Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert
Walker Bush (2015)
4 Stars out of 5
Jon Meacham
836 pages
Jon Meacham’s fifth book on American history and the personalities
that shape it is entitled “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George
Herbert Walker Bush” (2015). When one considers common public opinion on Bush
41 (as he is known within the Bush family, along with “Poppy” and “Bush the
Elder”) it is that GHWB was if not an ineffective US President, then he was at
the very least an un-noteworthy one. Meacham in his previously demonstrated
thoughtful manner goes to great length to show that there is far more to
consider about GHWB than the public and media-held opinions on our 41st
President. However, more to the point are the implications raised by Meacham’s
book: can a person be civil, respectful and
effective in a modern political campaign, can a person be a good leader but a
poor President, and even more to the point, is there any real benefit to the
endless analysis on American television by individuals not fully informed on
the background of any action taken by an American President? Coming to this
book as I did as a committed Democrat in terms of my political leanings, I came
away with a far more informed and respectful opinion on GHWB and even on his
son, Bush 43.
Meacham does an excellent job of exploring the early life
and formative factors on GHWB’s development. Bush was born to Prescott Bush and
Dorothy Walker in Milton MA, though they moved to Greenwich CT shortly after
his birth. Both the Bush and Walker families were long time members of the
wealthy elite living in America. It must be noted though that the Bush family
pushed their offspring to make it on their own. To be sure, they received a privileged
education, had family connections of note and an early life without want. But
the children were taught from a young age to succeed and to do so without
appearing to want to do so. The desire to win (a dominant feature of GHWB’s
personality) is understandable but the curious injunction to do so without
appearing to make the effort is a curious aspect in my opinion. GHWB would take
these life lessons into school, the business world and his political life. But
before he could do so, he would enlist at 18 in the US Navy shortly after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor. He would actually become the youngest naval aviator in
the USN at the time of earning his wings. His stint in the Navy would include
58 missions in the Pacific, one of which would result in the loss of his plane
and the death of his two crewmen, an event that would haunt GHWB to the present
as he wonders still if he had done everything he could do to save them.
As his stint in the Navy neared its in end in 1945 he
married Barbara Pierce, surely the single-most significant anchor in GHWB’s
life. They would have six children: one would be a US President, two would be
state governors, and one would die from Leukemia at age 3. The death of Robin
in 1953, the same year Jeb would be born and eldest child George W would be six,
would like the death of his two crewmen bring GHWB to tears during his interviews
with Meacham. In fact, the number of times that GHWB would display his
compassion during the Meacham interviews as relayed by Meacham in his book is one
of the most compelling and enlightening aspects of the book. This man
characterized by the media as lacking in any empathy for the citizens of the US
(most especially during the 1992 campaign for president) is shown by Meacham to
be highly empathic, kind and sensitive to the needs of others.
With the close of WWII, GHWB was now free to return to his
deferred college education at Yale. Prior to graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a
BA in Economics, GHWB would be the captain of the baseball team, become a
member of the Skull and Crossbones Society, and like his father before and his
son after him, and would join the cheerleading squad. This curious membership intrigues
me more than the Skull and Crossbones membership; the reason being that going
to Yale is only a part of the family destiny, but in keeping with the family
charter of succeeding, one has to be a team member. This passion for leading
but also of fitting in with the team, the idea that for those that have, there
is a deep-seated drive to give back is a key aspect to the Bush family
ambitions. To be sure, the Bushes drive as hard as they can to succeed, but it
is not just the drive to succeed that is so important, it is this component of
their make-up that says they must do everything they can to help American
society that I think is the most noteworthy. Perhaps, their chosen means to
helping that society may be misconstrued or under-appreciated by those with
different chosen paths to helping America, but it is hard to complain about the
Bush motivations.
GHWB would leave Yale to strike out on his own in a
direction far different from his stock broker and senator father and
father-in-law: the Texas oil industry. With some help from father Prescott, GHWB
would move to Odessa TX as a sales clerk. Over the course of 18 years, GHWB
would rise to President of his own off-shore oil drilling company, Zapata Offshore
and would have become a millionaire by age 40. He did this quite frankly via
his own initiative and drive. Meacham’s book does not reveal much more than
advice and good will from his well-connected family and friends. The later criticisms
of GHWB as having a silver spoon throughout his life do not really appear to be
the case.
By 1964, GHWB would turn his attention to Texas politics and then
shortly later to national politics. His father had been a two-term US Senator from
CT, but it again appears GHWB’s interest and eventual success in politics are
self-generated. It is quite possible that his father’s time as a US Senator
inspired GHWB, but the direct role of the father according to Meacham seems to
have been minimal. In any event, following a short stint as a local Republican Party
chairman, and a failed run at US Senator, GHWB won a seat in the US House of
Representatives in 1967; he would hold this seat for two terms frequently
supporting States Rights issues (over civil liberties) and President Nixon on his Viet Nam policies.
His time as a Representative would end when he made a second failed run at US
Senator in 1968. GHWB’s political career appeared to be over. Fortunately for him, while
a Representative he had made a powerful ally in the form of Richard Nixon.
Nixon would start GHWB on a decades-long career as an appointed servant of the
American people: Nixon’s appointee as Ambassador to the UN and Chairman of the
National RNC, President Gerald Ford’s appointee as “Ambassador” to the People’s
Republic of China and as CIA Director. With Ford’s defeat to Jimmy Carter in
the 1976 Presidential race, GHWB’s career as an appointee also ended.
The 1980 presidential race would again change GHWB’s status:
this time it would put him on the road to the White House. GHWB would fail in
his attempt at the Republican Party’s nominating process for President. And
despite his at times verbally-rough battle against Ronald Reagan, the eventual winner of
both the nominating process and the general election, GHWB would be RR’s choice
for Vice-president; albeit his second choice, behind Gerald Ford who had turned the
offer down, but his choice nevertheless. It is GHWB’s time as the 43rd
US VP that I find the most enlightening about his character. He would transform from
the fierce opponent of Reagan and his “Voodoo Economics” (as termed by GHWB) to
his most loyal lieutenant. Despite having GHWB’s own reputation often being impugned
as being nothing more than a lap dog to Reagan or of being a “wimp”, GHWB would
constantly use his abilities and experience in the service of his boss,
President Reagan. GHWB’s time as VP stand in such stark contrast to Dan Quayle
under GHWB (1989-1993) or Dick Cheney’s years under GHWB’s son, Bush 43
(2001-2009). GHWB would stand in the background to Reagan never doing anything
that smacked of “grandstanding” or independent, let alone contrary behavior to
that established by his boss. Quayle for example would demonstrate on several occasions
his propensity for self-aggrandizement at the expense of anyone, including his
boss. Cheney would operate so independently as VP to Bush 43, that he would be
accused by many to be functioning as the President, rather than VP. Not GHWB,
he would be the trusted assistant, possibly compromising his own political
policies, but never his principles in the service of his President.
Well maybe he would on one occasion he would compromise his principles
and this is likely the low point of his otherwise morally upright career: the
1987 “arms for hostage” imbroglio under Reagan. This operation which sought to
trade with Iran in an effort to free the hostages had been expressly forbidden by
a US law prohibiting any negotiation with the hostage takers. A scheme was
created under the influence of US Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, a member of
Reagan’s National Security Council. As a Vice President chartered by his
President to take a large role in issues of national security, GHWB was present
at several meetings where this plan to free the hostages was discussed. There
is considerable corroborating evidence to support the assertion that GHWB had
knowledge of the negotiations; and yet he denies any knowledge when he states he was “not in the
loop”. It is per Meacham an assertion that is “unworthy of his character”. This
comment by Meacham gives the reader deep insight into the tone of the book and
of the deep and abiding respect by Meacham for his book’s subject. Meacham has
built his biography of GHWB around the central pillar of a principled man, and
despite the Iran hostage affair’s apparent lapse by GHWB, Meacham will follow
in GHWB’s footsteps and try to be as gentle and kind toward his subject’s lapse
as he possibly can.
At the end of the Reagan era, GHWB will with the somewhat lukewarm
endorsement of Reagan run for and win the job of US President in 1988. During his
four years as President, he will manage American strategy during the
dissolution of the USSR – this will be a period of extreme danger to the world
as a whole. Fortunately for the world, American actions will depend on a man
that thought deeply with a view to history and respect to others, often at
the cost of his own treatment in the hands of the press and others not fully
informed of events. Two events during this period amply illustrate this last
point: the restive actions of Lithuania to throw off Moscow’s control and the
brief period following Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s removal from power
by an internal coup d’etat. In the first case, the USSR had embargoed Lithuania’s
delivery of energy from the USSR. This was in response to rising anti-USSR demonstrations
in Lithuania. To his immense credit and completely unknown to anyone outside of
the halls of power in Washington and Moscow, GHWB negotiated with Gorbachev a
hidden deal that would help both the USSR and its growing economic problems with a IMF loan,
return the needed supply of fuel and electricity to Lithuania, and keep all of
this hidden from view in order to save everyone’s sense of “face”. Similar
cool-handed tactics during the Moscow putsch that removed Gorbachev by an
reactionary conservative movement in the dying USSR allowed the soon to be departed
USSR to gracefully and bloodlessly move onto a post-authoritarian regime. No
one died, no one lost face, and no one outside of the insiders knew.
In my opinion, GHWB’s performance as Reagan’s VP in contrast
to his own VP, Dan Quayle, and then again when GHWB handled the two cases shown
above demonstrates that there is a
place for tactful, thoughtful analysis and execution in the role of US
President. Based on the absurd Republican campaign of 2016, there is very
little reason to believe that the Party of Lincoln, of Theodore Roosevelt, or of
Ronald Reagan still believes this to be true. I quite frankly wonder which if
any of these men, let alone a “wimp” like GHWB would be nominated by their
party in 2016, nominated that is based on their strategic vision, principles or
experience. It is far more likely they would be elected or not based the antithetical
behaviors of slander, inexperience, and from-the-hip thinking that so strongly
characterizes modern campaigning.
Is there room in the early 21st Century for politicians
that like GHWB are graceful in tone; who know a lives based on respect for
their fellow man and then live their life according to that type of morality; and who
love their duty to family and their country more than their reputation or career. I
hope so, but fear it may not be true in the age of 24 hour “news”, of Super
PACs, and of a country that really seems to pray at the altar of “Me First”.
The Age of the Dedicated Public Servant may well have had its last, best
adherent in George Herbert Walker Bush. I did not, do not agree with all of his
policies (most especially his domestic policies), but he is one of the very few politicians I greatly respect despite
his political philosophies, and this is due to his stature as one of the few principled
politicians of our times.
I always search out certain themes, topics, and authors when
I choose a book to read. Jon Meacham heads the list of my favorite biographers.
He did his best work with his Pulitzer Prize winning book on Andrew Jackson (“American
Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White house”, 2008), continued at a high level with
his biography of Thomas Jefferson in 2012, and now this book on GHWB. Each of
these books is definitely worth reading by anyone interested in a careful
analysis of the people and the personalities that have shaped American history.
“Destiny and Power…” is an excellent book that should be read by all, but most especially
by left-leaning readers such as me. Just like George HW Bush found, it is
always educational to read and better understand both sides of an argument
before one forms an opinion.
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