George H. W. Bush


George Herbert Walker                    George H. W. Bush
Bush (born June 12,
1924) was the 41st
(1989-1993) President  Order:           41st President
of the United States.  Term of Office:  January 20, 1989 - January 20, 1993
Before that he was the
director of the CIA in Predecessor:     Ronald Reagan
1976, and the 43rd     Successor:       Bill Clinton
Vice President of the
United States during   Date of Birth:   Thursday, June 12, 1924
the Reagan             Place of Birth:  Milton, Massachusetts
Administration         First Lady:      Barbara Pierce
(1981-1989). His
father, Prescott Bush, Profession:      businessman
served as a Senator    Political Party: Republican
from Connecticut. His  Vice President:  Dan Quayle
son, George W. Bush,
is the current and 43rd President of the United States.

Personal background

George Bush attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he
demonstrated early leadership, captaining the baseball team. Here he learned
of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and after graduating in June, 1942,
he joined the US Navy.

He was a naval aviator during World War II, the youngest ever at that time,
and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in the Pacific
Theater.

After the War he attended Yale University, and was inducted into the secret
society (essentially a fraternity) Skull and Bones, helping him to build
friendships and political support.

He married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945. Their marriage produced 6
children, George W., Robin (died of leukemia at the age of 3), John (Jeb),
Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. His family has built his political successes into
a dynasty. Adding his father's Senate seat, his Presidency and Vice
Presidency, his son George W.'s Presidency and Governorship of Texas, and
Jeb's governorship of Florida, it is easy to see why. There have been few
other political dynasties to match, perhaps equaling those of John Adams and
the Kennedy family.

Bush ventured into the Texas oil business after the war, with mixed results.
He secured a position with Dresser (merged with Halliburton in 1990s)
through his father's investment banking relationship with the company. Son
Neil Mallon Bush named after his employer at Dresser, Neil Mallon, a close
family friend and customer of Brown Brothers Harriman. Among the companies
he started was Zapata Oil. The Texas years helped define his son George W.
firmly as a Texan, helping propel George W. to the Governorship of Texas.

He returned to politics, losing his 1964 Senate campaign. He was elected in
1966 and 1968 to the House of Representatives from the 7th District of
Texas, and then lost his second attempt at a Senate seat in 1970. He served
as US Ambassador to the United Nations, US Envoy to communist China, and
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 1980, Bush ran for President, losing in the Republican party primaries to
Ronald Reagan, the former Governor of California. Reagan selected Bush as
his running mate and Vice Presidential candidate on the Republican
Presidential ticket of 1980, and they went on to win. Reagan needed Bush to
strengthen his tough stance on the Soviet Union, that Reagan earned from a
speech at the 1976 Republican Convention. Bush had been many things Reagan
had not been, a military man, a life-long Republican, and an
internationalist with UN, CIA and China experience. Reagan had started life
a Democrat, had not fought in World War II, and headed the Actors' Labor
union, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

The Reagan/Bush ticket won again in 1984, against the Democrats' Walter
Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro ticket. In 1988, after 8 years as Vice President,
Bush ran for President in in his own right. He selected the political
unknown, and later much maligned Senator Dan Quayle has his running mate.
Bush/Quayle beat the Michael Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen ticket, garnering 426 to
111 electoral votes. (Lloyd Bentsen received one.)

Presidency

During his Presidency, George Bush led a United Nations coalition into what
is commonly known as the Gulf War, named after the Persian Gulf in the
Middle East. This conflict began after Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded
the oil-rich country of Kuwait. Although President Bush's popularity rating
in America soared during and immediately after the conflict, the latter
portion of his Presidency was marred by a widespread perception that he was
somehow out of touch with real life in America. This perception, typified by
an apocryphal and widespread story about a photo op where he first saw the
then common bar code scanner at a grocery store, is largely what led him to
lose his reelection in 1992 bid against Bill Clinton.

Bush was also frequently criticized in the campaign for the eight-month
recession that, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research
(NBER), ended in March of 1991.

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located on the Southwest
corner of the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas.

After losing the election, he was seen enjoying life to the fullest,
parachuting from an airplane for the first time since World War II. The
Bushes live in Houston, Texas and their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

The tenth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier will be named USS George H. W. Bush
when it is launched in 2009.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas was renamed after the
former president in 1997.