Up for auction the “41st U.S. President” George H. W. Bush Hand Signed 8X10 Color photo
ES-9414E
George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018) was an American
politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from
1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he
previously served as the 43rd vice president from
1981 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan, in the U.S. House of Representatives,
as U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations, and as Director of Central Intelligence.
Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut,
and attended Phillips Academy before
serving in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II. After the war, he graduated from Yale and moved
to West Texas, where he established a successful oil company.
After an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate, he won election to
the 7th congressional district of
Texas in 1966. President Richard Nixon appointed Bush to the position of Ambassador to
the United Nations in 1971 and to the position of chairman of the
Republican National Committee in 1973. In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him as the Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China,
and in 1976, Bush became the Director of Central Intelligence. Bush ran for
president in 1980, but was defeated in the Republican
presidential primaries by Ronald Reagan, who then selected Bush
as his vice presidential running mate. In the 1988
presidential election, Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis, becoming the first incumbent vice president
to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836.
Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency, as
he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany.
Bush presided over the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in
the latter conflict. Though the agreement was not ratified until after he left
office, Bush negotiated and signed the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which created a trade bloc
consisting of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Domestically, Bush reneged
on a 1988 campaign promise by
enacting legislation to raise taxes with the justification of reducing the
budget deficit. He also championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan
legislation, the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990, Immigration Act of 1990 and
the Clean Air Act Amendments of
1990. He also successfully appointed David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush lost the 1992
presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession, his
turnaround on his tax promise, and
the decreased emphasis of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate. After
leaving office in 1993, Bush was active in humanitarian activities, often
working alongside Clinton, his former opponent. With the victory of his
son, George W. Bush, in
the 2000
presidential election, the two became the second father–son pair to
serve as the nation's president, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Another son, Jeb Bush, unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential
nomination in the 2016 Republican
primaries. Historians generally rank Bush as an above-average president.