George Bush Sr., the President of the United States who sealed the end of the Cold War and defeated Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War, died the night of Friday, November 30, at the age of 94. Born into a wealthy New England family, he represented moderate, pragmatic republicanism that contrasts sharply with the era of Donald Trump. His four-year tenure at the White House (1989-1993) was marked by turmoil in foreign policy, which he faced successfully and high levels of popularity, but the economic crisis and his lack of charisma prevented him from being re-elected. With his fragile health for several years, Bush suffered from Parkinson's disease. His wife, Barbara, whom he had been married for 73 years, had passed away in April. The couple had six children, including a former president and a presidential pre-candidate. With Bush Sr., the patriarch of one of the great dynasties of American politics is lost.
Before joining the Presidency, George Herbert Walker Bush (Milton, Massachusetts, 1924) was everything in public life: congressman, ambassador to the UN and China, head of the Republican Party, director of the CIA and vice president of the Reagan era. He forged his political and entrepreneurial career in Texas, where he moved very young, but came from New England of the moderate right and the lavish left, embodying the supersession of the now-insulted establishment. His father was a wealthy steel businessman, senator and broker on Wall Street, who played golf with Dwight Eisenhower.
At age 18, when the unwritten script of his life ordered him to go to Yale and start business, Bush decided to join the Army and fight as a pilot in World War II. His plane was shot down in 1944, but a submarine rescued him and he was able to return alive and decorated. He soon graduated from Yale and married his girlfriend, Barbara, from his teens when he was 21 and she was 20. She moved to Texas and joined the oil business, becoming a congressman in the 1960s. Like Senator John McCain, who died three months ago, George H. W. Bush symbolizes this type of politician the United States likes to identify with: an old war hero whose more or less successful decisions outweigh the calculations of party struggle.
Last Friday, November 30, he received words of recognition from Republicans and Democrats. President Donald Trump, who meets at the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, issued a statement highlighting his leadership. "With its essential authenticity, keen ingenuity, and unwavering commitment to faith, family, and country, President Bush has inspired generations of American compatriots into public service," Trump said. Former President Barack Obama, who has praised his foreign policy in life, has defined him as an example that public service can be a "noble and happy" function. "He played it very well during his journey. It has expanded America's promise to new immigrants and people with disabilities. Reduced the threat of nuclear weapons and built a broad international coalition to expel a dictator from Kuwait. And when democratic revolutions flourished in Eastern Europe, it was his firm, diplomatic hand that managed to end the Cold War without a single shot. "
If he was not captivating as a politician, George H. W. Bush stood out for his diplomatic skills. Its foreign policy was conceived from the realpolitik, combining caution and strength. With Mikhail Gorbachev, he signed in 1991 the treaty for the reduction of nuclear weapons. In the Gulf War, he promoted a military coalition of more than 30 countries that managed to promptly oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait that same year, though he prudently avoided entering Iraq to combat and overthrow the dictator. This was later done by his son, President George W. Bush (2001-2009), who initiated a conflict of disastrous and still present consequences. Bush Sr. opted for the invasion of Panama on December 20, 1989, with an attack of only two hours that made the dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega surrender in a few days. Noriega was taken to the United States and tried for drug trafficking.
During the Gulf War, Bush's popularity surpassed 80 percent and he received recognition from the opposition, at a time when the consensus of both parties was not as difficult to attain as it is now. It was again the script of a repeat of the White House mandate, but the recession and pull of a young Democratic candidate named Bill Clinton prevented him from being re-elected. That famous "It's the economy, stupid," phrase attributed to a Democrat aide and synthesising the success of his campaign, was what Bush Sr. sentenced.
