The Family (88 page)

President Richard Nixon shaking hands with George Herbert Walker Bush. As a one-term congressman, Bush angled to become Nixon’s running mate in 1968. After Bush gave up his House seat to fight a second losing campaign for the Senate in Texas in 1970, Nixon launched him on his career as a presidential appointee. Bush said about his first political mentor: “[H]e appointed me to the United Nations and he saw me as a man with prospects in the Republican Party.”

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger discussed policy with George H.W. Bush, U.S. liaison to China, 1975. Bush recorded his dislike of Kissinger in his diaries, citing his imperious manner and arrogance.

George Herbert Walker Bush became UN Ambassador on February 26, 1971, and served for twenty-three months. This appointment resurrected his public career after he lost the 1970 Senate race in Texas, his second attempt at winning a statewide office.

Appointed by President Nixon to put out the fire of Watergate, George Bush was chairman of the Republican National Committee from January 1973 to September 1974. At the RNC, he hired Lee Atwater and Karl Rove and began building the political network that would carry him and his son to the White House.

As director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 30, 1976, to January 20, 1977, George signed his personal letters “Head Spook.” He said this appointment was his favorite job in government. He was the only President who had been director of the CIA, and the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, was named in his honor on April 26, 1999.

President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan with Vice President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush at the Republican National Convention in Dallas on August 23, 1984. The relationship between the two couples was strained; Nancy Reagan called George Bush “whiney” and never forgave him for charging Reagan with “voodoo economics.”

President-elect George Bush and Barbara with Marilyn and Dan Quayle on January 19, 1989, after Bush had confided in his diary (August 21, 1988) he had made a big mistake in choosing the Indiana senator to be his running mate. “It was my decision, and I blew it, but I’m not about to say that I blew it.”

George W. Bush, seven years old, with his father and his sister, Robin, in Greenwich, Connecticut, during the summer of 1953. Robin had been diagnosed with leukemia in February of that year and died on October 11, 1953.

The Bush family in Houston, Texas, in 1959. Seated left to right: Neil, George a.k.a. “Poppy” Bush, holding baby Doro, Marvin, and Barbara. Standing: George W. and Jeb. The family moved from Midland to Houston when Bush’s Zapata Offshore and the Liedtke brothers’ Zapata Petroleum went their separate ways.

The Bush family on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981, in the Vice President’s mansion, Washington, D.C. From left: Doro, Marvin, George H.W., Barbara, Jeb, George W., and Neil.