I confess that I was one of those who skewered George H.W. Bush while he was
Vice President and President. I always thought he knew more about Iran-Contra
than he said; that he was just a rich, out-of-touch patrician with a sense of
entitlement. I volunteered for Bill Clinton's campaign in 1992 and was
there at the Capitol as the Clinton's walked the Bush's to Marine One and
watched them as they flew back to Houston. "Good riddance," I thought
at the time.
But, oh how time changes perspective. By the late 1990s, I'd reassessed my
opinion on Bush - after learning that President Clinton had inserted a cigar in
a rude place on an intern - suddenly Bush looked a lot more presidential.
And so comes Jon Meacham's new biography,
Destiny and Power: The American
Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. I've enjoyed two previous works by
Meacham [
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and
Thomas
Jefferson: The Art of Power]. Writing a biography about a president who is
still living, however, is a greater challenge than culling through the archives
of the dead. Meacham, however, had extraordinary access to Bush
himself and to primary materials concerning Bush's long, long career.
Meacham interviewed Bush over a period spanning nearly a decade [2006-2015]. In
addition, Bush gave Meacham unfettered access to his diaries.
Perhaps anticipating criticism because the book is quite supportive of Bush,
Meacham writes, "This book was written with the cooperation of the
forty-first president and of his family and many of his lieutenants, but it is
an independent work. No one, including President Bush, had right of review or
of approval."
I interrupt this review to make one of those criticisms right now:
nowhere,
in over 600-pages of text, does the word "AIDS" appear. Not
once.
To not even mention one of the greatest health crises under Bush's terms as
Vice President and then President is a callous and blatant oversight.
Now, back to the review.
Meacham argues that - although seemingly a cliche - for George Herbert
Walker Bush, it really
was about family, honor, duty and country.
Bush also, however, had a hidden, driving ambition that made him competitive
and often left his opponents severely underestimating him. Meacham's thesis -
which runs throughout the 601-page book - is simple: "The nation was
fortunate that George H.W. Bush was in power when the crises of his time came,
for his essential character, his experience, and his temperament armed him well
to bring the decades-long Cold War to an end, to confront the aggression of an
irrational dictator, and to lead the nation toward fiscal responsibility. An
imperfect leader, he was nonetheless well-matched to the exigencies of his
historical moment."
Bush first made his mark as a war hero. He was sworn into the Navy on
June 12, 1942 - his 18th birthday. After nearly a year of training, he was
commissioned as an officer of the United States Naval Reserve on June 9, 1943,
receiving his wings as a Naval Aviator. Not yet 19-years old, it is believed
that Bush was the youngest flying officer in the Navy.
Bush's plane was a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. 40-feet long, 16-feet high,
with a 52-foot wing span. Bush was assigned to the
USS San Jacinto,
flying his first combat mission on May 21, 1944, from Majuro Harbor in the
Marshall Islands. On September 2, 1944, Bush's plane was hit and he realized it
was going down. Despite this, he stayed in the cockpit long enough to drop his
bombs and hit his target. He gave the order to eject to his crew then did so
himself. The Japanese tried to shoot him while he was descending to the sea and
while he was in the ocean awaiting rescue. Bush's crew [William "Ted"
White and John "Del" Delaney] was killed and never found. As Meacham
recounts, "The loss of White and of Delaney remained with Bush for the
rest of his life." Bush told Meacham, "it worries me - it terrifies
me" even decades later. During that interview, Bush spent much
time, Meacham writes, "reflecting on the proposition that he could've done
something differently, something that would've ensured their survival on that
desperate Saturday in September. Bush's fundamental question: 'Did I do enough
to save them?'" Although Bush was now eligible for a return
stateside for shore duty, he refused. He resumed his missions until he was
ordered stateside in November 1944, before being reassigned for new duty in the
Pacific. It was shortly after this that Bush married Barbara Pierce.
At the encouragement of friend of his father, George, Barbara and
their young family moved to Texas to forge a life in the oil
business, leaving behind his life as a Connecticut Yankee. For
the next decade-and-a-half Bush built up an independent oil career. As Meacham
writes, "through the 1950s Bush worked hard to raise money in the East in
order to press ahead in Texas. For Bush, raising capital required charm,
smarts, and drive. Though few people could have been as well positioned to have
access to big money men than Bush, he still had to make the sale, and then
produce." It was good preparation for a career in politics.
Bush's gravitation toward politics no doubt stemmed from his father's
political career. Prescott Bush served in the U.S. Senate from 1952-1963
In 1963 George Bush was elected Harris County Republican Party Chairman.
He decided to challenge incumbent Democrat Ralph Yarborough for the U.S. Senate
in 1964. In the Republican Party in 1964, the main battle was between the
supporters of arch-conservative U.S. Sen Barry Goldwater of Arizona on the
right and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller on the center/left. As Meacham
points out, strictly in terms of upbringing Bush
should've been a
Rockefeller Republican. But. "by the time of the 1964 campaign, Bush
had been away from the East for 16 years. As an oil man, he had grown more
conservative - not radically so, but notably so." Bush and Goldwater were
both opposed to key elements of the landmark Civil Rights Act, advocated
states rights, opposed Medicare and President Johnson's War on Poverty, the
admission of Communist China to the United Nations, and both opposed the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Although Bush won the Republican primary [after a runoff] Yarborough
beat Bush 56% to 44% at the polls. Bush was not finished with politics. In
fact, by 1965 he was getting ready to run for Congress. To prepare, he
sold his company, making a profit that - in today's dollars - would be the
equivalent of $8 million. Bush won the congressional seat in 1966. It was
a strange time for Republicans. As Meacham notes, "Bush came of political
age in an odd time - a moment when Republicans were at once supportive of
[Lyndon] Johnson in Southeast Asia and wary of him domestically." Meacham
argues this may help explain Bush's own understanding of partisanship in
Washington. "The political lesson of Bush's formative first years in
public office was that the President of the United States - in this case
Johnson - was neither wholly right nor wholly wrong."
The assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 had a profound effect on
Bush and his views of civil rights. He voted in favor of the Fair Housing
Act of 1968, despite Republican opposition, which centered on attracting
disaffected white voters to the GOP by opposing civil rights. The
law banned discrimination in the housing market, enabling home buyers of any color
or ethnicity to purchase real estate whenever they could afford it. "While
many whites were disaffected over changes in culture and race,"
Meacham writes, "Bush shared some of those worries, but, while no liberal,
he was attuned to the shifting cultural, political, and demographic realities,
and hoped that his party would engage with a changing America rather than
reflexively resist it."
After giving up his Congressional seat for another failed Senate attempt in
1970 [this time to Lloyd Bentsen], Bush was sought after by the Nixon
Administration. Richard Nixon appointed Bush as U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations in early 1971. After a successful tenure there, Bush
was tapped by Nixon to head the Republican National Committee [RNC] - a
thankless task in the Watergate era. Bush took over as RNC chair on January 23,
1973. That year Bush would travel 97,000 miles through 33 states delivering,
101 speeches, holding 78 news conferences and making 11 national television
appearances. All of this as Nixon crumbled under Watergate. As Meacham writes,
"Bush wanted to believe in Nixon. The idea that a President of the United
States would lie to the country for selfish political ends was anathema to
Bush."
Even after the edited White House transcripts - showing Nixon as a paranoid,
vulgar narcissist - Bush still opposed dumping him. His support of Nixon is one
of the few examples of Meacham turning critical of Bush. In what for the most
part is a biography of praise, Meacham writes that, "The stand Bush took -
of cautious support until it was beyond any question that Nixon had
participated in the cover-up - was hardly a profile in courage. It was,
rather, that of a conventional politician, of an ambitious man who chose to
defend the powers that were - which, not incidentally, were the powers that had
championed and promoted his prospects in public life."
When Nixon finally resigned, Bush was on Gerald Ford's short-list to become
Vice President. Once Nelson Rockefeller was tapped for that
position, however, Bush had three other positions he desired: Secretary of
Commerce, Chief of Staff, or Ambassador to China. He was given the
latter. Meacham argues that the China position changed Bush. Meacham
writes, "The man who came to China liked action, movement, phone calls,
results. The man who left China understood that diplomacy was a long game and
that change could come rapidly or glacially depending on the circumstances of a
given country and given situation"
In late-1975 Ford asked Bush to take over the Central Intelligence Agency
[CIA]. He was shocked. If taking on the RNC during Watergate was a challenge,
taking over the CIA in the midst of multiple congressional investigations into
CIA secret operations over the previous 25 years was Herculean. In
Bush's mind, accepting the CIA position meant the end of his political career.
As with the RNC task, however, Bush took it on and received much praise in
helping to restore morale to the agency during his brief tenure at Langley.
After Jimmy Carter's defeat of Ford in 1976, Bush left government and
prepared for a presidential campaign in 1980. His biggest rival would be
former California Governor Ronald Reagan. By 1979-80, both men were in
agreement on lower taxes, fewer government regulations and a muscular foreign
policy. They disagreed on abortion, the primacy of tax cuts [Meacham explains,
"Bush feared that drastic reductions in taxes without spending restraints
risked higher deficits and possibly inflation."]. Bush favored the
Equal Rights Amendment, Reagan did not; Bush did not favor a pro-life
constitutional amendment, Reagan did. Bush was not a big tax cutter; Reagan
was.
Bush stressed his youth and vitality vs. Reagan's age as he launched his
campaign on May 1, 1979. Early results were positive. Bush won the Iowa
caucuses in late-January 1980. The trouble began with a second debate scheduled
for Nashua, New Hampshire. Bush believed he and Reagan had agreed that only the
two of them would be on the dais - that the other candidates would not be
afforded a spot in the debate. Reagan, however, claimed to have never agreed to
that. When the debate came on February 23, 1980, Bush sat stone faced on the
dais as Reagan brought the other candidates onto the stage with
him, demanding equal time for them. The debate sponsor [the
Nashua
Telegraph] threatened to declare a forfeit with Bush the winner if the
others didn't leave the stage. Reagan asked to make a statement but the
moderator refused to allow it. At that point, dramatically, Reagan grabbed the
microphone and thundered, "I am paying for this microphone" and the
audience erupted in delight - all while Bush sat on the dais saying nothing and
not even acknowledging the others. Finally, the other candidates left the
stage - but not before one of them, Kansas Senator Bob Dole told Bush
caustically, "I'll get you someday you fucking Nazi." Bush's lack of
action looked terrible., Reagan won New Hampshire.
While Bush won Massachusetts, Reagan won South Carolina, Alabama, Florida,
Georgia and Illinois. Bush then won Connecticut. Reagan won Kansas, Wisconsin
and Louisiana. But Bush refused to quit. It would be while campaigning in
Pennsylvania that he would utter the three words that nearly cost him the vice
presidency. While discussing Reagan's proposed economic policy, Bush
called it a "voodoo economic policy" and "economic
madness". From that, Bush press secretary Pete Teeley coined the term
"voodoo economics" and a phrase was born.
While Bush would win Pennsylvania and Michigan, Reagan took Oregon which
pushed him over the 998 delegates needed for nomination. Bush - after heated
discussion - agreed with his friend James Baker that it was time to withdraw.
In Baker's mind, there was still the vice presidency to consider, and every day
Bush remained in the race made it less likely that Reagan would ask him to
be on the ticket.
For Reagan, though, there was really only one person he wanted on that
ticket - Gerald Ford. Bush remained a backup choice in the event Ford
declined the offer. Meacham reporters, however, that Reagan did
not want
George Bush. The "voodoo economics" remark set Reagan off
unlike anything any of his advisors had ever seen. Reagan also resented Bush's
implications that he was too old. Although Ford had rebuffed Reagan in a
previous offer of the number two spot, after watching Ford's address to the
Republican National Convention, Reagan decided he
must have Ford. This
time when offered the position, Ford asked for 24 hours to think about
it. Meacham argues that Ford reconsidered because Ford was still itching
to get back at Carter, "the pull of power was strong, the desire to
exact retribution against Carter great. Ford was a politician, and the allure
of politics had not faded - that much was clear from his prolonged flirtation
with seeking the presidential nomination [in 1979]. The vice presidency wasn't
everything but it was something - and it was possible that Ford, a former
president, could make it into something even more."
Over those 24 hours, Ford's team put forth a series of demands [including a
major role in the budget, foreign policy, and defense] that the Reagan team
agreed to. But there was one person on the Reagan team not convinced: Nancy.
That fact and an unfortunate interview Ford gave to Walter Cronkite the
night that Bush was scheduled to address the convention ended up costing Ford
the number two spot. Reagan watched the interview live [as Bush did while
getting dressed in preparation for his speech] as Cronkite asked Ford about
Reagan's pride in taking on a man [Ford] "who...has said, 'It's got to be
something like a co-presidency'?" Reagan heard the term 'co-presidency' and
went ballistic. As Meacham points out, "In fairness, Ford's reply to
Cronkite did not endorse the 'co-presidency' idea," but all Reagan heard
was "co-presidency" and he was done with Ford. Ironically, watching
on TV, Bush later said he had the
opposite reaction, assuming the
performance was confirmation that Ford had already agreed to be on the ticket.
Still, Reagan hesitated about Bush. 'Voodoo economics' and Bush's
pro-choice stance bothered him. Finally, Reagan aide Richard Allen asked him,
"If you could be assured that George Bush would support this platform in
every detail, would you reconsider Bush?" Reagan said he would reconsider
Bush.
And so, it would be Bush. While it is true, as Meacham accurately points
out, that, "Bush had emerged by default", it is also true that,
"Whatever reservations he had about Bush, Reagan also knew that no one
would ever mistake Bush for an extremist of any kind. He was the safe
pick, popular with moderates and popular enough with most conservatives. Reagan
seems to have become convinced that if he could not have Ford it was still a
good idea to have someone politically close to the Ford constituency."
Reagan-Bush defeated Carter-Mondale 50.75% to 41% [John Anderson polled
6.6%]; winning the Electoral College 489-49. Meacham delves into the vice
presidential years by noting that, "As Vice President, George Bush was
neither as irrelevant as many thought nor as powerful as many feared. His
diaries of the period - sporadic but still revealing - show that he spent the
Reagan years working hard to be useful to the president, struggling, from year
to year and election cycle to election cycle, to convince the base of the party
that he could be trusted with the Reagan legacy." As for how Reagan
viewed Bush, Meacham believes that - for Reagan - "Bush appears to have
been kind of a human Marine One - a perk of the office that made life easier.
Like the presidential helicopter, Bush was always there, an accepted and
natural part of the daily action."
Although at the time there was some doubt, the two men developed a
tremendous relationship. If Ronald Reagan enjoyed the Bushes, Nancy Reagan did
not. And she made no effort to hide her contempt of them for eight years
in the White House. The Bushes were rarely invited to the private quarters and
Nancy excluded them from everything she could within reason. As to the
reason(s) behind this, Meacham offers some theories but doesn't give an opinion
as to why Nancy had such animosity. The theories include 1) Nancy's lingering
anger over the 1980 campaign; 2) cultural differences between the two families;
3) the show business universe of the Reagans - there can only be one leading
man/lady - made it inevitable that Bush would be suspect.
Meacham praises Bush's handling of the assassination attempt, as do most
scholars. Ironically, Bush's first stop on the morning of March 30, 1981, was
at the unveiling of a plaque at the Texas hotel where President John F. Kennedy
spent his last night. Another irony: Bush's plane that day was the same
one used by Lyndon Johnson when he flew down to Dallas to join JFK on November
21,1963. When Secretary of State Alexander Haig reached Bush in flight over
Texas to alert him to the assassination attempt, the connections was terrible.
Bush only heard the recommendation from Haig that he come back to Washington -
the rest of the conversation was static. It wasn't until he got Haig's telex
aboard the flight back to Washington that he knew that Reagan himself had been
shot. Bush couldn't help thoughts of the parallels between himself and LBJ in
1963. As Meacham writes, like LBJ, "Had Bush come to Texas as Vice
President - and would he leave it as President?"
Bush addressed the nation from the White House briefing room at 8:20 pm,
with a brief statement. Meacham notes, "To Bush, no other message mattered
more than that Reagan was president, was on the mend, and all would be
well." The measure was received by the public and Bush's stature rose
considerably.
That reputation remained steady until the 1984 election, when
Democratic nominee Walter Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New
York to the number two spot. Running against a woman seemed to have
impacted Bush and caused him, at times, to appear unhinged. Bush would describe
Ferraro in his diary as "mean". Then Barbara Bush called Ferraro a
word that rhymes with "rich" [Barbara called Ferraro to apologize,
and she accepted]. Despite these contretemps, Reagan-Bush annihilated Mondale-Ferraro,
carrying 49 of 50 states.
Almost immediately, Bush began planning for 1988. What would become one of
his biggest obstacles began in 1985 with the decision to negotiate with Iran
for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon. In assessing the
Iran component of "Iran-Contra", Meacham writes, "the record is
clear the Bush was aware that the United States, in contravention of its own
stated policy, was trading arms for hostages as part of an initiative to reach
out to modern elements in Iran." Bush himself told his diary - after the
story broke in November 1986 - "I'm one of the few people that know fully
the details, and there is a lot of flak and misinformation out there."
As for the "Contra" component, Meacham takes Bush at his word that
he did not know about the diversion of the arms proceeds going to the Contras.
Meacham argues that the fact that Bush offered to take a lie detector test to
support his claims of a lack of a role in the Contra affair is proof to him
that Bush [and Reagan, for that matter] was in the dark about the funds to the
Contras. Such an offer for me, however, does not prove or disprove
culpability. A cynic could argue that - as a former intelligence man - Bush
could be uniquely equipped to pass a lie detector test regardless of the facts.
I don't buy that argument
in toto, either, but I remain unconvinced that
Bush and Reagan didn't know more about the Contra end then they let on
Meacham concludes the chapters on Iran-Contra by citing the final
Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor's Report: "There was no credible evidence
obtained that the vice president or any member of his staff directed or
actively participated in the Contra resupply effort that existed during the
Boland Amendment prohibition on the military aid to the Contras. To the
contrary, the Office of the Vice President's staff was largely excluded from
meetings where Contra matters were discussed."
Bush does not escape criticism from Meacham, however, on the
Iran
component, saying Bush failed Reagan as a policy advisor in July 1985.
Secretary of State George Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger had
both counseled against dealing with Iran. Meacham says they were right and Bush
was wrong. "The arms for hostages scheme was misguided, and Bush should
have known it. As Reagan's anti-terror advisor, [Bush had] rightly opposed
ransom in principle. Concerned about the hostages, over-optimistic about
building bridges to Iran, and generally inclined to support the President, Bush
backed a doomed policy. As the scandal erupted, the Vice President joined
Shultz and others in wanting to get out the facts. But not before first trying
to hide them."
TOMORROW: PART II
