Destiny And Power - Destiny and Power Part 46
Library

Destiny and Power Part 46

NIXON TOLD HALDEMAN TO GET BUSH Author interview with GHWB. For the Bush U.N. appointment, see also Naftali, GHWB, 23, and Wicker, GHWB, 2527.

WENT BACK TO ATB, 133.

THOUGHT THINGS OVER LSY, 147.

SEEMS TO HAVE DECIDED Ibid.

"BUSH'S ARGUMENTS WERE WELL TAKEN" Ibid.

BUSH "TAKES OUR LINE BEAUTIFULLY" The China Diary of George H. W. Bush: The Making of a Global President, ed. Jeffrey A. Engel (Princeton, N.J., 2008), 411.

"YOU'VE SOLD THE PRESIDENT" ATB, 133.

THE PRESIDENT SUGGESTED BPB diary, January 1, 1971.

BUSH RESISTED THE IDEA Ibid.; author interview with GHWB.

HE BELIEVED HIMSELF A TEXAN Author interview with GHWB.

HIS OLD FRIEND LUD ASHLEY LSY, 148.

"SEEMED AMAZED WHEN" ATB, 134.

REACHING OUT TO OTHERS This is a common theme in Bush's life. In terms of the new assignment, Timothy Naftali wrote: "At the United Nations Bush used his talents for listening and empathy to good effect." (Naftali, GHWB, 23.) See also Wicker, GHWB, 27.

BUSH INVITED HENRY KISSINGER ATB, 13536; BPB diary, January 1971.

TO PLAY TIDDLYWINKS ATB, 13536.

OVER A SUPPER OF BPB diary, January 20, 1971.

"HENRY TOLD US" Ibid. See also ATB, 136.

BORN IN GERMANY IN 1923 Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York, 1992), 20, 2728, 3949, 59, 506; Current Biography, 1972 (New York, 1972), 25457; Henry Kissinger, "Sitting with DiMaggio and Steinbrenner," NYT, September 21, 2008.

THE BUSHES ENTERED THE STATE DINING ROOM BPB diary, February 26, 1971.

"I DIDN'T GET ALL THIS ATTENTION" Ibid.

HE HAD BREAKFASTED THAT MORNING "Remarks at the Swearing In of George Bush as United States Representative to the United Nations," February 26, 1971, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1971, 34547.

"THE FACT THAT ONE DOOR" Ibid.

POTTER STEWART...ADMINISTERED THE OATH BPB diary, February 26, 1971.

DOROTHY BUSH'S FACE Ibid.

BUSH WAS EMOTIONAL Ibid.

THE GEORGE BUSHES WERE IN NEW YORK Ibid., March 2, 1971.

"I FIND IT VERY DIFFICULT" ATB, 142.

BUSH HURLED HIMSELF ATB, 139.

YAKOV MALIK LF, 11112.

"HE REPEATED ALL THE COLD WAR RHETORIC" Ibid., 14546.

AT A UN SECURITY COUNCIL SESSION BPB diary, January 15, 1972.

HIS "MOST DIFFICULT ISSUE" ATB, 140; Engel, ed., China Diary of George H. W. Bush, 41824; Naftali, GHWB, 2325; LSY, 15153; Wicker, GHWB, 29.

THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA ATB, 140.

HAD INSISTED ON RECOGNIZING TAIWAN Naftali, GHWB, 23.

HELD CHINA'S SEAT Ibid.; ATB, 140.

THE DEBATE OVER TAIWAN'S FATE ATB, 14041. See also LF, 11416.

PRESSING AHEAD WITH DUAL REPRESENTATION LF, 114. See also ATB, 14954.

FOR BUSH, THE PROBLEM LF, 116.

"THE BALL GAME IS OVER" ATB, 14950.

BECAUSE TAIWAN WAS IMPORTANT Author correspondence with Jeffrey A. Engel. I am indebted to Engel for his guidance and analysis on these points. As he wrote: "I understand Bush's fight for Taiwan's continued representation along three levels. First, he was loyal: we had given our word to the Taiwanese-specifically, he had given his word to their U.N. ambassador-and he thought the U.S. should keep its promises to its old friends, even as it courted new friends. Second, he was following Nixon's orders and frankly was deluding himself a touch, I think, in telling himself that he worked for Nixon and not Kissinger, and thus could blame the prince for failures he'd rather not see in the king. Third and most important: he was told to win, and here the Bush competitive instinct kicked in." (Ibid.) KISSINGER TRAVELED TO THE MAINLAND Naftali, GHWB, 24; Wicker, GHWB, 29.

"IT WAS AN UGLINESS" ATB, 154.

TAIWAN WAS ULTIMATELY EXPELLED Ibid., 153.

"LIFE GOES ON" Ibid., 15455.

"CLEARLY HOSTILE TO THE UNITED STATES" Ibid., 155.

"IF WE APPEAR TO BE PUSHED AROUND" Ibid.

THE TWO MEN MET Ibid. For analysis of Bush's view of the episode, see Naftali, GHWB, 2425.

"HE STARTED OFF" ATB, 155.

"I WANT TO TREAT YOU" Ibid.

THE THREAT DID NOT SIT WELL Ibid., 15556.

"A VERY HEATED" Ibid., 156.

"I TOLD HIM" Ibid.

"REALLY COOLED DOWN" Ibid.

A FAIRLY TYPICAL WEEKEND DAY BPB diary, January 9, 1972.

BUSH LIKED TAKING DIFFERENT FOREIGN DIPLOMATS Author interviews with GHWB and BPB.

AND EVEN AFTER THE TAIWAN DEBACLE Engel, ed., China Diary of George H. W. Bush, 413; author interviews with GHWB and BPB; Naftali, GHWB, 25.

BUSH'S MOTHER CALLED ATB, 159.

"HE SEEMS INSTANTLY OLD" Ibid.

RESULTED IN COMPLICATIONS Ibid., 16061.

BUSH WAS SUMMONED FROM A DINNER Ibid., 161.

"FULL OF TUBES" Ibid.

"HE WAS CONSCIOUS" Ibid.

"WHO PICKED UP THE TAB?" Ibid.

PRESCOTT SHELDON BUSH DIED NYT, October 9, 1972. See also WP, October 9, 1972. From Texas, Lyndon Johnson telegraphed: "Your father was one of the finest men ever to serve in the United States Senate." (LBJ to GHWB, October 9, 1972.) Bush replied: "I will never forget my Dad's telling me of his admiration for you, Mr. President, the strong but fair way in which you ran the Senate." (GHWB to LBJ, October 12, 1972, Correspondence of Lyndon B. Johnson and GHWB, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.) MOURNERS INCLUDED AVERELL HARRIMAN NYT, October 11, 1972.

"OUR BOYS ALL CAME HOME" BPB diary, October 23, 1972, January 9, 1973.

FIFTEEN: This Job Is No Fun at All ONE REAL CHALLENGE ATB, 164.

RICHARD NIXON HAD BIG PLANS LF, 121. Bush remembered that Nixon "was relaxed-at least, more relaxed than than during the campaign." (Ibid.) For Nixon's 1972 win, subsequent plans, and Watergate, see, for instance: ATB, 16297; LF, 12025; Nicholas Lemann, "Bush and Dole: The Roots of a Feud," WP, February 28, 1988; Naftali, GHWB, 2529; LSY, 15567; Wicker, GHWB, 3132.

IT WAS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1972 Notes of John Ehrlichman from meeting of President Nixon, John Ehrlichman, and GHWB, 11:15 A.M., November 20, 1972, Aspen Lodge, Camp David, Md., Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library.

"THIS IS AN IMPORTANT TIME" LF, 121. As Theodore H. White reported in The Making of the President, 1972 (New York, 1973), 10, Nixon believed 1972 might well be an historical turning point. "Not only the South was shifting, but others-workingmen and Catholics, too," White wrote in describing Nixon's views aboard Air Force One on Election Day. "The Republican Party used to be a WASP party, he recalled, and he used to talk about it in the old days with Len Hall, who came from Nassau County. Len understood. You used to go to a Republican dinner in those days and there wouldn't be an Irishman or an Italian or a Jew there. If you could shift those allegiances permanently, then this landslide might mean something." (Ibid.)

Bush does not seem to have been told of Nixon's grandest political plan of all-one that would have put Bush out of work. In the tranquillity of Camp David the president had been mulling a revolution in party politics. The 1972 landslide had provided concrete evidence that Nixon's earlier thinking about a "New Majority" had merit-a "New Majority" formed by holding on to traditional Republicans and adding disaffected Democrats who were unhappy with the drift of their party. (Nixon, RN, 49092; 76970.) On Friday, December 1, 1972, Nixon, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman talked about jettisoning the Republican Party altogether and building a vehicle to elect John Connally as Nixon's successor. (Nixon, RN, 76970; see also Reston, Lone Star, 443.)

KANSAS SENATOR BOB DOLE Lemann, "Bush and Dole," WP, February 28, 1988.

NIXON TALKED BIG Notes of John Ehrlichman from meeting of President Nixon, John Ehrlichman, and GHWB, 11:15 A.M., November 20, 1972, Aspen Lodge, Camp David, Md., Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library.

BUSH WAS SURPRISED ATB, 16263.

A "LOVE AFFAIR" Ibid., 163.

NIXON WANTED HIM Ibid., 18182; LSY, 15759.

"A TOTAL NIXON MAN-FIRST" LSY, 157.

"I CAN AND WILL" ATB, 163.

"NOT ALL THAT ENTHRALLED" Notes of John Ehrlichman, November 20, 1972.

"SHE IS CONVINCED" ATB, 16364.

"MY WIFE'S INITIAL REACTION" Ibid., 164.

THE SCANDAL THAT DESTROYED See, for instance, "Watergate: Chronology of a Crisis," Congressional Quarterly (Washington, D.C., 1973), 312; Naftali, GHWB, 2630; LSY, 15556, 16067, 17072.

BUSH TOOK COMMAND BPB diary, January 26, 1973.

BUSH COULD NOT COMPLAIN Ibid., January 24, 1973.

FROM JANUARY 20 THROUGH DECEMBER 23, 1973 "GB's Public Appearances," Office Memorandum, Republican National Committee, December 23, 1973, in BPB diary, 1973.

BACK AT THE COMMITTEE'S OFFICES LF, 123. Bush hated what he saw as the arrogance of the Nixon political universe. In a small but nevertheless telling example, Mississippi Republican leader Clarke Reed recalled visiting Bush one day at the RNC offices. "Look at this," Bush said, waving a stack of Nixon political operative Jeb Stuart Magruder's parking tickets, which came to Bush's desk because Magruder had an RNC limo. "These guys just don't respect the law." As Reed recalled, "It was clear to me that Bush was irritated by the whole thing, didn't understand breaking the rules." (Author interview with Clarke Reed.) HE WAS LOYAL TO THE PRESIDENT LF, 12324. See also Wicker, GHWB, 3136.

THE "POINT MAN" LF, 124; Green, George Bush, 134.

THEN A TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Author interview with Jeb Bush.

"EITHER PEOPLE WERE SAYING" Ibid.

"KNOWING DAD, AS YOU DID" ATB, 176.

WORD OF THE NIXON WHITE HOUSE TAPES Ibid., 184; Naftali, GHWB, 28.

IN THE SOUTHWEST LOBBY ATB, 184.

"I AM SHOCKED" Ibid.

TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR IN TEXAS Ibid., 17172.

"THIS ISN'T THE TIME" Ibid.

RECALLED ENCOUNTERING BUSH Wicker, GHWB, 3334.

"TOOK ME ASIDE" Ibid., 34.

"BUSH WAS TRYING HARD" Ibid.