Bush, George Herbert Walker

Bush, George Herbert Walker (b. 12 June 1924). 41st US President 1989–93 Born in Milton, Massachusetts, he was the second son of Prescott Bush, a banker and US Senator from 1953 to 1963. He served with distinction in World War II as a pilot and graduated from Yale with a BA in economics. Despite his East Coast patrician heritage, he moved to Texas and became extremely successful in the oil industry. He was elected to the US Congress as a Republican in 1966, after being beaten in the 1964 Senate contest in Texas, was again defeated as a Senate candidate in 1970, and was appointed US ambassador to the UN in 1971. Two years later he became the Chair of the Republican National Committee which called on Nixon to resign after Watergate. He was appointed by President Ford in 1974 to the US Liaison Office in China, and became Director of the CIA, 1976–7. He was defeated by Reagan in the 1980 primary elections and became his running mate, serving as Vice-President 1981–9. In July 1985 Bush became the first Acting President in US history when Reagan invoked the Twenty-Fifth Amendment before undergoing a surgical operation.

Bush won the 1988 elections for President, on a tough anti-crime platform and a pledge of ‘no new taxes’, with 54 per cent of the popular vote. He capitalized on his ample foreign policy experience by successfully launching a series of foreign policy initiatives. He proclaimed a ‘New World Order’ on the basis of the end of the Cold War, launched a military operation against Panama, sent US troops into Somalia under the auspices of the UN, and brought together the worldwide coalition under US leadership which won the Gulf War. The latter initiative in particular sent his popularity to an all-time high of an almost 90 per cent approval rating in 1991. However, in 1990, he had agreed with a Democrat-dominated Congress to a budget deficit reduction plan which involved some tax rises, thereby breaking his electoral pledge. This, combined with the economic recession which overtook his administration in 1992, caused him to face Bill Clinton and the Independent candidate Ross Perot without the full support of the Republican right wing which had enthusiastically supported Reagan. His son Jeb became Governor of Florida in 1998, while his elder son, George W., was the first son since John Quincy Adams (b. 1767, d. 1848) to succeed his father to the Presidency in 2001.