George H. W. Bush – Biography, Presidency & Achievements
The 41st president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who presided over the country from 1989 -1993. Republican by affiliation, he previously served as President Ronald Reagan’s 43rd vice president from 1981 to 1989. He held positions as director of central intelligence, ambassador to the UN, and member of the House of Representatives. He also co-founded the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
George H. W. Bush’s presidential portrait
Early Life
George H.W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924. He was the younger of Prescott Bush’s two children with Dorothy (Walker) Bush. Most of his early years were spent in Greenwich, at the family’s holiday home in Kennebunkport, Maine, or at the South Carolina plantation of his maternal grandparents.
He was mostly unscathed by the Great Depression because of the family’s affluence. He attended Phillips Academy, a prestigious private school in Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1942, and Greenwich Country Day School from 1929 to 1937. He held several positions throughout his time at Phillips Academy, including senior class president, student council secretary, community fund-raising club president, editorial board member of the school newspaper, and soccer and baseball team captain for the varsity.
World War II
Image: Bush in his Grumman TBF Avenger aboard the USS San Jacinto in 1944, during WWII
Bush joined the US Navy as a naval aviator on the day he turned 18 years old, right after Phillips Academy. He received his appointment as an ensign in the Naval Reserve at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943, following a period of training, making him one of the Navy’s youngest aviators.
He was part of the U.S. forces that bombed Japanese-held Wake Island. This occurred on his first combat mission in May 1944, and on August 1 of that same year, he was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade). He served in the Pacific theater and piloted a torpedo bomber called the Grumman TBF Avenger, which could take off from aircraft carriers. His squadron served in Air Group 51 aboard the USS San Jacinto, where his lanky build earned him the nickname “Skin”.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed with atomic weapons on September 2, 1945, Japan officially capitulated without an invasion taking place. Though he was relieved of active duty that same month, he was not formally let go from the Navy until October 1955, by which time he had attained the rank of lieutenant. He had completed 128 carrier landings, flown 58 missions, and logged 1228 hours of flying time at the end of his active duty. The Distinguished Flying Cross was presented to him.
Marriage and Children
He first met Barbara Pierce in December 1941 at a Christmas dance in Greenwich. On January 6, 1945, in Rye, New York, they were wed. They had six kids. In 1953, leukemia claimed the life of their oldest daughter, Robin.
George H. W. Bush’s family
College
He enrolled in Yale College, where he participated in an accelerated program that allowed him to graduate in two and a half years instead of the typical four. He was elected as the fraternity’s president while a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He was a Phi Beta Kappa member and the baseball team captain at Yale University, where he excelled in both academics and athletics. The Skull and Bones secret society accepted him as a member. He earned Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1948.
George H. W. Bush at Phillips Academy
Business Activities
Bush relocated to Texas with his small family and turned down a job at his father’s company to work as an oil field supply salesman. His first job in Texas was selling oil field equipment for Dresser Industries, run by a close family friend named Neil Mallon. He and his family resided in Odessa, Texas, Ventura, Bakersfield, Compton, California, as well as Midland, Texas, when he worked for Dresser. He volunteered for Dwight D. Eisenhower’s victorious presidential campaign in 1952.
The Bush-Overbey Oil Development Company was established in 1951 with the help of Mallon and his uncle. He helped co-found the Zapata Petroleum Corporation in 1953, an oil business that carried out drilling operations in Texas’s Permian Basin. He was made president of the Zapata Offshore Company in 1954, a division that focused on offshore drilling. Until the middle of the 1960s, when he sold his ownership in the company for almost $1 million, he remained with Zapata.
Politics
Bush developed an interest in politics and public service like his father, who was elected a Senator from Connecticut in 1952. After serving in the Senate for ten years, Prescott Bush retired in 1962. His son entered politics the following year, serving as Houston, Texas’s Republican Party chairman. He quickly gained a positive reputation among the Texas Republican Party. After running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1964, he was elected to Congress in 1966.
U.S House of Representatives
He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 in the newly redistricted 7th congressional district of Texas, which is located in the Greater Houston area. He resigned from his position in the House in 1970 to challenge Yarborough in the race for the Senate, with the endorsement of President Richard Nixon. The more conservative Lloyd Bentsen upset Yarborough in the Democratic primary, but he comfortably won the Republican primary. Bentsen ultimately prevailed over him, garnering 53.5 percent of the vote.
US Ambassador to the UN
George H. W. Bush as U.S. Ambassador to the UN
Bush accepted a post as a top adviser to the president after the 1970 Senate race, but he persuaded Nixon to nominate him instead as the country’s ambassador to the UN. With this job, he made his first venture into foreign policy and had his first significant interactions with China and the Soviet Union, the two main Cold War adversaries of the United States.
Republic National Committee Chairman
Nixon appointed him to lead the Republican National Committee (RNC) following his resounding victory in the 1972 presidential election. He was responsible for generating money, finding candidates, and appearing in the media on behalf of the party. During his time at the RNC, the Watergate scandal came to light. This controversy implicated Nixon and other White House officials later attempting to cover up the DNC break-in that occurred in June 1972.
Up until August 1974, he supported Nixon in this position before joining the rising chorus of people demanding for the president to step down.
Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974, and Gerald Ford was sworn in as president.
Director of CIA
President Ford recalled him to Washington in January 1976 to take over as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), putting him in control of the CIA. He was tasked with repairing the CIA’s morale and public image after the Watergate Scandal and the Vietnam War, when the agency’s involvement in numerous clandestine operations had caused damage to its reputation.
Vice President
After Ford lost the 1976 presidential election by a razor-thin margin to Carter, his time at the CIA came to an end. He joined the executive committee of the First International Bank in Houston as chairman, his first position outside of government since the 1960s.
He ran for president in 1980 under the Republican party. Despite his defeat, Ronald Reagan chose him to be his running mate. As vice president, he traveled to numerous foreign nations and was in charge of several domestic initiatives, such as Federal deregulation and anti-drug initiatives.
Bush with President Ronald Reagan in 1981
Presidency
Image: US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist administers the Presidential Oath of Office to Bush.
With Indiana Senator Dan Quayle as his running partner, he won the Republican presidential nomination in 1988 and defeated Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the general election. James Baker was his first significant choice for Secretary of State. Dick Cheney, Ford’s former chief of staff who later served as George W. Bush’s vice president, assumed command of the Department of Defense.
The Cold War symbolically ended when he visited with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Paris in November 1990 and signed a mutual nonaggression treaty.
Iraq invaded and seized Kuwait in August 1990. In order to compel Iraq to leave, he oversaw a UN approved global embargo against it. He dispatched American troops to Saudi Arabia to fend off Iraqi pressure and intimidation. His effective formation of a coalition of Arab and western European nations against Iraq was perhaps his most notable diplomatic accomplishment.
1992 Reelection Bid
In 1992, he made his reelection intentions known. Despite his exceptional popularity as a result of this military and diplomatic victory, he was unable to survive domestic unrest brought on by the failing economy, an increase in gang violence, and ongoing high deficit spending. Democrat’s Clinton defeated him in his 1992 reelection campaign.
Post Presidency
On the day of Clinton’s inauguration, he left Washington and headed back to Houston. His son George W. Bush, a two-term Texas governor, ran for president in 2000 and was elected, making him the second president’s son to hold the office.
Death
On November 30, 2018, at his Houston home, George H. W. Bush passed away after a protracted struggle with vascular Parkinson’s disease.
President Bush lying in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Did you know…?
- He came in at number 17 out of 44 in a 2018 survey by the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics division.
- In 1990, he was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.
Questions and Answers
What positions did George H. W. Bush hold before becoming the 41st president of the United States?
Before becoming the 41st president, George H. W. Bush served as the 43rd vice president under Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989. He also held various federal positions, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee, chief of the Liaison Office to the People’s Republic of China, and director of Central Intelligence.
Where was George H. W. Bush born and raised?
George H. W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Early life of George H. W. Bush
What significant global event did Bush participate in as a young man?
As a young man, George H. W. Bush served as a pilot in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II.
What was Bush’s first major step into politics?
Bush’s first major step into politics was an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1964. However, he was elected to represent Texas’s 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966.
How did Bush’s presidency influence U.S. foreign policy?
Bush’s presidency was heavily influenced by foreign policy. He played a crucial role in the final years of the Cold War, was instrumental in the reunification of Germany, oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama, and led the Gulf War, which ended Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait.
What were some of Bush’s significant domestic achievements as president?
Domestically, Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act, and the Clean Air Act Amendments in 1990. He also negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), though it was ratified after he left office.
Why did Bush face political backlash during his presidency?
Bush faced political backlash for breaking his 1988 campaign promise not to raise taxes, a decision he made to reduce the budget deficit.
What factors contributed to Bush’s loss in the 1992 presidential election?
Bush lost the 1992 presidential election to Bill Clinton due to a struggling economy, his reversal on the tax pledge, and the decreased emphasis on foreign policy in a post-Cold War political climate.
What humanitarian work did Bush engage in after leaving office?
After leaving office, Bush was active in humanitarian work and often collaborated with his former political rival, Bill Clinton, on various initiatives.
What legacy did George H. W. Bush leave behind?
George H. W. Bush is generally regarded as an above-average president by historians, acknowledged for his significant contributions to both domestic and international affairs. He also witnessed his son, George W. Bush, become the 43rd president of the United States, making them the second father-son duo to both serve as U.S. presidents. The first duo were John Adams (2nd U.S. President) and John Quincy Adams (6th U.S. President).
