George H.W. Bush: More than Meets the Eye

Last week my husband and I were fortunate enough to spend some time with former President George H. W. Bush and Mrs. Bush in Kennebunkport, ME.

The first evening, a group of us gathered at Walker’s Point, the Bush family compound that sits on a rocky outcrop on the Maine coast. As former President Bush showed us around, I was struck by how many times this man had contributed to the nation, in position after position, crisis after crisis. Yet many, even those in his own party, have tended to overlook his extraordinary accomplishments.

After drinks at the Bush home, we headed to the President’s favorite restaurant for lobster dinner. One of our group, a successful businessman and banker from Connecticut, got up to offer a toast.He said he had just gotten off the plane from the Persian Gulf, where he had to cut short meetings with Kuwaiti and other Persian Gulf officials. When the businessman made his excuses to leave early, the Kuwaiti leaders were more than a little ruffled.When the businessman explained why, the senior Kuwaiti leader solemnly nodded, and asked to be remembered to former President Bush. In 1990, he said, while the rest of the world stood by, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and seized their oil fields. It was former President Bush who pledged “this will not stand,” assembled an international coalition and sent in forces to reverse Saddam Hussein’s occupation. The Kuwaiti leader said that he and his fellow countrymen literally owed theirlives to the former president.

The next morning, at breakfast, Presidential historian Michael Beschloss gave an informal talk to our small group. He discussed presidential leadership, and gave examples throughout the years of American presidents who put the country’s interests before their own interests.He said some paid dearly, losing reelection as a result. It was only with the hindsight of history, Beschloss claimed, that their decisions were reevaluated and their reputations restored.
Most of Beschloss’ examples were from the early years of the Republic, so someone asked for a more modern day instance of such presidential courage. With former President Bush and Mrs. Bush sitting just a few feet away, Beschloss discussed the end of the Cold War.He said that while Reagan got the lion’s share of credit, it was President Bush who played a role in determining how and when the Cold War ended.

In the late 1980s it was clear the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe was in revolt, and the Soviet Union was crumbling from within. It was the moment American presidents of both parties had been waiting for since the 1950s. But former President Bush realized that the Soviet Union was a proud country, and their leaders were divided about whether to let Eastern Europe go without a fight.If the Soviet Union was forced to deal with their shame and humiliation publicly, they might have responded differently.

President Bush made it known to Soviet president Gorbachev (both through personal diplomacy during their summit meetings and through private channels) that the United States would remain quiet as long as the Soviet Union responded peaceably to the unraveling of events. When Gorbachev allowed the Berlin Wall to come down, President Bush did not rush to Berlin to echo Reagan’s dare to “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
It could have been a unique moment of political triumph for Bush, not only as an American President presiding over the demise of our long time arch enemy, but also personally. George H.W. Bush had spent a lifetime fighting Communism throughout his career in Congress, as CIA director, Ambassador to China, at the United Nations, Vice President and ultimately President.

But Bush resisted the all too human temptation to gloat, and by staying silent helped ensure a smooth landing for the Eastern bloc in a potentially dangerous state of collapse.When the Berlin Wall came down, the 400,000 Soviets troops occupying East Germany did nothing to stop it.

But despite his role in winning the cold war andhis astounding victory in the First Gulf War, President H.W. Bush was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1992. He never received the credit he deserved for the two great foreign policy successes of a generation. It’s a pity.But in a few years time, when historians take that inevitable second look, George Herbert Walker Bush could well be considered one of our greater presidents.