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LEADERSHIP & MOTIVATION

End of Term Project

George Herbert Walker Bush

The 41st president of the United States of America
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Table of Contents
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1. Introduction
2. Formative years of George H. W. Bush
3. George H. W. Bush is a veteran of World War II
4. George H. W. Bush’s Career
5. Bush’s Presidency
6. George H. W. Bush, the leader who raised a desert storm
7. George H. W. Bush: Analyst and diplomat
8. The heroic qualities of George H. W. Bush
9. Leadership Traits of George Bush Senior
10. Bush Sr.’s hobbies
11. Personal life and health of George H. W. Bush
12. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
13. Conclusion
14. References

Introduction
As fate would have it, the short four years of George H. W. Bush’s presidency were marked
by grandiose events: the collapse of communism, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the
USSR. According to analysts, he did not so much call and direct them as respond to challenges, but
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he has a place in the history books. Under the elder Bush, the United States began to use the slogans
of protecting democracy to interfere in the affairs of other countries, and it was under him that the
end of the Cold War was announced. The Bush presidency was marked by a number of large-scale
foreign policy operations. It was under him that Washington began to justify interference in the
internal affairs of other countries in the interests of “preserving or restoring democracy”. Bush Sr.
became not only the longest-living ex-president. He also holds the record for the duration of the
marriage of the first couple of America. The future president met Barbara Bush (before marrying
Barbara Pierce) at a Christmas party in 1941. He was only 17 years old, and she was barely 16. In
1945, they sealed their union with the knot and since then did not separate until the death of Barbara
on April 17, 2018. The starting point for the sustainable and legitimate exercise of political
leadership is the belief that power can ensure the achievement of individual and collective benefits
and the realization of public interests that would not be possible in its absence. The general outlines
of these benefits and interests, as well as their specific content – are the product of the joint work of
the political elite and ordinary citizens. The government offers its vision of the common good,
trying to capture the key needs of society. So, George Herbert Walker Bush is truly a real political
leader of the United States.

Formative years of George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924. It was believed that he was
destined for a political or financial career. After all, he was born in the family of Senator,
Representative of the Republican Party Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush from the New
York banking family Walker.
He received a good education. From the age of 12, he attended classes at the prestigious
private school Phillips Academy. Even during his studies, his leadership qualities were shown:
George Bush was president of the high school, secretary of the student council, member of the
editorial board of the school newspaper, captain of the school baseball team (Wicker, 2004).
However, plans changed due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. George Bush was
determined to become a naval aviator. Immediately after graduating from Phillips Academy and
after reaching the age of 18, he joined the US Navy. After completing a ten-month flight training
course, Bush was promoted to junior officer on June 9, 1943. It happened three days before his
birthday. Therefore, 18-year-old George Bush became the youngest pilot of the naval aviation of
that time (Wicker, 2004, p. 139).
In 1944, George Bush flew 58 combat missions in the Southwest Pacific. He participated in
such famous battles as the Battle of the Mariana Islands and the Phillipine Operation. On September
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2, 1944, Lieutenant Bush’s Avenger torpedo boat was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. Despite this,
he bombed the enemy and tried to return to the base. Seeing that he would not succeed, he ordered
the crew to leave the burning car. After 4 hours of drifting on a life raft, George Bush was picked up
by the sailors of an American submarine. He soon returned to the active army. For his participation
in the fighting, George Bush was awarded the Navy Officer’s Cross and battle medals (Purcell,
2001).
After the surrender of Japan, he was demobilized. He graduated from Yale University and
moved with his family to Texas in 1948. There he began working in the oil business and by the age
of 40 was a millionaire. After that, Bush’s political career began. He became a Republican member
of the House of Representatives. In 1980, he lost the party election to future President Ronald
Reagan. However, he introduced his rival George Bush as vice president of the United States and
the Reagan-Bush pair won the presidential races of 1980 and 1984 (Purcell, 2001, p. 94).
On January 20, 1989, George Bush became the 41st President of the United States. The
period of his tenure coincided with huge changes in the world. The Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet
Union ceased to exist. It was Bush who had to establish relations with the new countries formed on
the site of the once huge socialist camp. Held 7 high-level meetings with the leaders of the USSR
and Russia - Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. On July 31, 1991, the Treaty between the USSR
and the United States on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-1) was
signed with the former. In February 1992, Bush and Yeltsin officially ended the Cold War, stating
that they did not consider each other potential adversaries (Wicker, 2004, p. 157).
In November 1992, George Bush lost the election to Bill Clinton and retired from big
politics. He wrote several autobiographical works. After his son and namesake George W. Bush
became the 43rd President of the United States, he received the prefix - “senior”.
Thanks to the thriving oil business in Texas, George H. W. Bush became a millionaire by
the age of 40. Having created a good capital and provided a comfortable future for his children and
grandchildren, George H. W. Bush decided to take the next step - to try himself in politics. First, he
entered Congress, and soon - took part in the presidential race, during which he won over a rival
Democrat. During the reign of George H. W. Bush, the Berlin Wall fell, the conflict in the Persian
Gulf broke out, the USSR collapsed, and taxes increased in the United States. He held a separate
office in the White House for only 4 years. Bush married before the end of the war, in January
1945. The Bush couple had 6 children, of which the most famous are the first-born George Walker
Bush and John Ellis “Jeb” Bush (Purcell, 2001, p. 214).
After leaving the post of head of state, Bush Sr. was an adjunct professor at Rice University,
a member of the Trilateral Commission (an international organization that unites major politicians
and businessmen) and the Council on Foreign Relations, in 1998-2003 - senior adviser to the
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advisory commission of the large investment fund Carlyle Group, in 2005 - the UN special envoy
on the consequences of the earthquake in South Asia. In recent years, the former head of state
suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was forced to move in a wheelchair. The name of George H.
W. Bush is borne by the international airport in Houston and the aircraft carrier of the US Navy.
The former president is the author of the book “The Changing World”, dedicated to current issues
of foreign policy, and a selection of his own letters “Good day, George Bush” (Purcell, 2001, p.
219). His wife, Barbara Pierce, died in 2018. His eldest son, George W. Bush, was the 43rd
president of the United States, and his other son, Jeb Bush, was the former governor of Florida.

George H. W. Bush is a veteran of World War II

Following the example of his father, who joined the American Expeditionary Force in
France shortly after graduating from Yale University, George decided to fulfill his patriotic duty.
The new Phillips Academy graduate went to the admissions office on the day of his graduation.
Young Bush chose the Navy.
Shortly after joining the ranks of the Blue Vests, George Bush began flying courses at the
University of North Carolina. He received his wings three days before his nineteenth birthday,
becoming the de facto youngest pilot in the U.S. Navy. After further training, he was assigned to the
51st Torpedo Squadron in September 1943. Together with his unit, he was based on the USS San
Jacinto (Greenstein, 2001).
George Bush took part in operations at Marcus and Wake Atolls the following May. A
month later, he supported the invasion of the Mariana Islands from the air. During one of the flights
on June 19, the future president and the crew had to forcibly land in the waters of the Pacific Ocean,
where they were helped by an American destroyer. Within a week, George Bush, sitting with
another pilot at the controls of a TBM Avenger plane, sank a Japanese transport ship.
After the completion of the Mariana Operation, the next target of the San Jacinto pilots was
the Bonin Archipelago. In early September, Bush, piloting one of the four “Avengers” involved in
the action, raided the selected targets on the island of Chichi-Jima. In response, Japanese anti-
aircraft artillery attacked American vehicles. Finally, enemy fire reached the future president’s
plane, and flames began to escape from the engine. Despite everything, Bush continued his actions,
hitting the targets several times. Then, in the still-burning plane, he departed from the island,
ordering the crew to leave the deck of the Avengers and escape with parachutes. Of the three
Americans sitting in the cockpit, only the future president survived the evacuation. One of the pilots
did not have time to jump out of the burning car, and the other did not open the parachute. The Lone
Bush was recovered from the Pacific Ocean four hours later by the submarine USS Finback. He
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spent the next month on board, including taking part in a rescue operation for another pilot. Fifty
years after the dramatic events unfolding around Chichi Jima, George H. W. Bush recalled that
“they are still heavy in his mind” (Cramer, 2013).
In November 1943, the future president was sent to the USS San Jacinto. However, his
squadron managed to take part only in the Philippine operation, after which the aircraft carrier
returned to Guam, from where its pilots were sent to the United States. George Bush, thanks to his
combat experience, was sent to the 153rd Torpedo Squadron, which was just being formed and
consisted of fresh pilots. In its ranks, he lived to the end of the conflict, without increasing his score
by 58 combat missions. For his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

George H. W. Bush’s career

After losing the election in 1970, Bush became well known as an ardent Republican
businessman from the “Sun Belt”, a group of states in the southern part of the country. Nixon
noticed and appreciated the sacrifice of Bush, who lost his seat in Congress, and appointed him
permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations. He was unanimously
confirmed by the Senate and served in the UN for two years, starting in 1971.
In the middle of the Watergate scandal, Nixon asked Bush to become chairman of the
Republican National Committee in 1973. Bush accepted the offer and took the seat when the
popularity of Nixon and the Republican Party was plummeting. He loyally defended Nixon, but
later, when Nixon’s involvement became clear, Bush focused on defending the Republican Party
while remaining loyal to Nixon. As chairman, Bush formally demanded that Nixon eventually
resign for the good of the Republican Party. After Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974, Bush
wrote in his diary: “There was an atmosphere of dejection, as if someone had died... The speech
weighed on Nixon - a punch or two in the press - a monstrous strain. No one could help, everyone
looked at the family and things in general, thought about his achievements and then about the
shame... really, a new spirit is a new uplift” (Henriksen, 2017).
Gerald Ford, Nixon’s successor, appointed Bush to head the U.S. Bureau of Relations with
the People’s Republic of China. Since the United States at that time maintained official relations
with the Republic of China on Taiwan, and not with the PRC, the Liaison Office did not have the
official status of an embassy, and Bush was not formally an “ambassador”, although unofficially he
was. The time he spent in China - 14 months-turned out to be very beneficial for US-China
relations.
After Ford took office, Bush was seriously considered as a candidate for vice president.
Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona withdrew his candidacy and supported Bush, who was reported
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to have launched an internal campaign to become the nominee with the support of his supporters.
Ford eventually narrowed his list down to Nelson Rockefeller and Bush. However, White House
chief of staff Donald Rumsfeld reportedly chose Rockefeller over Bush. Rockefeller was eventually
appointed and confirmed.
In 1976, Ford returned Bush to Washington, appointing him director of the CIA. He served
in this position for 357 days from January 30, 1976 to January 20, 1977. The CIA was reeling from
a series of revelations, including the Church Committee’s investigation into the CIA’s illegal and
unauthorized activities, and Bush was entrusted with restoring the agency’s reputation (Harlow,
2002). In his position, Bush held a national security briefing with Jimmy Carter as a presidential
candidate and president-elect, and discussed the possibility of remaining in this position under
Carter, but this did not happen.
After leaving the CIA, Bush became chairman of the executive committee of the First
International Bank in Houston. In 1978, the Joan School of Business opened at Rice University, and
Bush was invited there as a part-time professor of administrative sciences. Bush worked at the
School for a year and later said of this period, “I loved this brief time in the academic world”
(Harlow, 2002, p. 209). From 1977 to 1979, he was also director of the Council on Foreign
Relations, an international policy organization.

Bush’s Presidency
Despite an impressive resume - Ambassador to the United Nations in the United States,
ambassador to China, CIA director - George H. W. Bush tried to break through during the 1988
presidential campaign. He faced off against Michael Dukakis, the unflattering Democratic nominee
who has yet to survive the Clintons’ centrist turn.
After a difficult start and to the surprise of many, Bush turned into a stage beast in the final
months before the election, loudly and loudly praising the values of the conservative right, and
wandering around American campaigns in a shirt. “Work, family, religion, community” (Bush,
1974). He, who has always positioned himself as a moderate in his party, is the rightful heir to
Reagan’s conservative and free-swinger policies. The one who promised a “kinder and gentler
America” will eventually crush his opponent six points ahead (Mahan, 2004).
But once in power, Bush resumes his old habits - he was 64 at the time - and his outdated
aristocratic figure, cozy only in his lavish family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine. Born to a
millionaire banker father who became a senator from Connecticut, married to the heiress of a family
of newspaper owners, George Bush lived a quiet, luxurious life.
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At the time of her election in 1988, the sister testified: “do not think that our parents spoiled
us” (Parmet, 2000). Captain of the baseball team, a fraternity member at Yale University while
studying economics, George Bush made a career in the oil industry in Texas, and then went into
politics.
At the age of 18, George Bush joined the Armed Forces and conducted 58 combat missions
during World War II. While out over the Pacific Ocean, he was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and then
rescued by a submarine, the only survivor in his apparatus.
For these actions, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the end of the war,
in January 1945, he married Barbara Pierce, a young woman from the same laughing milieu. They
will have six children: George (future president), Robin (dead baby), John Jeb (Republican primary
candidate against Trump), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. They would remain married for 73 years
until Barbara died last April.
In the White House, George Bush won a third term for Reagan. Only from weapons marking
the first Gulf War. Seven months after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the
President announced the cessation of hostilities at 21:00 on February 27, 1991. “Kuwait was
liberated. The Iraqi army was defeated. Kuwait is back in the hands of the Kuwaitis”, the president
said. A perfect revenge on the Americans after the failure in Vietnam.
Saddam Hussein, having been defeated in the “hundred-hour war”, gave way to George
Bush in the hearts of Americans. His popularity rating jumped to 90%. Then the commander-in-
chief speaks of a “new world order”. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the Cold War is over. “We face the
difficult task of securing a potentially historic peace”, the President declared triumphantly. “In the
future, as before, we will consult with our coalition partners. There cannot and will not be only an
American response to all these challenges” (Mahan, 2004, p. 556).
But the honeymoon was short - lived, as it already pointed to the hidden part of the iceberg:
the Bush administration’s implicit non-interference in domestic affairs. Reagan had already left his
friend with a broken infrastructure, a fragile financial system. After him, Bush paid little attention to
the country’s social problems: the urban crisis, the intensity of racial opposition, and the decline of
secondary education. He advocated a “liberated” market economy and “wanted to leave companies
in charge of guiding the future of the nation. He called the Regan Freeway the “voodoo economy”
in 1980”, says Romain Hure (Kelley, 2004).
His style was as different from that of his predecessor as that of Bill Clinton or even his son,
who would be elected president in 2001. “My son had a real program, an ideology of
interventionism”. “My father, rather, accompanied the story”, the researcher continued (Kelley,
2004, p. 56). Some American analysts see Bush’s desire to intervene in Iraq as a willingness to do
what his father failed to do: bring down Saddam Hussein.
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In 1992, a year after winning Kuwait, George W. Bush’s father would lose face to the young
and energetic Bill Clinton in an election that led to the emergence of a more moderate Democratic
Party. Then the Republican retires from political life even for his son’s two terms. He suffered from
a number of health problems, including breathing difficulties, which led him to the hospital several
times. A little offended by the Clinton family, he allowed himself to say that in the 2016
presidential election, he would vote for Hillary.

George H. W. Bush, the leader who raised a Desert Storm

Perhaps the most important thing with which the name of President George H. W. Bush is
associated in political terms is Operation Desert Storm, which the United States conducted in early
1991 against Iraq. It is rightly considered that it was a victory for Washington. But, if we look from
the other side, it is since then, in fact, the United States is stuck there, and the end of this armed
conflict is still not visible. However, we must admit that the real “stuck” there is still not the elder,
but the younger George Bush, who unsuccessfully repeated the experience of his father.
In the biography of the elder Bush, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait is called “the
most important test”. Allen (2000) writes “In demanding the liberation of Kuwait, Bush spoke to
the United Nations, the American people, and the U.S. Congress. It sent 425,000 troops to the
region, working in partnership with military personnel from other countries. After weeks of aerial
bombardment and rocket fire, and a ground battle lasting 100 hours, the Iraqi army was defeated”.
The Atlantic magazine, marking the 25th anniversary of the operation, published a series of
photos in 2016, including a picture of several Americans in New York with tense faces reading a
bulletin that says: “WAR! American planes attacked Iraq and the Hussein palace” (Henriksen,
2017, p. 41). Alas, but now such headlines have ceased to be something extraordinary.
It also published a photo from a demonstration held in San Francisco on January 19, 1991,
two days after the start of “Desert Storm”, many thousands of people. Its participants demanded that
the United States “get out of the Middle East”, “stop the war right now”, and “spend money on
fighting racism and poverty, not on a war for oil” (Allen, 2000). All this suggests that not everyone
in America thought Bush’s actions were right.
Portal historyplace.com he included Bush’s speech to his countrymen announcing the start
of hostilities in Iraq among the “greatest speeches in the history of the United States” (Allen, 2000).
“We are aiming to knock out Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capability. We will also destroy its
chemical weapons. Most of Hussein’s tanks and artillery pieces will be destroyed”, Bush said at the
time (Henriksen, 2017, p. 43).
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Time has shown that Saddam’s military arsenal, if it was undermined, was soon restored. Its
“nuclear potential” and “chemical weapons” are still being sought, it seems.

George H. W. Bush: analyst and diplomat

George H. W. Bush’s path to the White House is atypical for America.
Apart from four years in the House of Representatives in 1966-1970 and an unsuccessful
attempt to run for the Senate, he had a career not as an elected politician, but as an appointee: under
Nixon and Ford, he was a representative to the United Nations, the first US ambassador to China
after the restoration of relations, and the director of the CIA.
US citizens have relatively little interest in foreign policy, are mainly concerned with, as
they put it, “knife and fork issues”, and prefer people with relevant experience as presidential
candidates. Bush is the only professional international expert among the White House hosts.
Under President Carter, he was a professor at Rice University in Houston and director of the
Council on Foreign Relations, an influential conservative think tank.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan invited him to fight for the White House in tandem.
Eight years later, Bush became the first “vice” since 1836 to become president, not as a
result of the death or resignation of a patron, but by winning the election.
At the 1988 Republican Convention, he declared a commitment to classic American
conservatism: for the pledge of allegiance to the flag, school prayer, the death penalty, the right to
guns, and anti-abortion. There, he later uttered a phrase that cost him dearly: “Read my lips: no new
taxes” (Blumenthal, & Morone, 2010).
Bush received 53.4% of the popular vote to Democrat Michael Dukakis’ 45.6%. In 1990, the
victorious and almost bloodless operation Desert Storm temporarily raised his rating to 89%
(Hoffman, 2006).
Economic policy was less successful. Unemployment has increased, and for the first time
the problem of the budget deficit has become serious. To reduce it, the administration went on to
raise taxes. Voters remembered this as Boris Yeltsin’s famous promise to go on the rails in the
event of a price hike.
In 1992, Bill Clinton won the election under the slogan “It is all about the economy, crank!”.
He will first collect the fruit of the fierce struggle of his predecessor against the “evil
empire”. In November 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall began the disintegration of the Soviet
Union, which some, like researcher Fukuyama, mistakenly thought was “the end of history”
(Blumenthal, & Morone, 2010, p. 334).
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Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 quickly proved them wrong. But
this brutal incursion also gives George Bush the opportunity to show that he has retained his
pugnacity from the war years and confirms his ability to bring together. In three months, he
managed to assemble a coalition of 28 countries under the aegis of the United Nations to make the
Iraqi dictator pay his respects. Operation Desert Storm, whose commander-in-chief was General
Schwarzkopf, who just preceded George Bush in death, drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and pushed
them back to Baghdad. But for fear of destabilizing the country, a concern that unfortunately will
not share his son who became president ten years later, the American chief executive refuses to
overthrow the Iraqi regime.
Some will blame him for this half-measure, which will not prevent him from emerging from
this conflict with extraordinary popularity. His re-election at the end of 1991 seems assured.
However, it is forgetting that “what matters, fool, is the economy”, as will be said and demonstrated
by his Democratic opponent for the presidential election, Bill Clinton.
The 7.8% unemployment in America, the highest rate in 20 years, will make George Bush
the first victim of the curse that affects presidents or prime ministers seeking re-election when their
country is thus hit by job destruction. He will have neglected domestic politics, paid too little
attention to the economy, all bet on the open sea. This is not enough to successfully preside over a
country. Basically, as president, he will have had the same reluctance to face the unenviable reality
of his country, the same attitude that he had described when he left for China in 1974 when he
wrote: “I wondered if, when I left for China, I did not put some distance between me and inflation,
the excesses of the press, Watergate, all this horror…”.

The heroic qualities of George H. W. Bush

Former junior reform ministers Peter Aven and Alfred Koch, in their book The Gaidar
Revolution, called George Bush’s departure from the White House a disaster. In their opinion,
Bush, with his experience as a diplomat and intelligence officer, thought globally, and Clinton,
especially in the first term, was only interested in the Middle East from the entire international
agenda, and even then more for domestic political reasons.
In the 1940s, Bush was the youngest pilot in the US armed forces, and in the early 90s he
was the only state leader - a veteran of World War II.
After his defeat in the fight for the White House, the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets
published a letter from a Russian reader: “I am sorry that the Americans missed, perhaps, the last
chance to choose a real man as their president” (Delbanco, 1998).
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In retirement, George H. W. Bush stayed away from politics and the spotlight, leaving room
for his sons George W. Bush (in turn president from 2001 to 2009) and Jeb Bush.
However, he participated in major fundraisers for victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia
and Hurricane Katrina in the United States, alongside former President Bill Clinton.
In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian
decorations awarded in the United States.
On the occasion of his 75th, 80th, 85th and 90th birthday, George H. W. Bush decided to
buy himself a parachute jump, even though he had a form of Parkinson’s that deprived him of the
use of his legs.

Leadership traits of George Bush Senior

A naturally outgoing George Bush, in Washington, Bush showed an ability to work
effectively with both parties, but in Washington, he showed a tendency to adopt a rigid one-party
approach that was not so evident in his home state. Nevertheless, both in the formation of cross-
party coalitions and in the mobilization of Republican congressmen, Bush has consistently been
very successful in implementing his program. There is, however, one area where his political
prowess is more tactical than strategic - he is better at achieving short-term goals than long-term
goals. Thus, despite the fact that during the election campaign he presented himself as “a man who
unites, not divides”, he failed to reduce the split in the American political system: the foreign policy
of his administration was highly ambiguous, reinforcing anti-Americanism that did not meet the
interests of the United States.
George Bush was endowed with political foresight, due to the commitments of his
administration’s program and the belief that if he did not set the agenda himself, others would do it
for him. However, there is a certain paradox in the leadership of George Bush, with his focus on the
implementation of the planned policy. Perseverance in promoting the program is the main source of
political strength. But there is also a vulnerability of this force - it lies in the tendency to complicate
the process of implementing policies and following the program, which can sometimes lead to a
decrease in the result obtained (Bose, 2016). For the sake of having political foresight, Bush runs
the risk of having inadequate foresight and then pursuing policies that are unworkable or even
counterproductive.
No quality is more significant than the emotional resilience of a president who has at his
disposal the potentially deadliest military force in world history. For a president to be emotionally
stable does not mean that he should serve as a model of mental health. It is important that his public
actions are not carried out under the influence of uncontrolled passions. To use emotional stability
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as a kind of litmus, George Bush, who had been a heavy drinker in his youth, was too unstable to be
trusted with a responsible government post, especially the post of American president in the nuclear
era. It is not surprising that if a person before entering middle age abused alcohol and suddenly
vowed to stop drinking, then he can “break out” (Bose, 2016, p. 627). However, there were no
emotional excesses in Bush’s activities as a politician; during the 1992 campaign, he overcame the
hurdle in New Hampshire with apparent equanimity, and also performed well in the protracted
process of determining the results of the election.
The confident nature of Bush’s communication with the press refutes the assumption of
those critics who claim that he lacks a natural mind. As we have seen, in the first months of his
presidency, he periodically demonstrated poor awareness. But as soon as Bush focused on his
political career, his policies improved, and this positive change was noted by congressmen who
regularly spoke with him. As one of them put it, “Bush is as smart as he wants to be” (Bose, 2016,
p. 628). It is possible, however, to be knowledgeable, but not to have a good ability to reason about
the complex problems that the president has to face. Bush is more successful in proclaiming the
main positions of his administration than explaining all the subtleties of “for” and “against”.
Bush’s fulfillment of the cognitive requirements of presidential leadership is also
conditioned by his management style. As a military man, he relies heavily on his staff for his
actions. In this way, Bush differs, for example, from John F. Kennedy, who kept his high - ranking
subordinates in suspense, because he directly consulted with the management staff-specialists in the
right field (Smith, 1995).
In his first months in the White House, Bush did not seem to realize the full extent of the
president's use of rhetoric. He did not make the necessary statements in some cases; his speeches
were unconvincing, he only mechanically uttered prepared texts, and when he spoke without a text,
there was a great risk that he might make inaccurate statements.

Bush Sr.’s hobbies

Perhaps the most famous weakness of the elder Bush was socks. He collected socks with
funny drawings and was even a judge of the contest for the best design of this item of clothing in
2014. The contest was then timed to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the ex-president.
The collection of socks in the Bush Sr. collection numbered hundreds of pairs. He wore
them with meaning, so that the pattern would fit the occasion. For example, at a meeting with Bill
Clinton in June 2018, Bush wore socks with a portrait of Bill Clinton on his feet, and on the eve of
the next single day of voting in In Texas, he voted early in blue socks with a bright red inscription
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VOTE. However, he did not fail to call for the support of his grandson George P. Bush for the post
of head of the General Cadastral Office of Texas (Langston, 2002).
At the funeral of his wife, Barbara, Bush wore socks with books. He got them from a young
man with Down syndrome, John, who after school, together with his father, took up the production
of socks. John once sent a box of his socks to Bush. After a while, his office called and asked him to
send more. In return, John received a thank-you note and a pair of socks from the ex-president. In
March 2018, Bush wore socks from him in honor of the International Day of the Person with Down
Syndrome.
And it is to John was approached by Bush’s representatives with a request to help pick up
socks for the farewell ceremony with the ex-president’s wife. Of the 20 suggested options, Bush
chose black socks with stacks of colorful books depicted on them.
After the television broadcast, the entire stock of these book socks was sold out, and all
proceeds were donated to the Barbara Bush Heritage Foundation.
The 41st president’s partiality was also turned into income by the Republican Party. A
limited collection of socks with an image of an elephant (the symbol of the party) embroidered on
them and the autograph of the 41st president of the United States on the Republican website sold
out for a small donation. One pair of bright orange socks with wide green, blue and yellow stripes
was offered for $ 19.
On a hobby, but rather a tradition, we can call mandatory skydiving on the occasion of
round dates at his age. Bush made the first such jump on his 75th birthday. Since then, every five
years, he repeats it. If, marking three quarters of a century, he jumped himself, then the subsequent
jumps were already paired with another skydiver. Even with Parkinson’s disease chaining him to a
wheelchair, Bush Sr. took to the sky on his 90th birthday and almost successfully landed, except for
the fact that he was pinned down from above by a partner who could not fully cope with the gust of
wind.

Personal life and health of George H. W. Bush

Bush married Barbara Peer on January 6, 1945, a week after returning from the Pacific.
They called each other Poppy and Bar. Six children were born in the family: two girls and
four boys. Not all of them were destined to live long. The second daughter, Robin, died of leukemia
in 1953 at the age of almost four (Carlin, 2016).
It was a difficult experience for the family. Barbara then prematurely turned gray and
remained so for the rest of her life. But the Bushes found the strength to move on. Bush himself
wrote in 1987 that prayers helped them. The head of the family admitted in one of the letters to the
 16
mother that they really want a daughter. George W. Bush then carried a gold medallion in his wallet
for several decades with the inscription “For the love of Robin” (Carlin, 2016, p. 627). It was not
until 1959 that their second daughter, Dorothy, became their sixth child.
The Bush family members founded the Bright Star Foundation in Robin’s memory. The
Foundation raised funds for research in the field of leukemia treatment.
In 2013, Bush shaved his head, as he announced on Twitter, accompanied by a photo. He
did so in solidarity and support for two-year-old Patrick, the son of one of the Secret Service
officers who guarded him. The boy had leukemia and lost all his hair while undergoing
chemotherapy. Three years later, Bush was photographed again with the boy, who was in much
better health by then and had regrown his hair.
George W. Bush, in a book dedicated to his father, 41, wrote that the children “had no
reason to compete with their father, there was no reason to rebel against him - he still loved them,
no matter what” (Bush, 2014).
“One of the lessons we learned from my father is that you can succeed in politics and remain
a good father”, the 43rd President of the United States said in a 2014 interview with one of the TV
channels.
On December 27, 2012, Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit (exacerbation of
chronic bronchitis with high temperatures on the background of Parkinson’s disease). Earlier, on
November 23, 2012, he was admitted to the hospital with bronchitis.
George W. Bush celebrated his 90th birthday with a parachute jump. The former US
President and father of US President George W. Bush thus celebrates his birthday every 5 years
from the 75th anniversary.
The former president suffered from Parkinson’s disease and is forced to move around in a
wheelchair. This time, for security reasons, Bush Sr. He made the jump in tandem with an
experienced sergeant in the army, Sergeant Mike Elliott.
On January 14, 2017, George Bush was hospitalized for respiratory problems at Houston
City Hospital. Later it became known that the ex-president went on a shift and was disconnected
from the artificial respiration device. The cause of the health problems was pneumonia. His wife
Barbara was also hospitalized, who complained of coughing and weakness.

Destiny and Power: the American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker

Bush
 17
Meacham (2016) wrote a biography of Bush Sr., “Destiny and Power: The American
Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush”. However, in the book, he also refers to the time of
Bush’s son George W. Bush’s presidency and criticizes his Vice President, Dick Cheney.
Bush claims that this politician built “his own empire” and exerted too “strong an influence”
on the president, who, under his influence, had to agree to use force in different places of the world.
This was, he said, a consequence of the September 11, 2001 attacks. “He put pressure on tough
guys who wanted to fight for everything, to use force in our opinion in the Middle East”, Bush
writes (Meacham, 2016).
In his book, Bush emphasized that the vice president’s vision has changed dramatically
under Cheney. Still, he said Cheney is a “good man” who pushed the boundaries too far. “The big
mistake that was made was to let Cheney create his own state department”, Bush writes. However it
is not Cheney’s fault. It is the president’s fault”, he added (Meacham, 2016, p. 214).
In the book, he also gets the former Bush-era Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. The
elder Bush calls him “an arrogant guy, confident and boastful” who “served the president very
poorly. I don’t like what he did. (...) I’ve never been close to him”, he added (Meacham, 2016, p.
223).
However, Bush does not blame his son for the war in Iraq. The overthrow and capture of
Saddam Hussein was a “proud moment” in American history. “Saddam is gone, and with him the
cruelty, the unpleasantness, and the monstrosity are gone”, he explained (Meacham, 2016, p. 234).
Bush Sr.’s biography praises his son’s presidency, but claims that he is responsible for
empowering Cheney and Rumsfeld. He also believes that his son sometimes used too belligerent
language.
“It’s easy to make headlines with harsh rhetoric, but it doesn’t solve diplomatic problems”,
Bush writes in the book. He also said that he does not intend to enter into a discussion about the
presidency of his son. “He is my son, and he has done his best, and I will always support him. It’s a
simple equation”, he added (Meacham, 2016, p. 257).

Conclusion
It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of George H. W. Bush to the history of the
United States. After leaving the post of head of the White House, the 69-year-old Bush almost
finished with politics. He supported his son’s participation in the presidential election. After George
W. Bush won the election and in 2001 became the 43rd president of the United States, his father
received an unofficial prefix to the name “senior”. In the 2000s, Bush Sr. traveled a lot around the
world. Together with Bill Clinton, he raised funds for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, as
 18
well as for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. After retiring, he began
writing memoirs and skydiving. Since his 75th birthday, Bush Sr. has made jumps every five years,
the last one made on his 90th birthday. All these events during the life of the elder Bush speak of
his outstanding leadership qualities, represent him as a strong and great person.

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