George H.W. Bush: Cautious

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02Today we are talking about George Herbert Walker Bush.

03Before he became president in 1989, Bush had a lot of experience in government.

04He spent four years in the United States House of Representatives, worked as the U.S.

05Ambassador to the United Nations, and led the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA.

06Then, for eight years, he was vice president under Ronald Reagan.

07Interestingly, in U.S.

08history, a person serving as vice president rarely becomes president after the sitting president leaves office at the end of his term.

09Before George H.W.

10Bush, the last time such an event happened was in 1836.

11At that time, Martin Van Buren took office after the two-term presidency of Andrew Jackson.

12Yet, neither Bush nor Van Buren was able to deal successfully with some of the problems facing the country during their years in office, or to persuade voters to elect them for a second term.

13While many people respect Bush for his foreign policy successes, his years in office are also remembered as a time of economic problems and social unrest.

14George Bush was born into a wealthy family in Massachusetts and raised in a Connecticut town near New York City.

15He had three brothers and a sister.

16Their father was a business leader who became a U.S.

17senator.

18Their mother was active doing public service work.

19The family employed servants, but Mrs.

20Bush did not want her children's privileged position to make them think they were special.

21Instead, she taught them to work hard and help others.

22When he was a young man, George Bush moved away from home to attend a private high school in Massachusetts.

23There, he played baseball and soccer and was elected student body president.

24On his 18th birthday, Bush joined the U.S.

25Navy.

26For three years, he fought in World War II.

27At the time, he was the youngest pilot in the Navy and earned a medal for bravery.

28In early 1945, he married a young woman he had met at a dance.

29Her name was Barbara Pierce.

30After the war, she and George moved to Connecticut, where he studied economics at Yale University and played on the school's baseball team.

31In time, they moved to the southern state of Texas.

32George Bush worked in the oil industry and became president of a company that sold oil drilling equipment.

33George and Barbara Bush mostly raised their four sons and one daughter in the Houston, Texas area.

34Another daughter died of cancer when she was a child.

35In time, George Bush decided to follow his father's example and enter politics.

36He became a Republican Party official.

37Then he was elected to the U.S.

38Congress, representing part of Houston.

39Despite having a home in Texas, opponents and the public connected Bush with the East Coast and the upper class.

40That image created some problems for Bush in the presidential election of 1980.

41By then, he had held other high offices in the federal government and had been successful as the head of the CIA.

42But voters liked another Republican candidate, former California Governor Ronald Reagan.

43Many Americans remembered Reagan from his days in movies and on television.

44When Reagan was nominated as the party's candidate for president, he asked Bush to be vice president.

45For eight years, Bush held the office and worked closely with Reagan on foreign policy and other issues.

46In 1988, Bush finally won the presidency in his own right.

47On entering the White House, the new president promised to continue many of Reagan's policies of limited government.

48While he was a candidate, Bush often said that, if elected, he would not raise taxes.

49Bush also said that he wanted the United States to be a kinder and gentler nation.

50He wanted especially to support community organizations in their efforts to reduce crime, homelessness, and drug abuse.

51He also signed legislation to help people with disabilities and to protect the environment.

52But Bush faced a number of problems.

53One was a large budget deficit, created in part by increased military spending during the Reagan years.

54Another were disputes in Congress with the Democratic Party.

55And another was a banking crisis.

56After years of problems in the savings and loan industry, more than 1,000 small financial institutions failed.

57In time, Congress agreed to spend billions of dollars to help the industry recover.

58And President Bush had to break his promise not to raise taxes.

59He pointed out that he needed to balance the budget.

60However, many Americans and some members of his own party felt betrayed.

61The economic troubles helped create a mood of unrest in the country.

62The feeling was strengthened by events around the world.

63Soon after Bush took office, the Chinese government launched a campaign to stop protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

64A few months later, the Berlin Wall came down.

65The wall separated East and West Germany.

66Many considered its collapse to be the end of the Soviet Union's control of Eastern Europe.

67At the same time, the leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, was threatening Americans.

68He was also accused of supporting drug traffickers and the drug trade in the United States.

69Bush answered all the events in a calm, cautious way.

70He tried to keep good relations with China and the Soviet Union.

71In time, he ordered military action in Panama, and U.S.

72troops ousted Noriega.

73Supporters praised Bush's cool head and way of doing things.

74But critics questioned Bush's decisions.

75Some said he went too far.

76Others said he did not go far enough.

77The same criticisms and support were repeated during the Gulf War against Iraq.

78In brief, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered his forces to invade and occupy Kuwait.

79Bush and other world leaders created an international coalition to seek a diplomatic solution.

80When diplomacy failed, U.S.

81troops led international airstrikes against Iraq.

82Coalition forces also attacked on the ground.

83In a few weeks, the Iraqi leadership agreed to a ceasefire.

84Some criticized Bush for letting Saddam Hussein stay in power.

85But the American public largely approved of Bush's actions.

86He won praise for helping create an international coalition to answer the Iraqi occupation.

87The effort showed what some called a new world order.

88The U.S.

89and Soviet Union had even worked successfully together.

90Yet, soon after the end of the Gulf War, Bush failed in his efforts at re-election.

91The U.S.

92economy had entered a recession, and Bush was not able to connect effectively with voters, even though those who knew him personally said Bush was a kind, gentle person.

93One of his last acts as president was to write a note for the candidate who had beat him, wishing him well.

94George H.W.

95Bush retired to his home in Texas with his wife, Barbara.

96They also have a house in Maine.

97Bush often urged Americans to help others in their community.

98He put his words into action by volunteering with his church and supporting a local hospital.

99On his 90th birthday, Bush did something unusual to test his image as a cautious person.

100He celebrated by going skydiving.

101For many, Bush is remembered for his connection to other presidents.

102He is often linked to the Reagan years.

103Compared to Reagan, Bush is usually considered a less conservative leader, as well as a less charismatic one.

104By the 21st century, historians began comparing the former President Bush with another president, his son, George Walker Bush, who took office eight years after his father left it.

105I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

106I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

107I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

108I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

109I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

110I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.