political conventions - the cv generation

8/3/2019 Political Conventions - The CV Generation

1/5
http://allanbonner.com/book-political_conventions.php


2/5

THE CV GENERATION 249

The CV GenerationCharacterizing a whole generation is a bit of a mugs

game, but some generalizations seem to work. It seems

that the greatest generation put a lot of experience under

their belts in short order. The obligations and opportuni-

ties that World War II presented accelerated the accumula-

tion of impressive line items on rsums.

Thats the thought that struck me as I reflected on my tour

of George H.W. Bushs Presidential Library at Texas A & M

University.

The men of my fathers generation had great rsums. They were in a

hurry, many having delayed that rsum-building by serving in World

War II. Even with the stiff competition of an entire generation of great

rsums, George H.W. Bushs stands out. He was in the right place at

the right time, chose the right place at times and generally did the

right thing.George Bushs library at Texas A & M University is a long drive from

everywhereHouston being closest, a couple of hours away. It

contains his family, navy and political memorabilia, including Yale

sports pictures, the same model car he drove to Texas after the war and

CIA spy gear. Bush accomplished so much that his library appears to

be the largest free-standing audio-visual rsum in the world.

Six months after Pearl Harbor, on his 18th birthday, Bush enlisted in the

navy. He flew 58 combat missions, was shot down, bailed out, wasdecorated and promoted. After the war, he completed his Yale degree

in economics in two and a half years while excelling in baseball, frater-

nity life and the Skull and Bones Society.

Father and Senator Prescott Bush helped clear the path at Yale and in

business when his son George went to work in the oil fields. Becoming

a millionaire in his own right, mainly in offshore-drilling technology,

cleared the path to politics.

Bush was a trail-blazing Republican in a Texas then dominated bystrong, conservative Democrats. He was a county chair in 1964, lost

when he ran for the senate, but then became the first Republican to

represent Houston in the House. Among the votes he cast was one to

end the military draft.


3/5

In 1970, President Nixon asked Representative Bush to run for a senate

seat against the incumbent Democrat, who was a fierce critic of the

President. Bush agreed, but in a twist of fate, the sitting Democrat,

Ralph Yarborough, failed to get through his own partys primaries.

Winner Lloyd Bentsen was the Democratic candidate who beat GeorgeBush that year.

(Bentsen was a 1976 presidential hopeful and became the vice-presi-

dential candidate on the Dukakis ticket in 1988. That election featured

one of the most famous televised debate lines in history. When Vice-

President Dan Quayle compared himself to President Kennedy,

Bentsen said, Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack

Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, youre no Jack

Kennedy. Actually, Bentsen may not even have met the President, but

the line was devastating.)

After Bushs 1970 loss, President Nixon appointed him UN ambassador

and then chair of the Republican Party in 1973. He holds the distinc-

tion of having asked Nixon to resign during the Watergate scandal.

When Gerald Ford took over from Nixon, Bush became chief of the US

liaison office in China and then director of the CIA from 1976 to 1977.

In his 1980 presidential campaign, Bush famously referred to Ronald

Reagans voodoo economics but Reagan still chose him as his

running mate. He was a dutiful vice-president, attending countlessstate funerals, but not really part of Reagans inner circle. Then, on

March 30, 1981, Bush was in Dallas when President Reagan was shot.

The cabinet was meeting in the Situation Room as Bushs plane landed.

When his aides advised him to go directly to the White House, perhaps

using the Helicopter Marine One, Bush responded, only the President

lands on the south lawn.

President Reagan was impressed with this respect for his authority, and

it was not just ego. Reagan was the president who would not take offhis jacket in the Oval Office. When he returned to work two weeks after

being shot, he began a regular Thursday breakfast meeting with Vice-

President Bush. Bush was the first vice-president to become the official

acting president when Reagan underwent surgery for colon polyps on

June 13, 1985.

Yet after all these fabulous rsum entries and accomplishments,

Bush was still called a wimp, mainly for maintaining he had been an

innocent bystander in the Iran-Contra affair (selling arms to Iran

for cash to fund the Contras uprising against the left-wing Sandinistagovernment in Nicaragua). The wimp issue only died down after

Bush argued toe to toe with newsman Dan Rather in a TV interview.

(Bush was later criticized for pardoning Defense Secretary Caspar

Weinberger for any wrongdoing in the Iran-Contra affair. Some say

250 THE CV GENERATION


4/5

that Weinbergers notebook might have contradicted Bushs inno-

cent bystander contention.)

In the 1988 campaign, Bush came in third in Iowa behind Bob Dole

and evangelist Pat Robertson. But he went on to win New Hampshire

and then did well in multi-state primaries to win the nomination. Bythe time of the convention, though, Massachusetts Governor Michael

Dukakis led in most polls by double digits. Bush gave the best speech

of his political life at the conventioncommonly known as the thou-

sand points of light speech. In his acceptance speech he famously

said Read my lips: no new taxes.

The speech and convention put Bush in the lead, and he never looked

back. Democratic rival Michael Dukakis gave a wooden performance

in the TV debate when asked if hed support the death penalty if hiswife were raped and murdered. The Snoopy picture of Dukakis riding

in a National Guard tank in lieu of foreign-policy experience was the

last straw.

By winning in 88, Bush became the first sitting vice-president to be

elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836. He presided over the

start of the NAFTA negotiations, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup

of the Soviet Union and a successful First Gulf War. He had a record

high approval rating of 89 percent, but the recession and raising taxes

(despite his lips) blocked his re-election.

In that 1992 election, Bush appeared amazed at seeing a supermarket

scanner, and that fueled the perception that he was litist and out of

touch. Ironically, the reporter who broke the story wasnt even there,

but perception became reality.

Displays of the First Gulf War look odd with the hindsight of todays

Gulf War. And theres the problem of the other First Gulf Warthe one

that historians will write about years from now, not journalists at the

time or library curators intent on pleasing donors and the boss.

We now debate whether alliances or railroad schedules caused World

War I or whether the Treaty of Versailles both ended that war and

caused World War II. We debate whether Viet Nam was a colonial war,

an extension of World War II, part of the Cold War or something else.

We will soon be debating whether Gulf I was the end of aggression, a

remarkable international alliance, a dry run for Gulf II or the beginning

of World War III.

Ironically, at the time many observers wondered why the US didnttake Baghdad and remove Saddam Hussein. President Bush

responded that it would have incurred incalculable human and

political costs... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and,

in effect, rule Iraq.

THE CV GENERATION 251


5/5

It will be interesting to see how George W. Bushs library handles 9/11

and Gulf II and whether that will be in sync with his fathers image of

the event.

252 THE CV GENERATION

political conventions - the cv generation

Documents