BUSH, George In a tribute to his loyalty and teamwork in government service, George Bush was elected the 41st president of the United States in 1988. For the first time since Martin Van Buren won in 1836, a sitting vice-president took the office by popular vote. The Bush victory was attributed to hard-hitting television commercials that focused on prison furloughs, harbor pollution, and the American flag. As he began his third year in office, the vivid television images of the successful war in the Persian Gulf further boosted public approval of Bush. His popularity rating of more than 90 percent in early 1991 was the highest level of support ever measured for an American president. By mid-1992 his popularity rating had fallen below 30 percent, however, as a result of an unpopular domestic policy and the poor economy.

Family and Early Life

George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Mass., a suburb of Boston. He was the second of five children born to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. His sister was named Nancy and his brothers were Prescott, Jr., Jonathan, and William. Their father became a partner with an international banking house based in New York City and capped his career with service as a United States senator from Connecticut (1952–63).

The family had moved from Milton to Greenwich, Conn., where Prescott, Sr., was the town moderator for many years. Although they had many material possessions, the children were taught to be disciplined and generous. Young George, nicknamed Poppy, offered to share his treats and snacks so often that his brothers and sister also called him Have Half.

Education and Military Service

George was educated in private schools, including the Greenwich Country Day School. He was a determined and popular student—qualities he carried with him to the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He was captain of the basketball and soccer teams and was a fielder on the varsity baseball team. He was president of his senior class. In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve.

Bush completed his flight training at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Tex. Commissioned an ensign, he was assigned in 1943 to the light-aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto as a member of a torpedo bomber squadron. At the age of 20 he became the youngest pilot in the Navy. He flew many hazardous missions in the Pacific theater during World War II and received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Bush's squadron was rotated home in late 1944; he arrived in Greenwich on Christmas Eve. Two weeks later he married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y. She was a student at Smith College and the daughter of the publisher of Redbook and McCall's magazines. For the remainder of the war the couple lived in Virginia Beach, Va., where Bush trained new pilots.

In September 1945 Bush was released from active duty and entered Yale University, where he played first base on the varsity baseball team and joined the exclusive Skull and Bones society. Bush completed college in three years, receiving a degree in economics.

The Bushes' first child—George, Jr.—was born in 1946. Their other children were John (also called Jeb, born in 1953), Neil (1955), Marvin (1956), and Dorothy (1959). Tragedy struck their family in 1953 when their daughter Robin died of leukemia at age 3.

Oil and Politics

Bush took his family to the booming oil fields of western Texas. After a job that required sweeping warehouses and painting machinery for an oil-field supply company, he was transferred to sales work in Bakersfield, Calif. But Bush did not enjoy being a salesman, and in 1950 he returned to Texas. With John Overby he established the Bush-Overby Company in Midland to deal in oil and natural gas properties.

In 1953 Bush cofounded Zapata Petroleum Corporation, which took over Bush-Overby, and he served as director of the company until 1959. Zapata Offshore Company, a manufacturer of offshore drilling equipment, was developed as a subsidiary in 1954, and Bush was its president from 1956 to 1964 and chairman of the board from 1964 to 1966. The subsidiary became completely independent in 1958, and Bush moved its headquarters and his home to Houston. (He sold his interest in Zapata in the late 1960s.)

Although he had turned down an offer from his father's investment firm in 1948 rather than live in the older man's shadow, George Bush became active in politics after Prescott Bush retired from Congress. On a leave of absence from Zapata in 1964 he sought and won the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. His campaign emphasized support for the Republican presidential candidate, Barry M. Goldwater. He was against the federal civil rights legislation under consideration at the time, and he called for the country to withdraw from the UN if the organization admitted mainland China as a member. Although Bush lost, his 43.5 percent of the vote was considered significant for a Republican in Texas.

Bush's next political goal was a seat in the United States House of Representatives. In 1966 he became the first Republican to represent Houston in Congress. He was named to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, an achievement for a freshman legislator. He supported some liberal causes, such as legislation that gave 18-year-olds the vote and abolished the military draft. Bush was in favor of an open-housing bill that his own constituents were against.

In 1970 Bush gave up his seat in the House in order to run again for the Senate. His opponent was also a Texas conservative—Lloyd Bentsen, the former member of the House who later became Dukakis' running mate. Bentsen won easily in 1970 despite campaign help for Bush from President Richard M. Nixon.

National and International Affairs

Because Bush had run for the Senate at Nixon's request, the president rewarded him with an appointment as the top United States delegate to the UN. Bush, who served in the post until 1972, negotiated a reduction in the United States share of UN financial support. His assignment was made even more challenging by the strong roles played in international affairs by Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the national security adviser (see Kissinger, Henry). While Bush was defending the official United States policy of support for both the People's Republic of China and the Nationalist government of Taiwan, the government was establishing closer ties with Communist China.

In 1973 Nixon named Bush chairman of the Republican National Committee. He remained strongly supportive of the president during the Watergate scandal, but by the summer of 1974 it became clear that Nixon had been lying and had obstructed the government's probe. On August 7 Bush delivered the letter that requested Nixon's resignation; the next day the president stepped down. (See also Nixon, Richard.)

The next president, former Vice-President Gerald Ford, gave Bush his pick of assignments. His choice was to head the first United States liaison office in the People's Republic of China. Bush served there from October 1974 until December 1975, when Ford asked him to take over as head of the CIA. The agency was in disarray at the time, and House and Senate committees had investigated its abuses of power.

Bush had a double challenge—to appease angry legislators and to restore employee morale at the CIA. The Senate confirmed his appointment in January 1976 on the condition that Ford not choose him as his running mate in the next presidential election. In January 1977, Bush resigned from the CIA post.

Vice-Presidency

By late 1977 Bush had considered entering the 1980 presidential race. With James A. Baker III he set up the Fund for a Limited Government to receive contributions. (Baker later was Reagan's chief of staff and secretary of the treasury and, from 1989, Bush's secretary of state.) Bush's campaign organization grew, and in May 1979 he officially announced his candidacy. Bush did well in many of the Republican primaries, but Reagan's popularity and delegate count grew. In late May Bush withdrew from the race.

At the Republican national convention former President Ford was briefly considered for Reagan's running mate as a “copresident,” but Bush was the final choice. Party leaders admired his relative youth, foreign policy experience, and popularity among moderates.

The Reagan-Bush team beat President Jimmy Carter and Vice-President Walter F. Mondale by a large margin. On March 30, 1981, John W. Hinckley, Jr., a young drifter, tried to assassinate Reagan with a handgun. At the time the vice-president was in Texas on a speaking engagement, and Secretary of State Alexander Haig briefly took control of the White House. While Reagan recovered, Bush tactfully handled the public functions of the presidency. The president named Bush to be chairman of the National Security Council's special situation group, called the crisis-management team, and chairman of several task forces. He also supervised Navy and Air Force involvement in drug traffic control. In late 1982 Bush met with Soviet leader Yuri Andropov.

Considered a moderate conservative by his supporters, Bush was criticized for changing his opinions on issues to match the ultraconservative views of the president. Reagan valued these indications of loyalty, however, and again selected Bush as his running mate in 1984. The ticket won in a landslide, with an unprecedented 525 electoral votes, and their second term began on a wave of popularity. On July 13, 1985, Reagan underwent intestinal surgery, during which the power of his office was formally transferred to the vice-president. Bush thereby became the first designated acting president of the United States.

On Oct. 12, 1987, near the end of Reagan's second term, Bush formally announced his second run for the presidency. He had already accumulated his party's major endorsements and a 12-million-dollar campaign chest. But the prestige of the administration that he served was badly damaged by continuing revelations about the Iran-contra arms scandal. Nearly a year earlier a Lebanese magazine reported that United States government officials had secretly arranged for arms to be sold to Iran in an effort to free American hostages. Throughout the Bush campaign there were charges that he was aware of the illegal arms deal and involved even further in the diversion of the profits for military aid to Nicaraguan rebels. (See also United States, “Iran-Contra Affair.”)

Bush's major campaign problem was the so-called “wimp factor.” Critics charged that he was not tough enough to lead the country and lacked a political identity separate from President Reagan's. He finished third in the early Iowa caucuses. While the right wing of the Republican party remained skeptical, however, his base of support grew with voters who appreciated his loyalty to the still-popular president.

By the end of April Bush had outrun the other Republican candidates. Still, until his nomination for the presidency in August, he consistently ran behind Dukakis in the polls. Instead of discussing his own qualifications and plans—a personal deficiency he referred to as the “vision thing”—Bush concentrated on the supposed weaknesses of his major opponent. His penchant for glib labels was criticized, particularly the overuse of the term liberal until it was perceived as a flaw in the moderate Democrat's stance.

The successful campaign was shaped by Roger Ailes, a political image-maker, and Lee Atwater, a master of negative campaigning. As a result of their manipulation of the media, a couple of colorful phrases were added to the vocabulary—spin doctor (a political strategist who tries to plant a positive interpretation of a potentially damaging statement or event) and sound bite (an instantly quotable one-liner suitable for the nightly news telecasts). Although the Republican ticket won all but ten states and the District of Columbia, the Democrats increased their majorities in Congress.

Bush Takes Office

For the first time in 60 years an outgoing president was succeeded by a member of his own party through an election. In his inaugural address, Bush recalled his campaign image of a “thousand points of light”—private-sector volunteer work to help solve public problems—and renewed his appeal for a “kinder, gentler nation.” At a cost of 30 million dollars, it was the most expensive inauguration in the nation's history.

Despite his campaign pledge to bring “fresh faces” into government, Bush's initial Cabinet choices were almost all familiar Washington insiders. On the other hand, his first appointment to the United States Supreme Court in 1990 was confirmed almost without incident because the relatively obscure candidate, David H. Souter of New Hampshire, had been so noncommital on controversial issues. Three of the department heads under Bush were holdovers from the Reagan Cabinet: Nicholas F. Brady, secretary of the treasury; Dick Thornburgh, attorney general; and Lauro F. Cavazos, education. The first Hispanic American Cabinet member ever, Cavazos was reportedly forced to resign at the end of 1990 because he had not pursued a national education agenda. Lamar Alexander was named secretary of education in 1991.

Bush's first major political setback was the downfall of his original choice for secretary of defense—John G. Tower, a former senator from Texas who was discredited for improper behavior in both professional and private affairs. No other nominee had ever been rejected so early in a new administration.

At the time Bush took office, the Department of Veterans Affairs had just been added as the 14th executive department. Ostensibly to limit the size of the Bush Cabinet, several high-profile officials were excluded from its initial meetings—for example, the director of the CIA and the UN ambassador-designate (both posts formerly held by Bush). Also denied Cabinet participation was the nation's first “drug czar,” William Bennett.

In less than a year Bush set a record for the number of women appointed to top federal posts. For example, Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's highly visible crusading surgeon general, was replaced by Dr. Antonia Novello—the first woman and the first Hispanic to fill the job. Yet only one woman was named to the original Bush Cabinet—Elizabeth H. Dole, a former secretary of transportation under Reagan. When she resigned as secretary of labor in late 1990, she was replaced by outgoing Congresswoman Lynn Martin.

Foreign Relations

The “wimp” image continued to haunt Bush—particularly when the first coup attempt against the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega in Panama failed in October 1989. But after Noriega declared a state of war with the United States and threatened the lives of its citizens in Panama, Bush dispatched about 12,000 troops to the Central American country to join the 12,000 already stationed there, and his presidency took on a more aggressive character. Noriega eluded capture during the Dec. 20, 1989, invasion and eventually found refuge in the Vatican diplomatic mission. He surrendered on Jan. 3, 1990, and was sent to Florida to face long-standing charges of drug trafficking.

As part of his declared war on drugs, Bush held a summit in Cartagena, Colombia, on Feb. 15, 1990, with the presidents of the three major illegal-drug-producing nations—Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. Their accord stated that a reduction of the demand for illegal drugs in the United States was as vital as the reduction of the supply from abroad.

European summits in 1989 included one off the coast of Malta with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and one in Paris for the heads of the seven major industrialized democracies. Six months after the summit at sea Bush and Gorbachev met in Washington, D.C., to discuss arms and trade agreements and a reunified Germany. The critical situation in the Persian Gulf precipitated their next summit, which was designed to demonstrate superpower solidarity. It was held in Helsinki, Finland, on Sept. 9, 1990.

The first major post–Cold War crisis was the defiant invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army. To deter Hussein from pushing his occupation over the borders of Saudi Arabia, Bush rapidly forged a multinational political and military alliance that included other Arab countries. Several hundred thousand American troops were sent to Saudi Arabia to convince Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, and United States ships were ordered to enforce a UN embargo of Iraq. In September the land and sea embargo was extended to the air. Hussein, meanwhile, had seized thousands of Westerners as hostages to discourage bombing missions.

In December Bush secured UN Security Council approval of a resolution authorizing the alliance to use force to liberate Kuwait if Hussein had not withdrawn his occupation forces by Jan. 15, 1991. The Security Council had not approved the reciprocal use of arms since North Korea's unprovoked attack on South Korea in 1950. Less than 17 hours after the UN deadline expired, an international force led by the United States launched air and missile attacks on Iraq and Iraq-occupied Kuwait on Jan. 16, 1991. The stunning success of Operation Desert Storm, which lasted only six weeks and glorified high-technology weapon systems, brought a mood of euphoria to the American people. Within two months, however, Bush was criticized for refusing to intervene in the Iraqi civil war against Hussein and for abandoning the Kurdish refugees displaced by the war.

As the fall of Communism began to dissolve the Soviet Union in 1991, Bush and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev met in Moscow in July to sign a treaty requiring both the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce their arsenals of ballistic missiles. Although Bush and Gorbachev managed to set up a peace conference between Israel and neighboring Arab states at the end of 1991, skillful diplomacy could not resolve many of the major problems there.

Domestic Issues

Legacies of the Reagan years included a billion-dollar scandal in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the savings and loan disaster brought on by deregulation. Bush unveiled a 126.2-billion-dollar rescue plan to overhaul the thrift industry. The government seized control of insolvent banks.

Just before Bush took office, a budget deficit of 141 billion dollars had been projected for fiscal 1990. Nevertheless, his most memorable campaign pledge had been, “Read my lips: no new taxes.” Congress criticized his fiscal 1991 budget because it cut back domestic programs while maintaining military funding. Bush finally conceded that any agreement with Congress would require “tax revenue increases.”

Bush vetoed a bill for a minimum-wage increase to $4.55 an hour. A two-tiered wage increase—the first since 1981—finally went into effect on April 1, 1990. Congress was unable to override his veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990, which he claimed would introduce hiring quotas. He signed bills for clean air and a sweeping reform of immigration laws.

Bush had made campaign pledges to become the “environmental president” and the “education president.” He endorsed the elevation of the Environmental Protection Agency to Cabinet status and unveiled what he called “America 2000” program. Among its goals were new national achievement tests in core subjects and the creation of nontraditional schools. Bush signed a bill for the largest expansion ever of the Head Start preschool program.

As the Cold War ended and the United States deficit increased to a projected 399 billion dollars for fiscal 1992, Bush proposed cutting defense spending by a large amount. Bush also announced that to revive the lagging economy he was lowering income tax withholding; reducing several hundred popular social programs, such as housing for the elderly and the disabled and support for health services; and increasing other programs, such as antidrug programs and biomedical research. Although he had opposed earlier versions, Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, making it easier for workers to seek monetary damages in cases of job discrimination.

As the 1992 presidential election campaign heated up, Bush's popularity declined even though he won many Republican primary elections. His popularity, as well as that of Vice-President Quayle, fell even more following the riots in Los Angeles in late April and early May. Both leaders were accused of being out of touch with reality as Bush blamed the riots on social programs of the 1960s and 1970s and Quayle blamed the breakdown of family values in the inner cities. Bush was defeated for reelection in 1992 by Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who promised change to an unhappy electorate.