Newspaper Page Text
6A Sunday, December 2, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
NATION
SGT. 1ST CLASS KEVIN MCDANIEL I Associated Press file photo
Former President George H.W. Bush free falls with Golden Knights parachute team member Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott, as
he decends to his presidential museum during a rededication ceremony Nov. 10, 2007, in College Station, Texas.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE I Associated Press file photo
President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush
walk Aug. 24, 1992, with their dog Millie across the South
Lawn as they return to the White House.
Praise for former president
George H.W. Bush
(He) “was a man of the highest character. The entire
Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for
the compassion of those who have cared and prayed
for Dad." — Former President George W. Bush
“George H. W. Bush’s life is a testament to the notion
that public service is a noble, joyous calling. And he
did tremendous good along the journey. ” — Former
President Barack Obama.
“Through his essential authenticity, disarming wit, and
unwavering commitment to faith, family, and country,
President Bush inspired generations of his fellow
Americans to public servicejo be, in his words, “a
thousand points of light” illuminating the greatness,
hope, and opportunity of America to the world. ” —
President Donald Trump.
“/ will be forever grateful for the friendship we formed.
From the moment I met him as a young governor
invited to his home in Kennebunkport, I was struck
by the kindness he showed to Chelsea, by his innate
and genuine decency, and by his devotion to Barbara,
his children, and their growing brood. ” — Former
President Bill Clinton.
“The world has lost a great leader; this country has
lost one of its best; and I have lost one of my dearest
friends. I am heartbroken. ” — Brent Scowcroft,
Bush’s national security adviser.
(George H. W. Bush) tried to “create a new
international order based on justice and equality
among nations”... he never “forgot the Kuwaiti people
and will remain in their memory. ” — Kuwait’s ruling
emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah
“It was a time of great change, demanding great
responsibility from everyone. The result was the
end of the Cold War and nuclear arms race. (My
wife, Raisa, and I) deeply appreciated the attention,
kindness and simplicity typical of George and Barbara
Bush, as well as the rest of their large, friendly family. ”
— Former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev
“While nothing can replace the loss of a father, we
can rejoice in the fact that his was a meaningful life,
dedicated to public service. I commend your parents
for encouraging their children, including you my dear
friend, to devote yourselves to the service of others.”
— Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama
(President George H. W. Bush was) “a great statesman
and a true friend of our country” whose “ethos of public
service was the guiding thread of his life and an example
to us all... in navigating a peaceful end to the Cold War
he made the world a safer place for generations to
come.” — British Prime Minister Theresa May
“A distinguished man has passed away. One who
served his country for his entire life, with a weapon
in his hands during wartime and in high office during
peacetime.” — Russian leader Vladimir Putin, via
the Kremlin website
“He will be long remembered in the hearts of our
people for his dedication to world peace and safety. ”
— South Korean President Moon Jae-in, via Twitter
“lam mourning George Bush ...as the chancellor of
Germany and as a German who, without the results of his
policies, probably couldn’t be standing here today.”—
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up
behind the Iron Curtain in communist East Germany
“Duty, sacrifice, commitment and patriotism. That is
what President Bush preached and what he lived. ” —
U.S. House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi
BUSH
■ Continued from 1A
The son of a senator,
Bush was the man with the
golden resume who rose
through the political ranks:
from congressman to U.N.
ambassador, Republican
Party chairman to envoy to
China, CIA director to two-
term vice president under
the hugely popular Ronald
Reagan. The 1991 Gulf War
stoked his popularity. But
Bush would acknowledge
that he had trouble articulat
ing “the vision thing,” and he
was haunted by his decision
to break a stern, solemn vow
he made to voters: “Read
my lips. No new taxes.”
He lost his bid for re-elec
tion to Bill Clinton in a cam
paign in which businessman
H. Ross Perot took almost
19 percent of the vote as an
independent candidate. Still,
he lived to see his son twice
elected to the presidency —
only the second father-and-
son chief executives, follow
ing John Adams and John
Quincy Adams.
After his 1992 defeat,
George H.W. Bush com
plained that media-created
“myths” gave voters a mis
taken impression that he did
not identify with the lives
of ordinary Americans. He
decided he lost because he
“just wasn’t a good enough
communicator.”
Once out of office, Bush
was content to remain on
the sidelines, except for
an occasional speech or
paid appearance and visits
abroad. He backed Clinton
on the North American Free
Trade Agreement, which
had its genesis during his
own presidency. He visited
the Middle East, where he
was revered for his defense
of Kuwait. And he returned
to China, where he was wel
comed as “an old friend”
from his days as the U.S.
ambassador there.
He later teamed with
Clinton to raise tens of mil
lions of dollars for victims
of a 2004 tsunami in the
Indian Ocean and Hurricane
Katrina, which swamped
New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast in 2005. During their
wide-ranging travels, the
political odd couple grew
close.
“Who would have thought
that I would be working with
Bill Clinton, of all people?”
Bush quipped in October
2005.
“I am profoundly grate
ful for every minute I spent
with President Bush and will
always hold our friendship
as one of my life’s great
est gifts,” Clinton said in a
statement after learning of
Bush’s death.
In his post-presidency,
Bush’s popularity rebounded
with the growth of his repu
tation as a fundamentally
decent and well-meaning
leader who, although he
was not a stirring orator or
a dreamy visionary, was
a steadfast humanitarian.
Elected officials and celeb
rities of both parties publicly
expressed their fondness.
“We don’t have to wait for
History’s judgment to know
that George H.W. Bush was
a marvelous human being
and an example of the kind
of civility in the political
arena too often missing
today,” former Democratic
Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn said
in a statement. “Those who
aspire to leadership at all
levels will find a wonderful
role model in George H.W.
Bush — the president and
the man. He will be greatly
missed.”
After Iraq invaded Kuwait
in August 1990, Bush quickly
began building an interna
tional military coalition that
included other Arab states.
After liberating Kuwait, he
rejected suggestions that
the U.S. carry the offensive
to Baghdad, choosing to end
the hostilities a mere 100
hours after the start of the
ground war.
“That wasn’t our objec
tive,” he told The Associated
Press in 2011 from his office
just a few blocks from his
Houston home. “The good
thing about it is there was so
much less loss of human life
than had been predicted and
indeed than we might have
feared.”
But the decisive military
defeat did not lead to the
regime’s downfall, as many
in the administration had
hoped.
“I miscalculated,”
acknowledged Bush.
His legacy was dogged
for years by doubts about
the decision not to remove
Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi
leader was eventually
ousted in 2003, in the war
led by Bush’s son that was
followed by a long, bloody
insurgency.
George H.W. Bush
entered the White House in
1989 with a reputation as a
man of indecision and inde
terminate views. One news
magazine suggested he was
a “wimp.”
But his work-hard, play-
hard approach to the presi
dency won broad public
approval. He held more
news conferences in most
months than Reagan did in
most years.
The Iraq crisis of 1990-
91 brought out all the skills
Bush had honed in a quarter-
century of politics and pub
lic service.
After winning United
Nations support and a green
light from a reluctant Con
gress, Bush unleashed a
punishing air war against
Iraq and a five-day ground
juggernaut that sent Iraqi
forces reeling in disarray
back to Baghdad. He basked
in the biggest outpouring
of patriotism and pride in
America’s military at the
time since World War II, and
his approval ratings soared
to nearly 90 percent.
The other battles he
fought as president, includ
ing a war on drugs and a
crusade to make American
children the best educated
in the world, were not so
decisively won.
He rode into office pledg
ing to make the United
States a “kinder, gentler”
nation and calling on Ameri
cans to volunteer their time
for good causes — an effort
he said would create “a
thousand points of light.”
“His administration was
marked by grace, civility,
and social conscience,”
former president Jimmy
Carter said in a statement.
“Through his Points of Light
initiative and other proj
ects, he espoused a uniquely
American volunteer spirit,
fostering bipartisan sup
port for citizen service
and inspiring millions to
embrace community vol-
unteerism as a cherished
responsibility.
It was Bush’s violation
of a different pledge, the
no-new-taxes promise, that
helped sink his bid for a sec
ond term. He abandoned the
idea in his second year, cut
ting a deficit-reduction deal
that angered many congres
sional Republicans and con
tributed to GOP losses in the
1990 midterm elections.
An avid outdoorsman who
took Theodore Roosevelt
as a model, Bush sought to
safeguard the environment
and signed the first improve
ments to the Clean Air Act in
more than a decade. It was
activism with a Republican
cast, allowing polluters to
buy others’ clean-air credits
and giving industry flexibil
ity on how to meet tougher
goals on smog.
He also signed the land
mark Americans with
Disabilities Act to ban
workplace discrimination
against people with disabili
ties and require improved
access to public places and
transportation.
Bush failed to rein in the
deficit, which had tripled to
$3 trillion under Reagan and
galloped ahead by as much
as $300 billion a year under
Bush, who put his finger on
it in his inauguration speech:
“We have more will than
wallet.”
Seven years of economic
growth ended in mid-1990,
just as the Gulf crisis began
to unfold. Bush insisted the
recession would be “short
and shallow,” and lawmak
ers did not even try to pass
a jobs bill or other relief
measures.
Bush’s true interests
lay elsewhere, outside the
realm of nettlesome domes
tic politics. “I love coping
with the problems in foreign
affairs,” he told a child who
asked what he liked best
about being president.
He operated at times like
a one-man State Depart
ment, on the phone at dawn
with his peers — Mikhail
Gorbachev of the Soviet
Union, Francois Mitter
rand of France, Germany’s
Helmut Kohl.
Communism began to
crumble on his watch, with
the Berlin Wall coming
down, the Warsaw Pact dis
integrating and the Soviet
satellites falling out of orbit.
He seized leadership of
the NATO alliance with a
bold and ultimately success
ful proposal for deep troop
and tank cuts in Europe.
Huge crowds cheered him
on a triumphal tour through
Poland and Hungary.
Bush’s invasion of Pan
ama in December 1989 was
a military precursor of the
Gulf War: a quick operation
with a resoundingly supe
rior American force. But in
Panama, the troops seized
dictator Manuel Noriega
and brought him back to the
United States in chains to
stand trial on drug-traffick
ing charges.
Months after the Gulf
War, Washington became
engrossed in a different sort
of confrontation over one
of Bush’s nominees to the
Supreme Court. Clarence
Thomas, a little-known fed
eral appeals court judge, was
accused of sexual harass
ment by a former colleague
named Anita Hill. His confir
mation hearings exploded
into a national spectacle,
sparking an intense debate
over race, gender and the
modern workplace. Thomas
was eventually confirmed.
In the closing days of the
1992 campaign, Bush fought
the impression that he was
distant and disconnected,
and seemed to struggle
against the younger, more
empathetic Clinton.
During a campaign visit
to a grocers’ convention,
Bush reportedly expressed
amazement when shown
an electronic checkout
scanner. Critics seized on
the moment, saying it indi
cated that the president had
become disconnected from
voters.
Later at a town-hall style
debate, he paused to look at
his wristwatch — a seem
ingly innocent glance that
became freighted with
deeper meaning because
it seemed to reinforce the
idea of a bored, impatient
incumbent.
In the same debate, Bush
became confused by a wom
an’s question about whether
the deficit had affected him
personally. Clinton, with
apparent ease, left his seat,
walked to the edge of the
stage to address the woman
and offered a sympathetic
answer.
Bush said the pain of los
ing in 1992 was eased by the
warm reception he received
after leaving office.
“I lost in ‘92 because peo
ple still thought the economy
was in the tank, that I was
out of touch and I didn’t
understand that,” he said
in an AP interview shortly
before the dedication of his
presidential library in 1997.
“The economy wasn’t in
the tank, and I wasn’t out of
touch, but I lost. I couldn’t
get through this hue and cry
for ‘change, change, change’
and ‘The economy is hor
rible, still in recession.’
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