Everything about George H W Bush totally explained
George Herbert Walker Bush (born
June 12,
1924) was the forty-first
President of the United States (1989–1993). Before his presidency, Bush held a multitude of political positions, including
Vice President of the United States in the administration of
Ronald Reagan (1981–1989).
Bush was born in
Massachusetts to Senator
Prescott Bush and
Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941, at the age of 18 Bush postponed going to college and became the youngest
naval aviator in US history. He served until the end of the war, then attended
Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his young family to
West Texas and entered the oil business, becoming a
millionaire by the age of 40.
He became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the
House of Representatives, among other positions. He ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in
1980, but was chosen by party nominee Ronald Reagan to be the vice presidential nominee; the two were subsequently elected. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on
deregulation and fighting drug abuse.
In 1988, Bush launched a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as president, defeating challenger
Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency; operations were conducted in
Panama and
the Persian Gulf at a time of world change; the
Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the
Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush and raised taxes amidst a struggle with Congress. In the wake of economic concerns, he lost the
1992 presidential election to Democrat
Bill Clinton.
Bush is the father of
George W. Bush, the 43rd and current President of the United States, and
Jeb Bush, former
Governor of Florida.
Early years
George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in
Milton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1924. The Bush family moved from Milton to
Greenwich, Connecticut shortly after his birth.
Bush began his formal education at the
Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Beginning in 1936, he attended
Phillips Academy in
Andover, Massachusetts,
World War II
Following the
attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the
US Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy earlier in 1942, for which he received the
Distinguished Flying Cross, three
Air Medals, and the
Presidential Unit Citation awarded
San Jacinto.
Bush had been accepted to
Yale University prior to his enlistment in the military, but decided to fight in World War II instead of going to college. He took up the offer after his discharge and marriage, however. While at Yale, he was enrolled in an accelerated program that allowed him to graduate in two and a half years, rather than four.
Oil ventures
After graduating from Yale, Bush moved his young family to
West Texas. His father's business connections proved useful when he ventured into the oil business, starting as a sales clerk with
Dresser Industries, a subsidiary of
Brown Brothers Harriman. His father had served on the board of directors there for 22 years. Bush started the Bush-Overby Oil Development company in 1951 and co-founded the
Zapata Petroleum Corporation, an oil company which drilled in the Permian Basin in Texas, two years later. He was named president of the Zapata Offshore Company, a
subsidiary which specialized in
offshore drilling, in 1954.
Bush didn't give up on elective politics and was elected in 1966 to a
House of Representatives seat from the 7th District of Texas, defeating Democrat Frank Briscoe with 57% of the vote; he became the first Republican to represent Houston.
In 1970, President Nixon convinced Bush to relinquish his House seat to again run for the Senate against Ralph Yarborough, a fierce Nixon critic. In the Republican primary, Bush easily defeated conservative Robert Morris, by a margin of 87.6% to 12.4%. However, former Congressman
Lloyd Bentsen, a more moderate Democrat and native of
Mission, Texas, defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary.
1970s
Ambassador to the United Nations
Following his 1970 loss, Bush was well known as a prominent Republican businessman from the "
Sun Belt", a group of states in the Southern part of the country. He defended Nixon steadfastly, but later as Nixon's complicity became clear, Bush focused more on defending the Republican Party, while still maintaining loyalty to Nixon.
Envoy to China
Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor, appointed Bush to be Chief of the US Liaison Office in the
People's Republic of China. Since the United States at the time maintained official relations with the
Republic of China on
Taiwan and not the People's Republic of China, the Liaison Office didn't have the official status of an embassy and Bush didn't formally hold the position of "ambassador", though he unofficially acted as one. The time that he spent in China—14 months—were seen as largely beneficial for US-Chinese relations. The CIA had been rocked by a series of revelations, including those based on investigations by Senator
Frank Church's Committee regarding alleged illegal and unauthorized activities by the CIA, and Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale. In his capacity as DCI, Bush gave national security briefings to
Jimmy Carter both as a Presidential candidate and as President-elect, and discussed the possibility of remaining in that position in a Carter administration but it wasn't to be.
Other positions
After a Democratic administration took power in 1977, Bush became chairman on the Executive Committee of the First International Bank in Houston. He later spent a year as a part-time professor of Administrative Science at
Rice University in the Jones School of Business beginning in 1978, the year it opened; Bush said of his time there, "I loved my brief time in the world of academia." In the contest for the
Republican Party nomination, Bush stressed his wide range of government experience, while competing against rivals
Howard Baker,
Bob Dole,
John Anderson (who would later run as an independent),
Phil Crane,
John Connally, and the front-runner
Ronald Reagan, former actor and
Governor of California. At the Republican Convention, however, Reagan selected Bush as his Vice Presidential nominee, placing him on the winning Republican presidential ticket of 1980.
Vice Presidency (1981–1989)
As Vice President, Bush generally took on a low-profile while recognizing the constitutional limits of the office; he avoided decision making or criticizing Reagan in any way. Serving as a contrast to the Ivy-League educated Bush, Ferraro represented a "
blue-collar" district in
Queens, New York; this, coupled with her popularity among female journalists, left Bush at a disadvantage. although this was later questioned. Public opinion polls taken at the time indicated that the public questioned Bush's explanation of being an "innocent bystander" while the trades were occurring; this led to the notion that he was a "wimp". Much like Reagan did in 1980, Bush reorganized his staff and concentrated on the New Hampshire primary. he rebounded to win the state's primary. Bush continued seeing victory, winning many Southern primaries as well.
Bush, occasionally criticized for his lack of eloquence when compared to Reagan,
The general election campaign between the two men has been described as one of the nastiest in modern times. Dukakis's response of "no" contributed toward Bush's characterization of him as "soft on crime." He ordered military operations in
Panama and the
Persian Gulf However, economic recession and breaking his "" pledge caused a sharp decline in his approval rating, and Bush was defeated in the
1992 election.}}
Domestic policy
