The Political Rise of George H.W. Bush (1924-1988) — Full Documentary — American Experience PBS

[0:00] In November of 1988, after one of the most bitterly contested campaigns in American history, [0:22] George Herbert Walker Bush was elected the 41st president of the United States. [0:29] Some charged he took the low road to the White House. [0:32] Now, he would try to govern from principle. [0:34] I want a kinder and gentler nation. [0:39] In a rather craven way, he did what his political advisor said was necessary to win. [0:44] Once he had won, he, in effect, put his presidency at risk by doing what his conscience told him was necessary. [0:52] There's the Faustian Bergen of George Bush's presidency. [0:58] Tonight, the story of a leader rife with contradiction, an Easterner born to privilege who staked his fortune in the West, [1:07] an athlete and war hero, caricatured as a wimp, an intensely private man who chose to compete in an often brutal public world, [1:16] a politician caught between his role as Ronald Reagan's conservative heir and his birthright as the son of a leading Republican moderate. [1:25] He's at war with himself. He's at war with himself at many points. [1:30] He was ambitious and sentimental. He was brought up not to show ambition and not to show emotion. [1:37] It is the story of a president who used all his diplomatic skills to manage immense foreign policy challenges, [1:44] from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire... [1:48] He was determined that no one was going to feel that they had been defeated. [1:53] ...to an international coalition's victory over a tyrant... [1:56] We're dealing with Hitler revisited. [1:59] ...in a war that some argued ended too soon. [2:02] Some people said, why didn't you guys take care of Saddam when you had the chance? [2:06] Why didn't you go to Baghdad? Well, guess what? Nobody asks me that question anymore. [2:10] A man who left the White House despondent, defeated by a less experienced challenger, [2:16] and worried that history would pay him little heed. [2:19] To go from desert storm to losing an election, never thought it would happen. [2:23] It hurt a lot. He didn't think that the American people would turn so quickly. [2:28] Bush closes one chapter of American history and opens a new one. [2:33] Many of the tough decisions that he took in those four years [2:37] made the Reagan myth possible, as well as the Clinton prosperity. [2:42] Tonight, George H.W. Bush on American Experience. [2:46] At Liberty Mutual, we believe progress happens when people feel secure. [2:54] That's why we exist, to help people embrace today and pursue tomorrow. [2:58] Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. [3:01] Liberty Mutual Insurance is a proud sponsor of American Experience. [3:04] As an American-based supplier to the construction industry, [3:08] Carlisle is committed to developing a diverse workplace [3:11] that supports our employees' advancement into the next generation of leaders, [3:15] from the manufacturing floor to the front office. [3:18] Learn more at carlisle.com. [4:05] September 2, 1944, was what Navy pilots called CAVU, [4:11] Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited. [4:16] It would be Ensign George H.W. Bush's 50th mission in his three-man Avenger bomber. [4:20] He was commissioned in 1943 at age 19, the youngest pilot in the U.S. Navy. [4:42] Bush had seen action in June over the Mariana Islands [4:44] in one of the biggest air battles of the Pacific War. [4:51] The target, September 2, was a Japanese radio tower on the tiny island of Chichijima. [4:59] Bush dove into black cuffs of anti-aircraft fire. [5:05] Suddenly, I felt the plane jolt, he remembered, and the smoke started pouring in. [5:10] He finished his bombing run, banked out to sea so the crew could get out, and bailed out himself. [5:18] Looked up, and the parachute had been ripped up, and landed in the water, swam over, got into my little life raft. [5:28] The submarine USS Finback, on patrol for downed pilots, rescued him. [5:35] I remember seeing that submarine surface, and I remember it pulling alongside, [5:43] and I remember a bunch of bearded guys staying there. [5:58] For the next month, George Bush joined the Finback's crew. [6:04] Aboard, he agonized about the fate of his gunner, Ted White, and radioman John Delaney. [6:11] One went down with the plane, the other's chute never opened. [6:14] It still plagues me if I gave those guys enough time to get out, the former flyboy said with quiet emotion almost 60 years later. [6:26] I think about those guys all the time. [6:29] He was an emotive and emotional leader, much more emotional than people thought. [6:37] He cried quite readily. [6:40] One thing that made George Bush a less appealing candidate was that he refused to show his emotions, [6:47] but he had been taught not to show his emotions. [6:50] That's not what a man did, a man of his generation and of his upbringing. [6:56] And so the public saw a slightly awkward man who didn't seem quite ready to share his true self with them. [7:04] When you got to know him, the human side, the emotional side, was there. [7:10] It came out. [7:14] I'll never forget the beauty of the Pacific, Bush would say of the watches he stood at night. [7:20] He had time to think about how much family meant to me. [7:24] George Herbert Walker Bush grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. [7:33] In a family that came from Ohio and became one of New England's prominent families. [7:40] His grandfather, Samuel Bush, made his fortune in railroads in Columbus. [7:45] His father, Prescott, went to Yale and remained in the East. [7:52] Prescott Bush was a partner in Brown Brothers Harriman, the most prestigious investment bank on Wall Street, [7:59] at a time when the influence of the WASP establishment in America, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, was near its peak. [8:05] Avril Harriman, Prescott's colleague and one of the firm's founding partners, was an aide to President Franklin Roosevelt in World War II. [8:20] He then became U.S. Ambassador in Moscow. [8:23] His partner, Robert Lovett, was Assistant Secretary of War. [8:29] After the war, they were among a group known as the Wise Men, who helped President Truman fashion the policy of containing the Soviet Union. [8:36] Prescott Bush was very much at home with the Wise Men, the essentially bipartisan, consensus-seeking, post-World War II statesmen. [8:50] If you think of people like Robert Lovett, they didn't run for office. [8:55] They exercised enormous power and influence from appointed positions. [9:03] Even when Bush was a schoolboy in the 1930s, a time when America was isolationist, these men, these Wall Street financiers, were acutely conscious that America had to stay involved in the world, partly for financial reasons. [9:15] I mean, Brown Brothers Harriman did business in France and Germany and England. [9:19] But also because of this American tradition of spreading democracy and standing up for democracy and standing up for, as they saw it, for right against wrong. [9:32] George Bush was raised in this milieu, people of wealth who devoted themselves to government service. [9:41] His father, who later became a senator, was the moderator of the Greenwich Town meeting when George was a boy. [9:48] He was George's model for public service. [9:50] What Prescott Bush wanted his children to understand was that there was a world beyond the boundaries of Greenwich, and that they were expected to give something back to that world, whether it be through business, whether it be through public service, or whether it be through military service. [10:09] Young George also bore the strong influence of his mother, Dorothy Walker Bush. [10:15] It was my grandmother who taught my dad the basic lessons in life that he still adheres to. [10:21] My dad was playing soccer in elementary school, and he came in, and he was thrilled with himself because he'd scored three goals. [10:32] And he said, Mom, I've scored three goals. [10:34] And she said, Well, that's nice, George, but how did the team do? [10:37] He always heard her voice in his head saying, Don't brag about yourself, and that's hard to do when you're running for president in the United States. [10:47] The finback, Bush would write, moved like a porpoise, water lapping over its bow, the sea changing colors, first jet black, then sparkling white. [11:04] It reminded me of home and our family vacations in Maine. [11:13] Bush was the fourth generation of his mother's family to summer at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport. [11:19] It would become his spiritual home. [11:24] George bore the name of his grandfather, George Herbert Walker, for whom the Walker's Cup, an international golf trophy, was named. [11:32] His competitive spirit came from the Walker's. [11:40] My grandmother was a champion tennis player. [11:42] She would play tennis until her feet were blistered and raw. [11:46] She loved competition. [11:47] She was a great golfer. [11:48] She was a great baseball player. [11:51] One time, she hit a home run, rounded the bases, and then went on to the hospital to give birth to my father's oldest brother, Prescott. [12:04] George Bush was captain of his baseball team at Andover, a prestigious prep school in Massachusetts. [12:09] In fielding drills, he would charge the plate from first base right down the baseline, streaking in, a biographer would write, laughing with the pure joy of contest. [12:22] That's why he was the one for captain. [12:25] It was the glint of Walker's steel his teammates saw. [12:29] They wanted their team to be like that. [12:33] At Andover, Bush listened to radio broadcasts on the history of aviation in America. [12:39] America! [12:41] Welcome to Yale Unit Base No. 1, ladies and gentlemen. [12:46] I thought we'd all better come out. [12:47] A group of aristocratic Yale students, including Robert Lovett, his father's business partner, had turned their college aero club into the first Yale unit. [12:57] The Millionaire's Unit, as the press dubbed it, became the nucleus of the Navy Air Corps and an inspiration for George to become a naval aviator. [13:05] Our standard long-range bombardment airplane is known in the Air Corps as the B-17, the Boeing Flying Fortress. [13:14] Today, our world is presented with the clearest issue between right and wrong which has ever been presented to it. [13:20] Andover's commencement speaker warned on June 14, 1940, shortly after Hitler launched his Blitzkrieg. [13:26] The speaker was Henry L. Stimson, a Republican, a Wall Street lawyer, the very embodiment of the East Coast establishment. [13:37] A few days later, President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, named him Secretary of War. [13:44] When Bush was an impressionable 16-year-old schoolboy, he heard Henry Stimson give a speech about the coming threat from Nazism, from fascism, [13:54] that it was the duty of the country to stand up to fascism. [13:57] This is 1940. This is early in the game. A lot of Americans are still isolationists. [14:03] But Stimson is telling these schoolboys, look, it's up to you, to you young leaders, future leaders of America, to stand up to evil and fight back. [14:12] These were words the 16-year-old schoolboy never forgot. [14:20] Stimson, whom Bush regarded as a towering world figure, returned to Abdover two years later [14:25] and urged the graduating class to go to college before joining the service. [14:30] Bush rejected both Stimson's advice and his father's. [14:35] Later that day, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. [14:39] It was June 12, 1942, his 18th birthday. [14:45] His father took him to Penn Station, and George said his father put his arms around him and had tears in his eyes when he said goodbye. [14:53] That was, Bush recalled, the first time he saw his father cry. [15:05] From aboard the Finback, Bush wrote his girl back home, [15:09] I hope my own children never have to fight a war. [15:12] Friends disappearing, lives being extinguished. [15:15] It's just not right. [15:19] Barbara Pierce grew up in Rye, New York. [15:24] Her father, who was a director of McCall's publishing company, [15:27] commuted to New York on the same train as Prescott Bush. [15:33] When Barbara was 16, she met George, age 17, at a Christmas dance in Greenwich. [15:40] Well, he was the handsomest living human I ever saw, and maybe the nicest, most relaxed. [15:47] They played a waltz, and he said, I can't waltz. [15:49] So we sat down and talked, and that was sort of it. [15:54] But I fell in love at first sight, practically. [15:57] George's mother invited Barbara to Kennebunkport when he was on leave in August 1943. [16:06] His whole family was up here, and we were never left alone. [16:10] We had four uncles and four young brides, [16:12] and a grandmother and grandfather, and his mother and father. [16:16] So we had to walk around outside. [16:23] We sort of got engaged secretly. [16:25] We were way too young to be engaged. [16:32] Barbara waited for two years, while George flew 58 combat missions, [16:36] logged 1,228 hours of flying time, [16:39] and made 126 carrier landings. [16:46] On January 6, 1945, Barbara Pierce married, she would come to say, [16:52] the first man I ever kissed. [17:03] After the war, Bush followed his father and his brother Prescott and entered Yale. [17:10] Two and one half years later, he had a degree in economics, [17:13] Phi Beta Kappa, and a son. [17:16] George W. was born in New Haven in 1946. [17:23] Like his father, Bush was tapped for Skull and Bones, [17:26] Yale's most elite secret society. [17:28] Henry Stimson, now retired as Secretary of War, [17:33] presided over his initiation. [17:40] Despite his admiration for his father and for Stimson, [17:43] Bush did not follow them into the world of finance. [17:47] All three of his brothers did. [17:50] He told me, I want to work with something I can touch. [17:53] I don't want to work on Wall Street with money, [17:56] and I don't want to go into a sort of family business. [17:59] I really want to work with something I can touch. [18:03] Use Ajax, the foaming cleanser. [18:07] One of his very first job interviews, maybe his first, [18:10] was at Procter & Gamble. [18:13] He had an interview, and he got rejected, got turned down for the job. [18:18] And I asked him one day, I said, [18:19] have you ever thought about that much, [18:22] how your life might have been totally different? [18:25] He said that I'd probably been a lousy soap salesman. [18:28] Actually, he said it helped me, because I thought, [18:33] you know, I'm going to show these people [18:34] that I do have the right stuff, [18:37] and I'm going to go out and make it somewhere else. [18:41] Lured by the romance of a post-war oil boom, [18:45] the Bushes headed to West Texas. [18:48] He wants an adventure. He wants a challenge. [18:51] And there was nothing more challenging than wildcatting oil. [18:54] This is the greatest adventure that you can have [18:57] on the United States continent after World War II. [19:00] It's the closest thing to uncharted territory as you can have. [19:08] George Bush started in the oil business in Odessa in 1948, [19:13] painting spare pumps for $375 a month. [19:19] He was on a management track, [19:21] but within two years, with two children to support, [19:24] he struck out on his own as a wildcatter. [19:28] George got investments from his Uncle Herbie, his father, [19:31] and people like Eugene Meyer of the Washington Post. [19:34] It was not only a way to make a fortune, [19:36] it was a way for him to stake out on his own. [19:39] Bush's company, Zapata Petroleum, hit it big in 1954. [19:47] Five years later, George and Barbara moved to Houston, [19:50] the headquarters of Zapata offshore. [19:55] George was prospering as its president, [19:57] but there was a void in their lives. [20:00] They hoped that Barbara, who was pregnant, could fill it. [20:06] Their second child, Robin, had been born in 1949. [20:10] She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was three. [20:15] Their doctor advised them to let her die at home. [20:18] Instead, they took her to New York's Sloan-Kettering Hospital. [20:25] Yale classmate Ludd Ashley visited daily. [20:28] George was running the household back in Texas, [20:33] flying up weekends, flying from Texas, [20:37] when it used to take eight or nine hours to fly to New York. [20:41] Barbara was there all the time, almost 24 hours a day. [20:46] And in all my years, I've never seen such a strength of character [20:51] as she showed during that desperately difficult time. [20:55] My dad told me that he had trouble looking into her eyes [21:02] and comforting her and doing the things he wanted to do. [21:07] My mom was the one who was able to hold her hand [21:13] and love her and comfort her. [21:17] But then later on, when my mom fell apart, [21:20] after Robin died, it was my dad who looked in her eyes [21:23] and held her hand and gave her the strength to go on. [21:31] Robin died on October 12, 1953, [21:34] two months before her fourth birthday. [21:37] I believe that the death of Robin sobered George Bush [21:45] and turned him into an adult [21:48] that could be an empathetic politician, [21:51] that could be an individual who could strike out on civil rights, [21:55] that could be an individual who could strike out [21:57] on disabilities for Americans. [22:01] I really think that it was that important. [22:05] In the late 1950s, after the birth of Jeb in 1953, [22:09] Neil in 55, and Marvin in 56, [22:14] Bush wrote a letter to his mother. [22:17] There is about our house a need. [22:20] We need some starched, crisp frocks [22:22] to go with all our torn-kneed blue jeans and helmets. [22:27] We need some soft, blonde hair to offset those crew cuts. [22:30] We need a dollhouse to stand firm against our forts [22:34] and rackets and 1,000 baseball cards. [22:36] We need someone to cry when I get mad, not argue. [22:41] We need a little one who can kiss [22:43] without leaving egg or jam or gum. [22:47] We need a girl. [22:49] I read that letter in my mom's book [22:52] and actually listened to it on tape. [22:56] I was driving home on I-95. [22:59] The traffic was going crazy, [23:00] and I started crying uncontrollably. [23:02] I couldn't... [23:03] I had to stop in the middle of this interstate. [23:06] I called my mother up to tell her how much I loved her [23:09] and how much I loved my dad, [23:10] and she, of course, her immediate response was, [23:13] you didn't read the book. [23:15] You had to wait for the tape to come out. [23:17] She gave me grief for that. [23:20] It was very typical of my dad [23:22] to write those kind of letters. [23:25] I just learned this story a few years ago on my birthday [23:29] when my mom wished me a happy birthday, [23:31] and she told me that she remembered the day I was born, [23:35] that Dad came to the nursery [23:37] and pressed his face against the glass and sobbed. [23:48] The success of Zapata Petroleum, Bush recalled, [23:51] gave me the financial base to risk going into public life. [23:58] George's father, Prescott Bush, [23:59] was a Republican senator from Connecticut. [24:01] I knew what motivated him, George would write. [24:06] He'd made his mark in the business world. [24:09] Now he felt he had a debt to pay. [24:10] Noblesse oblige has become a pejorative, [24:14] but it wasn't always a pejorative. [24:19] The notion of an American meritocracy, [24:22] which is what the wise men represent, [24:24] that's the old Eastern establishment. [24:27] It isn't simply the nexus of power. [24:30] It's the obligation to use that power [24:33] in a responsible way, [24:35] not for one's own benefit, [24:38] but for what you sincerely believe [24:40] to be the benefit of your fellow countrymen. [24:43] Prescott Bush represented that establishment. [24:48] His son had one foot in that establishment. [24:52] During his 10 years in the Senate, [24:54] Prescott Bush was a moderate or Eisenhower Republican. [24:59] He was pragmatic and non-ideological, [25:02] believed in balanced budgets, [25:04] and was pro-business. [25:05] He was also pro-civil rights and a social liberal. [25:10] Prescott had joined the Senate when he was 57. [25:14] His wife said if he had run earlier, [25:16] he would have been president. [25:17] His son would not make that mistake. [25:23] George decided to enter politics when he was 38. [25:26] He faced an obstacle his father never had. [25:30] The Republican Party in Texas hardly existed. [25:33] You could probably have held a precinct meeting [25:38] in a phone booth then. [25:39] That's how many Republicans were around. [25:41] My first wife was from Ohio, [25:43] and that's a big Republican state, [25:46] and when we moved back here from Austin after law school, [25:49] she conducted the precinct convention in my living room, [25:54] and one guy showed up. [25:58] I served him drinks. [25:59] I mean, that's how limited the Republican participation [26:02] was in Texas back in those days. [26:04] Houston's few Republicans, Bush among them, [26:10] were members of the establishment, [26:12] country club Republicans. [26:14] Their party was about to change. [26:18] The radical anti-communist John Birch Society [26:20] tried to take it over. [26:22] Birchers thought President Eisenhower was a communist. [26:26] He had appointed a chief justice [26:27] who turned out to be a liberal. [26:29] The country club Republicans, [26:34] the establishment, [26:35] what I call the big government Republicans, [26:37] even in those days, [26:38] they would be uncomfortable with true believers. [26:43] People who really have deeply held [26:46] philosophical, ideological beliefs [26:49] makes, you know, establishment Republicans [26:52] uncomfortable, quite frankly. [26:57] In 1962, George was asked to run for chairman [26:59] of the Harris County Republican Party [27:01] to keep the Birchers out. [27:04] It was his first political campaign. [27:08] I'm not voting for another country club, [27:11] one of the right-wingers said. [27:13] You can just forget it. [27:14] George stepped right into the middle of it. [27:17] And, you know, [27:19] I have loved George Bush for 40 years, [27:22] but he does have one failing. [27:26] He does not recognize an enemy. [27:29] My dad at that time [27:30] was President McCall Corporation, [27:31] and they printed and published [27:34] Red Book, Blue Book, and McCalls. [27:37] And they set out one meeting we went to, [27:40] the lights went out, [27:41] someone was speaking, [27:42] and papers were all passed down. [27:44] When the lights went on, [27:45] it said Mrs. Bush's father is a communist. [27:48] He prints the Red Book. [27:50] Crazy. [27:53] They said things like, [27:54] George is a Rockefeller plant, [27:57] or, you know, he grew up in the East. [27:58] He's not one of us. [27:59] He's liberal. [28:04] After he won his race, [28:05] Bush wanted to give some Birchers [28:06] positions in the party. [28:09] George, you don't know these people, [28:11] the colleague warned. [28:12] They mean to kill you. [28:17] George Bush's instinct, politically, [28:19] is to bring people together, [28:20] to be a uniter. [28:25] And so he didn't come in [28:27] in a confrontational style [28:28] to slam the door [28:31] and throw all the Birchers out. [28:34] His idea was, [28:35] let's get the Birchers [28:36] and have some common meeting ground with them, [28:38] because if we want to beat Democrats, [28:41] we need those people. [28:42] Bush saw another opportunity [28:49] to expand the party [28:50] after groundbreaking legislation [28:52] on civil rights [28:53] was introduced in June 1963 [28:55] by President John F. Kennedy. [28:59] Next week, [28:59] I shall ask the Congress [29:00] of the United States to act. [29:03] Make a commitment [29:03] it is not fully made in this century [29:05] to the proposition [29:06] that race has no place, [29:09] American life or law. [29:11] Civil rights was about [29:14] to tear the country [29:14] and the Democratic Party apart. [29:19] Many Democrats in the South [29:20] were committed to segregation. [29:23] As they saw their party [29:24] support integration, [29:25] they began to seek refuge [29:27] in the Republican Party. [29:31] Poor white workers in Texas [29:32] and elsewhere felt [29:33] there was a threat [29:34] of all these hordes of blacks [29:38] becoming unleashed [29:40] and competing with them [29:42] for status and jobs. [29:44] And so you have the mass turnover [29:46] of the Republican Party [29:47] in the South, [29:48] state after state. [29:50] Among the disgruntled Democrats [29:52] in Houston were dock workers [29:53] who felt their jobs [29:55] would be threatened [29:55] by African-American workers. [29:58] They sought out [29:59] the new Republican chairman, [30:01] George Bush. [30:03] There was segregation. [30:04] We were trying to maintain [30:11] conservative control [30:12] over Harris County. [30:14] And I didn't like him [30:15] being a Republican [30:16] because I thought [30:17] he gave our party [30:17] a bad name. [30:20] George didn't see [30:21] a thing wrong with it. [30:23] He was eager to expand [30:25] the Republican Party. [30:27] And he felt the only way [30:28] to expand it [30:29] was to attract Democrats. [30:32] Bush thought they were crazy, [30:35] but he thought that politically [30:36] he had to accommodate [30:37] himself to them. [30:40] I didn't think [30:41] they were crazy. [30:41] I thought they were very dangerous. [30:43] They wanted to convince [30:45] the world [30:46] that the Republican Party [30:48] was now going to be [30:49] a segregationist extension [30:52] of the old Democrats. [30:59] The Democrats called me up [31:01] and congratulated me [31:02] on getting those bastards [31:03] out of their party. [31:05] Throughout his political career, [31:08] George Bush often seemed [31:10] to lack a sense of principle [31:12] as a candidate. [31:14] He had often sacrificed principle [31:17] for political gain. [31:21] If he did something unsavory [31:23] to advance his career [31:24] and his party, [31:26] the result would be momentous. [31:30] The people Bush [31:31] accommodated in 1963 [31:32] would support Senator Barry Goldwater [31:35] for president in 1964 [31:37] and thereafter, Ronald Reagan. [31:39] Become the nucleus [31:45] of the new Republican Party, [31:48] not only in Texas, [31:49] but across the country. [31:53] And this was the beginning [31:55] of the conservative movement. [31:57] And to this day, [31:58] it serves as the base [31:59] of the Republican Party. [32:01] You could say [32:01] that George Herbert Walker Bush [32:02] was in on the creation [32:04] with this development [32:05] organization of [32:06] Harris County Republicans [32:08] because that's where it began. [32:11] Think of what that started. [32:13] The party that George Bush [32:18] created in Houston in 1963 [32:20] grew into the party [32:21] he would lead [32:22] and struggle with as president. [32:24] Those who do not care [32:31] for our cause, [32:33] we don't expect [32:34] to enter our ranks [32:35] in any case. [32:38] The champion of Americans [32:42] who had flocked [32:43] to the Sun Belt [32:44] in the 1950s, [32:45] Senator Barry Goldwater [32:47] of Arizona [32:47] led a sagebrush insurgency [32:49] in 1964 [32:50] against the Eastern establishment. [32:55] He ran against big government, [32:57] the New Deal, [32:58] labor unions, [32:59] and liberal [33:00] or Rockefeller Republicans. [33:03] Everything Prescott Bush [33:04] represented, [33:05] Goldwater saw as a threat [33:07] to individual freedom. [33:08] I would remind you [33:11] that extremism [33:13] in the defense of liberty [33:16] is no vice. [33:21] Prescott Bush [33:22] tried to keep Goldwater [33:23] off the ticket. [33:25] Where the father saw danger, [33:26] the son saw opportunity. [33:29] George Bush ran for U.S. Senate, [33:31] embraced Goldwater, [33:33] and begged his father [33:34] to keep quiet. [33:37] After winning [33:38] the first Republican primary [33:39] in Texas history, [33:41] Bush tried to unseat [33:42] liberal Democratic Senator [33:43] Ralph Yarbrough. [33:45] It was a bold move [33:47] for someone who had only [33:48] been a county party chairman. [33:49] Ralph Yarbrough [33:51] is the darling [33:52] of the AF of L-CIO bosses [33:54] and the Committee [33:56] on Political Education. [33:57] I'd like my children [33:58] to be able to pray in school [34:00] if they want to. [34:02] And I'd like that right [34:03] to be a part [34:04] of our Constitution. [34:05] While young George, [34:06] the oldest Bush boy, [34:07] is already a college freshman. [34:09] He spent his entire summer [34:11] working at Bush headquarters, [34:12] assembling campaign materials, [34:14] answering phones, [34:16] and sweeping up, too. [34:17] We think George Bush [34:18] is quite a man, [34:19] a real American, [34:21] a real Republican, [34:22] a responsible conservative. [34:26] Bush ran to the right. [34:29] He denounced the United Nations [34:30] and pledged to vote [34:31] against Kennedy on civil rights. [34:34] Like Barry Goldwater, [34:36] he argued federal enforcement [34:37] of civil rights [34:38] was a violation [34:39] of states' rights. [34:42] George Bush was anxious [34:43] to launch his political career, [34:46] and there was a fervor [34:48] in the Republican Party [34:51] for conservative principles [34:54] in those days, [34:55] and that was not his ideology, [34:58] but he felt, you know, [34:59] in order to get elected, [35:00] you know, I will go along. [35:01] I won't try to convert people [35:02] to my belief. [35:03] I will flow with them. [35:05] On November 22, 1963, [35:14] a Houston Chronicle poll [35:16] showed Goldwater leading [35:18] President Kennedy in Texas [35:19] by 50,000 votes. [35:23] Kennedy came to Dallas [35:24] to gain support [35:25] and to heal a rift [35:26] between the state's liberal [35:28] and conservative Democrats. [35:30] Kennedy's assassination that day [35:42] reshaped the political landscape. [35:45] After the assassination, [35:47] it was awfully uphill. [35:50] Not that anybody gave up, [35:51] I must say, [35:52] starting with him. [35:53] It was a real, [35:55] real vigorous contest [35:57] because he inspired [36:00] so many new people [36:01] to come to the Republican side. [36:04] Although Bush got 200,000 [36:06] more votes in the state [36:07] than Barry Goldwater, [36:08] more than any Republican ever had, [36:11] Texans voted the ticket [36:12] led by their native son, [36:14] the new president, [36:15] Lyndon Johnson. [36:18] Bush was trounced. [36:21] He was also haunted [36:22] by some of the far-right positions [36:23] he had taken, [36:24] especially his pledge [36:25] to vote against [36:26] the Civil Rights Act of 1964. [36:29] And George wrote me a letter [36:34] saying that he was so troubled [36:36] about this vote [36:37] because he didn't want his children [36:41] or anyone to consider [36:43] that he was voting [36:48] against integration. [36:52] Two years later, [36:54] George Bush ran for Congress [36:55] from a Houston district [36:56] more moderate than Texas as a whole. [37:03] He was elected Handling, [37:05] the first Republican congressman [37:06] from Houston [37:07] since Reconstruction. [37:09] One issue he faced [37:11] was about to explode. [37:14] It was the heyday [37:15] of the Civil Rights Movement. [37:17] African Americans demanded [37:19] equal treatment under law. [37:20] I'm asking Congress [37:23] to bar discrimination in housing [37:25] and to secure other [37:27] very basic rights [37:28] for every citizen. [37:31] I'm doing this for one reason, [37:32] because it is right. [37:35] I'm doing it in the name [37:37] of millions of Americans, [37:38] both white and Negro, [37:39] who object to treating [37:41] their fellow citizens [37:42] one way on the battlefield [37:44] and another way [37:45] in the country [37:47] that they're fighting to defend. [37:48] In 1967, [37:51] President Johnson proposed [37:52] to ban racial discrimination [37:54] in housing. [37:54] His fair housing bill [37:57] came to the floor [37:58] for a vote on April 10th. [38:01] Once again, [38:02] the race issue [38:03] would force George Bush [38:04] to take a stand. [38:05] You've got to wrestle [38:07] with your conscience [38:07] and you've got to listen to people. [38:10] It doesn't come so easy to me [38:11] that this is right, [38:12] that's wrong. [38:13] It's never that simple. [38:14] The tough votes [38:15] are the ones [38:15] that you just agonize over [38:17] and then you do [38:17] what you think is right. [38:20] Bush did not vote [38:21] as a Goldwater Republican. [38:23] He supported Lyndon Johnson. [38:25] Many in his district [38:26] were outraged. [38:28] Dad got a lot of death threats. [38:31] People called up [38:33] on the phone. [38:35] Velma Johnson, [38:36] an African-American staff member [38:38] in my dad's office, [38:39] picked up the phone [38:39] and the person [38:41] on the other end [38:42] was rambling [38:44] and screaming [38:45] ugly, nasty things. [38:48] Tears were streaming [38:49] down her face. [38:51] My dad grabbed [38:51] the phone from her [38:52] and said, [38:54] I don't know [38:55] who this is. [38:56] This is George Bush. [38:58] Don't you ever [38:59] call here again [38:59] and treat anyone [39:01] on my staff [39:01] like that again. [39:02] He was threatened [39:06] and denounced [39:08] and vilified [39:09] for having betrayed [39:12] his political constituents. [39:17] And there was one woman [39:18] who had been [39:19] a big supporter [39:20] of George's [39:21] and she wrote him [39:23] a letter [39:23] and said [39:24] that she felt [39:25] that she'd been violated [39:26] and that he would [39:28] never be welcome [39:29] in her house again. [39:32] Mainline Republicans [39:34] in those days [39:35] were against open housing. [39:37] and they were absolutely [39:38] convinced [39:40] that they were against him, [39:41] would never vote for him, [39:43] would vote for recall. [39:46] I offered to talk [39:47] to some of his [39:49] main money backers [39:51] because a lot of them [39:51] were furious at him. [39:53] And he said, [39:54] no, no, [39:54] just get them together [39:55] and I'll talk to them. [39:57] Bush prepared to meet [39:58] not just his funders [40:00] but his rank-and-file supporters. [40:02] He said that he was [40:04] going to face [40:05] an angry crowd [40:07] and that he was [40:09] being fitted [40:09] for iron underpants [40:11] for whatever [40:11] they might decide [40:13] to do [40:13] when they had him [40:15] on the griddle. [40:18] On April 17, 1968, [40:20] Congressman Bush [40:21] addressed a hostile audience [40:22] of 400 [40:23] at Houston's [40:24] Memorial High School. [40:28] There were boos, [40:29] hisses. [40:30] It was ugly. [40:34] There was sheet lightning [40:35] in that auditorium [40:36] that night. [40:37] They were out [40:38] to get George Bush. [40:39] They were unhappy [40:39] with George Bush. [40:41] It was not a pretty scene. [40:42] I thought my heart [40:48] would just really stop. [40:50] I was so afraid [40:51] of what might happen. [40:54] People said [40:55] he ought to be killed. [41:00] Once all the hubbub [41:01] died down, [41:02] he defended his vote [41:04] on that piece [41:06] of legislation. [41:08] Your representative [41:09] owes you not only [41:10] his industry [41:11] but his judgment, [41:12] Bush told his audience, [41:13] quoting 18th century [41:14] philosopher Edmund Burke. [41:16] And he betrays, [41:18] instead of serving you, [41:19] if he sacrifices [41:20] his judgment [41:21] to your opinion. [41:22] I voted from conviction. [41:25] He explained, [41:27] not out of intimidation [41:28] or fear [41:29] but because of a feeling [41:30] deep in my heart [41:31] that this was the right [41:32] thing for me to do. [41:36] Earlier that year, [41:37] Bush had visited [41:38] U.S. troops [41:39] fighting in Vietnam. [41:41] When he went to Vietnam [41:42] in 1968, [41:44] he came back [41:45] with a very strong sense [41:47] of outrage [41:48] that although blacks [41:52] were so prominent [41:53] in the American military [41:54] and so prominent [41:56] among those [41:57] who were giving [41:57] their lives [41:58] that they were treated [42:01] so poorly [42:02] in this country. [42:04] Now, Bush asked [42:06] his audience, [42:07] how would you feel [42:08] about a black American [42:09] veteran of Vietnam [42:10] returning home [42:11] only to be denied [42:13] the freedom [42:13] that we as white Americans [42:15] enjoyed? [42:19] Somehow it seems [42:19] fundamental [42:20] that a man should not [42:22] have a door slammed [42:23] in his face [42:23] because he is a Negro [42:25] or speaks with [42:26] a Latin American accent. [42:28] And I'll tell you, [42:29] by the time [42:30] that speech was over, [42:31] the atmosphere [42:33] in that auditorium [42:34] had changed considerably. [42:35] It had transformed. [42:40] It was one of the few times [42:43] I ever saw [42:44] a few words [42:46] completely transform [42:48] an audience. [42:50] It's probably [42:52] one of the most [42:53] dramatic incidents [42:57] in all of Georgia's [42:58] public life, [42:59] including when he was [43:00] president. [43:04] Tonight I got on this plane, [43:06] Bush wrote a friend, [43:07] and this older lady [43:08] came up to me. [43:09] She said, [43:09] I'm a conservative Democrat [43:11] from the district, [43:13] but I'm proud [43:14] and will always vote [43:15] for you now. [43:18] And suddenly, [43:19] somehow, [43:19] I felt that maybe [43:20] it would all be okay. [43:22] And I started to cry [43:23] with the poor lady [43:25] embarrassed to death. [43:30] More than 20 years later, [43:31] Bush would write, [43:32] I can truthfully say [43:33] that nothing I've experienced [43:35] in public life [43:35] before or since [43:36] has measured up [43:38] to the feeling I had [43:39] when I went home [43:39] that night. [43:44] Once in office, [43:45] George Bush tended [43:46] to follow his conscience. [43:48] That vote in 1968 [43:49] put his political future [43:51] at risk. [43:53] He survived. [43:55] He would not always [43:56] be that lucky. [44:04] Bush was portrayed [44:05] in some aspects [44:05] of the media [44:06] as an up-and-coming [44:08] and romantic hero. [44:11] The future, [44:11] a romantic future [44:12] of the Republican Party. [44:14] A young, [44:15] good-looking guy, [44:16] full of energy, [44:19] with a devoted wife [44:20] and children. [44:21] It was a good package. [44:25] In 1970, [44:26] President Richard Nixon [44:27] asked Bush [44:28] to run for Senate, [44:29] again against Ralph Yarbrough, [44:31] promising him a job [44:32] if he lost. [44:33] Bush's House seat [44:37] was secure. [44:38] He was a member [44:39] of the powerful [44:40] Ways and Means Committee, [44:41] and he was torn. [44:43] He had often reached [44:45] across the aisle [44:46] to vote for legislation [44:47] important to his fellow [44:48] Texan, President Johnson. [44:50] Now, he consulted LBJ. [44:56] Son, Johnson said, [44:58] I've served in the House [44:59] and in the Senate, too. [45:00] And the difference [45:01] between being a member [45:02] of the Senate [45:03] and a member of the House [45:04] is the difference [45:05] between chicken salad [45:06] and chicken s**t. [45:09] Do I make my point? [45:10] Why don't we get started? [45:14] My dad chose [45:14] the chicken salad. [45:17] Today, I'm announcing [45:19] my candidacy [45:20] for the United States Senate. [45:22] It hasn't been [45:23] an easy decision. [45:25] I've been very happy [45:26] in the House of Representatives. [45:27] I've been particularly happy. [45:29] There were high hopes [45:30] for him in that race. [45:31] It was one of the premier races [45:33] of that year, [45:34] and a lot of people thought, [45:35] well, this is, [45:36] Bush is going to win [45:36] this Senate race, [45:37] and, you know, [45:38] there's probably a good chance [45:39] that that'll be the stepping stone [45:40] for him ultimately [45:41] to go on and run for president. [45:46] Bush asked his friend, [45:47] James Baker, [45:48] a prominent Houston lawyer [45:49] with deep Texas roots, [45:50] to run his campaign. [45:53] I lost a wife to cancer [45:54] when she was only 38 years of age, [45:57] and George Bush [45:58] was my tennis doubles partner, [46:00] and he came to me [46:01] and he said, [46:01] Bake, he said, [46:02] you need to take your mind [46:03] off your grief. [46:05] How about helping me [46:06] run for the Senate? [46:07] And I said, [46:08] well, George, that's great, [46:09] except for two things. [46:10] Number one, [46:10] I don't know anything [46:11] about politics. [46:12] I'd never been done anything [46:14] in politics. [46:15] And number two, [46:15] I'm a Democrat. [46:16] But he said, [46:17] we'll take care of that, [46:18] and we did, [46:19] and I changed parties. [46:21] Bush had confidence [46:22] that he could beat [46:23] Ralph Yarbrough this time. [46:25] Texas was growing [46:25] more conservative. [46:28] Then Lloyd Benson, [46:30] a businessman [46:30] more conservative than Bush, [46:32] challenged Yarbrough [46:33] in the Democratic primary [46:34] and won. [46:39] The Nixon White House [46:40] moved into action. [46:54] We have to think [46:55] in terms of [46:55] what is best for America, [46:56] and it's because [46:57] I believe [46:58] that George Bush [47:00] will do better for Texas [47:02] and better for America [47:03] that I'm for George Bush [47:04] for the United States Senate. [47:08] Despite the endorsement, [47:10] White House staff [47:10] considered Bush [47:11] too tame a candidate. [47:14] They considered Bush loyal, [47:16] a source of money, [47:18] but basically weak. [47:21] He didn't have the drive [47:22] to play the game [47:24] the way they wanted it played. [47:28] He was too much [47:28] a gentleman, [47:29] the aristocratic gentleman, [47:31] and that's where [47:32] Prescott Bush was. [47:36] Many of Yarbrough's [47:37] liberal Democratic supporters [47:39] considered Bush [47:40] a more attractive candidate [47:41] than Benson, [47:42] but the polarizing presence [47:45] of Richard Nixon [47:46] convinced them [47:47] to vote against Bush. [47:51] Early on, [47:52] the networks called it [47:53] for Lloyd Benson, [47:54] and I was up in the suite [47:56] with him there, [47:57] and he just kind of sunk [47:58] deeper and deeper [47:58] into the couch there, [48:00] and finally, [48:01] somebody said, [48:02] well, it's time [48:03] to go downstairs [48:04] and concede, [48:05] and he felt pretty low. [48:12] And nobody likes [48:12] to lose, [48:15] but certainly, [48:16] he ran a good, [48:17] tough race. [48:19] I feel kind of like [48:20] Custer, you know, [48:21] there were too many Indians. [48:22] Well, there are too many [48:24] Democrats in some [48:25] of these counties, [48:25] I guess. [48:27] But the other thing [48:27] is that I have [48:30] a horrible problem [48:31] between now [48:32] and kind of figuring [48:33] this out because [48:33] I can't think of [48:34] anybody else to blame. [48:35] Thank you very much. [48:43] He was brought up [48:44] not to show [48:45] great disappointment [48:47] in defeat [48:48] or great glee [48:50] in victory, [48:51] but he doesn't like [48:53] to lose. [48:54] He does not like [48:55] to lose. [48:56] I think in defeat, [48:57] you grope for things [48:59] that are happy [49:01] and it's hard. [49:04] But I think [49:05] I would be less than frank [49:07] if I said I felt good [49:09] or could see anything [49:09] from a personal standpoint [49:11] to be excited about [49:13] at this point. [49:13] We're hurt [49:14] and we're, [49:15] we're, [49:15] we lost [49:17] when we wanted to win. [49:17] With two unsuccessful [49:20] Senate campaigns, [49:21] Bush's political future [49:23] was in doubt. [49:25] He would try [49:26] to advance his career [49:27] in the tradition [49:28] of the wise men [49:28] by serving presidents [49:30] in administrative posts, [49:31] jobs to which [49:32] he was well-suited, [49:34] but which to many [49:35] seemed a dead end. [49:42] When Nixon offered Bush [49:43] an insignificant job [49:44] as assistant to the president, [49:46] Bush made his case [49:47] for more. [49:50] He said what this [49:50] administration needs [49:52] is someone [49:52] who can strongly [49:54] represent the administration [49:56] not only [49:57] in the United Nations [49:58] but in New York [49:59] and who would have clout [50:01] in the social society [50:03] of New York [50:04] and I am your man. [50:08] The relief for me [50:08] is, is really great [50:09] just to know [50:10] that my family [50:11] is so happy [50:11] after kind of [50:12] a tough defeat [50:13] in November [50:13] but now, you know, [50:14] new life and new vigor [50:15] has kind of sprung [50:16] back into our veins. [50:18] I, George Bush, [50:19] do solemnly swear, [50:20] do solemnly swear. [50:22] I wondered how on earth [50:23] he could be appointed [50:24] to the United Nations [50:25] with his little [50:26] foreign policy experience [50:28] or knowledge [50:29] that he had [50:30] at that time [50:31] and I asked him [50:32] about that [50:33] and I said, [50:34] what the hell do you know [50:34] about foreign policy? [50:36] And he just gave me [50:37] this big smile [50:38] and he said, [50:39] you ask me [50:39] in a month. [50:42] At the time, [50:43] a lot of people, [50:44] myself included, [50:45] thought, well, [50:45] this is the end of the road. [50:47] How y'all doing? [50:48] What does it mean [50:50] to be ambassador [50:50] to the United Nations? [50:51] That is certainly not [50:52] a way to get any vote [50:53] in Texas. [50:55] Bush plunged with relish [50:57] into the organization [50:58] that he had denounced [50:59] in his 64 campaign. [51:01] He knew little [51:02] about foreign policy, [51:04] a lot about dealing [51:05] with people. [51:08] From the time Bush [51:09] became the U.S. [51:10] permanent representative [51:11] to the United Nations, [51:12] he began to collect [51:14] foreign friends. [51:16] Leaders, [51:17] soon-to-be leaders, [51:19] deputies, [51:19] ambassadors, [51:21] foreign ministers. [51:25] He was very good [51:26] at empathizing with them. [51:27] In fact, [51:27] at the United Nations, [51:29] he developed friendships [51:31] with people [51:32] who didn't like [51:33] U.S. policy. [51:36] He started a practice [51:38] of walking down the halls [51:39] and dropping in [51:41] on his fellow ambassadors [51:43] just to say, [51:46] how are you? [51:47] How are things [51:47] in your country? [51:48] What do you think [51:49] of the United States? [51:50] What do you think [51:51] of the U.N.? [51:51] What are the problems [51:52] of the world [51:53] as you see them? [51:54] And he developed [51:55] that into a fine art. [51:59] He's a master [52:00] of the personal touch. [52:02] He's an incredible [52:03] thank-you note writer. [52:05] He would meet [52:05] somebody somewhere [52:06] and the next day [52:07] they'd have a little note [52:09] in the mail, [52:09] thank you, Joe, [52:10] I enjoyed meeting you. [52:11] You'd say, [52:12] hey, here's somebody [52:12] who took time [52:13] to write me [52:15] a thank-you note. [52:16] Who does that anymore? [52:19] Five men wearing [52:20] white gloves [52:20] and carrying cameras [52:21] were caught early today [52:22] in the headquarters [52:23] of the Democratic National Committee [52:25] in Washington. [52:26] They apparently were unarmed [52:27] and nobody knows yet [52:28] why they were there. [52:30] The film and the camera [52:30] hadn't even been exposed. [52:32] In November 1972, [52:35] just shy of two years [52:36] on the job, [52:38] Bush was summoned [52:38] to Camp David. [52:42] It was five months [52:43] after news reports [52:44] of a break-in [52:45] at the Democratic Party [52:46] election headquarters [52:47] at the Watergate Hotel. [52:52] George, Bush recalled Nixon, [52:54] saying, [52:55] the place I really need you [52:56] was over at the National Committee [52:58] running things. [53:00] This is an important time [53:01] for the Republican Party, [53:02] George. [53:03] We have a chance [53:03] to build a new coalition [53:04] in the next four years, [53:06] and you're the one [53:07] who can do it. [53:09] I sent him off saying, [53:12] under no circumstances [53:13] be Republican National [53:14] Chairman, [53:15] Committee Chairman. [53:16] It's just a no-end job. [53:19] You'll be gone all the time. [53:20] Please don't do that. [53:22] So he went, [53:23] and because he believes [53:24] you never say no [53:25] to a president, [53:27] when President Nixon [53:28] asked him to do that, [53:29] he said yes. [53:31] So what I want to do [53:32] is try to build the party [53:33] in a constructive, [53:35] positive image. [53:36] The president's setting [53:36] a good program for this. [53:38] Our challenge is to implement it [53:40] and to have room for diversity, [53:43] but to have room for growth, [53:44] and I've got to go. [53:46] I said, [53:47] yeah, you got this all wrong. [53:48] I said, [53:50] I don't know what's happened to you, [53:52] but you don't go from being [53:55] the president's man [53:59] at the United Nations [54:01] to being chairman [54:03] of a political party. [54:05] You're coming down the ladder, [54:07] and I said, [54:07] that's the wrong direction. [54:10] Nixon knew that it was [54:12] about to hit the fan, [54:13] and George Bush could be counted on [54:15] for absolute loyalty [54:17] in front of a camera. [54:19] Nixon knew instinctively [54:21] that as Watergate unfolded, [54:24] as the disaster began to build, [54:28] Bush could be counted on [54:29] to stick by Nixon [54:30] right through until the bitter end. [54:33] The committee will come to order. [54:35] Less than a month [54:36] after Bush took the job, [54:38] the Senate established a committee [54:39] to hold hearings on the break-in. [54:42] Begins hearings into the extent [54:43] to which illegal, improper, [54:46] unethical activities [54:47] were involved in the 1972 [54:50] presidential election campaign. [54:52] As the scandal unfolded, [54:54] Bush traveled to 33 states [54:56] and made 190 appearances [54:58] defending the president [55:00] and the Republican Party. [55:02] As you look across the country, [55:05] the Watergate has not obscured [55:07] the positive record [55:09] of this administration. [55:10] When he goes out in front [55:11] of a television camera [55:12] for Richard Nixon, [55:14] George Bush has [55:15] the perfect public face. [55:17] The other part about Bush [55:18] that the Nixon White House liked [55:20] was his combative nature [55:22] with the press. [55:23] And the press was just beginning [55:25] to feel its oats in 1973. [55:27] Bush was not going to let them [55:29] get away in his mind [55:31] with this type of picking [55:32] on the president. [55:34] The president has said [55:35] that he's not involved [55:37] in Watergate, [55:38] that he didn't know about it, [55:39] that he's not involved [55:40] in the cover-up. [55:41] And I accept that. [55:42] And I don't think [55:43] it helps the stability, [55:45] the forward progress [55:46] of this country [55:47] to speculate hypothetically [55:50] when a man has made [55:51] that statement. [55:52] Nixon lied to George. [55:54] George couldn't believe [55:56] someone would look you [55:57] in the eye and say, [55:58] I had nothing to do [55:59] with this, [56:00] I have not lied. [56:02] I can remember [56:03] many of our friends [56:05] and politicos [56:06] that were around then [56:07] saying, [56:08] oh, that's the end [56:09] of Bush's career, [56:10] that's the end [56:11] of George Bush, [56:12] his time's over, [56:13] and certainly the media [56:14] had written him off. [56:16] I think of all the things [56:17] that George Bush did [56:18] prior to being asked [56:19] to run for vice president [56:21] with Ronald Reagan, [56:22] being chairman [56:22] of the Republican National [56:23] Committee during Watergate [56:24] was the most valuable [56:26] because during that [56:27] miserable time [56:28] for grassroots Republicans, [56:30] there was George Bush [56:31] keeping up the faith [56:33] and trying to keep [56:35] people's spirits up. [56:36] Tell me what the president [56:41] knew and when he first [56:42] knew it. [56:43] At a meeting [56:44] on September 15th, [56:47] when... [56:47] Testimony from Nixon [56:48] staffers on June 3rd, [56:50] 1973, [56:52] marked the beginning [56:52] of revelations [56:53] that would bring [56:54] the president down. [56:55] Didn't want them [56:56] to occur before [56:57] the election. [57:00] I've never seen [57:01] such an unhappy man [57:02] as George was [57:03] during this period, [57:04] a White House insider [57:05] recalled, [57:06] because now all of us [57:07] had come to the conclusion [57:08] that we'd all been lied to [57:09] for many, many months. [57:12] Bush fumed in his diary, [57:14] this era of tawdry, [57:16] shabby lack of morality [57:17] has got to end. [57:19] I'm sick at heart, [57:21] sick about the president's [57:22] betrayal, [57:23] and sick about the fact [57:24] that the major Nixon enemies [57:25] can now gloat [57:26] because they have proved [57:27] he is what they said he is. [57:30] Bush was caught up in it. [57:32] Bush was embarrassed [57:33] by it, [57:35] and the thing he told me [57:36] embarrassed him most of all [57:37] was he had given assurances [57:39] to fundraisers [57:41] that Nixon was not involved. [57:44] Nixon let him down. [57:48] On August 6th, 1974, [57:50] Bush attended a cabinet meeting. [57:53] Nixon's agenda [57:54] was to talk about the economy. [57:56] Ford turned to the president [57:58] and said, [58:00] we have other issues [58:01] that we have to discuss. [58:02] We have to discuss [58:03] the fate of this presidency. [58:04] George Bush interrupted Nixon [58:08] and told him that Watergate [58:10] was sapping public confidence [58:11] in the party and the country. [58:16] The next day, [58:16] he advised Nixon to resign. [58:19] Dear Mr. President, [58:20] he wrote, [58:21] I expect in your lonely, [58:23] embattled position [58:24] this would seem to you [58:25] as an act of disloyalty [58:26] from one you have supported [58:28] and helped in so many ways. [58:32] George Bush had accepted [58:33] the party chairman's job [58:35] out of loyalty to Nixon. [58:38] That loyalty, [58:39] Nixon found to his dismay, [58:42] at its limits. [58:49] In August 1974, [58:51] Bush retreated to Kennebunkport. [58:53] Here he feels at peace. [58:57] It's roots of his family. [58:59] His mother was born here. [59:02] He'll tell you it's kavu. [59:04] Now, I never can remember [59:04] what that means, [59:05] but ceiling unlimited, [59:08] ceiling and visibility unlimited. [59:11] And that's what he feels [59:12] about Kennebunkport, Maine. [59:14] He's at peace here. [59:18] President Gerald Ford, [59:20] Nixon's successor, [59:21] was about to choose [59:22] his vice president. [59:25] Bush was the first choice [59:26] of party leaders. [59:28] At Walker's point, [59:29] he anxiously awaited the news. [59:32] Barbara Bush called up, [59:33] says, come on over, [59:34] got to do something with George. [59:36] He's getting a little finicky over here. [59:39] So I go over, [59:40] and there he is [59:41] underneath the toilet, [59:42] fixing toilets. [59:44] And I said, [59:46] is this the way [59:47] a potential vice president's [59:49] going to act? [59:49] And he said, [59:50] get in here [59:51] and help me fix these toilets. [59:53] Ford called him to say [59:54] he had selected [59:55] former governor of New York, [59:57] Nelson Rockefeller. [59:58] Yesterday was a real downer, [1:00:00] Bush wrote Ludd Ashley. [1:00:03] I guess I had let my hopes [1:00:05] zoom unrealistically. [1:00:08] But today, [1:00:09] perspective is coming back, [1:00:11] and I realize I was lucky [1:00:12] to be in the game at all. [1:00:13] It's his way of relaxing, [1:00:22] and it's nonstop. [1:00:24] It's just from one event [1:00:25] to the other. [1:00:26] I often say that [1:00:28] in his crankcase, [1:00:30] there's no reverse, [1:00:32] and there's no neutral. [1:00:34] There's just drive. [1:00:36] And that's all there is [1:00:37] in this crankcase. [1:00:40] He's just always on the go. [1:00:49] Ford offered Bush [1:00:50] another ambassadorship. [1:00:52] He could have chosen [1:00:52] England or France, [1:00:54] but he chose China. [1:00:57] A friend recalled, [1:00:58] he wanted to get as far away [1:00:59] from the stench [1:01:00] of Watergate as possible. [1:01:05] After little more [1:01:06] than a year, [1:01:06] another odor wafted his way. [1:01:09] Congress was investigating [1:01:10] CIA abuses. [1:01:12] You must insist [1:01:13] that these agencies [1:01:14] operate strictly [1:01:15] within the law. [1:01:18] The Bushes were bicycling [1:01:19] in Beijing [1:01:19] when a cable arrived [1:01:20] from Secretary of State [1:01:22] Henry Kissinger. [1:01:23] Would Bush take over the CIA? [1:01:27] It just was a huge shock, [1:01:29] and George got the message, [1:01:31] and then he called George W., [1:01:34] and said to him, [1:01:34] George, [1:01:35] please call your brothers [1:01:36] and sisters [1:01:36] and see how they'd feel [1:01:38] about my coming home [1:01:39] and heading the CIA. [1:01:42] And George called back [1:01:43] in about an hour [1:01:44] and said, [1:01:45] they say, [1:01:45] come home. [1:01:46] And I've always thought [1:01:47] George never called them, [1:01:49] but he just decided [1:01:50] arbitrarily that we should [1:01:52] come home. [1:01:53] And I thought then [1:01:55] that this was the end [1:01:57] of politics, [1:01:59] that this would be [1:02:00] just the end [1:02:02] of our political life. [1:02:06] Here are my heartfelt views, [1:02:08] Bush cabled Kissinger. [1:02:09] I do not have politics [1:02:11] out of my system entirely, [1:02:12] and I see this as the total end [1:02:14] of any political future. [1:02:16] But if this is what [1:02:17] the president wants me to do, [1:02:19] the answer is a firm yes. [1:02:23] To keep the CIA apolitical, [1:02:26] Bush would have to renounce [1:02:27] a spot on the 1976 ticket. [1:02:31] Some of my friends have asked me, [1:02:33] why do you accept this job? [1:02:35] With all the controversy [1:02:37] swirling around the CIA [1:02:38] and with its obvious barriers [1:02:40] to political future, [1:02:42] my answer is simple. [1:02:45] First, the work is desperately [1:02:47] important to the survival [1:02:48] of this country [1:02:48] and to the survival [1:02:51] of freedom around the world. [1:02:53] And second, [1:02:55] old-fashioned as it may seem [1:02:57] to some, [1:02:59] it is my duty [1:03:00] to serve my country. [1:03:01] And I didn't seek this job, [1:03:03] but I want to do it, [1:03:05] and I'll do my very best. [1:03:06] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [1:03:10] Bush found CIA staffers [1:03:12] demoralized. [1:03:14] We did have the feeling [1:03:15] we were terribly alone, [1:03:16] and there was no one out there [1:03:18] defending us, [1:03:19] one remembered. [1:03:20] George became a champion. [1:03:23] Bush saw his job [1:03:24] as boosting morale [1:03:25] at CIA headquarters [1:03:27] and reassuring Congress [1:03:28] that the rogue elephant [1:03:29] was under control. [1:03:32] I can say, sir, [1:03:33] that we would not disseminate [1:03:34] that kind of intelligence [1:03:35] on American citizens [1:03:37] to the Cabinet Committee. [1:03:38] He made 51 appearances [1:03:39] on Capitol Hill [1:03:40] in less than a year. [1:03:41] ...to the Justice Department. [1:03:44] After six months on the job, [1:03:47] he wrote President Ford, [1:03:49] morale at the CIA [1:03:50] is improving. [1:03:51] Our recruitment is up. [1:03:53] Our people are willing [1:03:54] to serve abroad [1:03:55] and to take the risks involved. [1:03:57] When Jimmy Carter [1:04:02] was elected president [1:04:03] in 1976, [1:04:05] Bush offered to remain [1:04:06] at the CIA [1:04:06] to burnish the agency's [1:04:08] reputation as bipartisan. [1:04:10] There is increasing speculation [1:04:13] that CIA Director George Bush [1:04:15] may be asked to stay [1:04:16] at his post [1:04:16] during the new administration, [1:04:18] but as he arrived today, [1:04:19] he and Carter aides [1:04:20] all refused comment on that. [1:04:23] I'm going to use [1:04:23] the same ground rules [1:04:24] that we had before, [1:04:25] which is we're here [1:04:26] to have a professional [1:04:29] intelligence briefing. [1:04:31] Bush became the first CIA director [1:04:33] to be dismissed [1:04:34] by an incoming president. [1:04:35] Here was Bush [1:04:38] having made this concession [1:04:40] in order to reaffirm [1:04:43] the CIA post [1:04:44] as being nonpolitical, [1:04:46] only in the end [1:04:48] to see himself [1:04:50] forced out [1:04:52] because of the advent [1:04:53] of a new administration. [1:04:55] Well, Bush was determined [1:04:57] to fight back [1:04:58] and fight back [1:04:59] into the political arena. [1:05:03] Demoralized, [1:05:04] George Bush returned [1:05:05] to private life [1:05:05] in Houston. [1:05:08] He felt like a racehorse [1:05:09] under wraps, [1:05:10] a biographer would write. [1:05:13] Bush described [1:05:14] his withdrawal symptoms [1:05:15] to a friend. [1:05:17] I just get bored silly [1:05:18] about whose daughter [1:05:19] is a pi-fi [1:05:20] or even about [1:05:21] who's banging [1:05:21] old Joe's wife. [1:05:23] I think I want to [1:05:25] at least be in a position [1:05:27] to run in 1980, [1:05:28] but it seems so [1:05:29] presumptuous [1:05:30] and egotistical. [1:05:35] George did his best [1:05:36] to drown out [1:05:37] his mother's voice. [1:05:38] For two years, [1:05:39] he served on corporate boards [1:05:40] and built his war chest [1:05:42] for a presidential campaign. [1:05:45] He is finally getting better [1:05:46] about blowing his own horn. [1:05:48] Barbara wrote a friend, [1:05:50] the thing we were taught [1:05:51] as children never to do. [1:05:55] On May 1st, 1979, [1:05:58] George H.W. Bush [1:05:59] returned to Washington. [1:06:03] Ladies and gentlemen, [1:06:06] I am a candidate [1:06:07] for president [1:06:08] of the United States. [1:06:14] Before responding [1:06:16] to questions, [1:06:16] I would like to introduce [1:06:18] you to my family. [1:06:20] My mother, [1:06:21] Mrs. Prescott Bush, [1:06:22] who some of you [1:06:23] may remember. [1:06:23] My wife, Barbara, [1:06:27] most of you know. [1:06:29] Our oldest son, George, [1:06:30] and his wife, Laura, [1:06:31] from West Texas. [1:06:34] Jeb and his wife, [1:06:35] Columba, [1:06:36] from Houston, Texas. [1:06:38] Bush distanced himself [1:06:40] from the Republican [1:06:41] frontrunner, [1:06:41] Ronald Reagan, [1:06:42] the conservative governor [1:06:43] of California, [1:06:44] by invoking language [1:06:45] used by President Eisenhower. [1:06:48] There is in our affairs [1:06:48] at home a middle way [1:06:51] between the untrammeled [1:06:53] freedom of the individual [1:06:54] and the demands [1:06:56] for the welfare [1:06:57] of the whole nation. [1:06:58] In one year, [1:07:02] Bush traveled 329 days [1:07:04] calling in all his chits [1:07:06] from the years [1:07:06] at the Republican [1:07:07] National Committee. [1:07:11] In a surprise victory, [1:07:12] he defeated Reagan [1:07:13] in the Iowa caucus. [1:07:15] It has set something [1:07:18] in motion. [1:07:19] The forward momentum [1:07:20] is clearly established, [1:07:22] and I am absolutely convinced [1:07:24] I will be your next president. [1:07:25] Thank you very much. [1:07:26] In the important [1:07:31] New Hampshire primary, [1:07:33] Reagan challenged Bush [1:07:34] to a one-on-one debate [1:07:35] and agreed to pay [1:07:36] the cost of the event. [1:07:37] At the last minute [1:07:40] in a clever ploy, [1:07:42] Reagan wanted to change [1:07:43] the rules [1:07:44] to include [1:07:45] the other candidates. [1:07:46] I'm sorry, [1:07:47] President Trump. [1:07:47] Bush and the moderator [1:07:49] stuck to the original agreement. [1:07:54] Could you turn [1:07:54] that microphone off, please? [1:07:57] I am paying [1:07:58] for this microphone. [1:08:00] That night, [1:08:05] George Bush learned [1:08:06] how formidable [1:08:07] a candidate [1:08:08] Ronald Reagan could be. [1:08:12] George Bush [1:08:13] is like a boy [1:08:14] who was dropped off [1:08:15] at the wrong birthday party. [1:08:17] He's just so awkward [1:08:19] and doesn't know what to do, [1:08:20] and he looks a little bit miffed. [1:08:22] I've been invited here [1:08:24] as a guest [1:08:25] for the National Newspaper. [1:08:26] I will play by their rules. [1:08:28] I'm their guest, [1:08:29] and I'm very glad to be here. [1:08:30] Thank you very much. [1:08:31] Bush lost New Hampshire, [1:08:35] but continued [1:08:36] to challenge Reagan, [1:08:37] ridiculing his so-called [1:08:38] supply-side tax policy, [1:08:41] the notion that taxes [1:08:42] could be cut [1:08:42] without reducing spending. [1:08:44] This theory [1:08:47] that Governor Reagan [1:08:48] is talking about, [1:08:50] what I call [1:08:51] a voodoo economic policy. [1:08:54] Reagan appealed [1:08:55] to staunch anti-communists [1:08:57] and social conservatives, [1:08:58] two of the groups [1:09:00] Bush had welcomed [1:09:01] into the Republican Party [1:09:02] in Harris County [1:09:03] almost 20 years before. [1:09:05] As a moderate, [1:09:06] George Bush [1:09:07] was chasing the caboose [1:09:09] of the party [1:09:09] he had helped to create. [1:09:12] By May, [1:09:13] campaign manager [1:09:14] James Baker [1:09:14] urged him to pull out. [1:09:17] Reagan had collected [1:09:19] sufficient number [1:09:20] of delegates [1:09:20] to be nominated, [1:09:22] and my advice [1:09:23] to George at the time [1:09:25] was that we ought [1:09:26] to fold up our tent [1:09:27] and not go out [1:09:29] to California [1:09:30] and try and contest [1:09:32] Reagan and his home state, [1:09:33] because if we did that, [1:09:35] there'd be no chance [1:09:36] whatsoever [1:09:37] that he would be [1:09:37] put on the ticket. [1:09:38] I have asked, [1:09:44] and I am recommending [1:09:45] to this convention [1:09:46] that tomorrow, [1:09:48] when the session reconvenes, [1:09:51] that George Bush... [1:09:52] In many ways, [1:09:57] George Bush was what [1:09:58] Ronald Reagan [1:09:59] pretended to be. [1:10:02] As an actor, [1:10:03] Ronald Reagan [1:10:04] played the war hero. [1:10:09] Bush was a war hero, [1:10:11] a decorated naval aviator. [1:10:16] Ronald Reagan [1:10:17] played the athlete. [1:10:21] Bush was the captain [1:10:21] of his Yale baseball team [1:10:23] and played twice [1:10:24] in the college championship game, [1:10:33] preached family values. [1:10:36] Only Bush could point [1:10:37] to a happy family. [1:10:45] Reagan turned to Bush [1:10:47] as a way to unify [1:10:48] the conservative [1:10:48] and moderate wings [1:10:50] of the party. [1:10:51] He was also the only [1:10:52] other candidate [1:10:53] to win any primaries. [1:10:57] Reagan took him [1:10:58] in spite of his doubts. [1:10:59] He had seen Bush [1:11:01] at his worst. [1:11:02] He had seen Bush, [1:11:03] in effect, [1:11:04] wilt under pressure [1:11:05] at the famous Nashua debate, [1:11:08] and he didn't like [1:11:09] what he'd seen. [1:11:11] More than that, [1:11:11] Bush had come up [1:11:13] with some very powerful phrases, [1:11:15] including voodoo economics, [1:11:17] that, in effect, [1:11:18] trivialized Reagan's beliefs. [1:11:21] Reagan disliked him [1:11:23] for using the term [1:11:25] voodoo economics. [1:11:27] He disliked him [1:11:28] for what Reagan [1:11:28] thought he was a wimp. [1:11:31] Nancy detested him bitterly. [1:11:35] Reagan did not [1:11:36] turn to Bush happily, [1:11:38] and then when I said to Bush, [1:11:39] was there anything [1:11:39] Reagan asked of you [1:11:42] in order to nominate [1:11:45] you as vice president, [1:11:46] he simply said he wanted him [1:11:47] to accept his position [1:11:48] on abortion, [1:11:49] which I did. [1:11:53] Despite their political differences, [1:11:55] Bush pledged his loyalty. [1:12:00] I will never forget [1:12:01] that the very first [1:12:02] staff meeting we had [1:12:03] before they were even sworn in, [1:12:04] Ambassador Bush [1:12:05] had really kind of [1:12:06] laid down the rules to us, [1:12:07] and he said, [1:12:08] you know, [1:12:08] I don't want to ever [1:12:10] pick up the paper [1:12:10] and see any suggestion [1:12:12] that anybody [1:12:13] on my vice president's staff [1:12:15] has been anything [1:12:16] but loyal to Ronald Reagan. [1:12:20] Bush's experience [1:12:22] in foreign affairs [1:12:23] was especially useful [1:12:24] to Reagan. [1:12:25] His connections [1:12:26] with Deng Xiaoping [1:12:27] helped ease tensions [1:12:29] over arms sales [1:12:29] to Taiwan. [1:12:35] His message in El Salvador [1:12:36] was stop the right-wing [1:12:38] death squads [1:12:38] or Congress will cut off [1:12:40] aid to fight [1:12:40] communist insurgents. [1:12:44] To communist Poland, [1:12:45] he brought a message [1:12:46] of freedom. [1:12:47] Poland should be strong [1:12:49] and prosperous [1:12:49] and independent [1:12:50] and play its proper role [1:12:52] as a great nation [1:12:54] in the heart of Europe. [1:12:57] When three Soviet presidents [1:12:59] died in less than three years, [1:13:01] Bush was the first [1:13:02] to greet the new leader [1:13:03] after the funeral. [1:13:05] He would explain [1:13:06] America's policies [1:13:07] and report directly to Reagan. [1:13:16] Bush's deep interest [1:13:17] in foreign policy [1:13:18] served him well [1:13:19] until a report broke [1:13:21] that the Reagan administration [1:13:23] was secretly selling arms [1:13:24] to Iran [1:13:25] in exchange for help [1:13:27] releasing hostages [1:13:28] held in Beirut, [1:13:29] a violation of its own policies. [1:13:32] I was aware [1:13:33] of our Iran initiative [1:13:34] and I support [1:13:35] the president's decision. [1:13:38] More serious [1:13:39] was the charge [1:13:39] that the administration [1:13:40] illegally used profits [1:13:42] from the arms sales [1:13:43] to fund the [1:13:44] anti-communist Contras [1:13:45] who were trying [1:13:46] to topple [1:13:47] the Marxist government [1:13:48] in Nicaragua. [1:13:50] It became known [1:13:51] as the Iran-Contra affair. [1:13:55] And I was not aware of [1:13:56] and I oppose [1:13:57] any diversion of funds, [1:14:00] any ransom payments, [1:14:02] or any circumvention [1:14:04] of the will [1:14:05] of the Congress, [1:14:07] the law of the United States [1:14:08] of America. [1:14:12] What Reagan may have told [1:14:13] his vice president [1:14:14] during their Thursday lunches [1:14:15] or what advice Bush [1:14:17] may have given his president [1:14:18] was something both [1:14:19] considered confidential. [1:14:20] Afterward, you can see [1:14:24] we shouldn't have done that. [1:14:25] As the scandal unfolded, [1:14:27] the former director [1:14:28] of central intelligence [1:14:29] came under suspicion [1:14:30] that he was involved [1:14:31] in more than he let on. [1:14:33] But there's no question [1:14:35] about trying to [1:14:35] jump away from it. [1:14:37] I support the president. [1:14:38] What you know, [1:14:39] I know is, [1:14:42] this is just going to [1:14:43] taste wonderful [1:14:44] and I'm looking forward [1:14:45] to tomorrow. [1:14:47] Mr. President, [1:14:48] damage to your presidents. [1:14:51] Bush's role [1:14:52] as Reagan's loyal [1:14:53] vice president [1:14:53] was taking a toll [1:14:54] on his public image. [1:14:58] This was nothing new. [1:15:01] Cartoonist Gary Trudeau [1:15:02] had caricatured Bush's loyalty [1:15:04] as putting his manhood [1:15:05] in a blind trust. [1:15:11] As Bush planned his run [1:15:12] for the presidency, [1:15:13] conservative columnist [1:15:14] George Will [1:15:15] called him a lapdog [1:15:17] for trying to prove [1:15:18] he was Reagan's heir. [1:15:19] I am here today [1:15:22] to announce my candidacy [1:15:25] for president [1:15:26] of the United States. [1:15:28] The week he announced [1:15:33] in October 1987, [1:15:35] Newsweek called him [1:15:36] a wimp. [1:15:38] That's an awful word [1:15:39] to use. [1:15:40] We used it on the cover [1:15:41] of Newsweek, I think, [1:15:42] to our regret. [1:15:43] It was too harsh a word. [1:15:44] But there was a perception [1:15:45] that he was somehow [1:15:47] not a stand-up guy. [1:15:49] He was under Reagan's shadow [1:15:50] and he needed to win over [1:15:53] the true right [1:15:55] and the evangelicals. [1:15:57] And to do that, [1:15:58] he seemed to be trimming [1:15:59] a little bit on abortion, [1:16:01] seemed to possibly be going [1:16:02] against his own conscience [1:16:03] in order to win votes. [1:16:11] Bush lost to Senator Bob Dole [1:16:12] in the Iowa caucus [1:16:13] in February 1988. [1:16:16] His own polls said [1:16:17] he was perceived [1:16:18] as a follower, [1:16:19] not a leader, [1:16:20] a man who would not be [1:16:21] tough enough [1:16:22] for the Oval Office. [1:16:28] He was trailing Dole [1:16:29] in the critical primary [1:16:30] in New Hampshire. [1:16:32] A loss could mean [1:16:32] the end of his [1:16:33] presidential hopes. [1:16:35] Yet he remained hesitant [1:16:37] to say anything bad [1:16:38] about his opponents. [1:16:40] I'm not taking shots [1:16:41] at the other candidates. [1:16:42] I'm not trying to get myself [1:16:44] up a notch on the ladder [1:16:45] by shoving somebody else [1:16:46] down on the ladder, [1:16:48] whether it's a candidate [1:16:48] or the president [1:16:49] of the United States [1:16:50] or anybody else. [1:16:51] I just don't believe [1:16:52] that's the way [1:16:53] one ought to campaign. [1:16:55] I've never done that. [1:16:56] And so I feel comfortable [1:16:58] saying what I am for. [1:17:00] I'd been the chairman [1:17:02] of the Republican [1:17:03] National Committee. [1:17:04] He didn't speak ill [1:17:06] of other Republicans. [1:17:08] He believed that [1:17:10] he had to talk [1:17:11] about his record, [1:17:12] his experience, [1:17:13] his ability [1:17:14] to be president [1:17:15] and let people [1:17:16] make their mind up. [1:17:17] He was less inclined [1:17:20] to talk about [1:17:21] his challengers [1:17:22] at all, really. [1:17:25] You gotta go negative, [1:17:26] Bush's young campaign [1:17:27] manager Lee Atwater [1:17:28] told him. [1:17:29] You just gotta. [1:17:33] Atwater, [1:17:33] a new breed [1:17:34] of political consultant, [1:17:36] had no qualms [1:17:36] going for an opponent's [1:17:38] jugular. [1:17:41] He set out to toughen [1:17:42] Bush's gentlemanly [1:17:43] campaign style. [1:17:47] Water was able [1:17:50] to articulate [1:17:51] a side of George Bush [1:17:53] that needed to be [1:17:55] articulated if he [1:17:56] was to win, [1:17:57] and that was [1:17:58] the harsh side [1:17:59] of Bush. [1:18:01] Bush doesn't [1:18:03] naturally gravitate [1:18:05] to bare-knuckle [1:18:06] politics. [1:18:08] He needs to be [1:18:08] taken there. [1:18:10] Atwater did that. [1:18:12] Atwater's team [1:18:13] had put together [1:18:14] a campaign spot [1:18:15] attacking Senator Dole. [1:18:18] Bush rejected it. [1:18:21] I told the [1:18:22] then-vice president [1:18:23] that sometimes [1:18:27] you have to [1:18:27] leave the high road. [1:18:29] Bob Dole straddled [1:18:36] until the polls [1:18:37] told him it was [1:18:37] popular. [1:18:39] He said, [1:18:39] all right, [1:18:40] I don't like it, [1:18:40] but okay, [1:18:42] but it better [1:18:42] all be true. [1:18:43] That's why he's [1:18:44] becoming known [1:18:44] as Senator Stratton. [1:18:46] George Bush, [1:18:47] presidential leadership. [1:18:48] The new strategy [1:19:01] worked. [1:19:02] Bush won in [1:19:03] New Hampshire. [1:19:04] And now, [1:19:05] on to the south [1:19:06] where we're going [1:19:07] to rise again. [1:19:08] And went on to [1:19:10] secure the Republican [1:19:11] nomination. [1:19:14] In May, [1:19:14] he trailed [1:19:15] Massachusetts Governor [1:19:16] Michael Dukakis, [1:19:17] the Democratic nominee, [1:19:18] by 10 points. [1:19:21] Blue-collar Democrats [1:19:22] who had flocked [1:19:23] to Ronald Reagan [1:19:23] were supporting [1:19:24] Governor Dukakis. [1:19:29] The Bush campaign [1:19:30] needed to woo them back. [1:19:32] It was encouraged [1:19:33] by a focus group [1:19:34] that showed Dukakis [1:19:35] had a weak spot. [1:19:38] He was perceived [1:19:39] as a liberal. [1:19:41] Lee Atwater knew [1:19:42] that that sort of [1:19:43] East Coast elite [1:19:46] liberal ideology [1:19:49] and persona [1:19:50] was going to be [1:19:51] problematic for Dukakis. [1:19:53] So showing that [1:19:55] is part of how [1:19:56] campaigns work. [1:19:58] This is what [1:19:58] campaigns do. [1:20:01] Bashing Dukakis [1:20:02] would become the focus [1:20:03] of Bush's campaign. [1:20:06] Governor Dukakis, [1:20:08] his foreign policy [1:20:10] views, [1:20:10] born in Harvard Yards [1:20:13] boutique, [1:20:14] would cut the muscle [1:20:15] of our defense [1:20:16] and I will never do that. [1:20:21] I don't think [1:20:22] by nature he likes [1:20:23] to go negative. [1:20:25] He, [1:20:26] that's not the way [1:20:27] he was, [1:20:27] not the way [1:20:28] he was brought up. [1:20:31] Governor calls himself, [1:20:33] and this is a quote [1:20:34] from Michael Dukakis, [1:20:36] a card-carrying member [1:20:37] of the ACLU, [1:20:39] American Civil Lieutenant. [1:20:42] I haven't joined [1:20:44] the ACLU, [1:20:45] nor do I have any plans [1:20:46] to join the ACLU. [1:20:48] So you get down [1:20:49] the differences. [1:20:51] He may not have [1:20:52] liked it, [1:20:53] but it isn't as if [1:20:54] you were trying [1:20:54] to make him take [1:20:55] a drink of castor oil [1:20:56] or something like that. [1:20:57] He knew exactly [1:20:58] what had to be done [1:20:59] in the long run. [1:21:01] Prescott Bush's son [1:21:02] is not comfortable [1:21:04] with the culture [1:21:05] of handlers [1:21:07] and spin doctors [1:21:08] and pollsters [1:21:09] and focus groups [1:21:10] and determining [1:21:13] what your convictions [1:21:13] are by asking [1:21:17] a group of strangers [1:21:17] in a supermarket [1:21:18] in Seacaucus, New Jersey. [1:21:21] On the other hand, [1:21:23] he'll do it [1:21:23] if that's what it takes [1:21:25] to win the presidency. [1:21:27] Nation for president. [1:21:38] I'll try to be fair [1:21:49] to the other side. [1:21:51] I'll try to hold [1:21:52] my charisma in check. [1:21:54] And where is it written [1:22:01] that we must act [1:22:04] if we do not care [1:22:05] as if we're not moved? [1:22:08] Well, I am moved. [1:22:10] I want a kinder [1:22:11] and gentler nation. [1:22:14] That phrase, [1:22:16] Bush thought, [1:22:17] would appeal to moderates [1:22:18] turned off [1:22:18] by Reagan's harsh edges. [1:22:21] Another line, [1:22:22] inspired by a Clint Eastwood movie, [1:22:24] would counter the wimp factor [1:22:25] and project an image of strength. [1:22:28] My opponent [1:22:28] will not be about raising taxes, [1:22:31] but I will [1:22:31] and the Congress [1:22:32] will push me [1:22:33] to raise taxes [1:22:34] and I'll say no [1:22:35] and they'll push [1:22:36] and I'll say no [1:22:38] and they'll push again [1:22:39] and I'll say to them, [1:22:42] read my lips. [1:22:53] In appeal to his sense [1:22:54] of good fun [1:22:56] and he did it with gusto [1:22:57] and of course [1:22:59] it knocked the ball [1:22:59] out of the park. [1:23:05] I thought it was ill-advised [1:23:08] and I argued against [1:23:10] keeping it in. [1:23:11] The no new taxes part [1:23:12] was going to be [1:23:13] very difficult to live with. [1:23:16] It was the single best speech [1:23:18] in Bush's career. [1:23:20] It was Bush at his most animated. [1:23:23] It was Bush at his most telegenic. [1:23:26] The camera does not love George Bush. [1:23:30] He never did any better [1:23:33] than this speech, [1:23:35] even as president. [1:23:38] Bush had cut Dukakis' lead in half. [1:23:43] After Labor Day, [1:23:44] the attack on Dukakis intensified. [1:23:47] Dukakis not only opposes [1:23:48] the death penalty, [1:23:49] he allowed first-degree murderers [1:23:51] to have weekend passes [1:23:52] from prison. [1:23:53] One was Willie Horton [1:23:54] who murdered a boy [1:23:55] in a robbery, [1:23:56] stabbing him 19 times. [1:23:58] Despite a life sentence, [1:23:59] Horton received [1:24:00] 10 weekend passes from prison. [1:24:03] Weekend prison passes. [1:24:04] Dukakis on crime. [1:24:05] The official Republican campaign [1:24:08] did not resort [1:24:11] to those scare ads, [1:24:14] but there was another committee [1:24:15] that used the menacing [1:24:17] bot face of Willie Horton. [1:24:21] But it would be very hard [1:24:23] for you and me [1:24:24] to really disassociate those two. [1:24:27] There was an independent camp, [1:24:29] an independent group [1:24:30] that ran an ad [1:24:32] with Willie Horton's picture, [1:24:34] which we finally got them [1:24:36] to stop running. [1:24:36] Baker writes a letter [1:24:39] asking them to cease [1:24:42] and desist [1:24:43] from the use [1:24:45] of the racial attacks, [1:24:49] scare attacks, [1:24:50] about Horton. [1:24:52] The damage has already been done. [1:24:55] The offending ad [1:24:56] played for 28 days [1:24:57] before it was yanked. [1:24:59] Then campaign manager Baker [1:25:01] launched an authorized one. [1:25:03] His revolving door prison policy [1:25:04] gave weekend furloughs [1:25:06] to first-degree murderers [1:25:07] not eligible for parole. [1:25:09] While out, [1:25:10] many committed other crimes [1:25:11] like kidnapping and rape. [1:25:13] Now Michael Dukakis [1:25:14] says he wants to do for America [1:25:16] what he's done for Massachusetts. [1:25:18] America can't afford that risk. [1:25:21] That was not going negative. [1:25:23] Governor Dukakis supported [1:25:24] a prison furlough bill [1:25:26] as governor of Massachusetts. [1:25:28] And all we did [1:25:30] was point out [1:25:31] that he had done that. [1:25:33] Yes, it was [1:25:34] a terrible human tragedy [1:25:35] and I accepted responsibility [1:25:37] for it [1:25:38] and changed the program. [1:25:40] One of the ironies [1:25:43] of George Bush's life [1:25:45] is that a fundamentally [1:25:46] decent man [1:25:47] presided over [1:25:49] a moment [1:25:50] when politics [1:25:51] got meaner and rougher. [1:25:54] 88 was the year [1:25:55] of the handler [1:25:55] of bringing in [1:25:57] political consultants [1:25:58] who played very hard [1:26:00] and very tough. [1:26:00] Now they'd always been [1:26:01] around in politics. [1:26:02] They weren't invented in 1988. [1:26:04] But 1988 was kind of [1:26:05] a rough, trivial campaign. [1:26:07] Lee Atwater [1:26:08] and these henchmen for Bush [1:26:10] looking for the so-called [1:26:11] wedge issues [1:26:12] not really staying [1:26:14] on the high road [1:26:15] and talking about [1:26:15] the great issues of the day [1:26:16] but rather sniping it [1:26:17] at their opponent [1:26:18] to find some weakness in them. [1:26:21] And Bush put up with that. [1:26:23] Did you see in the paper [1:26:24] that Willie Horton said [1:26:25] if he could vote [1:26:26] he would vote for you? [1:26:27] You can't vote, Sam. [1:26:28] I think it was one of [1:26:30] the dirtiest campaigns [1:26:31] in American history. [1:26:32] The whole concept [1:26:34] of smearing the term [1:26:35] liberalism [1:26:36] the whole concept [1:26:37] of doing that [1:26:38] making that into [1:26:39] a dirty word [1:26:39] you know the L word. [1:26:43] He made his compromise [1:26:44] just like he made his compromise [1:26:46] with Reagan [1:26:47] saying yes [1:26:47] he'd be against [1:26:48] all abortions. [1:26:50] George was pragmatic. [1:26:53] You have to win [1:26:54] in order to put [1:26:56] your principles [1:26:57] into effect. [1:26:59] Without winning [1:27:00] you can't achieve anything. [1:27:03] These are the accommodations [1:27:04] that George had to make [1:27:06] for politics. [1:27:07] In November 1988 [1:27:16] George Herbert Walker Bush [1:27:19] soundly defeated [1:27:20] Michael Dukakis [1:27:21] to become the first [1:27:22] sitting vice president [1:27:23] since Martin Van Buren [1:27:24] in 1836 [1:27:25] to be elected president. [1:27:30] Ronald Reagan [1:27:30] who had doubts [1:27:32] about Bush [1:27:32] eight years earlier [1:27:33] came to feel [1:27:34] he was the most [1:27:35] qualified president-elect [1:27:37] in American history. [1:27:39] They became good friends. [1:27:44] When Bush went [1:27:45] to the Oval Office [1:27:46] for the first time [1:27:47] as president [1:27:47] he found a note [1:27:48] from Reagan [1:27:49] God bless you [1:27:51] and Barbara [1:27:51] it read [1:27:52] I'll miss our [1:27:53] Thursday lunches [1:27:54] you'll have moments [1:27:57] when you want to [1:27:58] use this stationery. [1:28:01] Bush placed the note [1:28:02] in his desk [1:28:03] on his desk [1:28:05] he placed a picture [1:28:06] of Robin [1:28:06] they would remain there [1:28:08] for his entire term [1:28:09] in office. [1:28:12] The first photo [1:28:13] was with his mother [1:28:14] his competitive spirit [1:28:16] had come from her [1:28:17] and his sense of modesty [1:28:18] she had taught him [1:28:20] never to call attention [1:28:21] to himself [1:28:22] yet for eight years [1:28:27] he had seen Reagan [1:28:28] inspire Americans [1:28:29] with a sense of drama [1:28:30] and celebratory spectacle [1:28:32] Reagan's conservative [1:28:36] revolution [1:28:36] had swept Bush [1:28:38] onto the national stage [1:28:39] George H.W. Bush [1:28:42] was Ronald Reagan's heir. [1:28:46] He spent the entire [1:28:47] eight years [1:28:48] as vice president [1:28:49] traveling the length [1:28:50] and breadth [1:28:51] of this country [1:28:51] saying trust me [1:28:53] I am a conservative [1:28:54] and if I'm ever [1:28:55] elected president [1:28:56] of the United States [1:28:56] I will govern [1:28:57] as a conservative. [1:29:00] We didn't expect him [1:29:01] to be another Ronald Reagan [1:29:03] but we did expect [1:29:04] that he would keep [1:29:05] his clear promises [1:29:06] and that he would govern [1:29:08] as a right-of-center president. [1:29:12] Bush may have been [1:29:13] Ronald Reagan's heir [1:29:14] he was also [1:29:16] Prescott Bush's son. [1:29:19] There you have [1:29:19] the conundrum [1:29:20] of the Bush presidency [1:29:21] he was looking [1:29:22] over one shoulder [1:29:23] and seeing where [1:29:24] the Republican Party [1:29:25] was going [1:29:26] and over the other shoulder [1:29:28] he saw his own lineage [1:29:30] his own tradition [1:29:31] he saw his father [1:29:33] Prescott Bush [1:29:35] he saw Dwight Eisenhower [1:29:36] and he saw [1:29:37] Richard Nixon [1:29:37] and Gerald Ford [1:29:38] who in retrospect [1:29:39] are seen as [1:29:40] moderate conservatives. [1:29:41] I George Herbert Walker Bush [1:29:44] Now with the chance [1:29:45] to be his own man [1:29:46] George Bush began [1:29:47] to distance himself [1:29:48] from Ronald Reagan. [1:29:50] First thing that he does [1:29:52] is through his transition team [1:29:55] which was run by [1:29:56] in part by his son [1:29:57] George W. [1:29:58] went in and booted [1:30:00] all of the Reagan appointees [1:30:02] and told them [1:30:04] with a great deal [1:30:05] of harshness [1:30:06] that they were to be [1:30:07] out of town [1:30:08] before sundown. [1:30:10] It was an ideological [1:30:11] house cleaning [1:30:13] and Reagan appointees [1:30:15] are shown the door [1:30:16] in a harsh transition [1:30:19] that makes it look like [1:30:20] a Democrat is coming in. [1:30:25] Wasting little time [1:30:26] Bush tackled [1:30:27] some of the problems [1:30:28] he inherited. [1:30:30] On the domestic front [1:30:31] he decided to clean up [1:30:32] a messy banking problem [1:30:34] that both Reagan [1:30:35] and Congress [1:30:35] had all but ignored. [1:30:40] In 1986 [1:30:41] when the real estate market [1:30:42] collapsed [1:30:43] hundreds of savings [1:30:44] and loan banks [1:30:45] had gone bust. [1:30:49] The cost of bailing out [1:30:50] depositors [1:30:51] was pushing [1:30:51] $50 billion [1:30:52] and was projected [1:30:54] to triple. [1:30:56] Bush knew [1:30:57] it would be expensive [1:30:58] and politically thankless. [1:31:00] Do it not [1:31:06] to advance [1:31:07] your interests. [1:31:09] You do it [1:31:09] because it's [1:31:10] in the interest [1:31:11] of millions of people [1:31:13] who will never vote [1:31:13] for you [1:31:14] and will certainly [1:31:15] never give you [1:31:15] any credit [1:31:16] for doing it. [1:31:17] That's responsibility. [1:31:19] That's accountability. [1:31:21] That's the old [1:31:22] establishment way [1:31:24] of discharging [1:31:26] the privileges [1:31:28] of leadership. [1:31:31] He's separating [1:31:32] himself from Reagan. [1:31:34] One of the things [1:31:35] that haunted Bush [1:31:37] all the way through [1:31:38] was his being [1:31:39] compared to Reagan [1:31:40] and immediately [1:31:44] from his acceptance [1:31:46] speech [1:31:47] a gentler [1:31:48] and kinder country [1:31:49] he's separating [1:31:51] himself from Reagan [1:31:52] and this was [1:31:54] some of the residue [1:31:56] of the Reagan administration [1:31:57] major residue [1:31:58] of the Reagan administration. [1:32:00] Bush shifted course [1:32:02] in foreign policy [1:32:03] as well. [1:32:05] He agreed not [1:32:06] to support [1:32:06] the military overthrow [1:32:08] of the Marxist [1:32:09] Nicaraguan government [1:32:10] if that government [1:32:11] agreed to free elections. [1:32:15] President Bush [1:32:16] began to act [1:32:18] quite differently [1:32:18] from candidate Bush. [1:32:21] One of his first initiatives [1:32:22] was to push [1:32:23] for elections [1:32:24] in Nicaragua [1:32:25] and to take Nicaragua [1:32:27] off the front burner [1:32:28] of U.S. foreign policy. [1:32:30] He didn't want [1:32:31] to continue [1:32:31] the divisive [1:32:33] American debate. [1:32:37] Bush also confronted [1:32:38] the question [1:32:39] of how to deal [1:32:40] with a rapidly changing [1:32:41] Soviet Union. [1:32:42] Is conversion [1:32:45] of military production [1:32:46] a realistic idea? [1:32:48] I've already had occasion [1:32:49] to speak. [1:32:49] Soviet President [1:32:50] Mikhail Gorbachev [1:32:51] had pledged [1:32:52] at the United Nations [1:32:53] to renounce [1:32:54] the use of force [1:32:54] and withdraw [1:32:55] one-half million troops [1:32:57] from Eastern Europe. [1:32:59] We are ready [1:32:59] to draw up [1:32:59] and make public [1:33:00] our internal [1:33:01] conversion plan. [1:33:05] Many Russian experts [1:33:06] felt the Cold War [1:33:07] was over. [1:33:10] Even the wise man [1:33:11] who 45 years earlier [1:33:13] had devised [1:33:14] the policy [1:33:14] of containing [1:33:15] the Soviet Union. [1:33:19] President Bush [1:33:20] came into office [1:33:22] realizing that a lot [1:33:24] had been done [1:33:24] under President Reagan [1:33:25] but there was still [1:33:27] a Soviet Union. [1:33:28] It hadn't gone away. [1:33:30] It still had all [1:33:31] of its missiles. [1:33:31] It still had its troops. [1:33:34] And so it wasn't [1:33:35] entirely clear [1:33:36] what was going to happen. [1:33:39] Mr. Gorbachev [1:33:40] was a very charismatic figure [1:33:42] but it wasn't clear [1:33:44] at the time [1:33:44] whether or not [1:33:45] he had the whole [1:33:46] Soviet governmental structure [1:33:48] with him. [1:33:48] and so there was [1:33:50] the degree of caution [1:33:51] and a degree of [1:33:52] let's study this. [1:33:54] Ultimately [1:33:54] our objective [1:33:56] is to [1:33:58] Four months [1:33:59] into his term [1:34:00] Bush responded [1:34:01] to Gorbachev. [1:34:03] Containment worked [1:34:04] and now it is time [1:34:06] to move beyond [1:34:07] containment [1:34:08] to a new policy [1:34:11] for the 1990s. [1:34:12] One that recognizes [1:34:14] the full scope [1:34:16] of change [1:34:17] taking place [1:34:18] around the world [1:34:19] and in the [1:34:20] Soviet Union itself. [1:34:22] The response [1:34:25] many felt [1:34:25] was too timid. [1:34:35] A New York Times [1:34:35] editorial said [1:34:36] if an alien spacecraft [1:34:38] landed and looked [1:34:39] for Earth's leader [1:34:39] it would be taken [1:34:41] to Mikhail Gorbachev. [1:34:43] Gorbachev was [1:34:45] encouraging reforms [1:34:46] definitely [1:34:46] and he believed [1:34:48] and said [1:34:49] that if we wanted [1:34:50] change in our country [1:34:51] if we wanted [1:34:52] to abandon [1:34:52] the old system [1:34:53] in our country [1:34:54] how could we [1:34:55] prohibit [1:34:56] or inhibit [1:34:57] change [1:34:58] in our neighbors? [1:35:03] Bush did not [1:35:04] meet the Soviet leader [1:35:05] for almost a year. [1:35:07] He did respond [1:35:08] to the changes [1:35:09] Gorbachev had encouraged [1:35:10] in Eastern Europe. [1:35:13] In Poland [1:35:14] the anti-government [1:35:15] solidarity movement [1:35:16] routed the communists [1:35:17] in free elections [1:35:18] the first break [1:35:19] in the Iron Curtain [1:35:20] in more than 40 years. [1:35:24] The challenge for Bush [1:35:25] when he arrived in Warsaw [1:35:26] in July 1989 [1:35:28] was not to provoke [1:35:30] a backlash [1:35:30] by Poland's communist leader [1:35:32] General Jaruzelski [1:35:33] or Kremlin hardliners. [1:35:35] Thank you Mr. Chairman. [1:35:39] Your hospitable [1:35:42] and gracious words [1:35:43] of welcome [1:35:43] we extend [1:35:45] the heartfelt [1:35:46] best wishes [1:35:47] of the American people [1:35:48] and here [1:35:49] in the heart of Europe [1:35:51] the American people [1:35:53] have a fervent wish [1:35:54] that Europe be whole [1:35:55] and free. [1:36:00] Bush spent time [1:36:01] with Poland's reform leader [1:36:02] Lech Wałęsa. [1:36:06] He spent more time [1:36:07] with Jaruzelski. [1:36:08] The president [1:36:12] I think really understood [1:36:13] that a lot of the folks [1:36:15] that were there [1:36:16] doing the Russians bidding [1:36:17] were still Poles first [1:36:19] and cared about their country [1:36:21] and he tried to create [1:36:23] a structure [1:36:24] in which the strong hand [1:36:26] supported by the Soviet Union [1:36:29] became a part of the solution [1:36:31] rather than opposition [1:36:32] to the solution. [1:36:33] He was determined [1:36:34] that no one was going to feel [1:36:36] that they had been defeated. [1:36:38] He was very aware [1:36:40] I think of the Versailles syndrome [1:36:42] that Germany had felt defeated [1:36:45] after World War I [1:36:46] humiliated after World War I [1:36:48] and that had brought to power [1:36:50] for Adolf Hitler. [1:36:52] He saw what was going on [1:36:53] in Eastern Europe [1:36:54] as a very delicate process [1:36:57] that involved holding the hands [1:37:00] of both the reformers [1:37:03] and the old style communists. [1:37:07] It was an art form [1:37:08] that George Bush [1:37:09] was very good at. [1:37:11] He understood [1:37:12] that most people [1:37:13] generally have good intentions [1:37:15] you just have to find a way [1:37:16] to get them to work together [1:37:19] in order to bring them forward. [1:37:22] Bush encouraged the reforms [1:37:23] Gorbachev had allowed. [1:37:24] His active role came after [1:37:27] the reform movement spread [1:37:28] to East Germany. [1:37:34] In August, East Germans [1:37:35] sought asylum at the West German [1:37:37] missions in Prague [1:37:38] and in East Berlin. [1:37:44] Then Hungary opened its borders [1:37:46] to Austria [1:37:46] and East German tourists [1:37:49] fled into Austria. [1:37:58] As protests for reform grew [1:38:00] in East Germany, [1:38:02] the British and the French [1:38:03] grew more worried [1:38:04] about a reunified Germany. [1:38:06] In the first half [1:38:10] of the 20th century, [1:38:11] they had suffered [1:38:12] from German aggression [1:38:13] in two world wars. [1:38:14] In the second half, [1:38:18] with Germany divided, [1:38:20] Europe had been at peace. [1:38:23] The possibility [1:38:24] of a reunited Germany [1:38:25] did not worry George Bush. [1:38:34] Well, I think there is [1:38:35] in some quarters [1:38:36] a feeling, well, [1:38:37] a reunified Germany [1:38:38] would be detrimental [1:38:40] to the peace of Europe, [1:38:41] of Western Europe some way, [1:38:42] and I don't accept that at all. [1:38:44] Simply don't. [1:38:45] Yeah, friend. [1:38:45] They can't turn back the clock, [1:38:49] Bush told the press. [1:38:50] The change is too inexorable. [1:38:54] One writer called this [1:38:55] a verbal volley heard [1:38:56] around the world. [1:38:59] His pronouncements [1:39:00] before the wall came down [1:39:01] were probably among [1:39:03] the most unstaffed comments [1:39:05] by any president [1:39:07] of the United States. [1:39:08] I can tell you [1:39:09] that it was wonderful [1:39:09] to have the president [1:39:10] come out and say, [1:39:11] Germany ought to unify [1:39:12] and unify as quickly [1:39:14] as it can on terms [1:39:16] that are acceptable [1:39:17] to Germans [1:39:17] because we didn't have [1:39:19] any debates [1:39:20] inside the administration [1:39:21] about whether Germany [1:39:22] ought to unify. [1:39:23] The president had already said [1:39:25] it was going to unify. [1:39:26] Our job then [1:39:27] was just to make it happen. [1:39:29] He was out in front [1:39:30] of all of us. [1:39:32] Germany loomed large [1:39:34] in the history [1:39:35] of post-war Europe [1:39:36] and arguably [1:39:37] of the whole [1:39:38] U.S.-Soviet competition. [1:39:41] The Soviets felt [1:39:42] that their share of Germany [1:39:44] was a prize [1:39:45] that they had won [1:39:46] for beating Hitler. [1:39:49] They also saw [1:39:50] their slice of Germany [1:39:51] as their front line, [1:39:54] as a defense [1:39:54] against future attacks. [1:39:57] Bush saw that with care [1:40:03] he could get the Soviets [1:40:05] to give up [1:40:06] what had been [1:40:07] their great prize. [1:40:09] This is where Bush [1:40:11] actually got ahead [1:40:12] of most of the foreign [1:40:14] policy analysts [1:40:15] and most of the leaders [1:40:16] in the free world. [1:40:18] The Soviets had built [1:40:21] the wall dividing Berlin [1:40:22] in 1961 [1:40:23] to keep East Germans [1:40:25] from fleeing. [1:40:27] Now, in early November 1989, [1:40:30] Gorbachev prodded [1:40:31] East Germany's leader [1:40:32] to open its borders [1:40:34] to avoid an explosion. [1:40:39] Within days, [1:40:40] the Berlin Wall, [1:40:42] the very symbol [1:40:42] of the Cold War, [1:40:44] was breached. [1:40:45] Any single event [1:40:49] is the end of [1:40:51] what you might call [1:40:52] the Iron Curtain. [1:40:53] Clearly, [1:40:55] this is a long way [1:40:56] from the harsh days [1:40:59] of the harshest [1:41:02] Iron Curtain days. [1:41:03] Long way from that. [1:41:04] You know, [1:41:05] in what you just said, [1:41:06] this is the sort [1:41:07] of a great victory, [1:41:09] but you don't seem elated, [1:41:11] and I'm wondering [1:41:12] if you're thinking [1:41:12] of the problem. [1:41:13] I'm elated, [1:41:13] but it's not an emotional [1:41:14] kind of thing, kind of. [1:41:15] You know, he famously said [1:41:17] that his mother told him [1:41:18] as a boy [1:41:18] not to indulge [1:41:20] in braggadocio, [1:41:21] and if there was ever [1:41:25] a time when any other [1:41:27] American president [1:41:28] would have been tempted [1:41:30] to indulge in braggadocio, [1:41:32] it was 1989, 1990, [1:41:35] the end of the Cold War, [1:41:36] the great victory [1:41:38] of the West [1:41:39] over the Marxist experiment, [1:41:41] over the evil empire. [1:41:43] The wall had inspired [1:41:46] some of the Cold War's [1:41:47] most memorable [1:41:48] presidential rhetoric. [1:41:49] Therefore, [1:41:51] as a free man, [1:41:54] I take pride [1:41:55] in the words, [1:41:57] Ich bin ein, [1:41:58] and the alien. [1:41:59] Mr. Gorbachev, [1:42:03] tear down this wall. [1:42:08] Any other president [1:42:09] would have gotten [1:42:10] on a plane [1:42:11] and flown to Berlin [1:42:11] and beat his breast [1:42:14] and engaged in, [1:42:16] I told you so, [1:42:17] triumphalism. [1:42:19] And Bush [1:42:20] not only didn't need [1:42:22] to do that, [1:42:23] he had the strength [1:42:24] of character [1:42:24] to resist everyone [1:42:26] around him [1:42:26] who told him [1:42:28] that that's what [1:42:28] he should do [1:42:29] as president [1:42:30] of the United States [1:42:31] and leader [1:42:31] of the free world. [1:42:36] I was one of those [1:42:37] who thought [1:42:37] he should go to Berlin, [1:42:39] he should be at the wall [1:42:40] for Kennedy, [1:42:42] for Reagan, [1:42:42] for all of those [1:42:43] who had wanted [1:42:44] the wall to come down, [1:42:45] he should go there. [1:42:48] He wanted to have [1:42:50] the end of the division [1:42:51] of Germany [1:42:52] be a German moment. [1:42:54] It was a moment [1:42:54] for Germany [1:42:55] to come to terms [1:42:56] with its division, [1:42:58] and it was a moment [1:42:59] for Germany [1:43:00] to celebrate [1:43:01] that that division [1:43:02] had ended. [1:43:02] Bush's self-restraint [1:43:06] was more than [1:43:07] modesty and courtesy. [1:43:09] He had geopolitics [1:43:11] in mind. [1:43:13] He remembered [1:43:13] when Hungarians [1:43:14] had revolted [1:43:15] against their Soviet-backed [1:43:16] regime in 1956, [1:43:18] and the CIA [1:43:19] led Hungarians [1:43:20] to believe the U.S. [1:43:21] would rush [1:43:21] to their support. [1:43:25] He did not want [1:43:26] East Germans [1:43:26] to expect the U.S. Army [1:43:28] to rescue them [1:43:28] if the Soviets [1:43:29] ordered a crackdown. [1:43:34] More important, [1:43:35] Bush wanted to work [1:43:36] with Gorbachev [1:43:37] to end the Cold War. [1:43:39] He worried [1:43:40] that grandstanding [1:43:41] in Berlin [1:43:41] could provoke [1:43:42] a coup in Moscow. [1:43:43] He actually said [1:43:45] to Gorbachev [1:43:46] on the phone [1:43:46] that I will not [1:43:47] be dancing on the wall. [1:43:50] That is, I think, [1:43:51] something that [1:43:52] Gorbachev appreciated [1:43:53] because he didn't want, [1:43:55] you know, [1:43:56] additional problems [1:43:57] for himself [1:43:58] within the country [1:43:59] from the hardliners, [1:44:01] from the conservatives [1:44:02] within the party [1:44:03] if anything happened [1:44:07] that could have been [1:44:08] conceived as [1:44:09] humiliating to Gorbachev. [1:44:11] It is impossible [1:44:12] to exaggerate [1:44:13] the importance [1:44:15] of that cool-headedness [1:44:16] and delicate approach [1:44:20] at a time [1:44:21] of international change, [1:44:24] revolutionary change [1:44:25] in international politics. [1:44:31] At home, [1:44:32] Bush's restraint [1:44:33] was met with criticism [1:44:34] and ridicule. [1:44:35] He urged President Bush [1:44:37] to express the sense [1:44:39] of elation [1:44:40] that all Americans feel [1:44:41] as the East German people [1:44:43] cross and erase barriers [1:44:45] that have been prisoned [1:44:46] down for decades. [1:44:47] Even if the walls [1:44:48] of the modern Jericho [1:44:49] come tumbling down, [1:44:51] we have a president [1:44:53] who, at least for now, [1:44:55] is inadequate [1:44:56] to the moment. [1:44:58] The wall coming down, [1:45:00] me, enthusiastic, [1:45:02] but prudent, [1:45:03] out in front of the situation, [1:45:05] not too far, [1:45:06] playing it just right. [1:45:11] East and West Germans [1:45:12] voted to unify, [1:45:14] and Bush wanted [1:45:15] the unified Germany [1:45:16] in the Western camp, [1:45:18] in NATO. [1:45:20] Gorbachev was clearly [1:45:21] not predisposed [1:45:22] to have a unified Germany [1:45:23] be in NATO. [1:45:25] How could that be good [1:45:26] from the Soviet point of view? [1:45:28] The divided Germany [1:45:29] had, after all, [1:45:30] been the epicenter [1:45:31] of that ideological conflict, [1:45:33] and the Soviet Union [1:45:34] had most of its [1:45:36] Warsaw Pact forces [1:45:37] and clearly its most elite forces [1:45:39] in East Germany. [1:45:41] So how was this going to work? [1:45:48] Bush and Gorbachev [1:45:49] tackled this issue [1:45:50] at a summit in Washington [1:45:51] in June, 1990. [1:45:57] I said, [1:45:59] we want Germany [1:45:59] to be neutral. [1:46:01] That was our initial position [1:46:03] that we proposed. [1:46:05] This was the subject [1:46:07] of a very passionate debate. [1:46:10] President Bush said, [1:46:11] why are you afraid of Germany? [1:46:14] I said, [1:46:15] well, my impression [1:46:16] is that you are afraid [1:46:18] of Germany, [1:46:19] because you are afraid [1:46:21] to set Germany [1:46:24] free from NATO. [1:46:25] We are not afraid [1:46:26] of Germany out of NATO. [1:46:28] Why should we be afraid? [1:46:32] President Bush said, [1:46:34] and of course, [1:46:35] the Helsinki Accords, [1:46:36] which we had all signed [1:46:38] in 1975, [1:46:39] allow that any state [1:46:41] in Europe can choose [1:46:42] its alliances. [1:46:43] So once there's [1:46:44] a unified Germany, [1:46:45] it can choose [1:46:46] its alliances. [1:46:47] And Gorbachev said, [1:46:48] that's right. [1:46:49] Yes. [1:46:52] I said, [1:46:53] well, if you insist, [1:46:54] then it is not up to us [1:46:55] to decide which alliance [1:46:57] Germany would join, [1:46:59] so let the Germans decide [1:47:00] whether they would want [1:47:02] to be a part [1:47:03] of the Warsaw Treaty [1:47:05] or a part of NATO [1:47:06] or to be a neutral country. [1:47:09] And his associates [1:47:12] at the table [1:47:13] started talking [1:47:15] among themselves, [1:47:16] Russians, [1:47:16] and they called a halt [1:47:17] to the meeting, [1:47:18] and they went off [1:47:18] in the corner [1:47:19] and had a debate, [1:47:20] and it was really, [1:47:22] really something. [1:47:24] And they tried [1:47:25] to get Gorbachev [1:47:26] to back away [1:47:26] from that statement [1:47:27] that the Germans, [1:47:28] it was up to the Germans. [1:47:30] And we actually [1:47:33] called the Russians [1:47:35] that night [1:47:35] and said, [1:47:36] now, [1:47:36] when President Bush [1:47:38] says this [1:47:38] in his press conference [1:47:40] statement, [1:47:41] is President Gorbachev [1:47:42] going to say yes [1:47:44] or is he going [1:47:44] to contradict him? [1:47:46] And we waited [1:47:47] long hours. [1:47:48] I remember going home [1:47:49] and waiting [1:47:50] well into the night, [1:47:51] and finally, [1:47:52] the call came, [1:47:54] yes, in fact, [1:47:55] President Gorbachev [1:47:56] was going to be fine, [1:47:57] he wouldn't contradict it, [1:47:58] and then we all [1:47:59] held our breath [1:47:59] through the press conference. [1:48:00] Germany's external alliances, [1:48:02] I believe, [1:48:03] as do Chancellor Kohl [1:48:04] and the members [1:48:04] of the alliance, [1:48:05] that the united Germany [1:48:06] should be a full member [1:48:07] of NATO. [1:48:08] Now, President Gorbachev, [1:48:10] frankly, [1:48:11] does not hold that view, [1:48:12] but we are in full agreement [1:48:14] that the matter [1:48:15] of alliance membership [1:48:17] is, [1:48:18] in accordance [1:48:19] with the Helsinki Final Act, [1:48:21] a matter [1:48:21] for the Germans [1:48:22] to decide. [1:48:23] Bush said to Gorbachev, [1:48:25] I do understand [1:48:26] why you have doubts [1:48:27] about Germany. [1:48:28] I do understand, [1:48:29] I do know the history [1:48:30] between the Soviet Union [1:48:32] and Germany, [1:48:33] but I believe [1:48:34] that Germany [1:48:34] has paid its dues, [1:48:36] that Germany [1:48:37] has paid its debts, [1:48:38] and that it is now [1:48:39] a responsible nation [1:48:41] that will behave [1:48:43] responsibly [1:48:44] on the international scene. [1:48:46] And I think [1:48:47] that that argument [1:48:48] did have some force [1:48:50] with Gorbachev. [1:48:51] One of the seminal moments [1:49:02] in unifying Germany, [1:49:06] and President George H.W. Bush [1:49:08] was the only person [1:49:10] that I think [1:49:11] who could have [1:49:11] pulled it off, [1:49:13] just because of [1:49:13] his personal qualities [1:49:14] and the way [1:49:16] that he thought [1:49:16] about diplomacy. [1:49:33] Bush considered [1:49:34] a united Germany [1:49:35] in NATO [1:49:35] one of the crowning [1:49:36] achievements [1:49:37] of his presidency. [1:49:38] One historian called it [1:49:42] one of the greatest moments [1:49:44] in the history [1:49:44] of American statecraft, [1:49:46] after Jefferson's [1:49:47] Louisiana Purchase [1:49:48] and the diplomacy [1:49:50] of the so-called [1:49:51] wise men [1:49:52] who, at the start [1:49:53] of the Cold War, [1:49:54] planned the policy [1:49:55] of containing [1:49:56] the Soviet Union. [1:50:09] Eighteen months [1:50:09] into his term, [1:50:11] George Bush faced [1:50:11] the first international [1:50:12] crisis of the [1:50:13] post-Cold War world. [1:50:17] On August 1st, 1990, [1:50:19] Iraq's President [1:50:20] Saddam Hussein [1:50:21] invaded neighboring Kuwait [1:50:22] in a dispute [1:50:24] over oil fields. [1:50:27] Bush would now [1:50:28] have to decide [1:50:28] how to deal [1:50:29] with a man [1:50:29] he saw in terms [1:50:30] of Hitler. [1:50:32] How he would [1:50:33] meet that challenge [1:50:34] would test [1:50:34] all his skills [1:50:35] as president. [1:50:38] His actions [1:50:39] would propel him [1:50:39] to the heights [1:50:40] of popularity. [1:50:43] That would make [1:50:44] his rejection [1:50:45] by the American people [1:50:46] less than two years [1:50:47] later all the more [1:50:48] bewildering [1:50:49] and painful. [1:50:50] This program [1:51:39] is available [1:51:39] with PBS Passport [1:51:41] and on Amazon Prime Video.