George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018) was the 41st president of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 43rd vice president under President Ronald Reagan. His son, George W. Bush, was the 43rd president.

Born into the prominent and wealthy Bush family in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve on his 18th birthday, flying 58 combat missions during World War II and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. Bush moved to Texas and ventured in the oil industry, starting the company Zapata Corporation and becoming a millionaire by the age of 40. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1964 and 1970, but was elected to represent Texas in the United States House of Representatives in 1966. Afterward, he held a variety of ambassadorial, federal, and party positions in the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1971 to 1977. Bush ran for president in 1980 but lost the Republican presidential primaries to Reagan, who later picked him as his running mate. Bush ran again in 1988 and won the presidential election against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.

Foreign policy drove Bush's presidency as he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. He presided over the U.S. invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. Though the agreement was not ratified until after he left office, Bush negotiated and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Domestically, Bush backpedaled on a 1988 campaign promise by enacting legislation to raise taxes that he justified as necessary to reducing the budget deficit. He championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan legislation in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments. He also appointed David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession, his turnaround on his tax promise, and the decreased emphasis of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate.