Road to the Presidency: George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1924. His father was Prescott Sheldon Bush and his mother was the former Dorothy Bush. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth. In 1936, the future president began attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he later became president of the senior class, secretary of the student council, president of the community fund-raising group, a member of the editorial board of the school newspaper, and captain of both the varsity baseball and soccer teams.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US. Navy, but had to wait for his 18th birthday in June of 1942 to enlist. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1942, and became a naval aviator at the age of 18. After completing the 10-month course, he was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943, just three days before his 19th birthday, which made him the youngest naval aviator up to that time. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron (VT-51) in September 1943 and the following year, his squadron was based on the USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51. During this time, the task force was involved in one of the largest air battles of World War II: the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
After Bush's promotion to Lieutenant (junior grade) on August 1, 1944, the San Jacinto began operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima. On September 2, 1944, during their attack, the Avengers encountered intense anti-aircraft fire. Bush's aircraft was hit by flak and his engine caught on fire. Despite his plane being on fire, Bush completed his attack and released bombs over his target. With his plane's engine on fire, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member on the TBM Avenger bailed out of the aircraft. The other man's parachute did not open. Bush waited for four hours in an inflated raft, while several fighters circled protectively overhead until he was rescued by the lifeguard submarine USS Finback. For the next month he remained on the Finback, and participated in the rescue of other pilots.
Bush subsequently returned to San Jacinto in November 1944 and participated in operations in the Philippines until his squadron was replaced and sent home to the United States. Through 1944, he flew 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Bush was reassigned to Norfolk Navy Base and put in a training wing for new torpedo pilots. He was later assigned as a naval aviator in a new torpedo squadron, VT-153, based at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, Michigan. When the Japanese surrendered in August of 1945, Bush was honorably discharged the next month.
George Bush married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945, just weeks after his return from the Pacific. Their first home was a small rented apartment in Trenton, Michigan, near Bush's Navy base.
Bush had been accepted to Yale University prior to his enlistment in the military, and took up the offer after his discharge and marriage. He was captain of the Yale baseball team, and as a left-handed first baseman, played in the first two College World Series. As the team captain, Bush met Babe Ruth before a game during his senior year. He graduated from Yale in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. After graduating from Yale, Bush moved his young family to West Texas. His entered the oil business, starting as a sales clerk with Dresser Industries. Bush lived in various communities while working in the oil business, including Odessa, Texas; Ventura, Bakersfield and Compton, California; and Midland, Texas. He started the Bush-Overbey Oil Development company in 1951 and in 1953 co-founded the Zapata Petroleum Corporation. In 1954 he was named president of the Zapata Offshore Company, a subsidiary which specialized in offshore drilling. In 1958, Bush moved the company from Midland to Houston. He continued serving as president of the company until 1964.
Bush served as Chairman of the Republican Party for Harris County, Texas, in 1964 and in that year he ran for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas. After winning the Republican primary, Bush faced his opponent, incumbent Democrat Ralph W. Yarborough, and Bush lost the general election. Bush was elected in 1966 to a House of Representatives seat from the 7th District of Texas, capturing 57 percent of the vote. Bush was the first Republican to represent Houston in the U.S. House. His voting record in the House was generally conservative: Bush voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968, although it was generally unpopular in his district. He supported the Nixon administration's Vietnam policies, but broke with Republicans on the issue of birth control, which he supported. Bush was appointed to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he voted to abolish the military draft. He was elected to a second term in 1968.
In 1970 President Nixon convinced Bush to run for the Senate against Ralph Yarborough, a fierce Nixon critic. Bush easily won the Republican Primary, and Nixon came to Texas to campaign for Bush. Former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen, a more moderate Democrat and native of Mission in south Texas, defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary. Bentsen defeated Bush, 53.4 to 46.6%.
Following his 1970 loss, Nixon appreciated the sacrifice Bush had made, and he appointed Bush Ambassador to the United Nations. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate, and served for two years, beginning in 1971. During the Watergate scandal, Nixon asked Bush to become chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. Bush accepted. At first, he defended Nixon steadfastly, but later as Nixon's complicity became clear, Bush focused more on defending the Republican Party. As chairman, Bush formally requested that Nixon resign for the good of the Republican party. Nixon did so on August 9, 1974.
President Gerald Ford appointed Bush to be Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China. Since the United States at the time maintained official relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan and not the People's Republic of China, the Liaison Office did not have the official status of an embassy and Bush did not formally hold the position of "ambassador". He spent 14 months in China seeking to improve U.S.-China relations and trade.
After Ford's accession to the presidency, Bush was under serious consideration for being nominated as Vice President. Ford eventually narrowed his list to Nelson Rockefeller and Bush. Rockefeller was finally named and confirmed. Bush was again passed over for the vice presidency by Ford when the Ford chose Senator Bob Dole, to replace Rockefeller on the 1976 presidential ticket.
In 1976 Ford appointed Bush to the position of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), replacing William Colby. He served in this role for 357 days, from January 30, 1976, to January 20, 1977. The CIA had been rocked by a series of scandals, including those based on investigations by the Church Committee regarding illegal and unauthorized activities by the CIA. Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale. Bush gave national security briefings to Jimmy Carter both as a Presidential candidate and as President-elect, and discussed the possibility of remaining in that position in a Carter administration, but did not do so.
After the Carter administration took power in 1977, Bush became chairman on the Executive Committee of the First International Bank in Houston. He spent a year as a part-time professor of Administrative Science at Rice University's Jones School of Business beginning in 1978, the year it opened. Between 1977 and 1979, he was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations foreign policy organization.
Bush had decided in the late 1970s that he was going to run for president in 1980. In 1979, he attended 850 political events and traveled more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) to campaign for president. In the campaign, Bush stressed his wide range of government experience. His opponents were Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, Congressman John Anderson of Illinois (who would later run as an independent), Congressman Phil Crane, also of Illinois, former Governor John Connally of Texas, and the front-runner Ronald Reagan, former actor, and Governor of California.
In the primary election, Bush focused on the Iowa caucuses. He famously labeled Reagan's supply side-influenced plans for massive tax cuts as "voodoo economics". He won in Iowa with 31.5% to Reagan's 29.4%. After the win, Reagan replaced his campaign manager, reorganized his staff, and concentrated on the New Hampshire primary. The two men agreed to a debate in the state, organized by the Nashua Telegraph, but paid for by the Reagan campaign. Reagan invited the other four candidates as well, but Bush refused to debate them. During the debate, moderator John Breen, ordered Reagan's microphone turned off. Reagan responded angrily, "I am paying for this microphone." Bush ended up losing New Hampshire's primary with 23% to Reagan's 50%. Bush lost most of the remaining primaries as well, and formally dropped out of the race in May of that year.
At the Republican Convention, Reagan selected Bush as his Vice Presidential nominee. The team were victorious in the 1980 election. As Vice President, Bush generally took on a low profile. He avoided criticizing Reagan in any way. As the President of the Senate, Bush stayed in contact with members of Congress, and kept the president informed on occurrences on Capitol Hill. On March 30, 1981, early into the administration, Reagan was shot and seriously wounded in Washington, D.C. Bush, second in command by the presidential line of succession, was in Fort Worth, Texas, and flew back to Washington immediately. When Bush's plane landed, his aides advised him to proceed directly to the White House by helicopter, as an image of the government still functioning despite the attack. Bush rejected the idea, responding, "Only the President lands on the South Lawn." Reagan recovered and returned to work within two weeks. From then on, the two men had regular Thursday lunches in the Oval Office.
Bush was assigned by Reagan to chair two special task forces, on deregulation and international drug smuggling. The deregulation task force reviewed hundreds of rules, making specific recommendations on which ones to amend or revise, in order to curb the size of the federal government. The drug smuggling task force coordinated federal efforts to reduce the quantity of drugs entering the United States.
Reagan and Bush ran for reelection in 1984. The Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale, made history by choosing a female running mate, New York Representative Geraldine Ferraro. She and Bush squared off in a single televised Vice Presidential debate. The Reagan-Bush ticket won in a landslide against the Mondale-Ferraro ticket. Early into his second term as Vice President, Bush and his aides were planning a run for the presidency in 1988. By the end of 1985, a committee had been established and over two million dollars raised for Bush.
Bush became the first Vice President to serve as Acting President when, on July 13, 1985, Reagan underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon, making Bush acting president for approximately eight hours.
The Reagan administration was shaken by a scandal in 1986, when it was revealed that administration officials had secretly arranged weapon sales to Iran, and had used the proceeds to fund the anticommunist Contras in Nicaragua. Bush claimed to be out of the loop regarding knowledge of any of the details of the scheme.
Bush entered the Republican primary for President of the United States in October 1987. His challengers for the Republican presidential nomination included U.S. Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, U.S. Representative Jack Kemp of New York, former Governor Pete DuPont of Delaware, and conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson. Though considered the early frontrunner for the nomination, Bush came in third in the Iowa caucus, behind winner Dole and runner-up Robertson. Just as Reagan did in 1980, Bush reorganized his staff and concentrated on the New Hampshire primary. With Dole ahead in New Hampshire, Bush ran television commercials portraying Dole as a tax raiser. Bush won the primary. Following the primary, Bush and Dole had a joint media appearance, when the interviewer asked Dole if he had anything to say to Bush, Dole said, in response to the ads, "yeah, stop lying about my record" in an angry tone. This apparently hurt Dole's campaign. Bush won many Southern primaries as well and by Super Tuesday, Bush's organizational strength and fundraising lead were impossible for the other candidates to match. He won the nomination before the convention convened.
At the 1988 Republican National Convention, Bush chose little-known U.S. Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, favored by conservatives. At the time, Bush trailed Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, then Governor of Massachusetts, in most polls. Bush delivered a well-received speech at the Republican National Convention, known as the "thousand points of light" speech. In it, he endorsed the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer in schools, capital punishment, gun rights, and he opposed abortion. The speech at the convention included Bush's famous pledge: "Read my lips: no new taxes."
In the general election campaign, Bush blamed Dukakis for polluting the Boston Harbor as the Massachusetts governor. Bush also pointed out that Dukakis was opposed to the law that would require all students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Dukakis's unconditional opposition to capital punishment led to a pointed question being asked during the presidential debates. Moderator Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis if Dukakis would hypothetically support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered. Dukakis responded no. This and an attack ad about convicted felon Willie Horton, contributed toward Bush's characterization of Dukakis as "soft on crime".
Bush defeated Dukakis and his running mate, Lloyd Bentsen, in the Electoral College, by 426 to 111. In the nationwide popular vote, Bush took 53.4% of the ballots cast while Dukakis received 45.6%. Bush became the first serving Vice President to be elected President since Martin Van Buren in 1836 as well as the first person to succeed someone from his own party to the Presidency via election to the office in his own right since Herbert Hoover in 1929.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US. Navy, but had to wait for his 18th birthday in June of 1942 to enlist. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1942, and became a naval aviator at the age of 18. After completing the 10-month course, he was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943, just three days before his 19th birthday, which made him the youngest naval aviator up to that time. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron (VT-51) in September 1943 and the following year, his squadron was based on the USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51. During this time, the task force was involved in one of the largest air battles of World War II: the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
After Bush's promotion to Lieutenant (junior grade) on August 1, 1944, the San Jacinto began operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima. On September 2, 1944, during their attack, the Avengers encountered intense anti-aircraft fire. Bush's aircraft was hit by flak and his engine caught on fire. Despite his plane being on fire, Bush completed his attack and released bombs over his target. With his plane's engine on fire, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member on the TBM Avenger bailed out of the aircraft. The other man's parachute did not open. Bush waited for four hours in an inflated raft, while several fighters circled protectively overhead until he was rescued by the lifeguard submarine USS Finback. For the next month he remained on the Finback, and participated in the rescue of other pilots.
Bush subsequently returned to San Jacinto in November 1944 and participated in operations in the Philippines until his squadron was replaced and sent home to the United States. Through 1944, he flew 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Bush was reassigned to Norfolk Navy Base and put in a training wing for new torpedo pilots. He was later assigned as a naval aviator in a new torpedo squadron, VT-153, based at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile, Michigan. When the Japanese surrendered in August of 1945, Bush was honorably discharged the next month.
George Bush married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945, just weeks after his return from the Pacific. Their first home was a small rented apartment in Trenton, Michigan, near Bush's Navy base.
Bush had been accepted to Yale University prior to his enlistment in the military, and took up the offer after his discharge and marriage. He was captain of the Yale baseball team, and as a left-handed first baseman, played in the first two College World Series. As the team captain, Bush met Babe Ruth before a game during his senior year. He graduated from Yale in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. After graduating from Yale, Bush moved his young family to West Texas. His entered the oil business, starting as a sales clerk with Dresser Industries. Bush lived in various communities while working in the oil business, including Odessa, Texas; Ventura, Bakersfield and Compton, California; and Midland, Texas. He started the Bush-Overbey Oil Development company in 1951 and in 1953 co-founded the Zapata Petroleum Corporation. In 1954 he was named president of the Zapata Offshore Company, a subsidiary which specialized in offshore drilling. In 1958, Bush moved the company from Midland to Houston. He continued serving as president of the company until 1964.
Bush served as Chairman of the Republican Party for Harris County, Texas, in 1964 and in that year he ran for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas. After winning the Republican primary, Bush faced his opponent, incumbent Democrat Ralph W. Yarborough, and Bush lost the general election. Bush was elected in 1966 to a House of Representatives seat from the 7th District of Texas, capturing 57 percent of the vote. Bush was the first Republican to represent Houston in the U.S. House. His voting record in the House was generally conservative: Bush voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968, although it was generally unpopular in his district. He supported the Nixon administration's Vietnam policies, but broke with Republicans on the issue of birth control, which he supported. Bush was appointed to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he voted to abolish the military draft. He was elected to a second term in 1968.
In 1970 President Nixon convinced Bush to run for the Senate against Ralph Yarborough, a fierce Nixon critic. Bush easily won the Republican Primary, and Nixon came to Texas to campaign for Bush. Former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen, a more moderate Democrat and native of Mission in south Texas, defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary. Bentsen defeated Bush, 53.4 to 46.6%.
Following his 1970 loss, Nixon appreciated the sacrifice Bush had made, and he appointed Bush Ambassador to the United Nations. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate, and served for two years, beginning in 1971. During the Watergate scandal, Nixon asked Bush to become chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. Bush accepted. At first, he defended Nixon steadfastly, but later as Nixon's complicity became clear, Bush focused more on defending the Republican Party. As chairman, Bush formally requested that Nixon resign for the good of the Republican party. Nixon did so on August 9, 1974.
President Gerald Ford appointed Bush to be Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China. Since the United States at the time maintained official relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan and not the People's Republic of China, the Liaison Office did not have the official status of an embassy and Bush did not formally hold the position of "ambassador". He spent 14 months in China seeking to improve U.S.-China relations and trade.
After Ford's accession to the presidency, Bush was under serious consideration for being nominated as Vice President. Ford eventually narrowed his list to Nelson Rockefeller and Bush. Rockefeller was finally named and confirmed. Bush was again passed over for the vice presidency by Ford when the Ford chose Senator Bob Dole, to replace Rockefeller on the 1976 presidential ticket.
In 1976 Ford appointed Bush to the position of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), replacing William Colby. He served in this role for 357 days, from January 30, 1976, to January 20, 1977. The CIA had been rocked by a series of scandals, including those based on investigations by the Church Committee regarding illegal and unauthorized activities by the CIA. Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale. Bush gave national security briefings to Jimmy Carter both as a Presidential candidate and as President-elect, and discussed the possibility of remaining in that position in a Carter administration, but did not do so.
After the Carter administration took power in 1977, Bush became chairman on the Executive Committee of the First International Bank in Houston. He spent a year as a part-time professor of Administrative Science at Rice University's Jones School of Business beginning in 1978, the year it opened. Between 1977 and 1979, he was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations foreign policy organization.
Bush had decided in the late 1970s that he was going to run for president in 1980. In 1979, he attended 850 political events and traveled more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) to campaign for president. In the campaign, Bush stressed his wide range of government experience. His opponents were Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, Congressman John Anderson of Illinois (who would later run as an independent), Congressman Phil Crane, also of Illinois, former Governor John Connally of Texas, and the front-runner Ronald Reagan, former actor, and Governor of California.
In the primary election, Bush focused on the Iowa caucuses. He famously labeled Reagan's supply side-influenced plans for massive tax cuts as "voodoo economics". He won in Iowa with 31.5% to Reagan's 29.4%. After the win, Reagan replaced his campaign manager, reorganized his staff, and concentrated on the New Hampshire primary. The two men agreed to a debate in the state, organized by the Nashua Telegraph, but paid for by the Reagan campaign. Reagan invited the other four candidates as well, but Bush refused to debate them. During the debate, moderator John Breen, ordered Reagan's microphone turned off. Reagan responded angrily, "I am paying for this microphone." Bush ended up losing New Hampshire's primary with 23% to Reagan's 50%. Bush lost most of the remaining primaries as well, and formally dropped out of the race in May of that year.
At the Republican Convention, Reagan selected Bush as his Vice Presidential nominee. The team were victorious in the 1980 election. As Vice President, Bush generally took on a low profile. He avoided criticizing Reagan in any way. As the President of the Senate, Bush stayed in contact with members of Congress, and kept the president informed on occurrences on Capitol Hill. On March 30, 1981, early into the administration, Reagan was shot and seriously wounded in Washington, D.C. Bush, second in command by the presidential line of succession, was in Fort Worth, Texas, and flew back to Washington immediately. When Bush's plane landed, his aides advised him to proceed directly to the White House by helicopter, as an image of the government still functioning despite the attack. Bush rejected the idea, responding, "Only the President lands on the South Lawn." Reagan recovered and returned to work within two weeks. From then on, the two men had regular Thursday lunches in the Oval Office.
Bush was assigned by Reagan to chair two special task forces, on deregulation and international drug smuggling. The deregulation task force reviewed hundreds of rules, making specific recommendations on which ones to amend or revise, in order to curb the size of the federal government. The drug smuggling task force coordinated federal efforts to reduce the quantity of drugs entering the United States.
Reagan and Bush ran for reelection in 1984. The Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale, made history by choosing a female running mate, New York Representative Geraldine Ferraro. She and Bush squared off in a single televised Vice Presidential debate. The Reagan-Bush ticket won in a landslide against the Mondale-Ferraro ticket. Early into his second term as Vice President, Bush and his aides were planning a run for the presidency in 1988. By the end of 1985, a committee had been established and over two million dollars raised for Bush.
Bush became the first Vice President to serve as Acting President when, on July 13, 1985, Reagan underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon, making Bush acting president for approximately eight hours.
The Reagan administration was shaken by a scandal in 1986, when it was revealed that administration officials had secretly arranged weapon sales to Iran, and had used the proceeds to fund the anticommunist Contras in Nicaragua. Bush claimed to be out of the loop regarding knowledge of any of the details of the scheme.
Bush entered the Republican primary for President of the United States in October 1987. His challengers for the Republican presidential nomination included U.S. Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, U.S. Representative Jack Kemp of New York, former Governor Pete DuPont of Delaware, and conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson. Though considered the early frontrunner for the nomination, Bush came in third in the Iowa caucus, behind winner Dole and runner-up Robertson. Just as Reagan did in 1980, Bush reorganized his staff and concentrated on the New Hampshire primary. With Dole ahead in New Hampshire, Bush ran television commercials portraying Dole as a tax raiser. Bush won the primary. Following the primary, Bush and Dole had a joint media appearance, when the interviewer asked Dole if he had anything to say to Bush, Dole said, in response to the ads, "yeah, stop lying about my record" in an angry tone. This apparently hurt Dole's campaign. Bush won many Southern primaries as well and by Super Tuesday, Bush's organizational strength and fundraising lead were impossible for the other candidates to match. He won the nomination before the convention convened.
At the 1988 Republican National Convention, Bush chose little-known U.S. Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, favored by conservatives. At the time, Bush trailed Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, then Governor of Massachusetts, in most polls. Bush delivered a well-received speech at the Republican National Convention, known as the "thousand points of light" speech. In it, he endorsed the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer in schools, capital punishment, gun rights, and he opposed abortion. The speech at the convention included Bush's famous pledge: "Read my lips: no new taxes."
In the general election campaign, Bush blamed Dukakis for polluting the Boston Harbor as the Massachusetts governor. Bush also pointed out that Dukakis was opposed to the law that would require all students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Dukakis's unconditional opposition to capital punishment led to a pointed question being asked during the presidential debates. Moderator Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis if Dukakis would hypothetically support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered. Dukakis responded no. This and an attack ad about convicted felon Willie Horton, contributed toward Bush's characterization of Dukakis as "soft on crime".
Bush defeated Dukakis and his running mate, Lloyd Bentsen, in the Electoral College, by 426 to 111. In the nationwide popular vote, Bush took 53.4% of the ballots cast while Dukakis received 45.6%. Bush became the first serving Vice President to be elected President since Martin Van Buren in 1836 as well as the first person to succeed someone from his own party to the Presidency via election to the office in his own right since Herbert Hoover in 1929.