George Herbert Walker Bush (12 June 1924 – 30 November 2018) was President of the United States from 20 January 1989 to 20 January 1993, succeeding Ronald Reagan and preceding Bill Clinton. Bush had previously served as Vice-President of the United States from 20 January 1981 to 20 January 1989 (succeeding Walter Mondale and preceding Dan Quayle) under Ronald Reagan, and he was a member of the moderate conservative wing of the Republican Party. His son George W. Bush would become president in 2001, and his other son Jeb Bush became a prominent Florida Republican.
Biography
George H.W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts as the second son of banker and US senator Prescott Bush. He served with distinction in World War II as a pilot and graduated from Yale with a BA in economics. Despite his East Coast patrician heritage, he moved to Texas and became extremely successful in the oil industry. He was elected to the US Congress as a Republican Party member in 1966, serving in the US House of Representatives as the congressman from the 7th district (succeeding John Dowdy and preceding William Archer). Bush was defeated as a US Senate candidate in 1964 and 1970, but he became ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and became chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973, calling on Richard Nixon to resign after the Watergate scandal. President Gerald Ford appointed Bush to the US Liaison Office in China in 1974, and he became CIA director in 1976. In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated him in the Republican presidential primaries, but he became Reagan's running mate and served as Vice-President from 1981 to 1989. In July 1985, he became the first Acting President in US history when Reagan invoked the Twenty-Fifth Amendment before undergoing a surgical operation.
Bush won the 1988 elections for president on a tough anti-crime platform and a pledge of "no new taxes" with 54% of the popular vote, defeating Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis. Bush capitalized on his ample foreign policy experience by successfully launching a series of foreign policy initiatives, and he proclaimed a "New World Order" on the basis of the end of the Cold War, invaded Panama in 1989, sent US troops into Somalia under the auspices of the UN, and brought together the coalition which won the Gulf War. The latter initiative sent his popularity to an all-time high in 1991, but his deficit reduction plan's increased taxes broke his election pledge, and this, combined with the economic recession of 1992, led to Bush losing re-election to Democratic nominee Bill Clinton in 1996. One of the causes of his defeat was the independent Ross Perot's candidacy, as Bush no longer had the full support of the right wing which had enthusiastically supported Reagan. His son George W. Bush was elected Governor of Texas in 1995 and President in 2001, and his son Jeb Bush became a prominent Florida Republican. He died of Parkinson's disease on 30 November 2018 at the age of 94.