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Born into a privilege and a tradition of service, Bush was the son of a senator, a famous World War II combat pilot, student athlete, Texas tanker, Republican congressman, national party president, diplomat pioneer and chief spy. After his own 1980 presidential campaign failed, he served two terms as Ronald Reagan's vice-president before reaching the peak of political power by winning the 1988 presidential election with a full-blast. the democrat Michael Dukakis.
After losing the White House in 1992, Bush became a highly admired former politician who jumped planes to mark the milestones of his birthday. Highlighting the generosity of his soul, he built a close – and improbable – friendship with Democrat Bill Clinton, the man who ended his presidency. When Parkinson's disease made him virtually silent in public, Bush unveiled his sense of humor by wearing colorful striped socks.
Bush's death occurs after the death of his wife, Barbara Bush, when she is 73 years old, on April 17, at the age of 92. Bush was photographed in a wheelchair looking at his wife's flower-covered coffin, in a moment that summed up their love story.
First vice president to be elected to the presidency since 1836, Bush was only the second person in American history who saw his son follow in his presidential footsteps when George W. Bush was elected in 2000.
In addition to the 43rd president, he is survived by his son Jeb, former governor of Florida and presidential candidate for 2016; Neil and Marvin; daughter Dorothy; and 17 grandchildren. His daughter Robin died of leukemia while she was a child, a tragedy that further deeply moved Bush in his life. He will be buried next to her and the former first lady of her presidential library in College Station, Texas.
Funeral arrangements will be announced later, according to the statement issued by Bush spokesman Jim McGrath.
When Bush left office in 1993, he joined the club doubtful presidents rejected by voters after a single term. A career filled with high positions preparing him for the presidency interrupts at its peak.
He loses to Clinton after failing to get rid of his fierce Yankee image, unaware of the struggles of Americans in the center of the country during an economic downturn. [19659002] But over time, his keen sense of foreign policy ended up defining his presidency, leaving a legacy of wise and confident management of world affairs.
The First Persian Gulf War
Bush, Alongside National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State James Baker, a soft landing for the war cold took place, as the Soviet empire collapsed and Germany united and prospered – despite widespread mistrust at the time of its history and motives .
Another dangerous test of foreign policy, Bush decided in 1990 to form a diversified international coalition, comprising more than 400,000 American soldiers, to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
"This will not stand up against this aggression against Kuwait," promised Bush before embarking on a successful mission that united US allies in Europe and the Middle East in a blitzkrieg.
Later, with the arrest of Iraqi forces, Bush decided not to go to Baghdad to oust Saddam Hussein. This instinct later became more presumptuous, given the blood and resources spent by the United States in his son's war against Iraq
The Gulf War of the 1990s was the first time the world discovered huge jumps in weaponry Precision used by US forces and ushered in a brief era of American hegemony after the station's shaken confidence. -The time of the Vietnam War.
Earlier, Bush had also ordered US troops to invade Panama after the death of a Marine, killed by forces loyal to dictator Manuel Noriega. The force quickly swamped Noriega's men and he was overthrown in just four days and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was also sentenced to a 40-year prison term in a federal prison.
Bush also imposed sanctions following the government crackdown in 1989 on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but also seeks to prevent a permanent break in relations. Under his leadership, Washington also supported early diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians, which led to the Oslo Accords under Clinton's presidency.
Perception of being disconnected from one's home
But Bush's success abroad has become a cross to carry home. The voters seemed to have the impression that he was more interested in the struggle on the world stage than in their economic struggles.
His failure to connect was encapsulated by an incident in which his fascination with a supermarket scanner during his 1992 re-election campaign provoked widespread mockery.
To this day, former collaborators have insisted that Bush was being decried by a New York Times report on the incident, which allegedly resulted from a misinterpretation of the law. a pool report.
But in another incident, Bush exacerbated the idea that he was. He lost contact by watching his watch in a presidential debate in the manner of a town hall, and then marveled when a woman asked him how he was personally affected by the bad economy.
Bush has often been criticized for not having a comprehensive political philosophy, accusation
"Read my lips"
He managed to undermine himself with powerful Conservatives of the GOP by breaking his famous GOP Congressional Commitment of 1988: "Read my lips: no new taxes."
On polling day, the right-wing vote divided by the third party's candidate and billionaire businessman Ross Perot, Bush carried only 18 states and just over 37 percent of the vote.
In many ways, Bush paid the price for his ripping techniques. Even before his 1988 presidential campaign, questions arose as to his political courage. Newsweek magazine, which in the pre-social era of the media had immense power to define the political media discourse, published a cover story asking if the president was beset by the "rogue factor".
In her opening speech to the 1988 Democratic Congress, Texas Treasurer Ann Richards blamed Bush's educated political style by joking that Bush was "born with a silver leg." in the mouth".
Other events that occurred under Bush's presidency have entered popular culture. Once he caused a brief panic when he collapsed at a state dinner in Japan. He blamed the embarrassment on a stomach ailment. In 1990, he banned broccoli in Air Force One, claiming that he hated him since childhood.
As a former statesman, he shut up publicly
Bush disappeared before his eyes during the Clinton years. , but was relegated to the background – and became the subject of a torrent of amateur psychology – when his son ran for president in 2000.
Once his son took office, those who hoping a recovery from the old Bush were: disappointed. The new president reacted to the attacks of September 11, 2001 by rejecting his father's internationalism and adopting the neo-conservative doctrine of preventive war.
There was much speculation about what Bush thought of his son's actions in Iraq, especially after some of his foreign policy lieutenants publicly criticized US policy.
But former President Bush has remained silent in public, although he was outraged when the Democrats called George W. Bush a "liar" when he ran for reelection in 2004. [19659002] The attacks on his other son, Jeb, who suffered a deadly battle in 2016 against Donald Trump, a future GOP candidate and 45th president, caused him deep personal pain.
The former Bush voted for Hillary Clinton, sources said. Trump's Democratic Rival
The two former Bush presidents have called to congratulate Trump shortly after the New York businessman's victory over Clinton. In one of his last political acts, Bush wrote to Trump to apologize for not being able to attend his inauguration because of his poor health status.
But in many ways, the bitter and heartbreaking election of 2016 was a heartbreaking departure. of the more polite and old-fashioned policy practiced by George HW Bush, who, until late in his life, wrote handwritten notes to his friends, former allies and political enemies and even to journalists covering his presidency . He counted the Democrats among his closest friends and his death marks not only the death of the President, but the reminder of a bygone era of increased civility in Washington.
A WWII hero turned oil prospector in Texas
Born in Massachusetts on June 12, 1924, George HW Bush was the son of the wealthy Wall Street banker and future senators of the United States. Connecticut, Prescott Bush and Dorothy Bush.
He became the youngest naval pilot at the age of 18 after the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan carried out combat missions from the USS San Jacinto aircraft carrier. As a "flyboy" in the Pacific War, Bush completed 58 combat missions and won the Distinguished Flying Cross in Aviation.
A mission in September 1944 was almost the last. The Bush Air Wing attacked a radio installation on the small island of Chichi Jima, under Japanese control. During the raid, his plane was hit and flames licked around the cockpit, Bush gave the order to abandon the plane. The bodies of his crew members, Ted White and John Delaney have never been found. Bush, after desperately rowing his liferaft off the island and the Japanese boats sent to capture him, was miraculously saved by an American submarine.
It took decades before Bush could speak publicly about his experience of the war. 19659002] "It was part of my duty, people say," war hero. "How is it that a guy who gets shot down by plane is a hero and a guy who is good enough not to to be shot down, is not it? "Bush had told CNN in 2003.
Late in his life, the heroism of the former president was recognized when the Navy named him after him an aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class.
Upon his return from the Pacific, Bush attended Yale University, where he was. A renowned athlete, then headed west with his new wife, Barbara Pierce, to establish itself as one of the first oil prospectors in Texas.
In the mid-1960s, politics was called and Bush appeared in the US Senate, but he was defeated. In 1966, however, he went to the House of Representatives and won a seat.
Chosen by President Richard Nixon to serve as Special Envoy to the United Nations, Bush later headed the National Republican Committee. Watergate scandal.
He later became one of the few leading Westerners to enter China, closed to foreigners for decades. Bush was running the US Liaison Office in Beijing, the predecessor of the US Embassy. He then detailed his experiences, including his cycling trips in the Chinese countryside, in diaries published in 2008.
In 1976, Bush became the head of the CIA. He held that position for only one year, but it was remembered that the agency later named his headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and that he would later say that he "s sure he 's not going to be there. was acting from his favorite job.
In 1980, Bush came to the White House to challenge former California governor Ronald Reagan for his GOP appointment. He criticized what he described as the "voodoo economic policy" of his enemy.
After a sometimes ferocious campaign, Reagan prevails and flirts briefly with former President Gerald Ford. while his second introduced himself, he designated Bush as vice-president.
"Nothing shy about my love of the country"
While Reagan was due to leave office in 1989, his popularity rating was Bush was ideally suited to claim the nomination and the presidency.
"I may not be the most eloquent, but I learned early that eloquence will not pull oil off the ground," Bush said in his 1988 speech.
"I can sometimes be a little embarrassing, but there is nothing conscious of me in my love of the country.I am a quiet man – but i hear silent people that others do not understand "Bush said, pledging to fight for a" better America, for an unchanging dream and thousands of points of light. "
It's an irony. it was only after his well-established retirement that many Americans began to understand the character traits that could have helped him win a second term.
Refusing to bow to old age, he celebrated his 75th, 80th, 85th and 90th anniversaries by skydiving, the funds being donated to charities, the main causes of which were the following: literacy, cancer research and volunteering, and he and Barbara Bush raised more than $ 1 billion for charities in the years following the White House.
Clinton and he became close friends after working together after the 2004 tsunami disaster and after Hurricane Katrina the following year.
"It was an incredible experience, that man that I had always loved and respected and ran against … I literally ended up loving," Clinton said in 2011.
President Barack Obama awarded Bush the Presidential Medal of Freedom the same year
Never completely out of politics
Several episodes of illness and advanced age prevented to be in the spotlight in recent years and he rarely made public statements.
But, in November 2014, he was among the public in a wheelchair when George W. Bush published a biography entitled " 41: A portrait of my father "
The young Bush poignantly stated that he" wanted dad to be alive "at the book's exit.
In 2017, several women accused Bush of have been inappropriately affected during pho tos, urging his spokesman to issue a statement claiming that "on the occasion, (Bush) tapped the backs of women so that he behaves well" and s & # 39; He is excused from anyone who has offended. "
The former Bush revealed several times a few years ago he was suffering from a form of Parkinson's disease that prevented him from walking." He used a wheelchair or scooter
Bush had multiple health problems later in life, and in December 2014 he was hospitalized for what his associates described as a precautionary measure after he was out of breath. The following July, he fell home in Kennebunkport (Maine), breaking his C2 vertebra from his neck, and the injury did not cause any neurological problems, his spokesman said at the time. [19659002] This story was updated
Jamie Gangel of CNN contributed to this report.
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