George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush's family nickname was Poppy. He is also called Bush 41, because he was the 41st president. He was a Republican. He was born in Massachusetts, summered in Maine, and built his political life in Texas — Texas is the home state of his career. He served as president from 1989 to 1993. He had just been vice president to Ronald Reagan for eight years, then won the presidency himself in 1988. In World War II he was a Navy pilot who was shot down in the Pacific and rescued. A Japanese attack downed his plane in 1944. He parachuted into the sea and was pulled aboard a submarine. Before he was vice president he had led the CIA, and he had been a diplomat.

The Gulf War of 1991 was fought to expel Iraq from Kuwait. Saddam Hussein's Iraq had invaded tiny Kuwait. A huge U.S.-led coalition pushed the invaders out. Major combat lasted about six weeks. Desert Storm was swift. After freeing Kuwait, Bush decided not to march on and occupy Baghdad. The mission was to free Kuwait — and he stuck to it. Restraint is a presidential skill. During his presidency the rival superpower, the Soviet Union, collapsed. The USSR dissolved in 1991. The Cold War ended on his watch, without a shooting war between the two giants. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, he refused to gloat, so he would not trap Gorbachev. START, signed on his watch, was a treaty to cut U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed by Bush in 1990, opened doors, ramps, jobs, and public life more fairly to people with disabilities. Kids can still see the ADA: a ramp, a caption, a parking space. It is a major civil-rights statute. His 1988 campaign pledge was “Read my lips: no new taxes.” He later accepted a tax deal to cut the deficit. Many voters felt the pledge had been broken, and it hurt him in 1992. He lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton. His son later became the 43rd president. Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings convulsed the country in 1991; Bush nominated him, and Thomas still joined the Court. He hated broccoli and said so. To mark surviving being shot down, he later skydived on his 75th, 80th, 85th, and 90th birthdays.