George H. W. Bush (1924 - 2018) was an American politician and naval aviator who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and as vice president under Ronald Reagan for the eight years before that. His presidency coincided with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and he assembled the international coalition that expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. [1] A broken pledge not to raise taxes and a weak economy contributed to his defeat by Bill Clinton in 1992. [2]
Early life and war service
George Herbert Walker Bush was born on 12 June 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts, into a prominent family; his father Prescott Bush later served as a United States senator from Connecticut. He was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover. [1]
On his eighteenth birthday he enlisted in the United States Navy and became one of its youngest aviators. Flying torpedo bombers in the Pacific, he was shot down over the island of Chichijima in September 1944 and rescued at sea by a submarine, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. [2]
After the war he married Barbara Pierce and studied economics at Yale, graduating in 1948. He then moved to Texas and built a career in the offshore oil drilling business. [1]
Public career before the presidency
Bush was elected to the House of Representatives from Texas in 1966 and served two terms, losing Senate races in 1964 and 1970. He subsequently held an unusual sequence of senior appointments: ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee during Watergate, chief of the United States Liaison Office in Beijing, and Director of Central Intelligence in 1976 and 1977. [3]
He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 and, after losing to Ronald Reagan, was selected as his running mate. As vice president from 1981 to 1989 he chaired task forces on deregulation and drug policy, and in 1988 he won the presidency against Michael Dukakis, having promised at the convention that he would impose no new taxes. [1]
Presidency
Bush's presidency was dominated by foreign affairs. He responded cautiously to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutions of 1989, worked with Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl to secure German reunification within NATO, and signed the START treaty reducing strategic nuclear arsenals. He ordered the invasion of Panama in December 1989, which removed Manuel Noriega from power. [2]
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, he built a coalition of more than thirty countries and secured United Nations authorisation for the use of force. The air and ground campaign of early 1991 drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait within weeks, and Bush chose not to advance on Baghdad, a decision debated ever since. [3]
At home he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, amendments strengthening the Clean Air Act, and the legislation implementing negotiations that led to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Confronted with a growing deficit, he agreed a budget with congressional Democrats that raised taxes, breaking his campaign pledge and angering much of his party. Recession and the third-party candidacy of Ross Perot contributed to his defeat in 1992. [1]
Later life and legacy
In retirement Bush largely avoided public commentary on his successors, undertook joint humanitarian fundraising with Bill Clinton after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. [1]
His son George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, making them the second father and son pair to hold the office. Barbara Bush died in April 2018, and he died in Houston on 30 November 2018 at the age of 94. Historical assessments generally credit his management of the end of the Cold War and the Gulf War coalition as the strengths of his single term. [2]
