George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st U.S. president, was one of the most qualified men to lead this country.
This is the last in a series of profiles of United States presidents who served in the military. We chose not to include every president who served in the military but focused only on those who saw action during war time.
In the view of many historians, every president we have profiled distinguished themselves in a theater of war. For each of the prior six presidents I profiled, I used my own personal library for sources, including multiple biographies and historical treatises on each subject. I am ashamed to admit that my library is devoid of any books on George H. W. Bush. That is something I will correct.
Bush grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and attended private schools there and in Andover, Massachusetts. Upon graduation from Phillips Academy in Andover, he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve when he was 18 years old. When he received his wings shortly before his 19th birthday, Bush was the nation’s youngest commissioned officer ever to earn his wings. He served from 1942 to 1944 during World War II as a carrier-based torpedo bomber pilot. He served his time in the Pacific and flew 58 combat missions.
His plane was shot down by the Japanese near the Bonin Islands in the Pacific on September 2, 1944. During that incident, Bush’s plane was hit and set on fire, but he continued toward his target, a radio station, and successfully bombed it before parachuting from the plane. He was later rescued from the water by an American submarine. For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
From a personal standpoint, I always believed that George H. W. Bush was one of the most qualified men to become President of the United States. He had devoted his life to the service of his country since he was 18 years old. Each position he held gave him a broad understanding of our country’s needs, along with a thorough knowledge of the international arena. Let us look at each of those roles:
- In 1966, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 7th Congressional District of Texas, where he served two terms. In 1970, he ran for the U.S. Senate but was defeated in the general election.
- President Richard M. Nixon appointed Bush as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1971, a role in which he served until 1973.
- Shortly after, he became chairman of the Republican Party. In that role, on August 7, 1974, it was his responsibility to formally request Richard M. Nixon resign the presidency. Nixon officially stepped down two days later.
- In the fall of 1974, Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford appointed Bush as head of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China, where he served until becoming director of the CIA in January 1976.
- In 1980, Bush ran for the Republican presidential nomination but lost to Ronald Reagan. The former governor of California selected Bush as his vice-presidential running mate, and the two defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale.
- After two terms as vice president under Reagan, Bush became the Republican presidential nominee in 1988. With running mate Dan Quayle, a U.S. senator from Indiana, Bush defeated Democratic challenger Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts and his running mate Lloyd Bentsen.
As president, Bush relied on his prior government experience, which enabled him to deal with the most pressing issues of the day both domestically and internationally.
He began his U.S. presidency as Germany was in the process of reunifying, the Soviet Union was collapsing, and the Cold War was ending. Bush would be credited with helping improve U.S.-Soviet relations. He met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and in July 1991, the two leaders signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
We believe his greatest contribution as president was the way he chose to intervene in an international crisis. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein launched an invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990 and threatened to invade Saudi Arabia. President Bush organized a military coalition of more than 30 countries that began a U.S.-led air assault against Iraq in mid-January 1991. After five weeks of the air offensive and 100 hours of a ground offensive, Operation Desert Storm ended in late February with Iraq’s defeat and Kuwait’s liberation.
Bush built a coalition that made possible a resounding defeat of Saddam Hussein. In consultation with our allies during Desert Storm, the decision was made not to take Baghdad and leave Hussein in power. Many have criticized him for that, and they were proven wrong.
Bush came up with a plan to neutralize the Hussein regime by getting the Saudis to pay for a no-fly zone over Iraq. Our planes and those of our allies patrolled this area to ensure no Iraqi aircraft could ever aggressively threaten its neighbors again. The cost was covered by Saudi Arabia.
On the domestic front, Bush, a moderate conservative, signed such important pieces of legislation as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.
While Bush gained support among the American public for his foreign policy initiatives, his popularity at home was hampered by an economic recession. After promising “no new taxes” in his presidential campaign, he signed into a law a series of new taxes. He believed it was necessary to address a rising budget deficit. Bush also understood it would be used against him in the campaign for reelection. In 1992, Bush lost to Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas. In our opinion, it was the third-party candidate Ross Perot who received 19% of the popular vote that made Bush a one-term president.
Bush composed a parting note for his successor, on White House stationery, and placed in the Oval Office. It is another example of how genuine he was as a man and as a president.
Bush’s letter was widely quoted during the 2016 presidential race, which witnessed a deeply divided country. Perhaps, it is time for it to resurface.
Jan. 20, 1993
Dear Bill,
When I walked into this office just now, I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you will feel that, too.
I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described.
There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not
think is fair. I am not a very good one to give advice; but just do not let the critics discourage you or push you off course.
You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family
well.
Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.
Good luck — George
Upon Bush’s death, Clinton wrote in a 2018 column for The Washington Post that Bush’s note conveyed the heart of who he was. “He was an honorable, gracious, and decent man who believed in the United States, our Constitution, our institutions, and our shared future.”
After leaving office, Bush and Clinton became close. “His friendship has been one of the great gifts of my life,” wrote Bill Clinton in his Washington Post column. “From Indonesia to Houston, from the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast to Kennebunkport, Maine—where just a few months ago we shared our last visit, as he was surrounded by his family but clearly missing Barbara—I cherished every opportunity I had to learn and laugh with him. I just loved him.”
George Herbert Walker Bush died on Friday, November 30, 2018, at the age of 94. He was the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
Bush’s approval rating was 56% when he left office. That is one of the reasons that I believe that Ross Perot caused him to lose. Yes, he left the White House in 1993. Many believed and so stated, “But he didn’t leave a loser.”
On our presidential profiles, we have tried to show how each president was ranked by historians. For the prior presidents, we used rankings found in Wikipedia. For Bush, we chose a different credible source. It was published by the Orange County Register, which we quote here.
“The 2014 Brookings Institution survey scored presidents on a scale of 1 to 100. Leaders were rated on multiple criteria including legislative skill, diplomatic skill, integrity, and military skill. 391 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents & Executive Politics section, the premier organization of experts of the American presidency, were invited to complete the online survey, which was administered by Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Boise State University. 162 surveys were completed online between May and November 2014.”
George Herbert Walker Bush ranks 17th out of 43 presidents, according to The Brookings Institution. Like Truman, Eisenhower, and others who have risen in their rankings through the years, so has Bush. At one point, he was rated 36th.
Sources
As we explained earlier, we had to use other means to source this article. We went online found the information necessary to write this article.
History.com
Encyclopedia Britannica
Biography.com
The White House (Museum Newsletter)
The Washington Post (Opinion (column posted with no author)
Orange County Register
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