George Herbert Walker Bush

A blog post biography of the 41st President of the United States
President Bush at his desk in the Oval Office.

I. INTRO

This month marks five years since the 41st president died. I call him Bush I (“Bush the First”). His son George is Bush II. The regnal numbers capture a certain imperial element that is part of the Bush tale, which our republican manners usually refuse to acknowledge. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the man. His notability, I hope, will become clear through this post. 

Early Life

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in June 1924, Milton, Massachusetts. His father, Prescott, was a finance/banker guy and became US Senator from Connecticut. George attended private school, then he signed up to be a US Navy aviator on his 18th birthday to fight in WWII. 

[Fast forward 50-some years.]

II. VIEW FROM KENNEBUNKPORT

For context, I was just starting fourth grade on September 11, 2001, in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bill Clinton's sex scandal and the 2000 election (Bush v. Gore) are my earliest political memories. I was not around when George H.W. Bush was vice president (1980-1989) or president (1989-1993). But I did get to witness up close, in a neighborly way, the former president’s vacation lifestyle and, post-9/11, a wartime president’s family vacation spot. 

Growing up in Kennebunkport, I always admired George Bush; at least, I was always awed by the presidential presence. Most visible was the secret service presence, but Bush and his wife, Barbara Pierce Bush, spent most of each summer in Maine, and they were frequently seen out on their boat, dining locally, or just traveling through town in a subdued motorcade of darkened SUVs. Bush would always speak at the Memorial Day parade/ceremony. In my political consciousness, Bush had lost to Bill Clinton, who was, as a Democrat, still the good guy. Regardless, Bush had led the free world at a pivotal and recent moment in history. 

On my 10th birthday, I shook his hand at the local marina, where he and my parents both had a slip on the dock. Of course, he had the nicest fishing/motor boat in town. 

When Bush II was president and came to town, usually once or twice each summer, fighter jets patrolled the skies and military helicopters buzzed overhead at all hours. The military stationed ships around Walker’s Point, their silhouettes anchored a couple miles offshore. There were checkpoints and detours in the vicinity of Walker’s Point. In 2007, Vladimir Putin landed in a helicopter on the soccer field next to my elementary school. 

Only later did I come to understand how the elder George Bush had a storied career. He was the most qualified person to become President of the United States, and this happened at the peak of its empire, I mean global power and influence.

III. 50-YEAR CAREER OF BUSH I

George Herbert Walker Bush had a spectacular resume. He has been seriously called a modern-day founding father.[*] He was served an officer and principal of the great American Republic during its period of global preeminence, from the battlefields of World War II to the end of the Cold War. He became president when its symbolic role was duly called the leader of the free world, and he presided over the end of the end of the Cold War/America’s emergence as the world’s sole superpower. 


  • US Navy fighter pilot in WWII (1942-45) 
  • Yale baseball and Skull and Bones (1948) 
  • Texas Oilman (1948-63) 
  • US Congressman (1967-71) 
  • Ambassador to the UN (1971-73) 
  • RNC Chairman (1973-74) 
  • Ambassador to China (1974-75) 
  • Director of Central Intelligence (1976-77) 
  • Vice President to Ronald Reagan (1981-89) 
  • President of the United States (41st, 1989-93) 


This view is focused on his accomplishments, not some moral analysis of his policies. Any discussion of his career would be incomplete without noting Bush I was president for only one term. He lost his 1992 reelection bid to a charismatic young upstart, Arkansas Governor, William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton. Still, he was uniquely — the most ever — qualified to serve as president. And he had the character to treat a seat in the Oval Office as a matter of public service, not personal aggrandizement. He was old school by today’s standards. 


As President, Bush navigated/negotiated the end of the Cold War. He offered steady, smart, and humble leadership through a triumphal moment. He led the Gulf War, a pivotal success in response to Iraqi aggression that decisively involved the US in Middle Eastern geopolitics. (Thereby setting the stage for a decade of crippling sanctions against Iraq followed by Bush II’s disastrous Gulf war of his own.) Domestically, Bush I championed new laws like the ADA. 


As Vice President to Ronald Reagan, Bush had a central role in the administration. The 1980s were a time of big changes economically and internationally, including the latter stages of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. 


Bush was the Director at a turbulent time for the intelligence community. His efforts to reorganize and restore the CIA's credibility post-Vietnam and post-Watergate were crucial.


Bush was sent to China at a critical phase in Sino-American relations, as the U.S. was re-building its diplomatic ties with China. His role was vital in laying the groundwork for the future normalization of relations between the two countries. 


Bush was chair of the RNC during the Watergate scandal, leading the Republican Party through a tumultuous period for the government and party’s image. 


As UN Ambassador, Bush represented and advocated for US policies during a complex period marked by Cold War tensions and shifting global alliances. 


In Congress, Bush worked on national issues and the interests of his constituents during the late 1960s, a period of significant social and political changes in the U.S. 


Bush was a naval aviator in World War II, where he displayed notable bravery and skill.

IV. MY CRITICISM

I think the biggest mark against Bush I is that he oversaw his son’s ascendance to the presidency following his own abdication from Republican national leadership. There ought to be nothing hereditary about American government. 

In ancient tribal societies, the king was often elected by a group of nobles/elders. That position would evolve until it was plain primogeniture. It is easy to see how one excellent man’s promising son appears to be the best, or safest, choice once, until the son is chosen regardless of obviously better options. I would hate to see that happen in America, where elected families assume hereditary control. 

Implicit in the argument for George W Bush in 2000 and Jeb! in 2016, aside from their records as the governor of Texas and Florida respectively, is “I should/can be president because my dad did it.” There are many respects in which that is true technically or in a practical manner, much as we hate to admit it. I don’t think anyone would doubt that getting to be the son of George Herbert Walker Bush was a gift of many actual benefits to the political aspirations of George W. Bush, let alone general privilege. 

In some/many ways, the son’s tenure—tumultuous and more recent—outshines in the American mind the father’s brief, staid, and successful administration. However, the two-term presidency of Bush I’s son and namesake suggests that the 1992 election wasn’t lost by Bush or his record, so much as it was won by the young, charming, change-promising candidate. Bush simply hit headwinds; it was inconvenient electoral timing. There was the economy, and his no-new-taxes broken promise, but more simply, it is unlikely the American people were going to elect a Republican for fourth time in a row if they were given a halfway decent alternative. Enter Bill Clinton. 

No doubt, the fact that Bush I saw his son become president is a testament to the power he wielded and wrought. But, objectively, I think it’s a mark against him. It did not serve the nation. George Herbert Walker Bush should have encouraged his kids to pursue other routes and to avoid presidential politics. He should have known better. I hope I would feel the same even if Bush II had been an excellent president. Ultimately/given how it turned out, the failures of the Bush II administration are poetic in some sense, symbolic of this mark against Bush I’s public service. 

I think Barbara Bush could intuit this angle when she basically opposed the presidential bid of her other son Jeb! 

“We've had enough Bushes," she said.

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[*]Note when/by whom/with what justification