George H. W. Bush: The American Presidents Series: The 41st President 1989-1993

The judicious statesman who won victories abroad but suffered defeat at home whose wisdom and demeanor served America well at a critical time. George Bush was a throwback to a different era. A patrician figure not known for eloquence Bush dismissed ideology as the vision thing. Yet as Timothy Naftali argues no one of his generation was better prepared for the challenges facing the United States as the Cold War ended. Bush wisely encouraged the liberalization of the Soviet system and skillfully orchestrated the reunification of Germany. And following Iraqs invasion of Kuwait in 1990 he united the global community to defeat Saddam Hussein. At home Bush reasserted fiscal discipline after the excesses of the Reagan years. . It was ultimately his political awkwardness that cost Bush a second term. His toughest decisions widened fractures in the Republican Party and with his party divided Bush lost his bid for reelection in 1992. In a final irony the conservatives who scorned him would return to power eight years later under his son and namesake with the result that the elder George Bush would see his reputation soar.