George H.W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush (Milton, Massachusetts, June 12, 1924 – Houston, Texas, November 30, 2018) was an American politician and the 41st President of the United States United States from 1989 to 1993. He was previously the 43rd.er Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989, and was also a congressman, ambassador, and director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush put off going to college, enlisted in the United States Navy on his 18th birthday, and became the youngest naval aviator in the Navy at the time. in the Navy until the war ended, and then he went to Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil industry, becoming a millionaire at the age of 40.
He became involved in politics shortly after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives, among other positions. He unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in the 1980 elections, although he was chosen by Ronald Reagan to be the United States Vice Presidential nominee, and both were elected as President and Vice President respectively. During his tenure, Bush led the administration's anti-drug forces.
In the 1988 United States presidential election, Bush launched a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as president, defeating his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis. International politics was one of the main pillars during the Bush presidency. During his rule, military operations were carried out in Panama and the Persian Gulf while the world was changing: the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on one of his promises, namely not to create new types of taxes, and after a fight with Congress, he signed a tax increase that was finally approved. Due to financial concerns, he lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton.
Bush was the father of George W. Bush, the 43rder president of the United States, and Jeb Bush, 43.er Governor of Florida. He was the last World War II veteran president. Until his son's election as president in 2000, Bush was commonly referred to simply as "George Bush" but, since that year, the forms "George H.W. Bush," "Bush 41," and "George Bush Sr." have been commonly used to distinguish the father from the son, also being called "Bush father".
His Presidential Library and Museum was established in College Station, Texas.
Early Years
Birth and education
George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton on June 12, 1924, the son of Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. The Bush family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth.
Bush began his education at Greenwich County College. Beginning in 1936, it was Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he held a number of leadership positions, including senior class president, school board secretary, a member of the editorial staff for the school newspaper, and team captain. baseball and American football.
World War II
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After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy in early 1942, he became a naval aviator at the age of 18. After completing the 10-month course, he was commissioned as an ensign at the United States Naval Residence in Corpus Christi, Texas, on June 9, 1943, three days before his 19th birthday, making him the naval aviator younger then.
He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron (VT-51) as the photo officer in September 1943. The following year, his squadron was based on the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30). Serving as a member of the 51st Air Group, his gangly physique earned him the nickname 'Skin'. During that time, the task force was victorious in one of the largest air battles in the World War II: Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Following Bush's promotion to junior lieutenant on August 1, 1944, the San Jacinto began operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. Bush piloted one of the four VT-51 Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft that attacked the Japanese installations at Chichijima. His crew for the mission, which took place on 2 September 1944, included Radioman 2nd Class John Delaney and 2nd Lieutenant William White. During the attack, the Avenger was met with flak. Although Bush's plane was hit by enemy fire, the young lieutenant was able to carry out his mission and bomb the Japanese troops. After reaching his goal and despite severe damage to his aircraft, the young pilot managed to fly far enough to get several miles from the island before his plane crashed into the sea. During the fall, Bush was able to parachute out and was later rescued by the crew of the submarine USS Finback (SS-230). However, he was the only survivor of that splashdown, the rest of his companions either died in the fall or were captured by the Japanese and later executed.
Shortly after these events, Bush returned to the San Jacinto in November of that same year until his squadron was replaced and sent back to the United States, where he would continue to help the war effort by training new pilots at the Naval Base. of Norfolk until the Japanese surrender in 1945 and his honorable discharge in September of that year.
After World War II
George Bush married Barbara Pierce (1925-2018) on January 6, 1945 just weeks after returning from the Pacific War during World War II. His first residence would be a small apartment in Trenton, Michigan, near Bush's assigned air base. The couple would have six children: George W. Bush (1946), Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (1949-1953, died of leukemia), John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (1953, former Governor of Florida), Neil Mallon Pierce Bush (1955), Marvin Pierce Bush (1956) and Dorothy Walker Bush (1959).
Bush had been accepted to Yale University prior to his enlistment in the Army, where he enrolled after his marriage and discharge. Once there, he followed a program that allowed him to enroll in two and a half years instead of four.
He was a member and later president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon sorority. He also captained the varsity baseball team and was initiated, like his father, into the secret Skull and Bones society. He graduated in 1948 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics.
Business activity
After graduation, Bush moved his young family to Texas. There his father's connections allowed him to enter the oil business, where he began as a sales clerk at Dresser Industries, a subsidiary of Brown Brothers Harriman, where his father had served on the board of directors for twenty years. years. During this time the family lived in various places in neighboring states, such as Odessa, Ventura or Midland. Bush created the Bush-Overbey Oil Development Company in 1951 and co-founded the Zapata Corporation in 1953. In 1954 he became head of the Zapata Offshore Company, a subsidiary of Zapata specializing in oil drilling.
In 1959, after the subsidiary company became independent, Bush moved his headquarters, along with his entire family, from Midland to Houston. He continued to serve as the company's president until 1964 and as a board member until 1966, when he decided to step into politics.
During this time Bush managed to amass a considerable fortune, calculating his fortune as of 2015 at 20 million dollars.
Political career
Congressman (1967-1971)
In 1964 he was elected chairman of the Republican Party in Harris County (Texas) and tried to get the position of senator from Texas, managing to be elected in his party's primaries and facing the Democratic incumbent Ralph W. Yarborough, a prominent liberal who branded Bush a right-wing extremist when he supported presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and opposed black minority civil rights legislation. Bush lost this election when his rival was re-elected by ten points.
Bush was later elected twice consecutively as a representative (deputy) to the United States House of Representatives (1967-1971) for the 7th Congressional District of the state of Texas (a district encompassing a small area of western Harris County). In these years, Bush supported President Nixon's Vietnam policy, voted in favor of the 1968 civil rights law, which was not popular in his district, and voted to abolish the draft.
In 1970 he ran for the Senate again on the recommendation of President Nixon, however he would be defeated again and would see his political future in jeopardy.
Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1973)
Following his defeat, Nixon noted and appreciated the sacrifice Bush had made of his position in Congress, so he appointed him US ambassador to the United Nations, where he served for two years.
Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-1974)
In the midst of the Watergate scandal, Nixon asked Bush to become chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bush accepted and took over as the popularity of Nixon and the Republican Party plummeted. Despite being a staunch ally of the then-president, when Nixon's complicity became apparent, Bush focused more on defending the Republican Party, though he remained loyal to Nixon. Soon after, Bush formally asked Nixon to resign for the good of the Republican Party, which he ended up doing.
Director of the CIA (1976-1977)
He served as director of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) from January 1976 to January 1977 at a time when the agency was deeply affected by a series of illicit activities carried out during the previous years.
During Bush's year in charge of the CIA, the US national security agency actively supported Operation Condor and right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America.
In 1999, the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia was named the George Bush Intelligence Center in his honor.
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1980 Presidential Campaign
Bush decided to run for his party's presidential nomination in the late 1970s, appearing at more than 850 political rallies in 1979 and defending his experience in high government posts against his various rivals in Republican primaries, including those that stand out are Senator Bob Dole of Kansas and former California Governor Ronald Reagan, who ended up winning his party's nomination despite a slight advantage at the beginning of Bush, who ended up naming his vice-presidential candidate to unite the conservative wings and the party's moderate, the latter of which Bush represented.
Vice President (1981-1989)
After Reagan won the election, Bush served as a low-profile vice president, attending mostly ceremonies and his duties as president of the Senate.
In March 1981, Reagan was wounded in an attack, and Bush briefly served as Reagan for two weeks without attempting to claim any status as president, earning him Reagan's friendship.
In this first stage, it is also worth noting his trips to various countries such as Mexico in its Independence Day celebrations, through Africa where he criticized the presence of Cuban troops in Angola from Namibia and to El Salvador in December 1983, where He threatened President Magaña with withdrawing American economic aid if free elections were not called. He also attended the funeral of the Soviet leader in 1984 Andropov representing the American delegation and wishing for a better relationship between both powers.
In 1984 he and Reagan were re-elected to their respective posts with a landslide victory over Democrat Walter Mondale and he began preparing his campaign for the 1988 presidential elections.
In 1985 he would serve as acting president for eight hours during a Reagan Colon operation and that same year he would find himself in Brazil in a summit with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in full hostility of the US government towards the Sandinistas.
In 1986, like almost the entire Reagan administration, he was embroiled in the Iran-Contra scandal, in which American officials secretly sold weapons to Iran in order to finance the activities of right-wing Nicaraguan guerrillas in a clear violation of the law international. Both Reagan and Bush managed to get away with it.
1988 Presidential Campaign
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In October 1987, Bush officially entered the presidential race, which he had been thinking since the middle of the decade, with his main competitors once again being Senator Dole and evangelical preacher Pat Robertson.
After a poor start where he placed third in the first caucus, he managed to get the nomination by copying Reagan's aggressive campaign eight earlier and nominated unknown Indiana Senator Dan Quayle for vice president in order to win over the most conservative.
He would ultimately win the election over Democrat Michael Dukakis, who beat him in numerous polls, in a campaign described as one of the dirtiest to date in which Bush took advantage of his rival's staunch opposition to capital punishment to attack him. Also important was his promise not to raise taxes (which he emphasized with the phrase "read my lips: no more taxes").
Presidency (1989-1993)
Bush inaugurated his presidency on January 20, 1989 in the midst of the decomposition of the Soviet bloc, presenting himself as the leader of an expanding free world. During his tenure, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union would take place.
Foreign Policy
Panama
In the 1980s, Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega who once supported the United States was later accused of spying on behalf of Fidel Castro and using Panama to traffic drugs to the United States, making him one of the of the most recognized names in the American press. The fight to remove him from power began with Reagan, when economic sanctions were imposed on the country; this included prohibiting American companies and the government from investing in Panama and freezing $56 million in Panamanian funds in American banks.
In May 1989, Panama held democratic elections, in which Guillermo Endara was elected president; The results were later annulled by the Noriega administration. In response, Bush sent 2,000 more troops into the country in addition to those Reagan had previously stationed, where they began to conduct regular military exercises on Panamanian soil (in violation of previous treaties).. In addition, Bush closed the US embassy and removed the ambassador from the country, and sent additional troops to Panama to prepare the way for an upcoming invasion. Noriega aborted an attempted military coup in October and suppressed mass protests in Panama against him, but after a US soldier was shot by Panamanian forces in December 1989, Bush ordered the entry of 24,000 troops. in the Central American nation with the goal of removing Noriega from power. It was the first large-scale US military operation in more than 40 years that was unrelated to the Cold War.
The mission was controversial, but US forces quickly gained control of the country and Endara became president. Noriega surrendered to the United States and was convicted and imprisoned on extortion and drug trafficking charges in April 1992. President Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush visited Panama in June 1992 to provide support for the new Panamanian government. The visit was marred by protests that turned into gunshots and tear gas, forcing Bush to leave a rally.
Soviet Union
Bush met Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the Malta Summit in December 1989, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His administration had been under intense pressure to meet with the Soviets, but not everyone initially found the conference a step in the right direction. General Brent Scowcroft among others expressed concern about the meeting, saying it might be "premature" out of concern that, according to Condoleezza Rice, "expectations would [set] that something was going to happen, where the Soviets might force [the US] into deals that ultimately would not be good for the US& #34;. European leaders including François Mitterrand and Margaret Thatcher encouraged Bush to meet Gorbachev. Although no agreements were signed, the meeting was greeted as an important step toward ending the Cold War. When asked about nuclear war, Gorbachev replied: "I assured the President of the United States that the Soviet Union would never start a hot war against the United States of America, and we would like our relations to be They will develop that way. that would open up greater possibilities for cooperation... This is just the beginning. We are just at the beginning of our journey, a long way towards a long and peaceful period".
Another summit was held in July 1991, at which Bush and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) in Moscow. The treaty took nine years of negotiations and was the first major arms deal since the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987. The containments in START would reduce the strategic nuclear weapons of the United States and the USSR. by about 35% in seven years, and the Soviet Union's land-based ICBMs would be reduced by 50%. Bush described START as "an important step forward in dispelling half a century of mistrust".
During the dissolution of the USSR at the end of 1991, President Bush's position was criticized as ambivalent. Shortly after he would declare together with the new Russian president Boris Yeltsin a strategic partnership between the United States and Russia, marking the end of the Cold War.
Iraq
On August 2, 1990, Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded its oil-rich southern neighbor Kuwait; Bush condemned the invasion and began uniting an opposition coalition consisting of the United States, Europe's allies, Asia and the Middle East. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Fahd, who requested United States military assistance in the matter, fearing a possible invasion of his country. Iraq attempted to broker a deal that would have allowed the country take control of half of Kuwait. Bush rejected this proposal and insisted on a complete withdrawal of Iraqi forces.
Planning for a ground operation by US-led coalition forces began to form in September 1990, led by General Norman Schwarzkopf. Speaking before a joint session of the United States Congress regarding the authorization of air and ground attacks, Bush established four immediate objectives: "Iraq must withdraw from Kuwait completely, immediately and without conditions. The legitimate government of Kuwait must be restored. The security and stability of the Persian Gulf must be guaranteed. Citizens abroad must be protected ". Shortly thereafter the United Nations Security Council authorized the use of military force with the stated objective of returning control of Kuwait to the legitimate government.
Before the invasion of Iraq, Bush stated the following:
As Americans we know that there are times when we must step forward and accept our responsibility to lead the world, far from the dark chaos of dictators. We are the only nation on this planet capable of bringing peace forces together.George H. W. Bush
On the morning of January 17, 1991, Allied forces launched the first attack, which included more than 4,000 coalition airstrikes. This rhythm would continue for the next four weeks, until a ground invasion was launched. on February 24, 1991. Allied forces broke through the Iraqi lines and advanced towards Kuwait City, while on the west side of the country, forces were intercepting the retreating Iraqi Army. Bush made the decision to halt the offensive after just 100 hours. Critics called this decision premature, as hundreds of Iraqi forces were able to escape; Bush responded by saying that he wanted to minimize American casualties. Opponents further charged that Bush should have continued the attack, pushing Hussein's army back into Baghdad, and then removing him from power. Bush 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".
Bush's approval ratings soared after the successful offensive. Additionally, both President Bush and Secretary of State Baker felt that the coalition victory had increased the prestige of the United States abroad and believed that there was an opportunity to use the political capital generated by the coalition victory to reinvigorate the Arab-Israeli peace process. The administration quickly addressed this issue after the end of the Gulf War; this gave rise to the Madrid Conference, later in 1991.
NAFTA
The Bush administration and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney led the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations. The agreement would eliminate most tariffs on products traded between the United States, Canada and Mexico. This would encourage trade between countries. The treaty also restricted patents, copyrights and trademarks, and removed investment restrictions between the three countries.
Democrats criticized that NAFTA would result in job losses in the United States, although President Clinton would continue to make passage of NAFTA a priority for his administration, despite his conservative and Republican roots, with the addition of two side agreements, to achieve its approval in 1993.
Since then, the treaty has been equally defended and criticized. The US economy has grown 54% since the adoption of NAFTA in 1993, with 25 million new jobs created; however, the US trade deficit with Canada and Mexico has grown to nearly 12 times its initial size.
1992 Presidential Campaign
In early 1992, Bush announced that he would seek a second term. The coalition's victory in the Persian Gulf War and high approval ratings made re-election seem likely. As a result, many Democratic leaders refused to seek their party's presidential nomination. On the downside, Bush's popularity suffered from an economic downturn and questions about whether he ended the Gulf War properly.
Conservative political columnist Pat Buchanan challenged Bush for the Republican nomination. He surprised political pundits by finishing second with 37% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary. Bush responded by adopting more conservative positions in an attempt to undermine Buchanan's base. Once he had won the nomination, Bush faced off against the Democratic nominee, unknown Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Clinton attacked Bush that he wasn't doing enough to help the working middle class and was "out of touch"; with the common man. In addition, Bush was weighed down by the economic recession and for breaking his promise not to raise taxes.
In early 1992, the race for the presidency took an unexpected turn when Texas billionaire Ross Perot launched his independent candidacy, claiming that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats could eliminate the deficit and make government more efficient. His message appealed to voters across the political spectrum disappointed with the perceived fiscal irresponsibility of both parties. Perot later dropped out of the race for a short time before re-entering.
Clinton had originally been in the lead, until Perot returned to the election, which narrowed the race significantly, but on Election Day Clinton came out on top, with 370 electoral votes to Bush's 168 votes. Perot won 19% of the popular vote, one of the highest totals for an independent candidate in US history.
Life after the presidency
Upon leaving office, Bush retired with his wife, Barbara, and moved into a home in the West Oaks community of Houston.
In 1993, Bush was the target of an assassination plot when he visited Kuwait to commemorate the coalition victory over Iraq in the Gulf War. Kuwaiti authorities arrested 17 people who were allegedly involved in the use of a car bomb in an attempt to kill Bush. Through interviews with the suspects and examination of the bomb's circuitry and wiring, the FBI established that the plot had been directed by the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
In April 1994, Bush attended Richard Nixon's funeral.
In the 1994 gubernatorial election, his sons George W. and Jeb ran at the same time for Governor of Texas and Governor of Florida respectively, the former winning the election and the latter losing it only to win it 4 years later. It was the second time in United States history that a pair of brothers served simultaneously as governors.
From 1993 to 1999, he served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships, and from 2007 to 2009 he was Chairman of the National Constitution Center.
In an October 22, 1994 speech in Cancun Mexico, Bush said history would vindicate him for not trying to oust Saddam Hussein while in office: "Peace talks in the Middle East offering hope to the world would never have started if we had done that. The Arabs would never have spoken to us".
In April 1997, Houston Intercontinental Airport was renamed George Bush Intercontinental Airport after a proposal received unanimous approval from the Houston City Council.
In April 1999, Bush called for the release of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when Spain arrested him and tried to try him for human rights violations.
His eldest son, George W. Bush, was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20, 2001, and was re-elected in 2004.
After the fall of Baghdad, Bush praised George W. in an email in April 2003. In a September 14, 2003 interview with the BBC, Bush expressed his support for continuing the war on son's terrorism and said that the United States was better able to protect itself from terrorism than it was two years earlier.
Despite Bush's political differences with Bill Clinton, the two former presidents appeared to have become friends. He and Clinton appeared together in television ads in 2005, encouraging relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake and tsunami of the Indian Ocean of 2004.
On February 18, 2008, Bush formally endorsed Senator John McCain for President of the United States. The endorsement offered a boost to McCain's campaign, because the Arizona senator had been facing criticism from more conservatives.
On February 15, 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.
On March 29, 2012, Bush endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2012 presidential election.
In July 2013, Bush shaved his head in a show of support for the two-year-old son of a member of his security detail, who had leukemia.
On June 12, 2014, Bush fulfilled an old promise by parachuting out on his 90th birthday. He parachuted out of a helicopter near his house at 11:15 a.m. m. in Kennebunkport, Maine. The jump marked the eighth time the president had skydived, including his 80th and 85th birthday jumps as well.
Bush endorsed the 2016 presidential bid of his youngest son Jeb. However, Jeb Bush's campaign failed, and he dropped out of the race during the primaries. Neither he nor his son George W. Bush endorsed eventual Republican nominee Donald Trump—all three Bushes emerged as frequent critics of Trump's policies and style, while Trump was a frequent critic of George W. Bush's presidency. He would later say that he voted for the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, in that year's election.
Death
Death
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George H. W. Bush passed away on November 30, 2018 at his home in Houston, Texas. Seven and a half months after his wife had passed away. The ex-secretary of state of the same, James A. Baker, declared that the last words of the president were for his eldest son, George W. Bush. Previously, the president had told his son that he wanted to travel to heaven, that there is the only place where he would be at peace, besides & # 34; We will meet in paradise & # 3. 4;.
However, James A. Baker clarifies that his last words were over the phone to his son. When he saw his condition and his inevitable death, he said: "I love you" to which he replied: "I love you too".
State Funeral
The president's body was taken to the Capitol rotunda for the state funeral, attended by President Trump and his wife, Melania, despite their poor relations with the Bush family, as well as their son George W Bush, also president. On December 5, his body was transferred to the Washington National Cathedral, the last state funeral held before his burial, on December 6 in Texas.