Destiny And Power - Destiny and Power Part 66
Library

Destiny and Power Part 66

WHO LOVED BEING SHIPBOARD AWT, 162; GHWB diary, December 2, 1989.

"GALES HAD BEEN" AWT, 162. See also Naftali, GHWB, 87.

GREETING GORBACHEV, WHO WAS DRESSED GHWB diary, December 2, 1989.

THE SOVIET LEADER'S HAIR AWT, 162.

"SPOT IS PROMINENT" GHWB diary, December 2, 1989.

JIM BAKER HAD HAD AN IDEA Ibid., 160.

BUSH HAD SEVENTEEN Ibid., 160, 162.

AS BUSH OPENED HIS REMARKS Ibid., 16263. For the records of the sessions, see the following memoranda of conversation. For December 2, 1989: "First Expanded Bilateral Session with Chairman Gorbachev of the Soviet Union," "First Restricted Bilateral Session with Chairman Gorbachev of Soviet Union," and "Luncheon Meeting with Chairman Gorbachev." For December 3, 1989: "Second Expanded Bilateral Session." All can be found in Presidential Memcons, Presidential Correspondence, BSC.

"THIS IS THE END" AWT, 16364.

"THIS HAS BEEN" Ibid., 164.

IN TRUTH, GORBACHEV WAS RELIEVED Naftali, GHWB, 87; Baker with DeFrank, Politics of Diplomacy, 170. And not as surprised as Scowcroft had feared: Bush had evidently sent many of these agenda items along to Gorbachev in a handwritten letter of November 22, 1989. GHWB to Mikhail Gorbachev, November 22, 1989, Gorbachev (Dobrynin) Sensitive 1989June 1990 (1), Gorbachev Files, Special Separate USSR Notes Files, BSC.

"A MULTIPOLAR WORLD" AWT, 164.

"THE UNITED STATES HAS NOT" Ibid.

"I HOPE YOU HAVE NOTICED" Ibid., 16465.

"YES, WE HAVE SEEN" Ibid., 165.

A SWORDFISH AND LOBSTER DINNER Ibid., 168.

"I WANT TO SAY TO YOU" Ibid., 169.

BUSH AND GORBACHEV HOSTED Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George Bush, 1989, 163540.

ACCORDING TO BUSH'S HANDWRITTEN NOTES GHWB, handwritten notes, "At NATO: Heads of State and Government," December 6, 1989, JB.

THE "GREATEST REVOLUTION" Ibid.

THANKED BUSH Ibid.

"WE CAME OUT OKAY" GHWB diary, December 4, 1989.

THE PRESIDENT ARRIVED IN WASHINGTON Ibid., December 8, 1989.

"THE GENERAL AFTERGLOW" Ibid.

BUSH HAD DECIDED AWT, 17374.

ON HALLOWEEN 1989 JAB III to GHWB, October 31, 1989, box 288, James A. Baker III Papers, Princeton.

"MR. P-WE HAVE" Ibid.

"AT THE MOMENT" Ibid.

"BE QUIET AND GO TO SLEEP" GHWB diary, December 16, 1989.

THAT SAME NIGHT, IN PANAMA Ibid., December 17, 1989.

"HE WAS KICKED" Ibid.

THE DECEMBER ATTACKS ON AMERICANS For background on the military action in Panama, see Patterson, Restless Giant, 22627, Wilentz, Age of Reagan, 29294, and Naftali, GHWB, 8889. Bush was criticized for failing to support a coup against Noriega earlier in 1989. For an account of this episode, see LSY, 41114. Also see Cramer, What It Takes, 104244, for Bush and Panama.

NORIEGA WAS A DRUG TRAFFICKER Patterson, Restless Giant, 22627.

HE STOLE A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Ibid.

NORIEGA EVEN DECLARED WAR GHWB diary, December 17, 1989. See also Naftali, GHWB, 88.

FOR BUSH, THAT DID IT GHWB diary, December 17, 1989. See also Naftali, GHWB, 8889; Cramer, What It Takes, 104243; Wicker, GHWB, 13945.

"WE'VE HAD ENOUGH" Ibid.

THE LARGEST PROJECTION OF AMERICAN FORCE Naftali, GHWB, 89; Patterson, Restless Giant, 227, and Wilentz, Age of Reagan, 293.

LARGER THAN REAGAN'S See, for instance, Andrew Rosenthal, "Bush Raises Force in Panama By 2,000," NYT, December 23, 1989.

ON THE NIGHT THE TROOPS WENT GHWB diary, December 23, 1989.

A SMALL COUCH Author interview with Patricia Presock.

THE AMERICAN FORCES-BUSH DISPATCHED NYT, January 5, 1990. "Of 26,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Panama or deployed to the country for this operation, 23 were killed in action and another 322 were wounded. The total casualties included friendly fire incidents and injuries sustained on drop zones. The Panama Defense Forces, numbering about 15,000 personnel of all ranks and duty assignments, had 314 killed in action, 124 known to have been wounded in action, and over 5,300 detained by U.S. forces. Estimates vary among sources, but it appears that 200 Panamanian civilians were killed during Operation Just Cause." R. Cody Phillips, "Operation Just Cause: The Incursion into Panama," Center of Military History, CMH Pub. No. 70-85-1, 44, http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/070/70-85-1/index.html.

QUICKLY DEPOSED NORIEGA Naftali, GHWB, 89; LSY, 41619.

LEE ATWATER HAD CONVENED GHWB diary, December 24, 1989.

LOOKING OVER THE WHITE HOUSE NEWS SUMMARY Ibid., January 22, 1990.

"I'M INCLINED TO AGREE" Ibid.

THIRTY-FOUR: I Want to Do the Most Good I Can GOD, THERE ARE SO MANY GHWB diary, January 30, 1990.

ON THE LAST DAY OF MAY NYT, June 1, 1989; LAT, June 1, 1989.

"HAS TO BE FOUGHT" Ibid., January 27, 2012.

THE "MINDLESS CANNIBALISM" LAT, June 1, 1989. See also John M. Barry, The Ambition and the Power: The Fall of Jim Wright (New York, 1992).

"IN SPITE OF" Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1989.

ATTACKED FOLEY IN A RELEASE Brady, Bad Boy, 24142.

BUSH SENT WORD GHWB diary, June 6, 1989; Brady, Bad Boy, 245. Lee Atwater swore to Bush that he himself had had nothing to do with the release. Asked about the story at a press conference, Bush said, "The matter is closed," but he worried that he might be wrong about that. "There's still going to be reverberation, but the problem is, nobody believes Lee was innocent," Bush told his diary. "I do, because he looked me in the eye and told me so....But his reputation is such that people don't believe it....There may be more problems later on, but we're going to stay with Lee. Of course, if it turns out that he knew about it, regrettably, he'll be history." (GHWB diary, June 10, 1989.) See also "Possible Press Conference Questions" and "Atwater/RNC Case," both in June 8, 1989: For the President-Action-James W. Cicconi, DF.

"FOLEY IS A DECENT GUY" GHWB diary, June 6, 1989.

"I AM, OF COURSE" NYT, June 8, 1989.

"A VERY CHEAP SMEAR" Ibid.

"TOUGH" Author interview with GHWB.

"UGLINESS" Ibid.

"THE DEMOCRATS STRIKE BACK" GHWB diary, June 6, 1989.

"I WANT TO DO THE MOST GOOD" Author interview with John Sununu.

JAMES A. STIMSON'S "POLICY MOOD INDEX" James A. Stimson, Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings, 2nd ed. (Boulder, Colo., 1999.) See also http://stimson.web.unc.edu for background on Stimson's work.

THE VICTORIES, THOUGH, DID COME FIRST Naftali, GHWB, 13334, offers a strong overview of the key domestic achievements. See also Sununu, Quiet Man.

HIS REAL-TIME ACCLAIM FOR THESE ACCOMPLISHMENTS Naftali, GHWB, 134. "Besides the Clean Air Amendments, Bush's major legislative achievements, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, reflected congressional priorities more than his own," wrote Naftali. "These were significant pieces of legislation, and the ADA empowered the disabled, including those with AIDS, by lowering barriers, real and symbolic, to full participation in American society. But they garnered little public support for George Bush." (Ibid., 13334.) "GOD, THERE ARE SO MANY" GHWB diary, January 30, 1990.

THE PRESIDENT SOUGHT TO APPLY Naftali, GHWB, 97.

"PEOPLE ALWAYS THINK" Author interview with Andrew Card.

THEIR "pLACE IN THE SUN" Author interview with GHWB.

WAS CONSTANTLY ON THE PHONE Author interviews with John Sununu and Fred McClure.

"THE MOST IMPORTANT THING" Author interview with John Sununu.

BROUGHT HIM DOMESTIC ACHIEVEMENTS For details in this section I drew on the Miller Center's "American President: A Reference Resource" and its account of Bush's record on domestic affairs, a helpful and thorough summary. See http://millercenter.org/president/biography/bush-domestic-affairs.

INCREASED FUNDING AND TAX CREDITS FOR FAMILIES Patterson, Restless Giant, 240; Sununu, Quiet Man, 246.

ENHANCEMENTS FOR HEAD START Himelfarb and Perotti, eds., Principle Over Politics?, 270.

THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REFORM LSY, 395; Greene, Presidency of George Bush, 8283.

BANNED THE IMPORTATION OF MOST SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES WP, July 1, 13, 1989. See also GHWB to John Sununu, March 24, 1990, Chief of Staff Discussion Items 1/1/905/19/90 (3), John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, GBPL.

ON EDUCATION, IN THE FALL OF 1989 Author interviews with John Sununu and Bill Clinton. See also Sununu, Quiet Man, 23236; Wilentz, Age of Reagan, 304; and Patterson, Restless Giant, 23839.

THERE HAD BEEN ONLY TWO SIMILAR GATHERINGS Author interview with Roger Porter. Porter also wrote a memorandum to the president "explaining the surprisingly sparse history of presidentially convened meetings with the nation's governors." TR's subject, as noted in the manuscript, was conservation; "FDR," Porter recalled, "listed five issues in his letter to them, agenda items typical of what a governor might want to talk about with the President. By the time of his inauguration the banking crisis had intensified and only 25 governors stayed in Washington to gather on Monday for what turned out to be a truncated meeting with FDR before they, too, quickly returned to their state capitols." (Roger Porter email to author.) NATIONAL PERFORMANCE GOALS Sununu, Quiet Man, 23241.

THE GOALS THEMSELVES Author interview with Roger Porter.

CLINTON and CAMPBELL JOINED Ibid.

THE CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1990 William Reilly to GHWB, "Re: The Clean Air Bill," October 30, 1990, 1990 Clean Air (3 of 3) [3], John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, GBPL (11696); Frederick D. McClure to John Sununu, "Re: Core Group Clean Air Strategy Session," January 23, 1990, 1990 Clean Air (2 of 3) [3], John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, GBPL (11665); Michael Boskin to GHWB, "Re: The Clean Air Bill," October 26, 1990, 1990 Clean Air (3 of 3) [3], John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, GBPL (11694); "The Clean Air Negotiations," March 9, 1990, 1990 Clean Air (2 of 3) [2], John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, GBPL (11659). See also Greene, Presidency of George Bush, 7478; Naftali, GHWB, 133; George Mitchell, The Negotiator: A Memoir (New York, 2015), 16993; Patterson, Restless Giant, 24041. Richard E. Cohen, Washington at Work: Back Rooms and Clean Air (New York, 1995), is a comprehensive account.

MITCHELL CREDITED BUSH Mitchell, Negotiator, 17071.

AFTER MORE THAN 130 HOURS Author interview with Roger Porter.

ESTABLISHED BOLD GOALS Ibid.

AFTER READING A "rEPORT CARD" Ibid.

"NOT A LOT" Ibid.

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT Author interviews with GHWB, John Sununu, Boyden Gray, and Tom Harkin. See also Himelfarb and Perotti, Principle Over Politics?, 14379; Wilentz, Age of Reagan, 3056; Patterson, Restless Giant, 241; Sununu, Quiet Man, 25156.

HIS INTEREST IN THE BILL Author interviews with GHWB, John Sununu, Boyden Gray, and Tom Harkin. See also "Questions for Disabled Media Interview," May 1, 1990, DF; William Roper to John Sununu, "Re: Your Meeting Today with Senator Kennedy and others on ADA," July 27, 1990, Disabilities (1989), Issues Files, John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President (11461); and William Roper to John Sununu, "Re: Status of the Americans with Disabilities Act," September 1, 1989, Science and Technology (1989) [3]: Bromley, White House Offices File, John H. Sununu Files, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, GBPL (11341). A note card from his talking points for a press conference on April 16, 1990, offers a glimpse of Bush's priorities in this season. In frenetic longhand, GHWB added notes to the typed statements about abortion that amount to the president's worldview in brief. Most important in shaping his outlook were promising economic trends and his administration's advancement of civil rights and Clean Air legislation. (April 16, 1990, DF.) CHAMPIONED THE MEASURE See, for instance, www.dolekemp96.org/agenda/issues/disabilities.html.

AFTER THEIR YEARS OF COMPETITION Author interview with GHWB.

THE PRESIDENT WAS GRATEFUL Ibid.

THE TELEPHONE RANG Author interview with Tom Harkin.

HARKIN HAPPILY ACCEPTED Ibid. Sununu could not recall any dispute with Harkin. (Author interview with John Sununu.) IN A SUNNY, SPARKLING CEREMONY Author interview with Tom Harkin.

"EVEN THE STRONGEST PERSON" "Remarks on Signing the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990," July 26, 1990, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George Bush, 1990 (Washington, D.C., 1991), 1069; Ann Devroy, "In Emotion-Filled Ceremony, Bush Signs Rights Law for America's Disabled," WP, July 27, 1990.

"THE LOOK" Author interviews with James A. Baker III, Boyden Gray, and Fred McClure.

THIRTY-FIVE: A Nation Reunited and a New NATO I DON'T THINK GHWB diary, February 26, 1990.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD DELIGHTED William Draper Lewis, The Life of Theodore Roosevelt (Philadelphia, 1919), 18687.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH LOVED THE MANSION See, for instance, GHWB diary, November 7, 1989.

THE BUSHES AWOKE Details in this section about the daily routine and personal characteristics of the president came from GHWB diary; BPB diary; BB; and author interviews with GHWB, BPB, Tim McBride, Patricia Presock, and other family and staff members. Some items are singled out for a particular citation below, but all the details came from, and were confirmed by, the principals, family, and staff.

HE CARRIED A SPECIAL HEATING STICK Author interview with Tim McBride.

YOGURT AND GRANOLA Ibid.

OCCASIONALLY WITH MILLIE Associated Press, May 1, 1989. BPB revealed this detail in the spring of 1989. (Ibid.) ARTHUR A. ADLER Author interview with Tim McBride.

UNIRONICALLY CALLED "SHIRTINGS" Ibid.

ASCOT CHANG Ibid.