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The Political Rise of George H.W. Bush (1924-1989) | Full Documentary | American Experience PBS — Transcript

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0:15In November of 1988,
0:18after one of the most bitterly contested
0:20campaigns in American history,
0:22George Herbert Walker Bush was elected
0:24the 41st president of the United [music]
0:27States.
0:29Some charged he took the low road to the
0:31White House.
0:32Now, he would try to govern from [music]
0:34principle.
0:35>> I want a kinder and gentler nation.
0:39>> In a rather craven way, he did what his
0:41political advisers said was necessary to
0:43win. Once he had won, he in effect put
0:46his presidency at risk by doing what his
0:49conscience told him was necessary.
0:52There is the Faustian bargain of George
0:55Bush's presidency.
0:58>> Tonight, the story of a leader rife with
1:00contradiction.
1:02An Easterner born to privilege who
1:04staked his fortune in the West.
1:07An athlete and war hero caricatured as a
1:10wimp.
1:11An intensely private man who chose to
1:13compete in an often brutal public world.
1:17A politician caught between his role as
1:19Ronald Reagan's conservative heir
1:21and his birthright as the son of a
1:23leading Republican moderate.
1:25>> He's at war with himself.
1:28He's at war with himself at many points.
1:30>> He was ambitious and sentimental. He was
1:33brought up not to show ambition and not
1:35to show emotion.
1:37>> It is the story of a president who used
1:39all his diplomatic skills to manage
1:42immense foreign policy challenges
1:45from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
1:47Soviet Empire
1:48>> He was determined that no one was going
1:51to feel that they had been defeated.
1:53>> to an international coalition's victory
1:55over a tyrant.
1:56>> We're dealing with Hitler revisited.
1:59>> In a war that some argued ended too
2:01soon.
2:02>> Some people said, "Why didn't you guys
2:04take care of Saddam when you had the
2:05chance? Why didn't you go to Baghdad?"
2:07Well, guess what? Nobody asked me that
2:09question anymore.
2:10>> A man who left the White House
2:12despondent, defeated by a less
2:14experienced challenger.
2:16And worried that history [music] would
2:17pay him little heed.
2:19>> To go from Desert Storm to losing an
2:21election, never thought it would happen.
2:23It hurt a lot. He didn't think that the
2:25American people would turn so quickly.
2:28>> Bush closes one chapter of American
2:31history
2:32and opens a new one.
2:34>> Many of the tough decisions that he took
2:36in those four years made the Reagan myth
2:38possible as well as the Clinton
2:41prosperity.
2:42>> Tonight George H.W. Bush on American
2:45Experience.
2:50>> At Liberty Mutual, we believe progress
2:52[music] happens when people feel secure.
2:54That's why we exist to help people
2:56embrace today and pursue tomorrow.
2:58>> Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty.
3:01>> Liberty Mutual Insurance is a proud
3:03sponsor of American Experience.
3:05>> [music]
3:05>> As an American-based supplier to the
3:07construction industry, Carlisle is
3:09committed [music] to developing a
3:10diverse workplace that supports our
3:12employees advancement into the next
3:14generation of leaders from the
3:15manufacturing floor to the front [music]
3:17office. Learn more at Carlisle.com.
4:05>> September 2nd, 1944
4:08was what Navy pilots called CAVU.
4:11Ceiling and visibility unlimited.
4:15It would be Ensign George H.W. Bush's
4:1850th mission in his three-man Avenger
4:20bomber.
4:24He was commissioned in 1943 at age 19,
4:28the youngest pilot in the US Navy.
4:42Bush had seen action in June over the
4:43Mariana Islands in one of the biggest
4:45air battles of the Pacific War.
4:51The target, [music] September 2nd, was a
4:53Japanese radio tower on the tiny island
4:55of Chichijima.
4:59Bush dove into black puffs of
5:01anti-aircraft fire.
5:05"Suddenly, I felt the plane joke," he
5:07remembered, "and the smoke started
5:09pouring in."
5:11He finished his bombing run, banked out
5:14to sea so the crew could get out,
5:16and bailed out himself.
5:20>> Looked up and the
5:22parachute had ripped up and
5:24landed in the water, swam over, got into
5:27my little life raft.
5:30>> The submarine USS Finback, on patrol for
5:33downed pilots, rescued him.
5:37>> I remember seeing that submarine
5:39surface,
5:40and uh
5:41remember it pulling [music] alongside,
5:43and I remember a bunch of bearded guys
5:45standing there.
5:58For the next month, George Bush joined
6:00the Finback's crew.
6:03Aboard, [music] he agonized about the
6:05fate of his gunner, Ted White, and radio
6:08man, John Delaney.
6:10One went down with the plane. The
6:13other's shoot never opened.
6:17It still plagues me if I gave those guys
6:19enough time to get out. The former
6:21flyboy [music] said with quiet emotion
6:23almost 60 years later.
6:26I think about those guys all the time.
6:30>> He was an an emotive and emotional
6:33leader.
6:35Much more emotional than people thought.
6:37He cried quite readily.
6:40One thing that made George Bush a less
6:42appealing candidate
6:45was that he refused to show his
6:46emotions.
6:47But, he had been taught not to show his
6:50emotions. That's not what a man did, a
6:52man of his generation and of his
6:54upbringing.
6:56And so, the public saw a slightly
6:58awkward man who didn't seem quite ready
7:01to share his true self with them.
7:04When you got to know him,
7:06the human side, the emotional side, was
7:09there. It came out.
7:13>> I'll never forget the beauty of the
7:15Pacific, Bush would say of the watches
7:17he stood at night.
7:20He had time [music] to think about how
7:23much family meant to me.
7:29George Herbert Walker Bush grew up in
7:32Greenwich, Connecticut, in a family that
7:34came from Ohio
7:35and became one of New England's
7:37prominent families.
7:39His grandfather, Samuel Bush, made his
7:42fortune in railroads in Columbus.
7:45His father, Prescott, went to Yale
7:47>> [music]
7:47>> and remained in the East.
7:52Prescott Bush was a partner in Brown
7:54Brothers [music] Harriman,
7:55the most prestigious investment bank on
7:57Wall Street
7:58at a time when the influence [music] of
8:00the WASP establishment in America, the
8:02white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, was near
8:04its peak.
8:10Averell Harriman, Prescott's colleague
8:12and one of the firm's founding partners,
8:15was an aide to President Franklin
8:16Roosevelt in World War II.
8:20He then became US [music] Ambassador in
8:21Moscow.
8:23His partner, Robert Lovett, was
8:25Assistant Secretary of War.
8:29After the war, they were among a group
8:30known as the wise men, who helped
8:33President Truman fashion the policy of
8:35containing the Soviet Union.
8:38>> Prescott Bush is very much at home
8:41with the wise men, uh the essentially
8:44bipartisan, consensus-seeking,
8:47post-World War II
8:49uh statesman.
8:51If you think of people like Robert
8:52Lovett,
8:54they didn't run for office.
8:56They exercised enormous power and
8:59influence [music]
9:00from appointed positions.
9:03>> Even when Bush was a schoolboy in the
9:041930s,
9:05>> [music]
9:05>> a time when America was isolationist,
9:08these men, these Wall Street financiers,
9:10were acutely conscious that America had
9:12[music] to stay involved in the world,
9:14partly for financial reasons. I mean,
9:16Brown Brothers Harriman did business in
9:17France, [music] in Germany, and and
9:19England, but also because of this
9:22American tradition of spreading
9:23democracy and standing up for democracy,
9:25and standing up
9:26for, as they saw it, for right against
9:28wrong.
9:32>> George Bush [music] was raised in this
9:34milieu,
9:35people of wealth who devoted themselves
9:37[music] to government service.
9:41His father, who later became a senator,
9:44was the moderator of the Greenwich town
9:46meeting when George [music] was a boy.
9:48He was George's model for public
9:50service.
9:51>> What Prescott Bush wanted his children
9:54to understand [music] was that there was
9:55a world beyond the boundaries of
9:58Greenwich, and that they were expected
10:00to give something back to that world,
10:02[music] whether it be through business,
10:04whether it be through public service, or
10:06whether it be through military service.
10:07[music]
10:09>> Young George also bore the strong
10:10influence of his mother,
10:12Dorothy [music] Walker Bush.
10:15>> It was my grandmother
10:17who taught my dad the basic lessons in
10:19life that he still adheres to.
10:24My dad [music] was playing soccer in
10:26elementary school, and
10:28he came in and he was thrilled with
10:30himself because he'd scored three
10:32[music] goals, and he said, "Mom, I've
10:33scored three goals." And she said,
10:35"Well, that's nice, George, but how did
10:36the team do?"
10:40He always heard her voice in his head
10:42saying, "Don't brag about yourself." And
10:44that's hard to do when you're running
10:45for president of the United [music]
10:46States.
10:53>> The Finnback, Bush would write,
10:56moved like a porpoise.
10:58Water lapping [music] over its bow, the
11:00sea changing colors, first jet black,
11:03then sparkling [music] white.
11:07It reminded me of home
11:09and our family vacations in Maine.
11:13Bush was the fourth generation of his
11:15mother's family to summer at Walker's
11:17Point [music] in Kennebunkport.
11:19It would become his spiritual home.
11:24George bore the name of his grandfather,
11:26George Herbert Walker,
11:28for whom the Walker's Cup, an
11:29international golf trophy, was named.
11:33His competitive spirit came from the
11:35Walkers.
11:39>> My grandmother was a champion tennis
11:41player. She would play tennis until her
11:43feet were blistered and raw. [music] She
11:46loved competition.
11:47>> [snorts]
11:47>> She was a great golfer. She was a great
11:49baseball player. [music]
11:51One time she hit a home run, rounded the
11:54bases, and then went on [music] to the
11:55hospital to give birth to my father's
11:57oldest brother, Prescott.
12:04>> George Bush was captain of his baseball
12:06team at Andover, a prestigious prep
12:08school in Massachusetts.
12:11In fielding drills, he would charge the
12:14plate from first [music] base, right
12:15down the baseline, streaking in, a
12:17biographer would write, laughing with
12:19the pure joy of contest.
12:22That's why he was the one for captain.
12:25It was the glint of Walker steel his
12:27teammates sought.
12:29They wanted their team to [music] be
12:30like that.
12:33At Andover, Bush listened to radio
12:36broadcasts on the history [music] of
12:37aviation in America.
12:39>> Wings over America.
12:43>> Welcome to Yale Unit Base Number One,
12:45ladies and gentlemen.
12:47>> A group of aristocratic [music]
12:48Yale students, including Robert Lovett,
12:50his father's business partner,
12:52had turned their college [music] aero
12:53club into the first Yale unit.
12:57The millionaires unit, [music] as the
12:59press dubbed it, became the nucleus of
13:01the Navy air corps,
13:02and an inspiration for George to become
13:04a naval [music] aviator.
13:06>> Our standard long-range bombardment
13:07airplane is known in the air corps as
13:10the B-17, the Boeing Flying Fortress.
13:14>> Today our world is presented with the
13:16clearest issue between right and wrong
13:18which has ever been presented to it,
13:20Andover's commencement speaker warned on
13:22June 14th, 1940, shortly after [music]
13:25Hitler launched his Blitzkrieg.
13:28The speaker was Henry [music] L.
13:29Stimson, a Republican, a Wall Street
13:32lawyer,
13:33the very embodiment of the East Coast
13:35establishment.
13:37A few days later, President Franklin
13:39Roosevelt, a Democrat, named him
13:41Secretary of War.
13:44>> When Bush was an impressionable
13:4616-year-old schoolboy, he heard Henry
13:48Stimson [music] give a speech
13:50about the coming threat from Nazism,
13:53from fascism. It was the duty of the
13:55country to stand up to fascism.
13:58This is 1940. This is early in the game.
14:00A lot of Americans are still
14:01isolationist, but Stimson is telling
14:04these schoolboys, "Look, it's up to you,
14:06to you young leaders, future leaders of
14:09America, to stand up to evil and fight
14:12back."
14:14>> These were words the 16-year-old
14:16schoolboy never forgot.
14:20Stimson, whom Bush regarded as a
14:21towering world figure,
14:23returned to Andover 2 years later
14:26and urged the graduating class to go to
14:28college before joining the service.
14:31Bush rejected both Stimson's advice and
14:34his father's.
14:35Later that day, he enlisted in the US
14:37Navy.
14:39It was June 12th, 1942,
14:42his 18th birthday.
14:45>> His father took him Penn [music] Station
14:48and George said he his father put his
14:51arms around him and had tears in his
14:52eyes when [music] he said goodbye.
14:55>> That was, Bush recalled, the first time
14:58he saw his father cry.
15:04>> [music]
15:05>> From aboard the Finback, Bush wrote his
15:07girl back home,
15:09"I hope my own children never have to
15:10fight a war.
15:12Friends disappearing, lives being
15:14extinguished. It's just not right."
15:19Barbara Pierce grew up in Rye, New York.
15:24Her father, who was a director of
15:26McCall's publishing company, commuted to
15:28New York on the same [music] train as
15:30Prescott Bush.
15:33When Barbara [music] was 16, she met
15:35George, age 17, at a Christmas dance in
15:38Greenwich.
15:40>> Well, he was the handsomest living human
15:42I ever saw.
15:44And maybe the [music] nicest, most
15:46relaxed.
15:47They played a waltz and he said, "I
15:49can't waltz." So, we sat down and talked
15:50and that was sort of it.
15:54But, I fell in love
15:56at first sight, practically.
16:00>> George's mother invited Barbara to
16:01Kennebunkport when he was on leave in
16:03August 1943. [music]
16:06>> His whole family was up here.
16:08And we were never left alone. He had
16:10four uncles and four young brides and a
16:13grandmother and grandfather and his
16:14mother and father. So, we had to
16:18walk around outside.
16:22And we sort of got engaged secretly. We
16:25were way too young to be engaged.
16:31>> Barbara waited for 2 years while George
16:34flew 58 [music] combat missions, logged
16:371,228 hours of flying time,
16:40and made 126 carrier landings.
16:44>> [music]
16:46>> On January 6th, 1945,
16:49Barbara Pierce married, [music]
16:50she would come to say,
16:52"The first man I ever kissed."
16:55>> [music]
17:03>> After the war, Bush followed his father
17:05and his brother Prescott and entered
17:06Yale.
17:102 and 1/2 years later, he had a degree
17:12in economics, Phi Beta Kappa,
17:14and a son.
17:16George W. was [music] born in New Haven
17:18in 1946.
17:23Like his father, Bush was tapped for
17:25Skull and Bones, Yale's most elite
17:27secret society.
17:30Henry Stimson, now retired Secretary of
17:33War, presided over his initiation.
17:40Despite his [music] admiration for his
17:41father and for Stimson,
17:43Bush did not follow them into the world
17:45of finance.
17:47All three of his [music] brothers did.
17:50>> He'd tell me, "I want to work with
17:51something I can touch. I don't want to
17:54work on Wall Street with money, and I
17:56don't want to go into
17:58uh sort of family business. I really
18:01want to work with something I can
18:02touch."
18:03>> Use Ajax, the foaming cleanser.
18:07Clink.
18:07>> One of his very first job interviews,
18:09maybe his first,
18:11was at Procter & Gamble,
18:12>> [music]
18:13>> an interview.
18:14And he got rejected. Got turned down for
18:16the job.
18:18And I asked him one day, I said, uh
18:20"Have you ever thought about that much,
18:22how your life might have been totally
18:24different?"
18:26He said that I'd probably been a lousy
18:27soap salesman.
18:29>> [music]
18:30>> Actually, he said, "It helped me,
18:31because I thought, you know, I'm going
18:33to show these people that I do have the
18:36the right stuff, and I'm going to go out
18:37and make it somewhere else."
18:41>> Lured by the romance of a post-war oil
18:43boom,
18:45the Bushes headed to West Texas.
18:48>> He wants an adventure. He wants a
18:49challenge.
18:51And there was nothing more challenging
18:52than wildcatting oil.
18:54This is the greatest adventure that you
18:56can have on the continent the United
18:59States continent after World War II.
19:01It's the closest thing to uncharted
19:03territory as you can have.
19:08>> George Bush started in the [music] oil
19:09business in Odessa in 1948,
19:13Painting spare pumps for $375 a month.
19:19He was on a management track,
19:21but within two years, with two children
19:23to support,
19:24he struck out on his own as a
19:26wildcatter.
19:28>> George got investments from his uncle
19:30Herbie, his father, and people like
19:32Eugene Meyer of the Washington Post. It
19:34was not only a way to make a fortune, it
19:36was a way for him to stake out on his
19:38own.
19:41>> Bush's company, Zapata Petroleum, hit it
19:44big in 1954.
19:47Five years later, George and Barbara
19:49moved to Houston, the headquarters of
19:51Zapata Offshore.
19:55George was prospering as its president,
19:57but there was a void in their lives.
20:00They hoped that Barbara, who was
20:01pregnant, could fill it.
20:06Their second child, Robin,
20:07>> [music]
20:07>> had been born in 1949.
20:10She was diagnosed with leukemia when she
20:12was three.
20:15Their doctor [music] advised them to let
20:17her die at home.
20:19Instead, they took her to New York's
20:21Sloan Kettering Hospital.
20:25Yale classmate Lud Ashley visited daily.
20:28>> George
20:29was running the household and and back
20:32in Texas, flying up weekends,
20:36flying from Texas when it used to take
20:37eight or nine hours to to fly to New
20:39York.
20:41Barbara was there all the time,
20:44almost 24 hours a day,
20:46and uh
20:48in all my years, I've never seen such
20:50strength of character as she showed
20:53uh during that desperately difficult
20:55time.
20:57>> My dad told me that
21:00he had trouble looking into her eyes and
21:03comforting her
21:04and doing the [music] things he wanted
21:06to do.
21:08My mom
21:10was the one who was able to
21:12to hold her hand and love her and
21:14>> [music]
21:14>> and comfort her.
21:17But then later on, it when my mom fell
21:19apart after [music] Robin died, it was
21:21my dad who looked in her eyes and held
21:23her hand
21:24and gave her the strength to
21:27to go on.
21:31>> Robin died on October 12th, 1953.
21:35Two months before her fourth birthday.
21:40>> I believe that the death of Robin
21:44sobered George Bush
21:46and turned him into an adult that could
21:49be an empathetic politician, that could
21:52be an individual who could strike out on
21:54civil rights, that could be an
21:55individual who could strike out on on
21:58disabilities
22:00for Americans. I really think that it
22:02was that it was that important.
22:06>> In the late 1950s, after the birth of
22:08Jeb in 1953, Neil in [music] '55, and
22:12Marvin in '56,
22:14Bush wrote a letter to his mother.
22:17There is about our house need.
22:20We need some starched crisp frocks to go
22:22with all our torn knee blue jeans and
22:24helmets.
22:27We need some soft blonde hair to offset
22:29those crew cuts.
22:30We need a dollhouse to stand firm
22:33against our forts and rackets and
22:35thousand baseball cards. We need someone
22:37to cry when I get mad, not argue.
22:41We need a little one
22:42who can kiss without [music] leaving egg
22:44or jam or gum.
22:47We need a girl.
22:49>> I read that letter
22:51in my mom's [music] book
22:53and uh actually listened to it on tape.
22:55I was driving home
22:58in on I-95, the traffic was going crazy,
23:00[music] and I started crying
23:01uncontrollably. I couldn't I had to stop
23:04on the middle of this interstate.
23:05[music] I called my mother up to
23:08to tell her how much I loved her and how
23:09much I loved my dad, and she, [music] of
23:11course, her immediate response was, "You
23:13didn't read the book.
23:15You had to wait for the tape to come
23:16out." She She gave me grief for that.
23:20It was very typical of my dad to write
23:22those kind of letters.
23:25>> I just learned this story a few years
23:27ago on my birthday [music] when my mom
23:30wished me a happy and she told me that
23:32she remembered the day I was born.
23:34[music]
23:35That dad came to the nursery
23:37and pressed his face against the glass
23:39and sobbed.
23:46>> [music]
23:48>> The success of Zapata Petroleum, Bush
23:50recalled, "gave me the financial base to
23:53risk going into public life."
23:58George's father, Prescott Bush, was a
24:00Republican senator from Connecticut.
24:03"I knew what motivated him," George
24:05would write.
24:06"He'd made his mark in [music] the
24:07business world. Now he felt he had a
24:09debt to pay."
24:12>> Noblesse oblige has become a pejorative.
24:16But it wasn't always a pejorative.
24:19The notion of an American meritocracy,
24:22which is what the wise men represent,
24:24that's the old Eastern establishment.
24:27It isn't simply the nexus of power.
24:30It's the obligation to use that power in
24:34a responsible way, not for one's own
24:37[music]
24:37benefit, but for what you sincerely
24:40believe to be the benefit of your fellow
24:42countrymen.
24:44Prescott Bush
24:45represented that establishment. His son
24:48had one foot
24:50in that establishment.
24:52>> During his 10 [music] years in the
24:54Senate, Prescott Bush was a moderate or
24:56Eisenhower Republican.
24:59He was pragmatic and non-ideological,
25:02believed in balanced budgets, and was
25:04pro-business.
25:05He was also [music] pro-civil rights and
25:08a social liberal.
25:10Prescott had joined [music] the Senate
25:12when he was 57.
25:14His wife said, "If he had run earlier,
25:16he would have been president."
25:19His son would not make that mistake.
25:23George decided to enter politics when he
25:25was 38.
25:26He faced an obstacle his father never
25:28had.
25:30The Republican Party in Texas hardly
25:32existed.
25:33>> You could probably have held
25:36the
25:37a precinct meeting in a phone booth
25:38then. That's how many Republicans were
25:40around.
25:41>> My first wife was from Ohio.
25:44And that's a big Republican state. And
25:46when we moved back here from Austin
25:48after law school, she conducted the
25:51precinct convention in my living room.
25:55And one guy showed up.
25:58I served him drinks. I mean, that's how
26:00limited the Republican participation was
26:02in Texas back in those days.
26:07>> Houston's few Republicans, Bush among
26:09them, were members of the establishment.
26:12Country club Republicans.
26:14Their party was about to change.
26:18The radical anti-communist John Birch
26:20Society tried [music] to take it over.
26:22Birchers thought President Eisenhower
26:24was a communist.
26:26He had appointed a chief justice who
26:27turned out to be a liberal.
26:31>> The country club
26:33Republicans, the establishment, what I
26:35call the big government Republicans even
26:37in those days,
26:39they would be uncomfortable with true
26:41believers.
26:44People who really have deeply held
26:47philosophical, ideological beliefs makes
26:50uh, you know, establishment Republicans,
26:53uh,
26:53>> [music]
26:53>> uncomfortable, quite frankly.
26:57>> In 1962, George was asked to run for
26:59chairman of the Harris County Republican
27:01Party to keep the Birchers out.
27:04It 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.
27:15>> George stepped right into the middle of
27:17it. And, you know,
27:19>> I've known George Bush for 40 years, but
27:22he does have one failing.
27:26He does not recognize an enemy. [music]
27:29>> My dad at that time was president of
27:30McCall Corporation, and they printed
27:33and published
27:35Redbook, Bluebook, and McCall's.
27:37And they sent out
27:38one meeting we went to, and the lights
27:40[music] went out. Someone was speaking,
27:42and papers were all passed down. When
27:44the lights went on, it said, "Mrs.
27:46Bush's father is a communist. [music] He
27:48prints the Redbook."
27:50Crazy.
27:52They said things like, "George is a
27:54Rockefeller plant, or, you know, he grew
27:57up in the East. He's not one of us. He's
28:00liberal."
28:04>> After he won his race, Bush wanted to
28:05give some Birchers positions in the
28:07party.
28:09"George, you don't know these people," a
28:11colleague warned.
28:12"They mean to kill you."
28:17>> George Bush's instinct, politically, is
28:19to bring people together, to be a, uh,
28:22a uniter.
28:25And so, he didn't come in in a
28:27confrontational style
28:29to slam the door on and throw all the
28:33Birchers out. His idea was, "Let's get
28:35the Birchers and have some common
28:38meeting ground with them, because if we
28:40want to beat Democrats, we need those
28:42people."
28:47>> Bush saw opportunity to expand the party
28:51after groundbreaking legislation on
28:53civil rights was introduced in June 1963
28:56by President John F. Kennedy.
28:59>> Next week I shall ask the Congress of
29:00the United States to act
29:02to make a commitment that is not wholly
29:04made in this century
29:06to the proposition
29:07that race has [music] no place
29:09in American life or law.
29:12>> Civil rights was about to tear the
29:14country and the Democratic Party apart.
29:19Many Democrats [music] in the South were
29:21committed to segregation.
29:23As they saw their party support
29:24integration
29:25they began to seek refuge in the
29:27Republican Party.
29:31>> Poor white workers in Texas and
29:32elsewhere felt there was a threat
29:36of all these hordes of blacks
29:39becoming unleashed
29:41and competing with them for status and
29:43jobs.
29:44And so you have the mass turnover of the
29:46Republican Party in the South state
29:48after state.
29:50>> Among the disgruntled Democrats in
29:52Houston were dock workers who felt their
29:54jobs would be threatened by
29:55African-American workers.
29:58They sought out the new Republican
30:00chairman
30:01George Bush.
30:03>> They were segregationists.
30:10They were trying to maintain
30:11conservative control over Harris County.
30:14>> And I didn't like them being Republicans
30:16because I thought it gave our party a
30:17bad name.
30:20>> George didn't see a thing wrong with it.
30:23>> He was eager to expand the Republican
30:26Party.
30:27>> [music]
30:27>> And he felt the only way to expand it
30:29was to attract Democrats.
30:32>> Bush thought they were crazy.
30:35But he thought that politically he had
30:36to accommodate himself to them.
30:40>> I didn't think they were crazy. I
30:41thought they were very dangerous.
30:44They wanted to convince the world
30:46that the Republican Party was now going
30:49to be a segregationist
30:52extension
30:53of the old Democrats.
30:56>> [applause and music]
30:59>> The Democrats called me up and
31:01congratulated me on getting those
31:03bastards out of their party.
31:05>> Throughout his political career,
31:08George Bush often seemed to [music] lack
31:11a sense of principle.
31:14As a candidate, he had often sacrificed
31:16principle
31:17for political gain.
31:21>> If he did something unsavory to advance
31:23his career and [music] his party,
31:26the result would be momentous.
31:30The people Bush accommodated in 1963
31:33would support [music] Senator Barry
31:35Goldwater for president in 1964 and
31:37thereafter, Ronald Reagan.
31:42>> And they become the nucleus of the new
31:46Republican Party.
31:48And not only in [music] Texas, but but
31:49across the country.
31:52And
31:53this was the the beginning of the
31:55conservative movement, and to this day
31:58it serves as the [music] base of the
31:59Republican Party.
32:01>> You could say that George Herbert Walker
32:02Bush was in on the creation.
32:04With this development, organization of
32:06Harris County Republicans.
32:09Because that's where it began. Think of
32:11Think of what that started.
32:16>> [music]
32:16>> The party that George Bush created in
32:18Houston in 1963 grew into the party he
32:21would lead [music]
32:22and struggle with as president.
32:30>> Those who do not care for our cause,
32:33we don't expect to enter our ranks in
32:36any case.
32:41>> The champion of Americans who had
32:43flocked to the Sun Belt in the 1950s,
32:45Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, led
32:48a sagebrush insurgency [music] in 1964
32:50against the Eastern Establishment.
32:55He ran against [music] big government,
32:57the New Deal, labor unions, and liberal
33:00or Rockefeller Republicans.
33:03Everything Prescott [music] Bush
33:04represented, Goldwater saw as a threat
33:07to individual freedom.
33:09>> I would remind you
33:12that extremism
33:14in the defense of liberty
33:17is no vice.
33:20>> [cheering]
33:21>> Prescott Bush tried to keep Goldwater
33:23off the ticket. Where the father [music]
33:25saw danger, the son saw opportunity.
33:29George Bush ran for US Senate, embraced
33:32Goldwater, [music]
33:33and begged his father to keep quiet.
33:37After winning the first Republican
33:39primary in Texas history, Bush tried to
33:41unseat liberal Democratic Senator Ralph
33:43Yarborough.
33:45It was a bold move for someone who had
33:47only been a county party chairman.
33:51>> Ralph Yarborough is the darling of the
33:53AFL-CIO bosses and the Committee on
33:56Political Education. I'd like my
33:58children to be able to pray in school if
34:01they want to. And I'd like that right to
34:03be a part of our Constitution.
34:05>> While young George, the oldest Bush boy,
34:07is already a college freshman,
34:09he's spent his entire summer working at
34:11Bush headquarters, assembling campaign
34:13materials, answering phones, and
34:16sweeping up, too.
34:17>> We think George Bush is quite a man, a
34:19real American, a real Republican, a
34:22responsible conservative.
34:26>> Bush ran to the right.
34:28He denounced the United Nations and
34:31pledged to vote [music] against Kennedy
34:32on civil rights.
34:34Like Barry Goldwater,
34:36he argued federal [music] enforcement of
34:37civil rights was a violation of states'
34:39rights.
34:42>> George Bush [music] was anxious to to
34:44launch his political career, and there
34:47was a fervor in
34:49the Republican Party
34:52for conservative principles [music]
34:54in those days, and that was not his
34:57ideology, but he felt you know, in order
34:59to get elected, you know, [music] I will
35:00go along. I won't try to convert people
35:03to my belief. I will flow with them.
35:12>> On November 22nd, [music] 1963,
35:15a Houston Chronicle poll showed
35:17Goldwater leading President [music]
35:18Kennedy in Texas by 50,000 votes.
35:23Kennedy came to Dallas to gain support
35:25and to heal a rift between the state's
35:27liberal [music] and conservative
35:29Democrats.
35:41Kennedy's assassination that day
35:43reshaped the political landscape.
35:45>> After the assassination, it was awfully
35:47[music] uphill.
35:50Not that anybody gave up, I must say,
35:52starting with him. It was a real, real,
35:55vigorous
35:56a contest because [music]
35:58he he inspired so many new people to
36:01come to the Republican side.
36:04>> Although Bush got 200,000 more votes in
36:07the state [music] than Barry Goldwater,
36:09more than any Republican ever had,
36:11Texans voted the ticket led by their
36:13native son, [music] the new president,
36:15Lyndon Johnson.
36:18Bush was trounced.
36:21He was also haunted by some of the
36:22far-right positions he'd taken,
36:24especially his pledge to vote against
36:26the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
36:31>> And George wrote me a letter
36:34saying that he was so troubled about
36:37this vote.
36:39Because he didn't want his children or
36:41anyone to consider that um
36:46uh he was voting against integration.
36:52>> Two years later, George Bush ran for
36:54Congress [music] from a Houston district
36:56more moderate than Texas as a whole.
37:03He was elected handily.
37:05The first Republican congressman from
37:06Houston [music] since Reconstruction.
37:09One issue he faced was about to explode.
37:14It was the heyday of the Civil Rights
37:16Movement.
37:17African-Americans demanded equal
37:19treatment under law.
37:22>> I'm asking Congress to bar
37:24discrimination in housing
37:26and to secure other very basic rights
37:28for every citizen.
37:31I'm doing this for one reason.
37:33Because it is right.
37:35I'm doing it in the name of millions of
37:37Americans, both white and negro,
37:40who object to treating their fellow
37:41citizens one way [clears throat] on the
37:43battlefield
37:44and another way
37:46in the country that they're fighting to
37:48defend.
37:50>> In 1967, President Johnson proposed to
37:52ban racial discrimination in housing.
37:56His fair housing bill came to the floor
37:58for a vote on April 10th.
38:01Once again,
38:02the race issue would force George Bush
38:04to take a stand.
38:06>> And you got to wrestle with your
38:07conscience and you got to listen to
38:08people. Uh I it doesn't come so easy to
38:11me that I this is right, that's wrong.
38:13It's never that simple. The tough votes
38:15are the ones that you just agonize over
38:17and then you do what you think is
38:18[music] right.
38:20>> Bush did not vote as a Goldwater
38:22Republican. He supported Lyndon Johnson.
38:25Many in his [music] district were
38:27outraged.
38:30>> Dad got a lot of death threats.
38:32People called [music] up on the phone.
38:35Velma Johnson, an African-American staff
38:37member in my dad's office, picked up the
38:39phone [music]
38:40and [snorts] the person on the other end
38:42was
38:44rambling and screaming ugly,
38:47nasty things. [music]
38:48Tears were streaming down her face.
38:51My dad grabbed the phone from her
38:53and [music] said, "I don't know who this
38:55is. This is George Bush.
38:58Don't you ever [music] call here again
38:59and treat anyone on my staff like that
39:02again."
39:05>> He was threatened and denounced and
39:09vilified for having betrayed
39:13his political
39:15constituents.
39:17And there was one woman who had been a
39:19big supporter of George's
39:22and she wrote him a letter and said that
39:24she felt that she'd been violated
39:27and that he would never be welcome in
39:29her house again.
39:32>> Mainline Republicans in those days were
39:35against open housing and they were
39:38absolutely convinced that they were
39:41against him, would never vote for him,
39:43would vote for recall.
39:46I offered to talk to some of his main
39:50money backers cuz a lot of them were
39:51furious at him.
39:53And he said, "No, no, just get them
39:54together and I'll talk to them."
39:57>> Bush prepared to meet not just his
39:59funders, but his rank and file
40:01supporters.
40:03>> He said that he was going to face a
40:06angry crowd
40:08and that he was being fitted for iron
40:10underpants for whatever they might
40:12decide to to do and when they had him on
40:15the griddle.
40:17On April 17th, 1968,
40:20Congressman Bush addressed a hostile
40:22audience of 400 at Houston's Memorial
40:24High School.
40:28>> There were boos, hisses.
40:30Uh it was ugly.
40:34There was sheet lightning in that
40:36auditorium that night. They were out to
40:38get George Bush. They were unhappy with
40:40George Bush.
40:41It was not a pretty scene.
40:47>> I thought my heart would just really
40:49stop. I I was so afraid of what was
40:52going might happen.
40:54People said he ought to be [music]
40:55killed.
41:00>> Once the all the hubbub died down, he
41:02defended his vote
41:05on that piece of legislation.
41:08>> Your representative owes you not only
41:10[music] his industry but his judgment,
41:12Bush told his audience quoting 18th
41:14century philosopher Edmund Burke.
41:17And he betrays instead of serving you if
41:19he sacrifices his judgment to your
41:22opinion.
41:24I voted from conviction, he explained,
41:27not out of intimidation or fear, but
41:29because of a feeling deep in my heart
41:32that this was the right thing for me to
41:33do.
41:36Earlier that year, Bush had visited US
41:38troops fighting in Vietnam.
41:41>> When he went to Vietnam in 1968,
41:44he came back with a very strong sense of
41:47outrage
41:50that although blacks were so prominent
41:53in the American military
41:55and so prominent among those who were
41:57giving their lives,
42:00that they were treated so poorly in this
42:02country.
42:04>> Now, Bush asked his audience,
42:07"How would you feel about a black
42:08American [music] veteran of Vietnam
42:10returning home only to be denied the
42:13freedom that we as white Americans
42:14[music] enjoyed.
42:18Somehow it seems fundamental that a man
42:21should not have a door slammed in his
42:23face because he is a negro or speaks
42:26with a Latin American accent.
42:28>> And I'll tell you by the time that
42:30speech was over,
42:32uh, that atmosphere [music] in that
42:33auditorium had changed considerably. It
42:35had transformed.
42:37>> [applause]
42:40>> It was the one of the few times I ever
42:43saw a few words
42:46completely transform an audience.
42:49>> [music]
42:52>> It's probably one of the most
42:55dramatic
42:57incidents in all of Georgia's public
42:59life, including when he was president.
43:02>> [music]
43:04>> Tonight I got on this plane, Bush wrote
43:06to a friend,
43:07and this older lady came up to me. She
43:09said,
43:10"I'm a conservative Democrat from the
43:12district, but I'm proud and will always
43:15vote for you now."
43:18And suddenly somehow I felt that maybe
43:20it would all be okay.
43:22And I started to cry.
43:24With the poor lady embarrassed to death.
43:30More than 20 years later Bush would
43:31write,
43:32"I can truthfully say that nothing
43:34[music] I've experienced in public life
43:35before or since
43:37has measured up to the feeling I had
43:39when I went home that night."
43:43Once he in office, George Bush tended to
43:46follow his conscience.
43:48That vote in 1968 put his political
43:51future at risk.
43:53He survived.
43:55He would not always be that lucky.
44:01>> [music]
44:04>> Bush was portrayed in some aspects of
44:06the media
44:07as an up-and-coming [music] young
44:08romantic hero.
44:11The future of romantic future of the
44:12Republican Party.
44:14Young, good-looking guy, full of energy,
44:18with a devoted wife and children.
44:21It's a good package.
44:25>> In 1970, President Richard Nixon asked
44:28Bush to run for Senate, [music]
44:29again against Ralph Yarborough,
44:31promising him a job if he lost.
44:36Bush's House seat was [music] secure.
44:38He was a member of the powerful Ways and
44:40Means Committee,
44:42and he was torn.
44:44He had often reached across the aisle to
44:46vote for legislation [music]
44:47important to his fellow Texan President
44:49Johnson.
44:51Now, he consulted LBJ.
44:56>> "Son," Johnson said,
44:58"I've served in the House and in the
44:59Senate, too.
45:01And the difference between being a
45:02member of the Senate and a member of the
45:04House
45:05is the difference between chicken salad
45:07and chicken
45:09Do I make my point?"
45:12>> How do we get started?
45:14>> My dad chose the chicken salad.
45:17>> Today, I'm announcing my candidacy for
45:20the United States Senate.
45:22It hasn't been an easy decision.
45:25I've been very happy in the House of
45:26Representatives. I've been particularly
45:28happy.
45:29>> There were high hopes for him in that
45:30race. It was one of the premier races of
45:33that year, and a lot of people thought,
45:35well, this is Bush is going to win this
45:36Senate race, and you know, there's
45:38probably a good chance that will be the
45:40stepping stone for him ultimately go on
45:41and run for president.
45:44>> [music]
45:46>> Bush asked his friend James Baker, a
45:48prominent Houston lawyer with deep Texas
45:50roots, to run his campaign.
45:53>> I lost a wife to cancer when she was
45:55only 38 years of age.
45:57And George Bush was my tennis doubles
46:00partner, and he came to me, and he said,
46:01"Bake," he said, you need to take your
46:03mind off your grief.
46:05How about helping me run for the
46:06Senate?" And I said, "Well, George,
46:08that's great, except for two things.
46:10Number one, I don't know anything about
46:11politics. I'd never been done anything
46:14in politics. And number two, I'm a
46:15Democrat." And he said, "We'll take care
46:17of that." And we did, and I changed
46:19parties.
46:21>> Bush had confidence that he could beat
46:23Ralph Yarborough this time. Texas was
46:25growing [music] more conservative.
46:28Then, Lloyd Bentsen, businessman more
46:31conservative than Bush, challenged
46:33Yarborough in the Democratic [music]
46:34primary and won.
46:39The Nixon White House moved into action.
46:46>> THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT.
46:49>> [cheering]
46:51[applause]
46:54>> WE HAVE TO THINK IN terms of what is
46:55best for America, and it's because I
46:57believe that George Bush will do better
47:01for Texas and better for America that
47:03I'm for George Bush for the United
47:05States Senate.
47:08>> Despite the endorsement, White House
47:10staff considered Bush too tame a
47:12candidate.
47:14>> They considered Bush loyal,
47:16uh source of money, but basically weak.
47:21>> He didn't have the drive to play the
47:23game the way they wanted it played.
47:28He was too much the gentleman. He was
47:30the aristocratic gentleman.
47:31And that's what Prescott Bush was.
47:36>> Many of Yarborough's liberal Democratic
47:38supporters [music] considered Bush a
47:40more attractive candidate than Bentsen.
47:43But the polarizing presence of Richard
47:45Nixon convinced them to vote against
47:48Bush.
47:51>> Early on, the networks called it for
47:53Lloyd Bentsen.
47:54Uh
47:55and I was up in the suite with him
47:56there, and he just kind of sunk deeper
47:58and deeper [music] into the couch there.
48:00And finally somebody said, "Well, you
48:02it's time to go downstairs and concede."
48:06And he felt pretty low.
48:09>> [music]
48:12>> And nobody likes to lose.
48:15But certainly
48:17he ran a good tough race.
48:19I feel kind of like Custer, you know,
48:20there were too many Indians. Well,
48:23uh
48:24there are too many Democrats in some of
48:25these counties, I guess.
48:27But the other thing is that
48:30I have a horrible problem between now
48:32and kind of figuring this out because I
48:33can't think of anybody else to blame.
48:35Thank you very much.
48:38>> [applause and music]
48:43>> Uh he was brought up not to show uh
48:46great disappointment in in defeat or
48:49great glee in victory.
48:51But uh he doesn't like to lose.
48:54He does not like to lose.
48:56>> Yeah, I think in defeat you grope for
48:59things [music] that uh
49:01are happy, and it's hard.
49:04But I think uh
49:06I would be less than frank if I said I
49:08felt good or could see anything from a
49:10personal standpoint to be excited about
49:13at this point. We're we're hurt, and
49:14we're
49:15we're uh we we lost. We wanted to win.
49:19>> With two unsuccessful Senate campaigns,
49:21Bush's political future was in doubt.
49:25He would try to advance his career in
49:27the tradition of the wise men by serving
49:30presidents in administrative posts, jobs
49:32to which he was well suited, but which
49:34to many seemed a dead end.
49:40>> [applause]
49:42>> When Nixon offered Bush an insignificant
49:44job as assistant to the president,
49:46Bush made his case for more.
49:50>> He said what this administration needs
49:52is someone who can strongly represent
49:55the administration
49:56not only in the United Nations, but in
49:59New York.
50:00And who would have clout in the social
50:02society of New York."
50:05And I am your man.
50:07>> The relief for me is is really great
50:09just to know that my family is so happy
50:11after kind of a a tough defeat in
50:13November, but now, you know, new life
50:15and new vigor has kind of sprung back
50:16into our veins.
50:18>> I, George Bush, do solemnly swear
50:20>> do solemnly swear
50:22>> I wondered how on earth he could be
50:24appointed to the United Nations with his
50:26little foreign policy experience
50:28or knowledge that he had at that time.
50:31And I asked him about that. I said,
50:33"What the hell do you know about foreign
50:35policy?"
50:36And he just gave me this big smile and
50:38he said, "You ask me in a month."
50:42>> At the time, a lot of people, myself
50:44included, thought, "Well, this is the
50:46end of the road."
50:47>> How you all doing?
50:49>> What does it mean to be ambassador to
50:51the United Nations? That is certainly
50:52not way to get any vote in Texas.
50:55>> Bush plunged with relish into the
50:57organization that he had denounced in
50:59his '64 campaign.
51:01He knew little about foreign policy,
51:02[music]
51:04a lot about dealing with people.
51:08>> From the time Bush became the US
51:10permanent representative to the United
51:12Nations, he began to collect foreign
51:15friends,
51:16leaders, soon-to-be leaders, deputies,
51:19ambassadors, [music]
51:20foreign ministers.
51:25He was very good at empathizing with
51:27them. In fact, in at the United Nations,
51:29he developed friendships with people who
51:32didn't like US policy.
51:36>> He started a practice of walking down
51:39the halls and dropping in on his fellow
51:42[music] ambassadors
51:44just to say,
51:46"How are you? How are things in your
51:48[music] country? What do you think of
51:49the United States? What do you think of
51:51the UN? What are the problems of the
51:53world as you see them?"
51:54And he developed that into a fine art.
51:59>> He's a master of the personal touch.
52:01He's an incredible thank you note
52:04writer.
52:05He would meet somebody somewhere and the
52:07next day they'd have a a little note in
52:09the mail. Thank you, Joe. I enjoyed
52:10meeting you. You'd say, "Hey, here's
52:12somebody took time
52:14to write me a thank you note. Who does
52:16that anymore?"
52:19>> Five men wearing white gloves and
52:20carrying cameras were caught earlier
52:22today in the headquarters of the
52:23Democratic National Committee in
52:25Washington. They apparently were unarmed
52:27and nobody knows yet why they were
52:29there. The film in the camera hadn't
52:31even been exposed.
52:32>> In November 1972,
52:35just shy of 2 years on the job,
52:38Bush was summoned to Camp David.
52:42>> [music]
52:42>> It was 5 months after news reports of a
52:44break-in at the Democratic Party
52:46election headquarters at the Watergate
52:48Hotel.
52:51>> [music]
52:52>> George Bush recalled Nixon saying,
52:55"The place I really need you is over at
52:57the National Committee running things.
52:59This is an important time for the
53:01Republican Party, George. We have a
53:03chance to build a new coalition in the
53:05next 4 years and you're the one who can
53:07do it."
53:09>> [music]
53:09>> I sent him off saying, "Under no
53:12circumstances be Republican National
53:15Chair Committee Chairman. It's just a
53:17no-end job. You'll be gone all the time.
53:20Please don't do that." So, he went and
53:23because he believes you never say no to
53:25a president, when President Nixon asked
53:29him to do that, he said, "Yes."
53:31>> So, what I want to do is try to build
53:33the party in a constructive, positive
53:35image. The president's setting a good
53:37program for this. Our Our challenge is
53:40to implement it and to have room for
53:42diversity, but to have room for growth.
53:44And I've got to go.
53:46>> I said, "Yeah, you got this all wrong."
53:48I said,
53:49>> [laughter]
53:50>> "I don't know what's happened to you,
53:52but uh you don't go from from being
53:58the president's man at at the United
54:00Nations
54:02to being chairman of of of a political
54:04party. You're coming down the ladder."
54:07And I said, "That's that's the wrong
54:08direction."
54:10>> [music]
54:10>> Nixon knew that it was about to hit the
54:13fan. And George Bush could be counted on
54:15for absolute loyalty in front of a
54:17camera.
54:19Nixon knew instinctively that as
54:22Watergate unfolded,
54:24as the disaster began to build, Bush
54:28could be counted on to stick by Nixon
54:30right through until the bitter end.
54:33>> The committee will come to order.
54:35>> Less than a month after Bush took the
54:37job, the Senate established a committee
54:39to hold hearings on the break-in.
54:42>> Begins hearings into the extent
54:44to which illegal, improper, unethical
54:46activities
54:48were involved in 1972 presidential
54:50election hit campaign.
54:52>> As the scandal unfolded, Bush traveled
54:55to 33 states and made 190 appearances
54:58defending the president and the
55:00Republican Party.
55:02>> As you look up across the country,
55:05the Watergate has not obscured
55:08the positive record of this
55:09administration.
55:10>> When he goes out in front of a
55:11television camera for Richard Nixon,
55:14George Bush has the perfect public face.
55:17The other part about Bush that the Nixon
55:19White House liked was his combative
55:21nature with the press.
55:23And the press was just beginning to feel
55:25its oats in 1973. Bush was not going to
55:29let them get away, in his mind, with
55:31this type of picking on the president.
55:34>> The president has said that he's not
55:36involved in Watergate, that he didn't
55:38know about it, that he's not involved in
55:40the cover-up. And I accept that, and I
55:43don't think it helps the stability, uh
55:45the forward progress of this country to
55:48to uh speculate hypothetically when a
55:51man has made that statement.
55:52>> Nixon lied to George.
55:55And George couldn't believe someone look
55:57you in the eye and say, "I had nothing
55:59to do with this. I have not lied."
56:03>> I can remember many of our friends and
56:05politicals that were around then
56:08saying, "Well, that's the end of Bush's
56:10career. That's the end of George Bush.
56:11>> [music]
56:12>> His time's over." And certainly the
56:14media had written him off.
56:16>> I think of all the things that George
56:18Bush did prior to being asked to run for
56:20vice president with Ronald Reagan, being
56:22chairman of the Republican National
56:23Committee during Watergate was the most
56:25valuable because during that miserable
56:28time for grassroots Republicans,
56:30there was George Bush
56:32keeping up the faith and trying to keep
56:35people's spirits up.
56:36>> [music]
56:39>> Tell me
56:40what the president knew and when he
56:42first knew it. At a meeting on September
56:4515th,
56:47when
56:47>> Testimony from Nixon staffers on June
56:493rd, 1973
56:52marked the beginning of revelations that
56:54would bring the president down.
56:56>> Didn't want them to occur before the
56:57election.
57:00>> I've never seen such an unhappy man as
57:02George was during this period, a White
57:04House insider recalled,
57:06because now all of us had come to the
57:07conclusion that we'd all been lied to
57:09for many, many months.
57:12Bush fumed in his diary,
57:14"This era of tawdry, shabby lack of
57:17morality has got to end.
57:19I am sick at heart, sick about the
57:21president's betrayal, and sick about the
57:24fact that the major Nixon enemies can
57:25now gloat because they have [music]
57:27proved he is what they said he is."
57:31>> Bush was caught up in it.
57:32Bush was embarrassed by it and the thing
57:35he told me embarrassed him most of all
57:38was he had given assurances to
57:40fundraisers
57:42that Nixon was not involved.
57:44Nixon let him down.
57:47>> [music]
57:48>> On August 6th, 1974,
57:50Bush attended a cabinet meeting.
57:52>> [music]
57:53>> Nixon's agenda was to talk about the
57:54economy.
57:56>> Ford turned to the president [music] and
57:59said,
58:00"We have other issues that we have to
58:01discuss. We have to discuss the fate of
58:03this presidency."
58:07>> George Bush interrupted Nixon and told
58:09him that Watergate was sapping public
58:11confidence in the party and the country.
58:15>> [music]
58:16>> The next day he advised Nixon to resign.
58:19"Dear Mr. President," he wrote,
58:22"I expect in your lonely and embattled
58:23position this would seem to you as an
58:25act of disloyalty from one you have
58:27supported and helped in so many ways."
58:32George Bush had accepted the party
58:34chairman's job out of loyalty to Nixon.
58:38That loyalty, Nixon found to his dismay,
58:42had its limits.
58:49In August 1974,
58:51Bush retreated to Kennebunkport.
58:55>> Okay, here he feels at peace.
58:57It's roots of his family. His mother was
58:59born here.
59:02He'll tell you it's CAVU. Now, I never
59:04can remember what that means, but
59:05ceiling [music] unlimited.
59:08Ceiling and visibility unlimited. And
59:11that's [music] what he feels about
59:12Kennebunkport, Maine. He's at peace
59:14here.
59:18>> President Gerald Ford, Nixon's
59:20successor, was about to choose his vice
59:22president.
59:25Bush was the first choice of party
59:26leaders.
59:28At Walker's Point, he anxiously awaited
59:30the news.
59:32>> Barbara Bush called up, says, "Come on
59:34over. Got to do some do something with
59:36George. He's getting a finicky [music]
59:37over here."
59:39So, I go over
59:40and there he is underneath a toilet
59:42fixing toilets.
59:44And I said,
59:46"Is this the way a
59:48potential vice president's going to
59:49act?" And they said, "Get in here and
59:51help me fix these toilets."
59:53>> Ford called him to say he had selected
59:55former governor of New York, Nelson
59:57Rockefeller.
59:59"Yesterday was a real downer," [music]
1:00:00Bush wrote Lud Ashley.
1:00:03"I guess I had let my hopes zoom
1:00:05unrealistically.
1:00:08But today perspective [music] is coming
1:00:10back
1:00:11and I realize I was lucky to be in the
1:00:13game at all."
1:00:19>> That's his way of relaxing.
1:00:21And uh it's non-stop.
1:00:24It's just from from one event to the
1:00:26other.
1:00:27I often say that in his crankcase,
1:00:30there's no reverse
1:00:32and there's no neutral.
1:00:34There's just drive.
1:00:36And that's all there is in his
1:00:38crankcase,
1:00:40He's just always on the go.
1:00:49>> Ford offered Bush another
1:00:50ambassadorship. He could have chosen
1:00:52England or France, but he chose China.
1:00:57A friend recalled, "He wanted to get as
1:00:59far away from the stench of Watergate as
1:01:01possible."
1:01:05After little more than a year, another
1:01:07odor wafted his way.
1:01:09Congress was investigating CIA abuses.
1:01:12>> We must insist that these agencies
1:01:14operate strictly within the law.
1:01:18>> The Bushes were [music] bicycling in
1:01:19Beijing when a cable arrived from
1:01:21Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
1:01:23Would Bush take over the CIA?
1:01:27>> It just was a huge [music] shock and
1:01:29George
1:01:30got the message and then he called
1:01:32George W. Said to George,
1:01:35"Please call your brothers and sister
1:01:37and see how they'd feel about my coming
1:01:39home and heading the CIA."
1:01:42And George called back in about an hour
1:01:44and said, "They say come home."
1:01:46And I've always thought George never
1:01:48called them. But my just decided [music]
1:01:51arbitrarily that we should come home.
1:01:53And I thought then
1:01:56that this was the end of politics.
1:01:59That this would be
1:02:00just the end of our political life.
1:02:06>> "Here are my heartfelt views," Bush
1:02:08cabled Kissinger.
1:02:10"I do not have politics out of my system
1:02:11entirely, and I see this is the total
1:02:14end of any political future.
1:02:16But if this is what the president wants
1:02:18me to do, the answer is a firm yes."
1:02:23To keep the CIA apolitical,
1:02:26Bush would have to renounce his spot on
1:02:28the 1976 ticket.
1:02:31>> Some of my friends have asked me,
1:02:33"Why do you accept this job with all the
1:02:36controversy swirling around the CIA and
1:02:38with its obvious barriers to to
1:02:40political future?"
1:02:42My answer is simple.
1:02:45First, the work is desperately important
1:02:47to the survival of this country
1:02:50and to the survival of freedom around
1:02:52the world.
1:02:53And second,
1:02:55old fashioned as it may seem to some,
1:02:59it is my duty to serve my country. And I
1:03:01didn't seek this job, but I want to do
1:03:04it
1:03:05and I'll do my very best. Thank you, Mr.
1:03:07Chairman.
1:03:10>> Bush found CIA staffers demoralized.
1:03:14"We did have the feeling we were
1:03:15terribly alone, and there was no one out
1:03:18there defending us, one remembered.
1:03:20George became a champion.
1:03:23Bush saw his job as boosting morale at
1:03:26CIA headquarters and reassuring Congress
1:03:28that the rogue elephant was under
1:03:30control.
1:03:32>> I can say sir that we would not
1:03:33disseminate that kind of intelligence on
1:03:36American citizens to the cabinet
1:03:37committee but
1:03:38>> He made 51 appearances on Capitol Hill
1:03:40in less than a year.
1:03:42>> to the Justice Department.
1:03:45>> After 6 months on the job, he wrote
1:03:47President Ford,
1:03:49"Morale at the CIA is improving.
1:03:51Our recruitment is up. Our people are
1:03:54willing to serve abroad and to take the
1:03:56risks involved."
1:03:59>> [cheering]
1:04:01>> When Jimmy Carter was elected president
1:04:03in 1976,
1:04:04Bush offered to remain at the CIA to
1:04:07burnish the agency's reputation as
1:04:09bipartisan.
1:04:10>> [cheering]
1:04:12>> There is increasing speculation that CIA
1:04:14director George Bush may be asked to
1:04:16stay at his post during the new
1:04:17administration, but as he arrived today,
1:04:19he and Carter aides all refused comment
1:04:22on that. I mean it's the same ground
1:04:24rules that we had before, which is we're
1:04:26here to
1:04:27to have a
1:04:28a professional intelligence briefing.
1:04:31>> Bush became the first CIA director to be
1:04:33dismissed by an incoming president.
1:04:37>> Here was Bush having made this
1:04:39concession
1:04:41in order to reaffirm the CIA post as
1:04:45being non-political.
1:04:47Only in the end
1:04:49to see himself
1:04:51forced out because of the advent of a
1:04:53new administration. Well, Bush was
1:04:56determined to fight back
1:04:58and fight back into the political arena.
1:05:02>> [music]
1:05:03>> Demoralized, George Bush returned to
1:05:05private life in Houston.
1:05:08"He felt like a racehorse [music] under
1:05:09wraps," a biographer would
1:05:13Bush described his withdrawal symptoms
1:05:15to a friend.
1:05:17I just get bored silly about whose
1:05:19daughter is a Phi Phi or even about
1:05:21who's banging old Joe's wife.
1:05:24I think I want to at least be in a
1:05:26position to run in 1980, but it seems so
1:05:29presumptuous and egotistical.
1:05:35George did his best to drown out his
1:05:37mother's voice.
1:05:38For 2 years, he served [music] on
1:05:40corporate boards and built his war chest
1:05:42for a presidential campaign.
1:05:45He is finally getting better about
1:05:47blowing his own horn, Barbara wrote a
1:05:49friend. The thing we were taught as
1:05:51children never to do.
1:05:54>> [applause]
1:05:55>> On May 1st, 1979, George H. W. Bush
1:05:59returned to Washington.
1:06:01>> [applause]
1:06:03>> Ladies and gentlemen,
1:06:06I am a candidate for president of the
1:06:08United States.
1:06:10>> [applause]
1:06:14>> Before responding to questions, I would
1:06:17like to introduce you to my family. My
1:06:20mother, Mrs. Prescott Bush, who some of
1:06:23you may remember.
1:06:24>> [applause]
1:06:25>> My wife, Barbara, most of you know.
1:06:28>> [applause]
1:06:29>> Our oldest son, George, and his wife,
1:06:31Laura, from West Texas.
1:06:34Jeb and his wife, Columba, from Houston,
1:06:36Texas.
1:06:37>> [applause]
1:06:38>> Bush distanced himself from the
1:06:40Republican front-runner, Ronald Reagan,
1:06:42the conservative governor of California,
1:06:44by invoking language used by President
1:06:46Eisenhower.
1:06:47>> There is in our affairs at home a middle
1:06:50way
1:06:51between the untrammeled freedom of the
1:06:53individual
1:06:55and the demands for the welfare of the
1:06:58whole nation.
1:07:01>> In 1 year, Bush traveled 329 days,
1:07:04calling in all his chips from the years
1:07:06at the Republican [music] National
1:07:08Committee.
1:07:11In a surprise victory, he defeated
1:07:13Reagan in the Iowa caucus.
1:07:16>> [applause]
1:07:17>> Iowa has set something in motion. The
1:07:19forward momentum is clearly established,
1:07:22and I am absolutely convinced I will be
1:07:24your next president. Thank you very
1:07:27>> [applause]
1:07:30>> In the important New Hampshire primary,
1:07:33Reagan challenged Bush to a one-on-one
1:07:35debate and agreed to pay the cost
1:07:37[music] of the event.
1:07:39At the last minute, in a clever ploy,
1:07:42Reagan wanted to change the rules to
1:07:44include the other candidates.
1:07:46>> I'm sorry, but
1:07:47>> Bush and the moderator stuck [music] to
1:07:49the original agreement.
1:07:53>> Mr. Green
1:07:54>> Would you turn that microphone off,
1:07:55please?
1:07:57>> I am paying for this microphone.
1:08:03>> [cheering]
1:08:05>> That night, George Bush learned how
1:08:07formidable a candidate Ronald Reagan
1:08:09could be.
1:08:10>> [music]
1:08:12>> George Bush is like a boy who is dropped
1:08:15off at the wrong birthday party.
1:08:17He's just so awkward and doesn't know
1:08:19what to do, and he looks a little bit
1:08:21miffed.
1:08:22>> Uh I have been invited here as the guest
1:08:25of the Nashua Telegraph. I will play by
1:08:27their rules. I am their guest, and I'm
1:08:29very glad to be here.
1:08:30>> Thank you very
1:08:33>> Bush lost New Hampshire, but continued
1:08:36to challenge Reagan, ridiculing his
1:08:38so-called supply-side tax policy,
1:08:41the notion that taxes could be cut
1:08:42without reducing spending.
1:08:45>> [applause]
1:08:47>> This theory that Governor Reagan is
1:08:48talking about,
1:08:50what I call a voodoo economic policy.
1:08:54>> Reagan appealed to staunch
1:08:56anti-communists and social
1:08:58conservatives,
1:08:59two of the groups Bush had welcomed into
1:09:01the Republican Party in Harris County
1:09:03almost 20 years before.
1:09:05As a moderate, [music]
1:09:06George Bush was chasing the caboose of
1:09:09the party he had helped to create.
1:09:12By May, campaign manager James Baker
1:09:14urged him to pull out.
1:09:17>> Reagan had collected sufficient number
1:09:20of delegates to be nominated and my
1:09:22advice to
1:09:24to George at the time was that we ought
1:09:26to fold up our tent and not go out to
1:09:29California and try and contest Reagan in
1:09:32his home state because if we did that,
1:09:35there'd be no chance whatsoever that he
1:09:37would be put on the ticket.
1:09:43>> I have asked
1:09:44and I am recommending to this convention
1:09:47that tomorrow
1:09:48when the session reconvenes
1:09:51that George Bush be nominated.
1:09:56>> In many ways, George Bush was what
1:09:58Ronald Reagan pretended to be.
1:10:02As an actor, Ronald Reagan played the
1:10:04war hero.
1:10:09Bush was a war [music] hero,
1:10:11a decorated naval aviator.
1:10:16>> [music]
1:10:16>> Ronald Reagan played the athlete.
1:10:20Bush was the captain of his [music] Yale
1:10:22baseball team and played twice in the
1:10:24college championship game.
1:10:27>> [applause and music]
1:10:32>> Both preached family values.
1:10:35Only Bush could point to [music] a happy
1:10:37family.
1:10:43>> [music]
1:10:45>> Reagan turned to Bush as a way to unify
1:10:48the conservative and moderate wings of
1:10:50the party.
1:10:51He was also the only other candidate to
1:10:53win any primaries.
1:10:57>> Reagan took him in spite of his doubts,
1:10:59but he had seen Bush at his worst. He
1:11:02had seen Bush in effect wilt under
1:11:05pressure at the famous Nashua debate,
1:11:08and he didn't like what he'd seen.
1:11:11More than that, Bush had come up with
1:11:13some very powerful phrases including
1:11:16voodoo economics that in effect
1:11:18trivialized Reagan's beliefs.
1:11:22>> Reagan disliked him.
1:11:24Using the term voodoo economics,
1:11:27he disliked him for what Reagan thought
1:11:29he was a wimp.
1:11:30>> [cheering]
1:11:31>> Nancy detested him bitterly.
1:11:35Reagan did not turn to Bush happily, and
1:11:38then what I said to Bush was there
1:11:39anything Reagan
1:11:41uh asked of you in order to in order to
1:11:44nominate you as vice president. He
1:11:46simply said he wanted you to accept his
1:11:48position on abortion,
1:11:49which I did.
1:11:53>> Despite their political differences,
1:11:55Bush pledged his loyalty.
1:11:57>> [applause]
1:11:59>> I will never forget the very first staff
1:12:02meeting we had before they were even
1:12:03sworn in. Ambassador Bush had really
1:12:06kind of laid down the rules to us, and
1:12:08he said, "You know, I don't want to ever
1:12:10pick up paper
1:12:11and see any suggestion that anybody on
1:12:13my vice president's staff has been
1:12:15anything but loyal to Ronald Reagan."
1:12:20>> Bush's experience in foreign affairs was
1:12:23especially useful to Reagan.
1:12:25His connections with Deng Xiaoping
1:12:27helped ease tensions [music] over arms
1:12:29sales to Taiwan.
1:12:35His message in El Salvador was stop the
1:12:37right-wing death squads or Congress will
1:12:39cut off aid to fight communist
1:12:41insurgents.
1:12:44To communist Poland, he brought a
1:12:45message of freedom.
1:12:47>> Poland should be strong [music] and
1:12:49prosperous and independent and play its
1:12:51proper role as a great nation in the
1:12:54heart of Europe.
1:12:57>> When three Soviet presidents died in
1:12:59less [music] than three years, Bush was
1:13:02the first to greet the new leader after
1:13:03the funeral.
1:13:05He would explain [music] America's
1:13:07policies and report directly to Reagan.
1:13:16Bush's deep interest in foreign policy
1:13:18served him well until a report broke
1:13:22that the Reagan administration [music]
1:13:23was secretly selling arms to Iran in
1:13:26exchange for help releasing hostages
1:13:28held in Beirut, a violation of its own
1:13:31policies.
1:13:32>> I was aware of our Iran initiative and I
1:13:34support [music] the president's
1:13:36decision.
1:13:38>> More serious was the charge that the
1:13:40administration illegally used profits
1:13:42from the arms [music] sales
1:13:44to fund the anti-communist contras who
1:13:46were trying to topple the Marxist
1:13:47government in Nicaragua. [music]
1:13:50It became known as the Iran-Contra
1:13:52affair.
1:13:55>> And I was not aware of and I oppose any
1:13:58diversion of funds,
1:14:00any ransom payments,
1:14:02or any circumvention of the will of the
1:14:05Congress,
1:14:07the law of the United States of America.
1:14:11>> See, we come from
1:14:12>> What Reagan may have told his vice
1:14:14president during their Thursday lunches
1:14:16or what advice Bush may have given his
1:14:17president was something both considered
1:14:20confidential.
1:14:21>> Some committee that did decide so?
1:14:23>> Afterward, you can say, "Hey, we
1:14:25shouldn't have done that."
1:14:25>> As the scandal unfolded, the former
1:14:27director of Central Intelligence came
1:14:29under suspicion that he was involved in
1:14:31more than he let on.
1:14:33>> culpable
1:14:34>> But there's no question about trying to
1:14:36jump away from it. I support the
1:14:38president.
1:14:38>> Mr. Vice President, what did you know
1:14:39about money going to the contras?
1:14:41>> All I know is this is just going to
1:14:43taste wonderful and I'm looking forward
1:14:45to tomorrow.
1:14:47>> Mr. President, hasn't this damaged your
1:14:49presidency?
1:14:51>> Bush's role as Reagan's loyal vice
1:14:53president was taking a toll on his
1:14:55public image.
1:14:58This was nothing new.
1:15:00Cartoonist Garry Trudeau had caricatured
1:15:03Bush's loyalty as putting his manhood in
1:15:05a blind trust.
1:15:11As Bush planned his run for the
1:15:12presidency, conservative columnist
1:15:14George Will called him a lapdog for
1:15:17trying to prove he was [music] Reagan's
1:15:18heir.
1:15:21>> I am here today
1:15:23to announce my candidacy for president
1:15:27of the United States.
1:15:32>> [music]
1:15:32>> The week he announced in October 1987,
1:15:35Newsweek called him a wimp.
1:15:38>> That's an awful word to use.
1:15:40We used it on the cover of Newsweek, I
1:15:41think to our regret. [music] It was too
1:15:43harsh a word, but there was a perception
1:15:45that he was somehow not a stand-up guy.
1:15:49He was under Reagan's shadow, and he
1:15:52needed to win over
1:15:54>> [music]
1:15:54>> the true right and the evangelicals.
1:15:57And to do that, he seemed to be trimming
1:15:58[music] a little bit on abortion.
1:16:01Seemed to possibly be going against his
1:16:03own conscience in order to win votes.
1:16:06>> Over
1:16:06here. Over here.
1:16:11>> Bush lost to Senator Bob Dole in the
1:16:13Iowa [music] caucus in February 1988.
1:16:16His own poll said he was perceived as a
1:16:18follower, not a leader.
1:16:20A man who would not be tough enough for
1:16:22the Oval Office.
1:16:27>> [music]
1:16:28>> He was trailing Dole in the critical
1:16:30primary in New Hampshire.
1:16:31A loss could mean the [music] end of his
1:16:33presidential hopes.
1:16:35Yet he remained hesitant to say anything
1:16:38bad about his opponents.
1:16:40>> I'm not taking any shots at the other
1:16:41candidates. I'm not trying to get myself
1:16:44up a notch on the [music] ladder by
1:16:45shoving somebody else down on the
1:16:47ladder, whether it's a candidate or the
1:16:49president of the United States or
1:16:51anybody else. I just don't believe
1:16:52[music]
1:16:53that's the way one ought to campaign.
1:16:55That's the way I've never done that and
1:16:57so I feel comfortable saying what I am
1:16:59for.
1:17:00>> He'd been the chairman of the Republican
1:17:03[music] National Committee.
1:17:04Uh he didn't speak ill of other
1:17:06Republicans.
1:17:09He believed that he had to talk about
1:17:11his
1:17:12>> [music]
1:17:12>> record, his experience, his ability to
1:17:14to be president and let people make
1:17:17their mind up.
1:17:18>> [music]
1:17:18>> Uh
1:17:19he was less inclined to talk about his
1:17:21challengers at all, really.
1:17:25>> "You got to go negative." Bush's young
1:17:27campaign manager Lee Atwater told him,
1:17:29"You just got to."
1:17:33Atwater,
1:17:33>> [music]
1:17:33>> the new breed of political consultant,
1:17:35had no qualms going for an opponent's
1:17:37jugular.
1:17:41He set out to toughen Bush's [music]
1:17:43gentlemanly campaign style.
1:17:47>> Atwater
1:17:49was able to articulate
1:17:52a side of George Bush that needed to be
1:17:55articulated if he was to win and that
1:17:57was [music] the harsh side of Bush.
1:18:02Bush doesn't naturally gravitate to
1:18:06bare-knuckle politics.
1:18:08He needs to be taken there. Atwater did
1:18:10that.
1:18:12>> Atwater's team had put together a
1:18:14campaign spot attacking Senator Dole.
1:18:18Bush rejected it.
1:18:21>> I told
1:18:22the Vice President
1:18:24that uh
1:18:26sometimes you have to leave the high
1:18:28road. He said, "Well, um
1:18:31often, you know, it's uh
1:18:33All right, let me look at it again."
1:18:35>> Bob Dole straddled until the polls told
1:18:37him it was popular.
1:18:38>> And they said, "All right, I don't like
1:18:40it, but okay. But it better all be
1:18:43true."
1:18:43>> That's why he's becoming known as
1:18:44Senator Straddle. George Bush,
1:18:47presidential leadership.
1:18:52>> Thank you all very much.
1:18:57>> [music]
1:18:58>> You'll know soon.
1:19:00>> The new strategy worked. Bush won in New
1:19:03Hampshire.
1:19:04>> And now on to the south where we're
1:19:06going to rise again.
1:19:08>> [cheering]
1:19:09>> And went on to secure the Republican
1:19:11nomination.
1:19:14In May, he trailed Massachusetts
1:19:15Governor Michael Dukakis, the Democratic
1:19:17nominee, by 10 points.
1:19:20>> [cheering]
1:19:21>> Blue-collar Democrats who had flocked to
1:19:23Ronald Reagan were supporting Governor
1:19:25Dukakis.
1:19:26>> [cheering]
1:19:29>> The Bush campaign needed to woo them
1:19:31back.
1:19:32It was encouraged by a focus group that
1:19:34showed Dukakis had a weak spot.
1:19:38He was perceived as a liberal.
1:19:41>> Lee Atwater knew that that sort of
1:19:44East Coast elite liberal
1:19:48uh
1:19:48ideology and persona was going to be
1:19:51problematic for Dukakis. So,
1:19:54is showing that uh is part of how
1:19:56campaigns work. This is what campaigns
1:19:58do.
1:20:01>> Bashing Dukakis would become the focus
1:20:03of Bush's campaign.
1:20:06>> Governor Dukakis,
1:20:08his foreign policy views,
1:20:11born in Harvard Yard's boutique,
1:20:14would cut the muscle of our defense, and
1:20:16I will never do that.
1:20:21>> I don't think by nature he likes to go
1:20:23negative.
1:20:24Uh
1:20:25he That's not the way he was, not the
1:20:28way he was brought up.
1:20:30>> [applause]
1:20:31>> Governor calls himself, and this is a
1:20:33quote from Michael Dukakis,
1:20:36a card-carrying member of the ACLU,
1:20:39American Civil Liberties
1:20:42I I haven't joined the ACLU, nor do I
1:20:45have any plans to join the ACLU.
1:20:48>> [cheering]
1:20:48>> So, you get down to differences.
1:20:51>> He may not have liked it, but it isn't
1:20:53as if he were trying [music] to make him
1:20:55take a drink of castor oil or something
1:20:57like that. He knew exactly what had to
1:20:58be done in the long run.
1:21:01Prescott Bush's son
1:21:03is not comfortable
1:21:04with the culture [music] of handers and
1:21:07spin doctors and pollsters and focus
1:21:10groups
1:21:11and determining [music] what your
1:21:13convictions are by um
1:21:15um by uh by asking a group of strangers
1:21:17in a supermarket
1:21:19>> [music]
1:21:19>> in Secaucus, New Jersey.
1:21:21On the other hand,
1:21:23he'll do it
1:21:24if that's [music] what it takes
1:21:26to win the presidency.
1:21:29>> [cheering]
1:21:30>> Thank you.
1:21:35I accept your nomination for president.
1:21:39>> [cheering]
1:21:48>> I'll try to be fair to the other side.
1:21:51I'll try to hold my charisma in check
1:21:54and uh
1:21:56>> [cheering]
1:22:00>> Where is it written
1:22:02that we must act if we do not care
1:22:06as if we're not moved?
1:22:08Well, I am moved. I want a kinder and
1:22:12gentler nation.
1:22:14>> That phrase Bush thought
1:22:17would appeal to moderates turned off by
1:22:18Reagan's harsh edges.
1:22:21Another line inspired by a Clint
1:22:23Eastwood movie would counter through
1:22:25wimp factor and project an image of
1:22:27strength.
1:22:28>> My opponent won't rule out raising
1:22:30taxes, but I will, and the Congress will
1:22:32push me to raise taxes, and I'll say no,
1:22:36and they'll push, and I'll say no, and
1:22:38they'll push again, and I'll say
1:22:41to them,
1:22:42read my lips. No
1:22:46new
1:22:47taxes.
1:22:52>> [cheering]
1:22:53>> An appeal to his sense of of good fun.
1:22:56And he did it with gusto, and of course
1:22:59it knocked the ball out of the park.
1:23:05>> I thought it was ill-advised. And I
1:23:09argued against keeping it in. The no new
1:23:12taxes part was going to be very
1:23:13difficult to live with.
1:23:15>> [cheering]
1:23:16>> It was the single best speech of Bush's
1:23:19career.
1:23:20It was Bush at his most animated. It was
1:23:23Bush at his most telegenic.
1:23:27The camera does not love George Bush.
1:23:31>> [cheering]
1:23:32>> He never did any better than this
1:23:34speech, even as president.
1:23:38>> Bush had cut Dukakis' lead in half.
1:23:43>> After Labor Day, the attack on Dukakis
1:23:45intensified.
1:23:47>> Dukakis not only opposes the death
1:23:48penalty, he allowed first-degree
1:23:50murderers to have weekend passes from
1:23:52prison.
1:23:53One was Willie Horton, who murdered a
1:23:55boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times.
1:23:58Despite a life sentence, Horton received
1:24:0010 weekend passes from prison. Weekend
1:24:03prison passes. Dukakis on crime.
1:24:06>> The official Republican campaign
1:24:09did not
1:24:10resort
1:24:12to those scare ads. But there was
1:24:14another committee that used the menacing
1:24:17black face
1:24:19of Willie Horton.
1:24:21But it would be very hard for you and me
1:24:25to really disassociate those two.
1:24:27>> There was an independent came
1:24:29independent group that ran a candidate
1:24:31ran an ad with Willie Horton's picture,
1:24:34which we finally got them to stop
1:24:36running.
1:24:38>> Baker writes a letter
1:24:40asking them to cease and desist
1:24:44from the use
1:24:46of the racial attacks
1:24:49scare attacks about Horton.
1:24:52The damage has already been done.
1:24:55>> The offending ad played for 28 days
1:24:57before it was yanked.
1:24:59Then campaign manager Baker launched an
1:25:02authorized one.
1:25:03>> His revolving door prison policy gave
1:25:05weekend furloughs to first-degree
1:25:06murderers not eligible for parole.
1:25:09While out, many committed other crimes
1:25:11like kidnapping and rape. Now Michael
1:25:14Dukakis says he wants to do for America
1:25:16what he's done for Massachusetts.
1:25:18America can't afford that risk.
1:25:21>> That was not going negative. Governor
1:25:23Dukakis supported a prison furlough bill
1:25:26as governor of Massachusetts.
1:25:29And all we did was point out that he had
1:25:32done that.
1:25:33>> Yes, it was a terrible human tragedy.
1:25:36And I accepted responsibility for it
1:25:38and changed the program.
1:25:42>> One of the ironies of George Bush's life
1:25:45is that a fundamentally decent [music]
1:25:46man
1:25:48presided over
1:25:50a moment when politics got meaner and
1:25:52rougher.
1:25:54'88 was the year of the handler of of
1:25:57bringing in political [music]
1:25:58consultants who played very hard and
1:26:00very tough. They'd always been around in
1:26:02politics. They weren't invented in 1988.
1:26:04[music]
1:26:04But 1988 was kind of a rough trivial
1:26:06campaign. Lee Atwater and these henchmen
1:26:09for Bush
1:26:10looking for the so-called wedge issues
1:26:13not really staying on the high [music]
1:26:14road and talking about the great issues
1:26:16of the day, but rather sniping it at
1:26:18their opponents to find some weakness in
1:26:19them.
1:26:21And Bush put up with that.
1:26:23>> Did you see in the paper that Willie
1:26:25Horton said if he could vote, he would
1:26:26vote for you?
1:26:27>> I can't vote, Sam.
1:26:29>> I think it was
1:26:30>> [music]
1:26:30>> one of the dirtiest campaigns in
1:26:32American history.
1:26:33>> The whole concept of smearing the term
1:26:35liberalism, the whole concept of doing
1:26:38that, making that into a dirty word, you
1:26:39know, the L word.
1:26:43>> He made his compromise.
1:26:45Just like he made his compromise with
1:26:46Reagan saying, "Yes, he'd be against all
1:26:48of Bush's."
1:26:50George was pragmatic.
1:26:53You have to win
1:26:55in order to put your principles into
1:26:58effect.
1:26:59Without winning, you can't achieve
1:27:01anything.
1:27:03These are the accommodations
1:27:05that George had to make for politics.
1:27:12>> [music]
1:27:12>> Look at those numbers, Luke.
1:27:15>> In November 1988, George Herbert Walker
1:27:18Bush soundly defeated Michael Dukakis
1:27:21to become [music] the first sitting Vice
1:27:23President since Martin Van Buren in 1836
1:27:26to be elected president.
1:27:27>> [cheering]
1:27:30>> Ronald Reagan, who had doubts about Bush
1:27:32eight years earlier,
1:27:33>> [music]
1:27:34>> came to feel he was the most qualified
1:27:36president-elect in American history.
1:27:39They became [music] good friends.
1:27:44When Bush went to the Oval [music]
1:27:45Office for the first time as president,
1:27:48he found a note from Reagan.
1:27:50"God bless you and Barbara," it read.
1:27:53"I'll miss our Thursday [music] lunches.
1:27:56You'll have moments when you want to use
1:27:58this stationery."
1:28:01Bush placed the note in his [music]
1:28:02desk.
1:28:04On his desk, he placed a picture of
1:28:06Robin.
1:28:07They would remain there for his entire
1:28:09[music] term in office.
1:28:12The first photo was with his mother.
1:28:15His competitive spirit had come from her
1:28:17and his sense of modesty. She had taught
1:28:19him never to call attention to himself.
1:28:26Yet for 8 years he had seen Reagan
1:28:28inspire Americans with a sense of drama
1:28:31and celebratory spectacle.
1:28:35Reagan's conservative revolution had
1:28:37swept Bush onto the national stage.
1:28:40>> [music]
1:28:41>> George H.W. Bush was Ronald Reagan's
1:28:44heir.
1:28:46>> He spent the entire 8 years as vice
1:28:49president traveling the length and
1:28:50breadth of [music] this country saying,
1:28:52"Trust me, I am a conservative and if
1:28:55I'm ever elected president of the United
1:28:56States, I will govern [music] as a
1:28:58conservative."
1:29:00>> We didn't expect him to be another
1:29:02Ronald Reagan, but we did expect that he
1:29:04would keep his clear promises and that
1:29:07he would govern as a right-of-center
1:29:10[music] president.
1:29:12>> Bush may have been Ronald Reagan's heir.
1:29:15He was also Prescott Bush's son.
1:29:19>> There you have the conundrum of the Bush
1:29:20presidency.
1:29:21He was looking over one shoulder and
1:29:23[music] seeing where the Republican
1:29:25Party was going
1:29:27and over the other shoulder he saw his
1:29:29own
1:29:30lineage, his own tradition.
1:29:32He saw his father,
1:29:34Prescott Bush. [music] He saw Dwight
1:29:35Eisenhower and he saw Richard Nixon and
1:29:37Gerald Ford who in retrospect are seen
1:29:40as moderate conservatives.
1:29:42>> I, George Herbert Walker Bush
1:29:44>> Now with the chance to be his own man,
1:29:46George Bush began to distance himself
1:29:48[music]
1:29:48from Ronald Reagan.
1:29:51>> First thing that he does is
1:29:53through his transition team which was
1:29:55run by him
1:29:56in part by his son, George W., was went
1:29:59in and and booted all of the Reagan
1:30:01appointees
1:30:03>> [music]
1:30:03>> and told them
1:30:04with a great deal of harshness that they
1:30:07were to be out of town before sundown.
1:30:10It was an ideological house cleaning.
1:30:14And Reagan appointees are shown the door
1:30:17in a harsh transition that makes it look
1:30:20like a Democrat is coming in.
1:30:25>> Wasting little time, Bush tackled some
1:30:27of the problems he inherited.
1:30:30On the domestic front, he decided to
1:30:32clean up a messy banking problem that
1:30:34[music] both Reagan and Congress had all
1:30:36but ignored.
1:30:40In 1986, when the real estate market
1:30:42collapsed, hundreds of savings and loan
1:30:44banks had gone bust.
1:30:49The cost of bailing out depositors was
1:30:51pushing $50 billion
1:30:53and was projected to triple.
1:30:56Bush knew it would be expensive and
1:30:59politically thankless.
1:31:02>> You do it
1:31:05not to advance your interests.
1:31:09You do it because it's in the interest
1:31:11of millions of people who will never
1:31:13vote for you and will certainly never
1:31:15give you any credit for doing it.
1:31:17That's responsibility. That's [music]
1:31:19accountability.
1:31:21That's the old establishment way
1:31:25of discharging
1:31:27the privileges
1:31:29of leadership.
1:31:31>> He's separating himself from Reagan.
1:31:34One of the things that haunted Bush all
1:31:37the way through
1:31:39was his being compared to Reagan.
1:31:42And
1:31:43immediately
1:31:44>> [music]
1:31:45>> from his acceptance speech
1:31:47a gentler and kinder country
1:31:50he's separating himself from Reagan.
1:31:53And this was some of the
1:31:55residue of the Reagan administration.
1:31:57Major residue of the Reagan
1:31:58administration.
1:32:00>> Bush shifted course in foreign policy as
1:32:03well.
1:32:05He agreed not to support the military
1:32:07overthrow of the Marxist Nicaraguan
1:32:09government if that government agreed to
1:32:12free elections.
1:32:15>> President Bush
1:32:17began to act quite differently from
1:32:19candidate Bush.
1:32:21One of his first initiatives was to push
1:32:23for elections in Nicaragua and to take
1:32:26Nicaragua off the front burner of US
1:32:28foreign policy.
1:32:30He didn't want to continue the divisive
1:32:33American debate.
1:32:37>> Bush also confronted the question of how
1:32:39to deal with a rapidly changing Soviet
1:32:41Union.
1:32:45>> Is conversion of military production a
1:32:46realistic idea? I've already had
1:32:48occasion to
1:32:49>> Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had
1:32:51pledged at the United Nations to
1:32:53renounce the use of force and withdraw
1:32:551/2 million troops from Eastern Europe.
1:32:58>> We are ready to draw up and make public
1:33:00our internal conversion plan.
1:33:05>> Many Russian experts felt the Cold War
1:33:07was over.
1:33:10Even the wise man who 45 years earlier
1:33:13had devised the policy [music] of
1:33:15containing the Soviet Union.
1:33:19>> President Bush came into office
1:33:23realizing that a lot had been done under
1:33:24President Reagan
1:33:26but there was still a Soviet Union. It
1:33:28hadn't gone away.
1:33:30Still had all of its missiles, it still
1:33:31had its troops.
1:33:34And so it wasn't entirely clear
1:33:37what was going to happen.
1:33:39Mr. Gorbachev was a very charismatic
1:33:42figure but it wasn't clear at the time
1:33:45whether or not he had the whole Soviet
1:33:47governmental structure with him.
1:33:49And so there was the degree of caution
1:33:51and a degree of let's study this.
1:33:54>> Ultimately
1:33:55our objective
1:33:58is to with the Soviet Union to help them
1:33:59succeed.
1:34:00>> Bush responded to Gorbachev.
1:34:03>> Containment worked,
1:34:05and now it is time to move beyond
1:34:07containment
1:34:10to a new policy for the 1990s,
1:34:13one that recognizes the full scope of
1:34:16change taking place around the world and
1:34:20in the Soviet Union itself.
1:34:24>> The response, many felt, was too timid.
1:34:27>> [music]
1:34:33[music]
1:34:35>> A New York Times editorial said, "If an
1:34:37alien spacecraft landed and looked for
1:34:39Earth's leader,
1:34:40it would be taken [music] to Mikhail
1:34:42Gorbachev."
1:34:44>> Gorbachev was encouraging reforms,
1:34:46definitely.
1:34:47And he believed and said [music]
1:34:49that if we wanted change in our country,
1:34:51if we wanted to abandon the old system
1:34:53in our country, how could we prohibit or
1:34:56inhibit [music]
1:34:58change in our neighbors?
1:35:03>> Bush did not meet the Soviet leader for
1:35:05almost a year.
1:35:07He did respond to the changes Gorbachev
1:35:09had encouraged in Eastern Europe.
1:35:13In Poland, the anti-government
1:35:15Solidarity movement routed the
1:35:16communists in free elections,
1:35:19the first break in the Iron Curtain in
1:35:21more than 40 years.
1:35:24The challenge for Bush when he arrived
1:35:26in Warsaw in July 1989
1:35:29was not to provoke a backlash by
1:35:31Poland's communist leader, General
1:35:32Jaruzelski, or Kremlin hardliners.
1:35:38>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
1:35:41for your hospitable and gracious words
1:35:43of welcome.
1:35:44We extend the heartfelt best wishes of
1:35:47the American people.
1:35:49And here,
1:35:50in the heart of Europe, the American
1:35:52people have a fervent wish that Europe
1:35:55be whole and free.
1:36:00>> Bush spent time with Poland's reform
1:36:02leader, Lech Wałęsa.
1:36:06He spent more time with Jaruzelski.
1:36:11>> The president, I think, really
1:36:13understood that a lot of the folks that
1:36:15were there doing the Russians' bidding
1:36:17were still Poles first and cared about
1:36:20their country.
1:36:22And he tried to create a structure uh in
1:36:25which the strong hand, the supported by
1:36:27this
1:36:28Soviet Union, became a part of the
1:36:30solution rather [music] than opposition
1:36:32to the solution.
1:36:33>> He was determined that no one was going
1:36:36to feel that they had been defeated.
1:36:38He was very aware, I think, of the
1:36:41Versailles syndrome.
1:36:43That uh Germany [music] had felt
1:36:44defeated after World War I, humiliated
1:36:47after World War I, and that had brought
1:36:49to power uh Adolf Hitler.
1:36:51>> He saw what was going on in Eastern
1:36:54Europe
1:36:55as a very delicate process.
1:36:58Um that involved holding the hands
1:37:01of both the reformers
1:37:04and the old-style communists.
1:37:07>> It was an art form that George Bush was
1:37:09very good at.
1:37:11He understood that most people generally
1:37:14have good intentions. You just have to
1:37:16find a way to uh
1:37:17get them to work together uh in order to
1:37:19bring them forward.
1:37:22>> Bush encouraged the reforms Gorbachev
1:37:24had allowed.
1:37:26His active role came after the reform
1:37:28movement spread to East Germany.
1:37:31>> [screaming]
1:37:32[cheering]
1:37:34>> In August, East Germans sought asylum at
1:37:36the West German missions in Prague and
1:37:38in East Berlin.
1:37:39>> [screaming]
1:37:44>> Then Hungary opened its borders to
1:37:46Austria
1:37:48and East German tourists fled into
1:37:50Austria.
1:37:55>> [music]
1:37:58>> As protests for reform grew in East
1:38:01Germany,
1:38:02the British and the French grew more
1:38:04worried about a reunified Germany.
1:38:09In the first half of the [music] 20th
1:38:10century, they had suffered from German
1:38:12aggression in two World Wars.
1:38:17In the second half, with Germany
1:38:18divided, Europe had been at peace.
1:38:23The possibility of a reunited Germany
1:38:25did not worry George Bush.
1:38:28>> Do you think a reunified Germany would
1:38:30be a stabilizing force in Europe or a
1:38:32destabilizing force?
1:38:34>> Well, I think there is in some quarters
1:38:36a feeling, well, a reunified Germany
1:38:38would be would be detrimental to the
1:38:40peace of Europe, of Western Europe some
1:38:42way, and I don't accept that at all.
1:38:44Simply don't. Yeah, Fred.
1:38:47>> "They can't turn back the clock," Bush
1:38:49told the press.
1:38:50"The change is too inexorable."
1:38:54One writer called this a [music] verbal
1:38:56volley heard around the world.
1:38:59>> His pronouncements before the wall came
1:39:01down were probably among the most
1:39:03unstaffed comments by any president of
1:39:07the United States. I I can tell you that
1:39:09it was wonderful to have the president
1:39:10come out and say Germany ought to unify
1:39:13and unify as quickly as it can [music]
1:39:15on terms that are acceptable to Germans
1:39:18because we didn't have any debates
1:39:20inside the administration about whether
1:39:22Germany ought to unify. The president
1:39:24had already said it was going to unify.
1:39:26Our job then was just to make it happen.
1:39:29He was out in front of all of us.
1:39:32>> Germany loomed large
1:39:34in the history of post-war Europe and
1:39:37arguably [music]
1:39:38of the whole US-Soviet competition.
1:39:41The Soviets felt that their share of
1:39:43Germany was a prize that they had won
1:39:47for beating Hitler.
1:39:49They also saw their slice of Germany as
1:39:52their front line
1:39:53as a defense against
1:39:56future attacks.
1:39:58Bush saw
1:40:01that with care
1:40:04he could get the Soviets to give up what
1:40:07had been their great prize.
1:40:10This is where Bush actually got ahead of
1:40:13most of the foreign policy analysts and
1:40:15most of the leaders
1:40:17in the free world.
1:40:20>> The Soviets had built the wall dividing
1:40:22Berlin in 1961 [music]
1:40:24to keep East Germans from fleeing.
1:40:27Now, in early November 1989
1:40:30Gorbachev prodded East Germany's leader
1:40:33to open its borders to avoid an
1:40:34explosion.
1:40:37>> [cheering]
1:40:39>> Within days, the Berlin Wall, the very
1:40:42symbol of the Cold War
1:40:44was breached.
1:40:46>> Well, I don't think any single event
1:40:49uh is the end of uh what you might call
1:40:52the Iron Curtain.
1:40:53But, clearly
1:40:54>> [music]
1:40:55>> this is a long way from the
1:40:57from the harsh days of the
1:41:01harshest Iron Curtain days. Long way
1:41:03from that.
1:41:04>> You know, I think in the what you just
1:41:06said that this is a sort of great
1:41:08victory, but you don't seem
1:41:10elated, and I'm wondering if you're
1:41:12thinking of the promise.
1:41:13>> is not an emotional kind of guy.
1:41:15>> You know, he he famously said [music]
1:41:17that his mother told him as a boy not to
1:41:19indulge in braggadocio.
1:41:22And um
1:41:24if there was ever a time when any other
1:41:27American president would have been
1:41:29tempted to indulge in braggadocio
1:41:33it was 1989-1990,
1:41:35the end of the Cold War, the great
1:41:38victory of the West over the Marxist
1:41:40experiment, over the evil empire.
1:41:44>> The wall had inspired some of the Cold
1:41:47War's [music] most memorable
1:41:48presidential rhetoric.
1:41:50>> Therefore,
1:41:52as a free man,
1:41:54I take pride in the words
1:41:57Ich bin ein Berliner.
1:42:01>> Mr. Gorbachev,
1:42:03tear down [music]
1:42:04this wall.
1:42:06>> [cheering]
1:42:08>> Any other president
1:42:10would have gotten on a plane and flown
1:42:11to Berlin and beat his breast
1:42:14and engaged in
1:42:16I told you so triumphalism.
1:42:19And Bush not only didn't need to do
1:42:22that,
1:42:23he had the strength of character to
1:42:25resist everyone around him
1:42:27who told him that that's what he should
1:42:29do as president of the United States and
1:42:31leader of the free world.
1:42:36>> I was one of those who thought he should
1:42:38go to Berlin. He should be at the wall
1:42:40for for Kennedy, for Reagan, for all of
1:42:43those who had wanted the wall to come
1:42:45down. He should go there.
1:42:48He wanted to have the end of the
1:42:51division of Germany be a German moment.
1:42:54It was the moment for Germany to come to
1:42:55terms with its division and it was it
1:42:59was the moment for Germany to celebrate
1:43:01that that division had ended.
1:43:03>> [cheering]
1:43:05>> Bush's self-restraint was more than
1:43:07modesty and courtesy.
1:43:09He had geopolitics in mind.
1:43:12>> [cheering]
1:43:13>> He remembered when Hungarians had
1:43:14revolted against their Soviet-backed
1:43:16regime in 1956
1:43:18and the CIA led Hungarians to believe
1:43:20the US would rush to their support.
1:43:25He did not want East Germans to expect
1:43:27the US Army to rescue them if the
1:43:29Soviets ordered a crackdown.
1:43:34More important, Bush wanted to work with
1:43:36Gorbachev to end the Cold [music] War.
1:43:39He worried that grandstanding in Berlin
1:43:41could provoke a coup in Moscow.
1:43:44>> He actually said to Gorbachev on the
1:43:46[music] phone that I will not be dancing
1:43:48on the wall.
1:43:49That is, I think, something that
1:43:52Gorbachev appreciated.
1:43:53Because he didn't want
1:43:56you know, additional problems for
1:43:57himself within the country
1:44:00uh from the hardliners, from the
1:44:01conservatives within the party. [music]
1:44:03Uh
1:44:04if um anything happened that could have
1:44:08been conceived as humiliating to
1:44:10Gorbachev.
1:44:11>> It is impossible to exaggerate
1:44:14the importance of that cool-headedness
1:44:17and delicate
1:44:19approach at a time [music] of
1:44:22international change, revolutionary
1:44:24change
1:44:26in
1:44:27international politics.
1:44:31>> At home, Bush's restraint was met with
1:44:33criticism and ridicule.
1:44:36>> I urge President Bush to express the
1:44:38sense of elation that all Americans feel
1:44:41as the East German people cross and
1:44:44erase barriers that have been prison
1:44:46them for decades.
1:44:47>> Even as the walls of the modern Jericho
1:44:49come tumbling down,
1:44:52we have a president who, at least for
1:44:54now,
1:44:55is inadequate to the moment.
1:44:58>> The wall coming down, me,
1:45:01enthusiastic but prudent,
1:45:03out in front of the situation, not too
1:45:06far, playing it just right.
1:45:11>> East and West Germans voted to unify.
1:45:14And Bush wanted the unified Germany in
1:45:16the Western camp,
1:45:18in NATO.
1:45:20>> Gorbachev was clearly not predisposed to
1:45:22have a unified Germany be in NATO. How
1:45:25could that be good from the Soviet point
1:45:27of view? Uh the divided Germany had
1:45:30after all been the epicenter of that
1:45:32ideological conflict and the Soviet
1:45:34Union had most of its Warsaw Pact forces
1:45:37and clearly its most elite forces in
1:45:40East Germany. So, how was this going to
1:45:42work?
1:45:48>> Bush and Gorbachev tackled this [music]
1:45:50issue with a summit in Washington in
1:45:52June 1990.
1:45:58>> I said we want Germany to be neutral.
1:46:01That was our initial position that we
1:46:04proposed.
1:46:05This was the subject of very passionate
1:46:08debate.
1:46:09President Bush said, "Why are you afraid
1:46:13of Germany?"
1:46:14I said,
1:46:15"Well, my impression is that you are
1:46:17afraid of Germany because you are afraid
1:46:22to set Germany [clears throat] free from
1:46:24NATO. We are not afraid of Germany out
1:46:27of NATO.
1:46:28Why should we be afraid?
1:46:32>> President Bush said, um and of course
1:46:35the Helsinki Accords, which we had all
1:46:37signed in 1975, allow that any state in
1:46:41Europe can choose its alliances. So,
1:46:44once there's a unified Germany, it can
1:46:46choose its alliances. And Gorbachev
1:46:48said, "That's right."
1:46:51>> Yes,
1:46:52I said, "Well, if you insist, then it is
1:46:54not up to us to decide which alliance
1:46:57Germany would join. So, let the Germans
1:47:00decide whether they would want to be a
1:47:03part of the Warsaw Treaty or a part of
1:47:05NATO or to be a neutral country."
1:47:10>> And
1:47:11his associates at the table
1:47:14started talking among themselves,
1:47:15Russians, and they called a halt to the
1:47:17meeting and they went off in the corner
1:47:19and had a debate. Uh and it was really
1:47:23really something and they tried to get
1:47:25Gorbachev to back away from that
1:47:27statement that the German it was up to
1:47:29the Germans.
1:47:32>> And we actually called the Russians that
1:47:35night and said now when President Bush
1:47:38says this in his press conference
1:47:40statement is President Gorbachev going
1:47:43to say yes or is he going to [music]
1:47:44contradict him?
1:47:46And we waited long hours. I remember
1:47:49going home and waiting well into the
1:47:50night.
1:47:51And finally
1:47:53the call came yes in fact President
1:47:55Gorbachev was was going to be fine. He
1:47:57wouldn't contradict it and then we all
1:47:59held our breath through the [music]
1:48:00press conference.
1:48:00>> Germany's external alliances I believe
1:48:03as do Chancellor Kohl and the members of
1:48:04the alliance that the United Germany
1:48:06should be a full member of NATO.
1:48:08Now President Gorbachev
1:48:10frankly does not hold that view.
1:48:13But we are in full agreement that the
1:48:15matter of alliance membership is
1:48:18>> [music]
1:48:18>> in accordance with the Helsinki Final
1:48:20Act a matter for the Germans to decide.
1:48:23>> Bush said to Gorbachev I do understand
1:48:26why you have doubts about Germany. I do
1:48:28understand I do know the history between
1:48:30the Soviet Union and Germany but I
1:48:33believe that Germany has paid its dues
1:48:36that Germany has paid its debts and that
1:48:39it is now a responsible nation
1:48:41that will behave responsibly on the
1:48:44international scene.
1:48:46And I think that that argument did have
1:48:49some force with Gorbachev.
1:48:55>> [music]
1:49:00>> That was one of the seminal moments in
1:49:03unifying Germany.
1:49:06And President George H.W. Bush
1:49:09was the only person that I think who
1:49:11could have pulled it off
1:49:13just because of his personal qualities
1:49:14and and the way that he thought about
1:49:16diplomacy.
1:49:19>> [music]
1:49:29>> When we exercise over here, Barbara went
1:49:32for a mile a day.
1:49:33>> Bush considered a United Germany in NATO
1:49:35[music] one of the crowning achievements
1:49:37of his presidency.
1:49:39>> Thank you.
1:49:40See you later.
1:49:41>> One historian called it one of the
1:49:43greatest moments in the history of
1:49:44American statecraft
1:49:46after Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase
1:49:49>> Now we're on
1:49:50>> and the diplomacy of the so-called wise
1:49:51men who at the start of the Cold War
1:49:54planned the policy of containing [music]
1:49:56the Soviet Union.
1:49:57>> Right.
1:50:08>> 15 months [music] into his term, George
1:50:11Bush faced the first international
1:50:12crisis of the post-Cold War world.
1:50:17On August 1st, 1990, Iraq's president
1:50:20Saddam Hussein invaded [music]
1:50:21neighboring Kuwait in a dispute over oil
1:50:24fields.
1:50:27Bush would now have to decide how to
1:50:29deal with a man he saw in terms of
1:50:31Hitler.
1:50:32How he would meet that challenge would
1:50:34test all his skills as president.
1:50:38His actions would propel him to the
1:50:40heights of popularity.
1:50:43That would make his rejection by the
1:50:45American people less than 2 years later
1:50:48all the more bewildering and painful.
1:50:56>> [music]
1:51:11[music]
1:51:28[music]
1:51:38>> This program is available with PBS
1:51:40Passport [music] and on Amazon Prime
1:51:42Video.
1:52:04>> [music]

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