George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st (1989-1993) President of the United States. Before that he was the director of the CIA in 1976, and the 43rd Vice President of the United States during the Reagan Administration (1981-1989). His father, Prescott Bush, served as a Senator from Connecticut. His son, George W. Bush, is the current and 43rd President of the United States.

George Bush attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he demonstrated early leadership, captaining the baseball team. Here he learned of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and after graduating in June, 1942, he joined the US Navy.

He was a naval aviator during World War II, the youngest ever at that time, and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in the Pacific Theater.

After the War he attended Yale University, and was inducted into the secret society (essentially a fraternity) Skull and Bones, helping him to build friendships and political support.

He married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945. Their marriage produced 6 children, George W., Robin, John (Jeb), Neil, Marvin[?], and Dorothy[?]. His family has built his political successes into a dynasty. Adding his father's Senate seat, his Presidency and Vice Presidency, his son George W.'s Presidency and Governorship of Texas, and Jeb's governorship of Florida, it is easy to see why. There have been few other political dynasties to match, perhaps equaling those of John Adams and the Kennedy family.

Bush ventured into the Texas oil business after the war, with mixed results. Among the companies he started was Zapata Oil[?]. The Texas years helped define his son George W. firmly as a Texan, helping propel George W. to the Governorship of Texas.

He returned to politics, losing his 1964 Senate campaign. He was elected in 1966 and 1968 to the House of Representatives from the 7th District of Texas, and then lost his second attempt at a Senate seat in 1970. He served as US Ambassador to the United Nations, US Envoy to communist China, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 1980, Bush ran for President, losing in the Republican party primaries to Ronald Reagan, the former Governor of California. Reagan selected Bush as his running mate and Vice Presidential candidate on the Republican Presidential ticket of 1980, and they went on to win. Reagan needed Bush to stengthen his tough stance on the Soviet Union, that Reagan earned from a speech at the 1976 Republican Convention. Bush had been many things Reagan had not been, a military man, a life-long Republican, and an internationalist with UN, CIA and China experience. Reagan had started life a Democrat, had not fought in World War II, and headed the Actors' Labor union, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

The Reagan/Bush ticket won again in 1984, against the Democrats' Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro ticket. In 1988, after 8 years as Vice President, Bush ran for President in in his own right. He selected the political unknown, and later much maligned Senator Dan Quayle has his running mate. Bush/Quayle beat the Michael Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen[?] ticket, garnering 426 to 111 electoral votes. (Lloyd Bentsen received one.)

During his Presidency, George Bush led a United Nations coalition into what is commonly known as the Gulf War, named after the Persian Gulf in the Middle East. This conflict began after Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded the oil-rich country of Kuwait. Although President Bush's popularity rating in America soared during and immediately after the conflict, the latter portion of his Presidency was marred by a widespread perception that he was somehow out of touch with real life in America. This perception, typified by an apocryphal and widespread story about a photo op where he first saw the then common bar code scanner at a grocery store, is largely what led him to lose his reelection in 1992 bid against Bill Clinton.

Bush was also frequently criticized in the campaign for the eight-month recession that, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research[?] (NBER), ended in March of 1991.

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum[?] is located on the Southwest corner of the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas.

After losing the election, he was seen enjoying life to the fullest, parachuting from an airplane for the first time since World War II. The Bushes live in Houston, Texas and their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine[?].

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

Major legislation signed

Major legislation vetoed

Supreme Court appointments

• David Hackett Souter - 1990
• Clarence Thomas - 1991

Related articles

• Jeb Bush (son, Governor of Florida)
• George W. Bush (son, President of the United States)
• U.S. presidential election, 1980
• U.S. presidential election, 1984
• U.S. presidential election, 1988
• U.S. presidential election, 1992

External links

• Inaugural Address (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/bush.htm)
• Page discussing the scanner story (http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.htm)