. Anyone
who ever saw them together could not doubt their total commitment and love,
ending when they died recently just a few months apart.
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| Who knew he was a hottie? |
George immediately entered Yale after leaving the service
and rushed to finish in just 2.5 years in order to support his new wife and
son, George W. He was a left handed
first baseman on the Yale baseball team and in the secret society, Skull and
Bones, like his father. After graduating with a degree in economics, he could
have gone to work as an investment banker with his father or family
friends. But George liked the idea of
making his own way (sort of) and had become interested in Texas while stationed
there. He moved the family to west Texas
to sell oil well parts for a family friend. After several years, George decided to start
an oil well company with partners, a project that was easy to get financing for
because of his family connections. He
founded Zapata Oil which drilled in the Permian Basin then began doing off shore
drilling. In the mid 1960’s he sold the company
and pocketed about $10 million in today’s dollars.
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| The tiny bike that Bush gave to Nixon for his pet rat, Halderman |
During the 50’s, Bush’s father was elected as a US senator
from Connecticut and became very close friends with Eisenhower. This exposure probably led to George’s first
venture into politics -a loss in the Texas US senate race in 1964. He had better luck in 1966, winning the congressional
seat from the wealthy suburbs of Houston and he was re-elected in 1968. Bush was a steady, conservative supporter of
Nixon while in congress, but he was a moderate on social issues like civil
rights and birth control. He ran for the
Senate again in 1970 but lost to Lloyd Bentsen, despite outspending him 3 to 1.
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He's actually listening to Willie Nelson
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For his loyalty, Nixon made Bush the Ambassador to the
United Nations for two years. Bush
developed a passion for foreign affairs and relied on building personal
relationships with people. The
connections he built during this role were important for the rest of his life,
although he had a stormy, uneven relationship with Kissinger.
Nixon asked Bush to become chairman of the Republican party,
just as the shit was hitting the fan about Watergate. Bush steadily played the role of defender of
Nixon and the party-- to his own detriment.
When Nixon resigned, Bush hoped to be named as Ford’s VP but instead was
sent as ambassador to China. He and Barbara
really enjoyed their time there and he made important
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He really did NOT want this job
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progress in developing a
relationship with China. A year later he was back in Washington as Director of
the CIA. This was kind of a crappy role
since the CIA was blamed for so much of the dishonesty about Vietnam. While he worried that this role would be
political suicide, Bush did a great job building its reputation back.
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This slogan sounds VERY familiar!!!
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After Ford selected
Dole as his running mate for the 1976 election and then lost to Carter, Bush
went back to Texas. He immediately began
prepping for a presidential run in 1980. Bush spent 1978-80 constantly speaking
and touring for votes, in a bitter battle of words with Dole and Reagan. While he finished a strong second to Reagan
in the delegate count, he eventually dropped out of the race, hoping to be
named Reagan’s VP. But most of Reagan’s
supporters thought Bush was not conservative enough and urged him to appoint
the outgoing President Ford as his VP.
Ford demanded a sort of “co-president” kind of role so Reagan picked
Bush. Bush was a loyal, hardworking
candidate and VP, careful to never upstage or contradict Reagan, a role that
occasionally earned him the reputation as a wimp. But his calm, steady presence
and assistance when Reagan was shot and during the upheaval in the Soviet
Union, were just what was needed. However, when Bush was implicated in the Iran
Contra crisis, he really did a weak, less than truthful defense of his role.
When Bush ran for president in 1988, he was plagued again
with a war of words with Dole and the televangelist, Pat Robertson. Since Bush was never a very inspirational and
articulate speaker, campaigning was difficult. (He almost never starts
sentences with “I”, a quirk that makes him sound brusque and unemotional). But he found a tag line that stuck (“Read my
lips, no new taxes”) and road that sound bite to victory over Dukakis. His campaign manager, Lee Atwater also used
some to the worst attack ads ever with the “Willie Horton” story of a convicted
killer furloughed by Dukakis. Bush’s selection of Dan Quayle as his running
mate was seen as political mistake but he never could back down from it.
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Makes me laugh every time
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During his term, Bush excelled at and enjoyed dealing with
foreign affairs. He developed a close
relationship with Russian president Gorbachev, developing trade and arms
treaties with him. He was a calming
influence as multiple communist countries fell. He also steered a steady US
response through the Chinese massacre at Tiananmen square and oversaw the
invasion of Panama to apprehend the dictator Noriega. And then the invasion of
Kuwait lead to a major decision, should the US allow Iraq/Saddam Hussein to be
the aggressor in the middle east? Bush
worked closely with the UN and many national leaders to spearhead the response
of
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| Back when we actually accomplished something in the middle east |
Dessert Shield (protecting Saudi Arabia from invasion) then Dessert Storm
(US and coalition forces invaded Kuwait and kicked out the Iraqis). The rapid and stunning success of removing
and destroying the Iraqi army was a huge boost to his popularity. But as time passed, Bush was criticized for
not removing Saddam from power. However,
that action was not sanctioned by the UN or our allies and risked even more
unrest in the middle east.
On domestic issues, Bush signed the American with
Disabilities Act, partnering with his old foe Bob Dole. He also signed the 1990 Immigration Act,
which led to a 40% increase in legal immigration, and he created NAFTA. He appointed the controversial Clarence
Thomas to the Supreme Court. But
basically, Bush was not big on the “vision thing” as compared to Reagan. He felt the country was pretty great and his
role was to not mess it up. However,
democrats
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Putting the country first by breaking a campaign pledge!
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held both houses during his term, so major legislation would have
been tough. But the deficit was contributing to the recession of 1990 and Bush
was forced to raise taxes in a compromise with Congress. He knew this was political suicide due to his
campaign pledge but felt the country needed it.
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Well he lost the broccoli voters.
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When he ran for re-election in 1992 against Clinton, voters
saw him as “out of touch” and “unemotional” compared with the dynamic speaker, Clinton. (Privately, Bush was always very emotional but
felt it was “undignified” for a president to be so personal.) Thanks to Ross
Perot splitting the Republican vote even more, Bush lost decisively to Clinton.
While he was crushed at losing, he and Barbara led an active retirement with
their large family, charity work, writing books and speaking tours. The Bushes also bought a house in College
Station, TX to work closely with his presidential library at Texas A&M
University. When his oldest son, George W ran for president in 2000, Bush 41,
as he was now called, was probably the most supportive dad of a president ever. He would give advice when asked but mainly
just encouraged both of his political sons.
While he did not always agree with George W (41 was more moderate), he
always publicly supported his son.
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41 and Clinton became buddies
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Through his 80’s, he continued to have good health and would
skydive every five years on his birthday.
But he began developing a type or Parkinson’s which required him to use
a wheelchair. He became more removed from politics and refused to endorse Trump
in the last election. Upon his death, he was buried next to his beloved Barbara
and their long-deceased daughter Robin at his presidential library.
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#couplesgoal
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