The LuLac Edition #3945, December 2nd, 2018

GEORGE H.W. BUSH 
#41

Official portrait.

Former President George H.W. Bush went out of this life Friday night before Midnight. He was 94. In April his beloved wife Barbara passed away.
The George Bush story is one of America. A story of service to God and country. The entire weekend has been saturated by coverage of the 41st President’s death. How do you duplicate that coverage in a humble little site like this? The answer is you can’t so the best thing for me to do is give you the top moments in capsule form of a life well lived.

YOUNG WARRIOR 

 Young Bush at war. (Photo: Bush Library)

Six months after Pearl Harbor, Bush enlisted into the U.S. Navy immediately after he graduated from Phillips Academy on his eighteenth birthday. He became a naval aviator, taking training for aircraft carrier operations aboard USS Sable. 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 to that date.
In September 1943, he was assigned to Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51) as the photographic officer. The following year, his squadron was based in USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, where his lanky physique earned him the nickname "Skin". During this time, the task force was victorious 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, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands. Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avengers of VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima. His crew for the mission, which occurred on September 2, 1944, included Radioman Second Class John Delaney and Lt.(jg) William White. During their attack, the Avengers encountered intense anti-aircraft fire; Bush's aircraft was hit by flak and his engine caught fire. Despite the fire in his aircraft, Bush completed his attack and released bombs over his target, scoring several damaging hits. With his engine ablaze, Bush flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member of the TBM bailed out; 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 submarine USS Finback, on lifeguard duty. For the next month, he remained in Finback and participated in the rescue of other aviators. Several of those shot down during the attack were executed, and their livers were eaten by their captors. A radio operator from the Japanese unit that shot down Bush plane was American citizen Nobuaki Iwatake, a Japanese American who had settled in Japan six months before Pearl Harbor and was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army in 1943. This experience shaped Bush profoundly, leading him to ask, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?"

What a question. I’ve always felt that if you get out of a close call, you never owe that to good luck but providence. Then you give back. George H.W. did just that.

JUMPING IN THE ELECTORAL POOL AND NEARLY DROWNING

Bush for Senate again. ( Bush Library)

Bush’s political career was punctuated by more losses than wins. Very odd for someone who won the Presidency in modern times. The fact is Bush made his bones by getting appointments from Presidents in power. But he took every job and turned in stellar performances. He knew what to do with the power. So he built his resume not on election but selection. Here’s how he started out.
In that pivotal year 1964, he ran against incumbent Democrat Ralph W. Yarborough in the U.S. Senate race in Texas where he became an oil wild catter after the war.  He presented himself as a young Conservative Republican in contrast to the aging liberal Democrat Yarborough. He campaigned against civil rights legislation pending before Congress, stating that he believed it gave too much power to the federal government. Bush lost the election 56% to 44%, though he did outpoll Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, who lost by an overwhelming margin to Lyndon B. Johnson.
Bush and the Harris County Republicans played a role in the development of the new Republican Party of the late 20th century. First, Bush worked to absorb the John Birch Society members, who were trying to take over the Republican Party. Second, during and after the civil rights movement, Democrats in the South who were committed to segregation left their party, and although the "country club Republicans" had differing ideological beliefs, they found common ground in hoping to expel the Democrats from power.
n 1966, Bush was elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives from the 7th District of Texas; he won 57 percent of the ballots cast in a race against Democrat Frank Briscoe, who was the district attorney of Harris County. Bush was the first Republican to represent Houston in the U.S. House. Bush's representative district included Tanglewood, the Houston neighborhood that was his residence; his family had moved into Tanglewood in the 1960s. 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. Despite being a first-term congressman, Bush was appointed to the powerful United States House Committee on Ways and Means, where he voted to abolish the military draft. He was elected to a second term in 1968.
In 1970, Nixon convinced Bush to relinquish his House seat in order to run for the Senate against Ralph Yarborough, who was a fierce Nixon critic. In the Republican primary, Bush easily defeated conservative Robert J. Morris by a margin of 87.6% to 12.4%. Nixon went to Longview, Texas, to campaign for Bush and gubernatorial candidate Paul Eggers, a Dallas lawyer who was a close friend of U.S. Senator John G. Tower. Former Congressman Lloyd Bentsen, a more moderate Democrat and native of Mission in south Texas, defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary Yarborough endorsed Bentsen, who defeated Bush, 53.4 to 46.6%.
I heard he never really wanted to run for The Senate. He wanted to build up some seniority in Congress but Richard Nixon talked him into running against Bensten. After that, Nixon made him an envoy to the U.N.. Bush did an excellent job but Nixon then tabbed him as Republican National Chairman when Watergate hit the fan. Bush had to walk not only a diplomatic tightrope but a moral one given the scandals.
When Ford became President, Bush headed to China and once said this was his happiest time in the service of his country.Butt he didn't stay long in that job.
But once more, Bush was tabbed to clean up a mess and this was for just under a year at The CIA. he Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been rocked by a series of revelations, including those based on investigations by the Church Committee regarding illegal and unauthorized activities by the CIA, and Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale. In his capacity as DCI, 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. He was succeeded by Deputy Director of Central Intelligence E. Henry Knoche, who served as acting Director of Central Intelligence until Stansfield Turner was confirmed.
During Bush's year in charge of the CIA, the U.S. national security apparatus actively supported Operation Condor operations and right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America.

UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF

At the 1980 convention in Detroit. (Photo: AP)

His 1980 Presidential campaign was punctuated by fits and starts including that famed debate in New Hampshire where Reagan scolded him saying he, Reagan was paying for a microphone at the debate.
He dropped out and was picked by Reagan only after negotiations for a Reagan Ford ticket floundered when Ford went on CBS and started talking about a “co Presidency”.
As Vice President, Bush had weekly meetings with Reagan and was loyal. Some say to a fault.

GREAT IN '88

Bush was considered the early front runner for the nomination, but he came in third in the Iowa caucus, behind winner Dole and runner-up Robertson. Much as Reagan had done in 1980, Bush reorganized his staff and concentrated on the New Hampshire primary. With Dole ahead in New Hampshire, Bush ran television commercials portraying the senator as a tax raiser; he rebounded to win the state's 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 is thought to have hurt Dole's campaign to Bush's benefit. Bush continued seeing victory, winning many Southern primaries as well. Once the multiple-state primaries such as Super Tuesday began, Bush's organizational strength and fundraising lead were impossible for the other candidates to match, and the nomination was his.
As the 1988 Republican National Convention approached, there was much speculation who Bush would choose to be his running mate. He selected little-known U.S. Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana, who was favored by conservatives. Despite Reagan's popularity, Bush trailed Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, then Governor of Massachusetts, in most polls.

Bush was occasionally criticized for his lack of eloquence when compared to Reagan, but he delivered a well-received speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Known as the "thousand points of light" speech, the presentation described Bush's vision of America. He endorsed the Pledge of Allegiance, capital punishment, and gun rights, and drew upon his long-standing Christian beliefs to support both prayer in schools and oppose abortion. The speech at the convention included Bush's famous pledge: "Read my lips: no new taxes."
The general election campaign between the two men was described in 2008 as one of the dirtiest in modern times. Bush blamed Dukakis for polluting the Boston Harbor as the Governor of Massachusetts. Bush also pointed out that Dukakis was opposed to a law that would require all students to say the Pledge of Allegiance, a topic well covered in Bush's nomination acceptance speech.
Dukakis's unconditional opposition to capital punishment led to a pointed question being asked during the presidential debates. Moderator Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis if he would hypothetically support the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered. Dukakis's response of no, as well as a provocative 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 (Bentsen received one vote from a faithless elector). 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.
When he was inaugurated Bush said this: “I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on. There is new ground to be’ broken, and new action to be taken.

Bush again had to be the clean up man  but this time it was for his mentor President Reagan. Early in his term, Bush faced the problem of what to do with leftover deficits spawned during the Reagan years. At $220 billion in 1990, the deficit had tripled since 1980. Bush was dedicated to curbing the deficit, believing that America could not continue to be a leader in the world without doing so. He began an effort to persuade the Democratic controlled Congress to act on the budget; with Republicans believing that the best way was to cut government spending, and Democrats convinced that the only way would be to raise taxes, Bush faced problems when it came to consensus building.
In 1989, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bush met with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in a conference on the Mediterranean island of Malta. The administration had been under intense pressure to meet with the Soviets, but not all initially found the Malta Summit to be a step in the right direction; General Brent Scowcroft, among others, was apprehensive about the meeting, saying that it might be "premature" due to concerns where, according to Condoleezza Rice, "expectations [would be] set that something was going to happen, where the Soviets might grandstand and force [the U.S.] into agreements that would ultimately not be good for the United States." But European leaders, including François Mitterrand and Margaret Thatcher, encouraged Bush to meet with Gorbachev, something that he did on December 2 and 3, 1989. Although no agreements were signed, the meeting was viewed largely as being an important one; when asked about nuclear war, Gorbachev responded, "I assured the President of the United States that the Soviet Union would never start a hot war against the United States of America. And we would like our relations to develop in such a way that they would open greater possibilities for cooperation... This is just the beginning. We are just at the very beginning of our road, long road to a long-lasting, peaceful period." The meeting was received as a very important step to the end of the Cold War.
George and Barbara Bush with President Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet freely elected leader, at the White House, Washington, D.C. in 1992
Another summit was held in July 1991, where the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) was signed by Bush and Gorbachev in Moscow. The treaty took nine years in the making and was the first major arms agreement since the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987. The contentions in START would reduce the strategic nuclear weapons of the United States and the USSR by about 35% over seven years, and the Soviet Union's land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be cut by 50%. Bush described START as "a significant step forward in dispelling half a century of mistrust". After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, President Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin declared a U.S.–Russian strategic partnership, marking the end of the Cold War.

THE GULF WAR 

 Bush greeting the troops. (Photo: NBCbayarea.com)

Early on the morning of January 17, 1991, allied forces launched the first attack, which included more than 4,000 bombing runs by coalition aircraft. This pace would continue for the next four weeks, until a ground invasion was launched on February 24, 1991. Allied forces penetrated Iraqi lines and pushed toward Kuwait City while on the west side of the country, forces were intercepting the retreating Iraqi army. Bush made the decision to stop the offensive after a mere 100 hours. Critics labeled this decision premature, as hundreds of Iraqi forces were able to escape; Bush responded by saying that he wanted to minimize U.S. casualties. Opponents further charged that Bush should have continued the attack, pushing Hussein's army back to Baghdad, then removing him from power. Bush explained that he did not give the order to overthrow the Iraqi government because it would have "incurred incalculable human and political costs... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq." When that actually happened under his son George W., Bush refused to second guess or contradict him.
Bush's approval ratings skyrocketed after the successful offensive. Additionally, President Bush and Secretary of State Baker felt the coalition victory had increased U.S. prestige abroad and believed there was a window of opportunity to use the political capital generated by the coalition victory to revitalize the Arab-Israeli peace process. The administration immediately returned to Arab-Israeli peacemaking following the end of the Gulf War; this resulted in the Madrid Conference, later in 1991.

LOSING IN ’92

Bush, Perot and Clinton in '92. (Photo: Daily Mail)

The tax pledge which he broke, the entry of that wacko Ross Perot as a Third Party cypher, and the emergence of Bill Clinton coupled with a sagging economy denied Bush a second term.
He was confused, disappointed, hurt but never bitter.
His legacy as a one term President rivals accomplishments of others who had more time in office than he did. But the watch word of his leadership could be summed up in four words. Service, intelligence, decency and honor.
The reason why he is missed so much now is that we haven’t seen those qualities in those 4 words from a President for the last two years.
History will judge him…kindly.

WHEN WE MET MR. BUSH

It was 1986 and as a member of The Wilkes Barre Kiwanis Club I was privileged to meet then Vice President George H.W. Bush. Through fellow member Rob Friedman and Marc Holtzman, members of our club went to Washington, D.C. to tell the story of the Wheelchair endeavors the club was known for back then.
I roomed with Bernie Mengrenhausen, and other members Frank Procopio, Joe Shaver, Rob Friedman and Nelson Carl made that trip.
President Bush died last night and even though he served just one term, he will be remembered as one of our most decent and competent Commanders In Chief.  (LuLac archives, wikipedia, Newsweek)

FROM THE CITIZENS' VOICE ON BUSH AND THE LOCAL CONNECTION

https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/local-leaders-call-george-h-w-bush-a-patriot-1.2417341