George Herbert Walker Bush

B

2

End of the Cold War

Early in his first year as president, Bush moved secretly and aggressively to try to bring the USSR and its reformist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, into what Bush called the “family of nations.” Gorbachev had come to power in the USSR in 1985. He had launched a campaign to reform society and the economy in the USSR. He and President Reagan already attempted to moderate the ideological competition and tensions of the Cold War. When Bush became president he wanted to forge a partnership with the USSR. Handled correctly, he believed, the USSR might become an ally. If this happened, the United States could perhaps reduce defense spending and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Almost immediately after his inauguration, Bush launched a top-secret drive to explore ways to help Gorbachev succeed with his plans for the USSR. Bush offered a series of rewards and punishments to encourage Gorbachev to move his nation toward democracy and his economy toward capitalism. In May 1989 Bush surprised his allies with a bold proposal to reduce the number of U.S. troops that had been stationed in Europe to prevent a Soviet attack there. In December of that year, Bush invited Gorbachev to an extraordinary three-day summit on the Mediterranean island of Malta, where Bush submitted a list of 21 proposals from military cuts to economic aid.

Bush was also careful to be patient and, at times, forbearing. During much of 1989 popular protests in the Soviet bloc nations of Eastern Europe called for democratic reforms and an end to Communism. When the Berlin Wall, which had separated Communist East Berlin from capitalist West Berlin, fell in November 1989, Bush was careful not to gloat, as he put it. He also announced that the world needed a “new world order” to replace the superpower rivalry that had divided the globe and fueled the Cold War. In 1990 the USSR refused to grant the Baltic nations Latvia and Lithuania the same degree of autonomy that it had extended to Poland and Hungary, but Bush did not criticize the Soviet government. For these careful responses, Bush was routinely condemned in the United States; but as former Soviet satellite nations gained their independence, Bush proposed foreign aid to hasten their economic reforms and democratic political transformation.

B

3

Persian Gulf War

In August 1990 Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein launched an attack on neighboring Kuwait, seizing control of the tiny sheikdom within hours and with it, 10 percent of the world's oil reserves. Hussein, an unpredictable leader, then had Iraqi forces on the border of Saudi Arabia, which controlled another 25 percent of world oil reserves, and with Iraq's own 10 percent of world reserves, Hussein was suddenly within striking distance of controlling almost half of the world's oil.

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Bush, who had favored diplomatic engagement with Iraq for several years, vowed that the invasion would not be allowed to succeed. Within hours of the attack, he began lining up European, Asian, and Middle Eastern allies—many of them suspicious of one another—to create a coalition against Iraq under the auspices of the UN. He convinced the normally reluctant Saudi Arabians to allow U.S. troops on their territory. He then ordered the U.S. Department of Defense to prepare for the biggest deployment of soldiers and materials since the Vietnam War (1959-1975).

While the military deployment was underway, Bush concentrated on managing the unprecedented UN coalition he had assembled. Arab nations such as Egypt, responding to domestic political pressures, wanted the Arab nations alone to find a solution to Iraqi aggression. Bush wanted to ensure Arab support for the UN coalition and did not interfere with the Arab attempt to find a solution. When it failed, the Arabs joined the coalition. The USSR, a longtime Iraqi ally, joined the coalition, but pressed Bush for lengthy negotiations. Bush agreed, which gave the military time to execute the deployment.

The Iraqis several times offered to settle the conflict in exchange for part of Kuwait, but Bush insisted on a complete Iraqi withdrawal. His aides asked the Japanese and Germans to help pay for the military deployment, and the Chinese were persuaded to refrain from sending weapons to Iraq. United States diplomats successfully persuaded the UN to pass several resolutions condemning Iraqi aggression, making it clear to Iraq that nothing short of unconditional withdrawal could prevent a UN attack. In January, just days before the war began, Bush won a vote of approval for military action from a U.S. Congress that had just months before been deeply skeptical of U.S. military involvement.

The multinational invasion of Kuwait, led by the United States and called Operation Desert Storm, began on the night of January 16, 1991. Hundreds of combat aircraft and bombers from nine different nations would attack targets in and around Kuwait and Iraq. More than 4000 bombing runs were flown by allied aircraft in the first week, and the pace continued for another four weeks before a ground invasion began. Immediately after the beginning of allied bombing, Iraq launched missile attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Bush worked hard to prevent Israel from taking its own action against Iraq. If Bush had been unable to persuade Israel not to attack, Arab countries might have deserted the coalition. During the war the United States used dozens of new weapons that had been developed and acquired during the ten-year-old Reagan-Bush military buildup. They included the air- and sea-launched cruise missile, a slow-flying unmanned rocket that read Iraqi terrain in order to fly at treetop level toward its targets.

On February 24 the ground war began, as allied troops penetrated Iraqi lines and pushed toward Kuwait City. Meanwhile, farther west in Iraq, allied troops executed a dramatic flanking maneuver in the Iraqi desert to cut off retreating Iraqi troops. After only 100 hours Bush halted the offensive. Critics later called the decision to halt the invasion premature, because thousands of Hussein's best troops were allowed to escape. Bush was also condemned for not driving Iraqi forces all the way back to Baghdād and removing Hussein from power. Bush, however, had never made Hussein's removal the objective; he had wanted to minimize U.S. casualties and return control of Kuwait to the Kuwaiti government, and he had achieved both goals. When it was all over 149 allied soldiers had been killed, and 513 had been wounded. Official estimates of Iraqi dead ranged from 8,000 to 25,000, with unofficial estimates reaching 100,000 killed in action.

In the war's aftermath, Bush enjoyed 90-percent approval ratings in opinion polls. As the economy began to improve, he believed his popularity would propel him safely into a second term. However, he never put the same energy into domestic affairs that he had put into the war. He appeared not to realize that Americans demand vigorous action during and after a recession.

C

Election of 1992

Conservative political columnist Pat Buchanan, arguing that the NAFTA would cost thousands of U.S. workers their jobs, challenged Bush for the Republican Party nomination and scared the president with a surprising 37-percent, second-place showing in the New Hampshire primary. Bush responded by adopting more conservative positions on issues; he hoped to obtain the votes of conservative Buchanan Republicans.

Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot complicated the political situation early in 1992 by launching a third-party bid for the presidency. Perot argued that neither party could be trusted to eliminate the deficit and make government more efficient, thus appealing to economic conservatives on whom Bush had counted for support. Perot was at the top of the polls by early summer, but in July he pulled out of the race after the Democrats nominated Arkansas governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee senator Al Gore. Clinton ran as the champion of Americans facing stiffer competition in the workplace and attacked Bush as a president who would do nothing to solve the problems of the average citizen. In October Perot decided to reenter the race and split the Republican vote in the general election. Clinton won on election day with 43 percent of the vote to Bush's 37 percent. Perot had 19 percent.

V

Return to Private Life

Bush and his wife returned to Texas after Clinton was inaugurated, built a new house in their old west Houston neighborhood, and settled down to private life. Bush began work on his memoirs and gave occasional speeches. He and his wife doted on their grandchildren. In 2001 Bush's oldest son, George W. Bush, became the 43rd president of the United States. The Bushes became only the second father-son pair to both serve as president; the first pair was John Adams and John Quincy Adams in the early 19th century.

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