George H. W. Bush

A successful businessman, George Herbert Walker Bush emerged as a national political leader during the 1970s. After holding several important foreign policy and administrative assignments in Republican Party politics, he served two terms as vice president under Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; served 1981–89), and he went on to serve one term as president beginning in 1988.

George H. W. Bush was born on June 12, 1924, and led a privileged childhood as the son of a wealthy Connecticut senator. He graduated from a prestigious private school and was accepted at Yale University, but he changed his plans when the United States entered World War II (1939–45). Bush enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and by the end of 1943 he was the youngest fighter pilot in the navy. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions on a September 2, 1944, mission in the South Pacific, during which his plane was shot down and he parachuted to safety. When he returned home, Bush married Barbara Pierce (1925–) and entered Yale. After graduating, he moved to Texas . By 1954, he was president of the Zapata Offshore Company. Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico had already made him wealthy.

Enters the world of politics

Bush was active in the Republican Party in Texas, and in 1966 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In December 1970, he was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN). In 1973, Bush became the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The next year, he was appointed head of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and in 1975, President Gerald R. Ford (1913–2006; served 1974–77) called him home to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; the government agency responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals). Bush served until 1976 and won high marks for improving agency morale.

Begins service under President Reagan

Bush sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980. He was viewed as an attractive moderate alternative to the conservative Ronald Reagan, but he did not get the nomination. He accepted Reagan's offer of the vice presidential slot despite their differences of opinion on several key issues. During his two terms as Reagan's vice president, Bush loyally supported the Reagan agenda.

The presidency

In 1988, Bush was elected president. Immediately after taking office, he improved relations with Congress and the press. He preferred to negotiate differences between economic and political interests rather than take strong positions of his own. This was true in his foreign policy as well. During his first year in office, the Communist governments of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe self-destructed, creating an entirely new balance of world powers. Bush supported the Russian reformist president Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–) and maintained a remote and formal relationship with all the countries of the former Soviet Union.

In the spring of 1989, Chinese students began massive demonstrations in support of democracy in Tiananmen Square, located in the heart of China's capital, Beijing. When the government crushed the demonstrations with military force, Bush at first spoke out against the actions of the Chinese leadership and imposed limited sanctions (punishments, such as stopping trade, to express disapproval), but he soon sent representatives to Beijing to ease the tension between the United States and China. Later he opposed congressional attempts to toughen the sanctions and restored China's most-favored-nations trade status.

Bush was initially halfhearted about U.S. initiatives to stop the drug-smuggling Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega (c. 1935–). After an American soldier was killed by one of Noriega's soldiers in 1989, however, Bush authorized a full-scale military invasion of Panama. The majority of Noriega's forces surrendered after a few hours. Noriega was captured a few weeks later. In 1992, he was convicted in Florida on drug-dealing charges.

The Gulf War

Under the leadership of military dictator Saddam Hussein (1937–2006), Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and proclaimed it a new Iraqi province. Bush launched Operation Desert Storm, mobilizing international forces that destroyed Hussein's air and land military capabilities in a six-week war that was televised virtually from start to finish. The action resulted in minimal U.S. casualties, and in the end President Bush's approval rating soared to a new high and established him as a powerful force in world affairs.

Despite the apparent total victory, the war failed to oust Hussein from power in Iraq. Bush ruled out further military action in Iraq but urged continued international economic sanctions against the Hussein regime.

Fails to win second term

After the Gulf War, many believed Bush would be unbeatable in the next presidential election. Yet by 1992, the nation's economy was in a downturn, the national deficit (the amount the federal government needs to borrow to make up the difference between what it spends and how much it collects in taxes) had soared, and crime was rising. In the general election, a popular independent candidate, Texas businessman Ross Perot (1930–), divided the Republican Party. (See also Third Parties .) The Republicans were further divided in the general election, with economic conservatives on one side and social and religious conservatives like Pat Buchanan (1938–)—who had challenged Bush in the Republican primaries—on the other. In the end, Perot took a whopping 19 percent of the popular vote, and the Democratic Party candidate, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton (1946–), won the election.

In retirement, Bush kept as low a profile as could be expected with two of his sons, President George W. Bush (1946–; served 2001–) and Florida governor Jeb Bush (1953–) prominently in the national spotlight.