
.
.George H. W.
BUSH
George Herbert Walker Bush
(born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States
(1989–1993). He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President
(1981–1989), a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central
Intelligence.
Bush was born in Massachusetts to
Senator and New York Banker Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush.
Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941, at the age of 18,
Bush postponed going to college and became the youngest aviator in
the US Navy at the time. He served until the end of the war, then
attended Yale University.
Graduating in 1948, he moved his family
to West Texas and entered the oil business, becoming a millionaire
by the age of 40.
He became involved in politics
soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of
the House of Representatives, among other positions.
He ran
unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 1980, but was
chosen by party nominee Ronald Reagan to be the vice presidential
nominee; the two were subsequently elected. During his tenure,
Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation and
fighting drug abuse.
In 1988, Bush launched a
successful campaign to succeed Reagan as president, defeating
Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush
presidency; military operations were conducted in Panama and the
Persian Gulf at a time of world change; the Berlin Wall fell in
1989 and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later.
Domestically,
Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and after a struggle with
Congress, signed an increase in taxes that Congress had passed. In
the wake of economic concerns, he lost the 1992 presidential
election to Democrat Bill Clinton.
Bush is the father of George W.
Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, and Jeb Bush,
former Governor of Florida. He is the last president to have been
a World War II veteran.
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