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George H. W. Bush
1924–2018 · 94 years Tier II
Shot down over the Pacific at 20 and spared, he wondered why
He enlisted in the Navy on his 18th birthday, weeks after graduating from Andover, and by 19 was flying a torpedo bomber off a carrier deck. Over Chichijima in September 1944 his plane was hit. Both of his crewmen died. He bailed out, and a submarine surfaced and took him aboard. Several other airmen shot down in that operation were captured and executed, and their captors ate parts of them. He asked for the rest of his life why he had been spared. He married Barbara Pierce in January 1945, finished Yale in two and a half years on an accelerated program, and drove to west Texas rather than work in his father's shadow on Wall Street. Their daughter Robin died of leukemia in 1953, at three.
Four years. He put troops into Panama and arrested its head of state, signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990, rewrote the Clean Air Act that November, signed an immigration law that lifted legal admissions by about 40 percent, and negotiated the North American trade agreement his successor had to pass. The Gulf, the Wall and the tax pledge he broke belong to BriefHistory, which has them whole. Here the subject is the man who was in the room.
The 1988 campaign he ran through Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes made a furloughed Massachusetts convict named Willie Horton the case against Michael Dukakis, and it is still taught as the model of the modern attack campaign. Six weeks after losing the next election, on Christmas Eve 1992, Bush pardoned six men caught in the Iran-Contra prosecutions, among them Caspar Weinberger, whose trial was two weeks off and whose notes described meetings Bush had attended as vice president. The independent counsel, Lawrence Walsh, said the pardons preempted evidence that would have implicated the president himself, and described a pattern of deception and obstruction. The prosecutions ended there. The courtesy and the campaigns came from the same man.
He lay in state in the Capitol rotunda for two days in December 2018, where Bob Dole, 95 and in a wheelchair, was helped to his feet to salute. The funeral was at the National Cathedral. He was buried at his library in College Station beside Barbara and beside Robin, whose grave had been moved to the grounds years before. The name went onto things while he was still alive to see it — CIA headquarters in 1999, Houston's international airport, an aircraft carrier commissioned in 2009. Scholars have him in the upper half and drifting up: 17th of 44 in a 2018 survey of political scientists, 20th of 43 in the C-SPAN poll the year before.
Lifespan
George H. W. Bush's life against the full span of the corpus.
Notable works
-
Zapata Petroleum
company
Co-founded in Midland, Texas, with the Liedtke brothers 1953 -
Americans with Disabilities Act
law
The broadest antidiscrimination statute since 1964 1990 -
Clean Air Act Amendments
law
Built the emissions trading system that cut acid rain 1990 -
Immigration Act of 1990
law
Raised legal immigration by roughly 40 percent 1990 -
Points of Light Foundation
company
The volunteer service organization he founded and kept working with 1990 -
North American Free Trade Agreement
other
Signed in December 1992 and ratified under his successor 1992
Life in brief
with age at each point- June 12, 1942 aged 18 Enlists in the Navy on his 18th birthday
- September 2, 1944 aged 20 Shot down over Chichijima and pulled from the water by a submarine Both of his crewmen died. He flew 58 combat missions in all.
- January 6, 1945 aged 20 Marries Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York
- October 11, 1953 aged 29 His daughter Robin dies of leukemia at three
- November 8, 1966 aged 42 Elected to the House from Houston after losing a Senate race
- January 30, 1976 aged 51 Sworn in as Director of Central Intelligence
- January 20, 1989 aged 64 Inaugurated after eight years as vice president
- December 24, 1992 aged 68 Pardons six figures in the Iran-Contra prosecutions Caspar Weinberger's trial was two weeks away.
- November 30, 2018 aged 94 Dies at home in Houston at 94, seven months after Barbara
Related
Contemporaries
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William Rehnquist 1924–2005Government & PoliticsChief justice who led the Court’s conservative shift toward federalism and limits on congressional power.
Audie Murphy 1925–1971Government & PoliticsMost decorated American soldier of World War II who later became a film actor.
Bob Dole 1923–2021Government & PoliticsWounded veteran and Senate leader who helped write the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Henry Kissinger 1923–2023Government & PoliticsNational security adviser and secretary of state who shaped détente, China policy, and controversial Cold War interventions.