George Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018) was a Texas congressman (1967-1971), United Nations Ambassador (1971-1973), Director of Central Intelligence (1976-1977) and Vice President under the Reagan administration (1981-1989) before becoming the 41st President of the United States (1989-1993).

George H. W. Bush was born in 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts. Coming from a prominent New England family, Bush attended only private schools in his youth. Upon graduating from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (1942), Bush joined the U.S. Naval Reserve, going on to serve as a naval aviator in the Pacific during World War II from 1942 to 1944. Following the war, Bush married Barbara Pierce, with whom he would later have six children, and proceeded to enroll into Yale University. During his college career, Bush excelled both in sports and his studies; he was captain of the baseball team and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating from Yale in 1948, Bush embarked on a career in the oil industry of West Texas that would prove highly lucrative.

In 1959, Bush turned his focus to politics and became active in the Republican Party in Houston. Although he would initially lose his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1964, Bush would later go on to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1967-1971) and Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1973). In the following years, Bush would hold numerous other government positions, but the most notable of them would be that of Vice President under President Reagan (1981-1989). In 1988, however, Bush launched his own campaign for the presidency, and won with 53 percent of the popular vote. As President, Bush is most widely remembered for presiding over the military invasion of Panama, leading America into the First Gulf War, signing into effect an increase in taxes, and signing a mutual nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union—the latter of which finally signaled the end of the Cold War.

Having reneged on his campaign promise of “no new taxes” and steered the country towards an economic recession, Bush’s popularity quickly diminished. As a result, he lost his bid for reelection in 1992 to Democrat William J. Clinton. Upon stepping down from office, Bush returned to Houston and proceeded to have little formal involvement with politics thereafter, though his son, George W. Bush, followed in his steps as the 43rd President of the United States.

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