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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'I Want This for George.' George H.W. Bush's secret pain over his sons complicated legacy
I Want This for GeorgeIraq, a family dynasty and George H.W. Bushs secret pain over his sons complicated legacy.
By MARK K. UPDEGROVE November 19, 2017
On December 23, 1990, President George H.W. Bush slept restlessly. The extended Bush family had gathered at Camp David for the holidays as they did every year of his presidency, boosting his spirits, but this year especially, he had a lot on his mind. A ground war in Kuwait looked increasingly likely as Saddam Hussein continued to ignore the warnings of the U.S. and allied nations. It preoccupied Bush, running continuously through his mind. On Christmas Eve morning, he awakened with the remnants of a dream in his head: He was driving into a hotel near a golf course. Across a fence was another golf course, a lesser one. He heard his father, the banker and senator Prescott Bush, was there and went looking for him, finding him in a hotel room just as he remembered him, big, strong, highly respected. The two men embraced. I miss you very much, the son told his father.
A dozen years later, during Christmastime of 2002, the extended Bush family once again found themselves at Camp David, as President George W. Bush was faced with the possibility of a war with Saddam Hussein, just as his father had been. But while 41 had unconsciously yearned for his father in 1990, 43 had his own father to lean onand he was right there. As 43 labored to find a diplomatic solution to his standoff with Saddam, he briefed his father on the situation and solicited his view. You know how tough war is, son, 41 told him, and youve got to try everything you can to avoid war. But if the man wont comply, you dont have any other choice. The elder Bushs advice went no further. [H]e didnt need to tell me, I hope youre concerned about the troops, 43 said of his fatherin one of several interviews the two men gave for my new book on their relationship, The Last Republicans. He knew me well enough to know that Id be concerned.
It was unprecedented. Never before in American history had a president had a father and presidential peer whom he could draw on immediately for counsel. When John Quincy Adams took office in Washington in March 1825, 24 years after his father left office, the decrepit elder Adams, at 89, was in Quincy, Massachusetts, in his last 15 months of life. John Quincy learned of his fathers death days after his passing on July 4, 1826, arriving in Massachusetts just in time for his funeral. It is among the rarest ingredients of happiness, he wrote a friend, to have a father yet living till a son is far advanced in years. Distance hadnt allowed the elder Adams to be an active resource for his son during his first year and a quarter in the presidency. But the younger Bushs fatherbig, strong, highly respectedwas accessible to offer guidance. Regardless, by both Bushes accounts, 41s succinct advice at Camp David was the only time 43 solicited his view on anything of consequence regarding Iraqand it seemed to belie concerns 41 quietly harbored about a war.
By all inside accounts, George H.W. Bush was first and foremost a loving father during his sons White House years, refraining from imparting unsolicited advice even as he worried about 43s administration, especially later as the war in Iraq got mired in mission creep. I would definitely not characterize 41 as counseling his son in a reproachful way, said Jim Baker, his former chief of staff and secretary of state. If he were counseling him, he would say, Are you really sure this is something you want to do? Now, I know that 41 thought that some of the advice that 43 was getting in the foreign policy was not the right advice. But he had the view that, Look, we had our chance; now its [his] turn. Forty-one also conceded that the world had changed since his administration. He always said to me, Well, the world was different when I was there, 43s national security adviser and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said. People who try to say, Well, 41 would have been more circumspect, or Jim Baker would have handled it differentlywith al Qaeda having blown up the World Trade Center, really?
It was in large measure because 41 had been president that he didnt tender advice more readily. George Bush knew what it meant to be briefed as president, 43 said. He also knew presidents dont need frivolous, shallow advice: Even though it may not be as informed as your aides, heres my opinion
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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/relationship-president-george-hw-bush-george-w-bush-41-43-iraq-war-215828
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'I Want This for George.' George H.W. Bush's secret pain over his sons complicated legacy (Original Post)
DonViejo
Nov 2017
OP
GeorgeGist
(25,326 posts)1. A better father would have told Junior ...
"You're not qualified to be President.' and avoided a whole lotta tragedy for the USA and his family.
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,847 posts)2. "But if the man wont comply, you dont have any other choice.
I don't know where to even begin on that one.
whathehell
(29,110 posts)3. Ask the teens he molested if they care about H.W. .Bush''s "Pain"
because I don't...He's just another rich, entitled jerk.
justgamma
(3,667 posts)4. It didn't matter.
The day Shrub was selected, I turned to my hubby and said "We're going to war with Iraq." If people were surprised when we dropped the bombs, they weren't paying attention.