American Experience (1988) s20e14 Episode Script

1
the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION,
LIBERTY MUTUAL,
the CORPORATION
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
and VIEWERS LIKE YOU
Major funding
for American Experience
is provided by
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Major corporate funding is
provided by Liberty Mutual.
American Experience
is also made possible
by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting
and
(birds screeching)
NARRATOR:
"I read ten or 15 letters,"
President Bush wrote
in his diary Christmas Eve 1990.
"All of them saying,
"'Take care of my my kid.'
"Some saying, it's not worth
dying for gasoline.
"Then I sit here knowing
"that if there is no movement
on Saddam's part,
we have to go to war."
JEB BUSH:
The weight of the world was
on my dad's shoulders,
and the decision
had already been made,
or was in its final stages.
And so here we were
having Christmas,
family Christmas,
at a time that, uh,
the people would come in
to brief the president
of the United States
about, uh, this upcoming action.
And it was just
a very unusual time.
NARRATOR:
"Dear George, Jeb,
"Neil, Marvin, Doro:
"I guess what I want you
to know as a father is this:
"When the question is asked,
"'How many lives are you willing
to sacrifice?',
"it tears at my heart
"I look at today's crisis
as good versus evil.
"Saddam cannot profit
from his aggression
"and from his brutalizing
the people of Kuwait.
"So dear kids,
batten down the hatches.
I'm the luckiest dad
in the whole wide world."
EVAN THOMAS:
George Bush was the last gasp
of the wise men.
He's right out
of that tradition,
literally and figuratively.
Andover and Yale,
this deep sense
of duty to serve,
serving in peace and war,
making some money, but then,
going in for a long period
of public service.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH:
I wouldn't call him the last
of the wise men.
I think he is, uh, the heir
to that tradition.
But the wise men never had
to run for office.
That's the difference.
They didn't have the scars
of running for office.
I think he is
this curious combination
of, uh of qualities.
Someone who
has a discomfort with
the grubbier side of politics,
and yet, forced
to wallow in that
for much of his career
in order to have a shot
at doing
what the wise men would do.
(cheering and applause)
(applause, cheering
and whistling)
(squeaking)
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
On August 1, 1990,
George Bush's national
security advisor informed him
that Iraq's Saddam Hussein
had invaded neighboring Kuwait
in a dispute over oil.
Iraq had the fourth largest army
in the world.
BRENT SCOWCROFT:
Well, it's interesting.
I told him about it at night,
and we scheduled an NSC meeting
for early in the morning
before he left for Aspen.
It wasn't a decision meeting.
But the sort of mood
of the meeting was,
well, it's a fait accompli.
It's taken place.
We can't do much about it.
It's halfway around the world.
And sort of,
how do we adjust to it?
GEORGE H.W.:
Yeah, Helen?
HELEN THOMAS:
Do you contemplate intervention
as one of your options?
We're not discussing
intervention.
I would not discuss
any military options,
even if we'd agreed upon them.
But one of the things
I want to do at this meeting
is hear from our
secretary of defense and others.
But I'm not contemplating,
uh, such action.
SCOWCROFT:
And so when we got on the plane,
and I said,
"Mr. President, I was
very disturbed at that meeting."
And he said, "What do you mean?"
And I said,
"The next meeting
we have when we get back,
"would you let me
speak out first
and say what the importance
of this was?"
And he said,
"Why don't I do it?"
And I said, "No, because
if you do it at the outset,
"you'll stifle debate.
And you want to
you want to have the debate."
But right at the beginning,
he made it quite clear,
while he didn't say so
that early,
that this was
an unacceptable action.
NARRATOR:
At a conference in Colorado,
Bush met an old ally.
MARGARET THATCHER:
George Bush just said to me,
"Margaret, what is your view?"
And so, indeed, I told him
that aggressors must be stopped,
not only stopped,
but they must be thrown out.
An aggressor cannot gain
from his aggression.
He must be thrown out,
and really, by that time,
in my mind, I thought we ought
to throw him out so decisively
that he could never think
of doing it again.
We find his behavior intolerable
in this instance,
and so do the rest
of the United Nations countries
that met last night.
And reaction from around
the world is-is unanimous
in being condemnatory.
NARRATOR:
Secretary of State James Baker
was in Moscow with a new ally.
For the first time since 1945,
the U.S. and the Soviet Union
lined up on the same side
of an international crisis.
JAMES A. BAKER, III:
We met at the airport in Moscow,
and that to me is
when the Cold War really ended,
when you had
the American secretary of state
and the foreign minister
of the Soviet Union
standing shoulder to shoulder
in condemning the action
of a Soviet client state,
and even agreeing,
I think at that time,
to put an arms embargo on Iraq.
(birds singing)
NARRATOR:
Bush had asked
the United Nations
to impose economic sanctions
on Iraq.
At a weekend meeting
at Camp David,
he decided to offer U.S. forces
to Saudi Arabia
to protect its oil fields.
When he returned to Washington,
he had made another decision.
DORO BUSH KOCH:
I watched Dad get out
of the helicopter,
and there was this smoldering
intensity to him.
He knew that he needed
to kick Saddam out of Kuwait,
and, um, yeah, I don't think
he knew at that point
exactly how
he was going to do it,
but, um, there was this
sort of focused,
intense, um, demeanor
that was very different.
This will not stand.
This will not stand,
this aggression against Kuwait.
(reporters clamoring)
I've got to go.
I have to go to work,
I got to go to work.
TIMOTHY NAFTALI:
He led with his gut,
with his instincts.
George Bush
was emotive and emotional,
an intuitive,
instinctive leader,
much more emotional
than people thought.
SCOWCROFT:
I was surprised
that he spoke out that quickly,
but his mind had been made up
that
one way or another,
the Iraqis had to leave Kuwait.
Now, that statement,
"This will not stand,"
doesn't translate into how we're
going to make it not stand.
Is it going to be sanctions?
Is it going
to be U.N. coalition action?
Is it going
to be unilateral U.S. action?
And what exactly is it
we're going to do?
NARRATOR:
Bush dispatched
Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
to Saudi Arabia
to convince the Saudis
to accept American forces.
Despite a pointed warning
the U.S. forces would desecrate
the Muslim holy land,
the king accepted
the U.S. offer.
Osama bin Laden,
the 33-year old Islamic radical
who issued the warning,
was placed under confinement.
The operation
to protect Saudi Arabia
was called Desert Shield.
GEORGE H.W.:
At my direction, elements
of the 82nd Airborne Division
as well as key units
of the United States Air Force
are arriving today
to take up defensive positions
in Saudi Arabia.
To assume
Iraq will not attack again
would be unwise and unrealistic.
If history teaches us anything,
it is that we must resist
aggression
or it will destroy our freedoms.
Appeasement does not work.
As was the case in the 1930s,
we see in Saddam Hussein
an aggressive dictator
threatening his neighbors.
Bush's international contacts
from his days
at the United Nations, the CIA,
and eight years
as vice president were vast.
He put his Rolodex to work
and talked to 29 heads of state
in the first week.
SCOWCROFT:
He has enormous people skills.
He likes to reach out
and to talk to people
and understand
where they're coming from,
what they think,
what their problems are.
And he used to pick up the phone
and call foreign leaders,
sometimes on specific issues,
but frequently
not with anything in mind,
just "How are you?
How are you getting along?"
and so on.
I had studied political science.
This wasn't what presidents
of the United States did.
What a waste of time of
presidents of the United States.
I realized
that what he was doing
was building relationships.
He was very attentive
to building relationships
before you had to ask someone
to do something hard.
In the midst of the crisis,
Bush departed
for his family compound
in Kennebunkport, Maine.
He had vacationed there
every summer of his life
except one during World War II.
He did not let
the Gulf crisis keep him
from the place he referred to
as his "anchor to windward."
JEB:
There is a timelessness
to the place
about how you treat others,
how you love your family,
how you recharge your spirits.
There is something
that is timeless.
And it's just downright
spectacularly beautiful as well.
His mobile phone, Rolodex,
and staff traveled with him.
Even while fishing for bluefish,
Iraq was rarely out of his mind.
SCOWCROFT:
We were out there
for four hours,
so we really talked
about the world
and what was happening
to the world.
We discussed
how it could change,
and in the sense of building
this "new world order" where
small countries could feel safe
from aggression
by other countries,
and where,
where the U.N. Security Council
could behave
the way its framers thought:
the countries with the power
could use it
to preserve a stable
and peaceful world.
NARRATOR:
Some felt Bush should return
to the White House.
He was reminded
of the Iran hostage crisis
and how President Jimmy Carter's
attention,
he recalled,
"was controlled by thugs.
"I was absolutely determined
that the American people would
be spared this a second time."
BARBARA:
He plays at 6:00
so that it won't bother
the other members of the club,
when nobody else was there.
But he loves life, he loves
the boat, he loves to play golf.
He used to love tennis
beyond belief.
I mean,
he played all those things
and he played them
at full speed.
(engine starting)
(revving)
BILLY BUSCH:
The president loves
to drive his boat,
just absolutely loves
to get in his boat and go,
and he loves to fish,
loves to be out on the water.
Even, even if the fishing's
not good,
it's just great
to be on the water.
Maybe it's, um, like a freedom.
President's on his own,
driving his own machine,
no one else to say, "Do this."
It's his.
The part that my dad likes the
most is the coming back part,
where he's going 50-60 miles
an hour in this cove,
pulls back on the velocity,
and makes this turn
that is spectacular, and
scares the living heck
out of everybody
that's never done it before.
Very strong fish,
stronger than he looks like
just from looking at him.
MARLIN FITZWATER:
We used to play tennis
when it was 95 degrees,
and we'd finish two sets
and I'd say,
"Mr. President,
I can't go on anymore,
I just can't do it,"
and he'd say,
"Oh, yes, Marlin, come on,
one more one more set."
And I remember he says, "Don't
worry, you stand at the net
and I'll just play everything
behind you,"
and I thought, "Oh, my God,
don't let anybody see this."
And so suddenly the president's
feet are going back and forth,
back and forth behind me,
and I'm not even moving.
And finally I just said,
"I cannot do it, Mr. President."
He said, "Yes, you can, Marlin,
you stay right there."
I mean, he was just
the most competitive man.
(applause)
GEORGE H.W.:
Iraq will not be permitted
to annex Kuwait.
And that's not a threat,
it's not a boast.
It's just the way
it's going to be.
NARRATOR:
Kuwaitis detailed the horrors
of Saddam Hussein's occupation
to a Congressional panel.
They have resorted to acts
of mass executions,
they have resorted
to mass acts of rape,
and they have resorted
to mass acts
of looting and pillaging
of my country.
GEORGE H.W.:
And that's
what we're dealing with.
We're dealing
with Hitler revisited
A totalitarianism
and a brutality
that is naked and unprecedented
in modern times
And that must not stand.
NARRATOR:
Bush had little faith
economic sanctions
would convince Saddam Hussein
to withdraw from Kuwait.
In early November,
he doubled the size
of the forces committed
to Desert Shield.
After consultation with
King Fahd and our other allies,
I have today directed
the secretary of defense
to increase the size
of U.S. forces committed
to Desert Shield
to ensure that the coalition
has an adequate
offensive military option,
should that be necessary
to achieve our common goals.
NARRATOR:
He would now have
enough military might
to force Saddam to withdraw.
ROBERT McNAMARA:
The point is
it's going to be bloody.
There are going to be thousands
and thousands and thousands
of casualties.
NARRATOR:
Members of Congress were shocked
that Bush had acted on his own.
They opened hearings on the
possibility of a war in Iraq.
Even the architect
of the Vietnam War
favored economic sanctions
instead.
Who can doubt
that a year of blockade
will be cheaper
than a week of war?
Of course
there are no guarantees
on economic sanctions.
There are also no guarantees
on war.
NARRATOR:
If attacked,
Saddam Hussein threatened
to use Western hostages
as shields.
Are you getting your milk,
Stewart?
NARRATOR:
If attacked, Saddam threatened
to attack Israel.
Israeli citizens prepared
for chemical warfare.
The Iraqi leader
had not hesitated
to use chemical weapons
in the recent war against Iran
or against his own people
Kurds in Northern Iraq.
Yet now even Iran backed Iraq
and threatened holy war against
the U.S. if Iraq were attacked.
NEWSCASTER:
Tonight in a televised speech
written by Saddam Hussein
and read by his spokesman,
the Iraqi president again called
for the Muslim world
to unite in a holy war
against America and its allies.
(man speaking Arabic)
"We are the ones who scared
America," chant the soldiers,
"and if death comes our way
we will not be scared."
NARRATOR:
Some feared a war
in the Persian Gulf
could escalate
into World War III,
especially if Israel responded
to an attack.
GEORGE H.W.:
An Iraq permitted
to swallow Kuwait
would have the economic
and military power
as well as the arrogance
to intimidate and coerce
its neighbors,
neighbors who control
the lion's share
of the world's
remaining oil reserves.
We cannot permit
a resource so vital
to be dominated by one
so ruthless, and we won't.
(applause)
NARRATOR:
The uncertainty of war
and a spike in oil prices
had already taken a toll
on a fragile U.S. economy.
BAKER:
I went to him and I said,
"Mr. President, you know that
this has all the ingredients
"that have brought down
"a couple of former presidents.
It's got $50 oil, body bags,"
and he said,
"I know that, Jimmy, but
we're going to do what's right.
"This is clearly
in the national interest,
and whatever happens, so be it."
He was determined
to do what was right,
notwithstanding
the political consequences.
NARRATOR:
In his domestic policy,
Bush had also done
what he thought was right
regardless
of the political costs
or, his critics charged,
the cost to taxpayers.
Bush had signed legislation
to help Americans
with disabilities
and initiated plans to clean up
America's polluted air.
MITCHELL:
During President Reagan's term,
we did try to revise and improve
on the Clean Air Act,
but President Reagan
was adamantly opposed to it
and we couldn't get
any traction.
When President Bush took office,
he said he wanted
clean air legislation.
That completely changed
the dynamic.
The debate changed from "will
there be a Clean Air Bill?"
to "what will be
in the Clean Air Bill?"
NARRATOR:
These programs would be costly.
Bush was already committed
to solve the savings and loan
banking crisis he
had inherited from Reagan
at a cost
of more than $125 billion.
All these commitments
exacerbated a growing
budget deficit.
RICHARD DARMAN:
At that time,
revenues were around 19 percent
of gross domestic product.
And expenditures,
spending, was around 23 percent.
So there was a gap of four,
approaching five, percent.
And it was projected
to stay that way
for a long time
and then start rising
as the Baby Boom generation
would retire.
And everybody agreed that that
would be unsustainable.
The argument was
what to do about it.
NARRATOR:
Bush considered breaking
his campaign pledge not
to raise taxes.
"This could mean a one-term
presidency,"
he confided to his diary.
"But it's that important
for the country."
DARMAN:
He knew there was enormous
political risk,
and he was prepared to pay
the price for what he thought
was the right thing to do
in the circumstances.
MITCHELL:
Dick Darman,
a very smart fellow.
Able fellow.
Came to see me several times.
And he suggested that we have
a high-level negotiation,
from which, he said,
"A tax increase would emerge."
I said, "Well, how's it going
to emerge?"
And he said,
"Well, it'll just emerge."
And I remember he made
a fluttering motion
with his hands.
Well, we were very suspicious
because, at about the same time,
the president's chief of staff,
Governor Sununu, said,
"Well, if there's any
negotiations,
"in the negotiations
the Democrats
will propose tax increases
and the president will say no."
So it was kind of a mixed
message.
I'm not as much of a gentleman
as the president is,
when it comes to hardball
politics.
I would have made sure that
the country knew that
the taxes were Mitchell taxes
and Foley taxes,
not Bush taxes.
NARRATOR:
At a meeting on June 26, 1990
of top Senate and House leaders
from both parties,
the Democrats agreed
to spending cuts
and Republicans agreed
to raise taxes.
Read my lips,
no, no, no new taxes!
NARRATOR:
George Bush began
to pay the price of his dramatic
campaign promise.
MAN:
Aren't some voters going to feel
you broke your promise, Sir?
WOMAN:
When the budget negotiators
meet tomorrow,
they'll begin discussing
what this means
for he average family.
Whether it's higher taxes
on gasoline, liquor,
inheritance, or on the wealthy.
And whether Social Security
increases
and farm subsidies are cut.
RICHARD VIGUERIE:
I think he betrayed
the Reagan revolution
in many ways:
by new government programs,
greatly increased
government spending.
But the most visible
break with Reagan
was, uh, "no new taxes,"
It'll be one of his legacies
that he will
have to carry always,
that he lied and betrayed.
Because he didn't raise taxes
kicking and screaming.
He seemed to be
very comfortable doing it.
If you thought the problem
had to be addressed,
and you go back and look
at how the economy was
at that point in time.
And you look at the problems
that were out there
Savings and loan,
Third World debt,
and a burgeoning deficit
You say, "Well, I guess we got
to deal with it,
the cards as they're dealt."
NARRATOR:
After three months
of bargaining,
the budget negotiators
had a deal.
The bipartisan team
was ready to announce it.
Everyone, including
the Republican whip,
Newt Gingrich,
a movement conservative,
seemed to be on board.
SUNUNU:
I had contacted Gingrich to make
sure he was comfortable.
He said he wasn't thrilled
with it,
but he would support it.
We had touched base
with everybody
that was part of the team,
and gotten their agreement
that even though they weren't
thrilled with it,
they would support it.
(shutters clicking)
NARRATOR:
As he had for the Persian Gulf
crisis,
Bush forged a coalition.
This one, a bipartisan team
of quarreling politicians.
BUSH:
The bipartisan leaders and I
have reached
agreement on the federal budget.
Over five years, it would reduce
the projected deficit
by $500 billion.
That is half a trillion dollars.
NARRATOR:
One key player on the team
never made it
to the Rose Garden.
Newt Gingrich had bolted.
I have to look at this
as an independent
member of the Congress,
as an independent member
of the Republican leadership.
And I have to say as an
independent person,
is this something I can go home
in good conscience and say,
"This is the best we could do
for the next five years,
and I can defend it"?
My personal belief is no.
NARRATOR:
Bush was holding his
international
coalition together.
He failed to hold
his own party together.
When Democratic
Senator Richard Russell
failed to support Lyndon Johnson
on the Vietnam War in 1963,
LBJ faced him down.
SMITH:
Lyndon Johnson in that situation
would have said,
"Do what I want
or I'll cut off your balls."
It's hard to imagine George Bush
threatening anyone.
And it is in some ways
a sad commentary
on the office
of the presidency itself,
that that is deemed a weakness,
a shortcoming.
NARRATOR:
When Bush realized
his budget agreement
was going nowhere, he appealed
to the American people.
BUSH:
I ask you to take
this initiative.
Tell your congressmen
and senators
you support this deficit
reduction agreement.
In my district
as of a few minutes ago,
we had 775 calls today,
83 percent against
the agreement.
And a group of eight economists,
seven of whom had served
in the Reagan administration,
came out and said this
particular agreement
would not be good
for the American economy.
NARRATOR:
Newt Gingrich may well have
advanced Reagan's cause.
George Bush may well have helped
save Reagan's reputation.
NAFTALI:
Had Bush not cleaned up
the savings and loan mess,
had he not cleaned up
the budget problem
by breaking his "no new taxes"
pledge and raising taxes,
Ronald Reagan would be
associated
with an economic collapse
in the United States.
Instead, because George Bush
was willing
to give Americans
strong medicine,
Bush gave Reagan
a different legacy.
(applause)
NARRATOR:
Only two days
after the president's appeal,
the House voted the budget
agreement down.
60 percent of House Republicans
followed Gingrich
in what one reporter called
a "collective nervous breakdown"
in the GOP.
Gingrich's revolt
launched him on a path
to become the Speaker
of the House.
It also gave
the majority Democrats
their way on the budget bill.
Bush was forced to sign
a bill that raised
not the gasoline tax he
and Republicans had favored,
but an income tax on the rich.
MITCHELL:
What we were trying to do
was to pass a budget
that was good for the country,
that didn't involve us
taking the political rap
for the difficult part of it.
And in that sense, we were able
to accomplish that.
Read my lips, no
SMITH:
George Bush
said what he had to say
to win the 1988 election,
and consequently
paid an enormous price.
So how do you weigh,
in the scales of history,
his performance?
The fact that
in a rather craven way,
he did what his political
advisors said
was necessary to win,
or once he had won, he in effect
put his presidency at risk
by doing what his conscience
and his economic calculations
told him was necessary?
There's the Faustian bargain
of George Bush's presidency.
NARRATOR:
Congress cut a deal
with Bush on the budget,
but still balked on the use
of force in Iraq.
It would be easier to get
Congressional support,
Bush concluded,
if the United Nations
were on his side.
(gavel bangs)
The result of the voting
is as follows.
NARRATOR:
On November 29, Secretary Baker
made his case for the use
of all necessary means
to evict Iraq from Kuwait if it
did not withdraw
by January 15, 1991.
The draft resolution
has been adopted
as Resolution 678-1990.
That UN vote was very important.
But if you ask me whether we
would have done it
without the vote,
we probably would have.
Because we felt we had
the constitutional authority
and power to do so.
But it was really important
to try and get the rest
of the world behind us.
NARRATOR:
After the UN backed
the use of force,
Secretary Baker made his case
to a reluctant Congress.
PAUL SARBANES:
It seems to me you have
placed us on a course to war.
Now this, uh,
buildup now of the force almost
takes you irresistibly
down the path
of going to war.
BAKER:
Politically, Mr. Chairman,
we must stand
for American leadership,
not because we seek it,
but simply because no one else
can do the job.
And we did not stand united
for 40 years
to bring the Cold War
to a peaceful end
in order to make the world safe
for the likes of Saddam Hussein.
MAN:
How's it going?
How much longer?
How's it going?
NARRATOR:
Congress was still
resisting when
Secretary Baker met with Iraq's
foreign minister
in a final attempt at diplomacy.
BAKER:
Ladies and gentlemen,
in over six hours,
I heard nothing that suggested
to me any Iraqi flexibility
whatsoever on complying
with the United Nations Security
Council resolutions.
NARRATOR:
Only then, on January 12, 1991
did Congress narrowly approve
the use of force
to evict Saddam Hussein
from Kuwait.
How did we finally
win a vote in the House
and the Senate when we were
a Republican administration
with a Democratic Congress?
We won a vote because we
went out and we got the rest
of the world
to support us.
So we could go to a senator
and we could say,
"Senator, you mean you're not
going to support
"the president
of the United States,
"but the president of Ethiopia
is going to support him?"
And it was very, very effective.
DORO:
It was a snowy weekend
at Camp David.
When a lot of the kids
were there and
the idea was for Dad's friends
to sort of take his mind off
a little bit
of what was going on,
but of course his mind was
on it every minute.
NARRATOR:
Barbara Bush invited
close friends,
the Hemingway's
and the Schwarzenegger's.
SPIKE HEMINWAY:
Well, Barbara called up
and said 'the president needs
some comic relief, '
if you want to put it that way.
'Come on up to Camp David.'
He said, "Spike, let's take
a walk around the perimeter.
I've got to get out
and get some air,"
and so we started
to walk around,
and then he looked over
at one of the military police
over there who guard Camp David,
and he had tears in his eyes,
and he said,
"Spike, those are the kids
I've got to send to war,
and I don't want to do it,
but I have to do it."
NARRATOR:
That weekend President Bush
called congressional leaders
to thank those who voted
for the war for their votes,
and to thank those
who voted against it
for their consideration.
GEORGE H.W.:
Just two hours ago Allied air
forces began an attack
on military targets
in Iraq and Kuwait.
NARRATOR:
At 9:00 p.m. on January 16,
1991,
President Bush announced
the start of the Gulf War.
GEORGE H.W.:
These attacks continue
as I speak.
Ground forces are not engaged.
Five months ago,
Saddam Hussein started this
cruel war against Kuwait.
Tonight, the battle
has been joined.
(explosion)
NARRATOR:
For 38 days the US Air Force
led the operation,
now called Desert Storm.
(helicopter whirring)
Then the coalition
launched a ground assault.
Coalition forces quickly evicted
the Iraqi army from Kuwait.
They crushed 46 Iraqi divisions.
Much of the elite Republican
guard escaped
back to Baghdad.
Others were caught
on what became known
as the "Highway of Death."
Bush chose to stop
the slaughter.
He ended the war
after four days.
The ground defensive became
known as the 100-hour war.
SOLDIER:
Be home soon.
NARRATOR:
Despite warnings
of a blood bath,
the death toll among Americans,
would number 303,
with fewer than 500 wounded.
Yet Saddam Hussein
remained in power.
BAKER:
Well, the war was stopped
because all the president's
political
and military advisors told him
that he had achieved the war
aims that were laid out.
We had achieved what the UN
Security Council resolution,
uh, asked us to do and
authorized us to do,
that is, kick Iraq
out of Kuwait.
And every one
of the president's advisors
advised him that it was time
to end it.
SCOWCROFT:
We did not know
what would happen
if we went on into Baghdad.
It would have been simple to do.
But we would have been occupiers
in a hostile land.
Our troops would have been
sniped at and so on.
And we had no exit plan.
How do you get out once
you've occupied the country?
POWELL:
Another consideration
that we took into account,
as a military matter,
is we did not want to totally
destroy the Iraqi army.
And you can guess why: Iran.
We did not want Iraq laying
prostate before Iran.
And so it was always
our intention
to leave Saddam Hussein
with enough of an army
that it would not be a threat
to his neighbors anymore,
but it would not leave him
totally vulnerable
to Iranian misadventure,
keeping in mind that
that Iraq-Iran War had only
ended three years earlier.
SCOWCROFT:
We were trying to set a pattern
for behavior
in the post-Cold War world.
We were operating
under a UN mandate.
If we said, "Okay, we've
fulfilled the mandate
but now we want to go on
and do some more,"
that's a bad precedent to set
for people relying
on the United States
to do what the UN mandates
and not further.
GEORGE H.W.:
For the sake of our principles,
for the sake
of the Kuwaiti people.
We stood our ground.
Because the world would
not look the other way,
Ambassador Al-Sabah,
tonight
Kuwait is free.
(applause)
NARRATOR:
The end of the Gulf War
was the high point
of the Bush presidency.
His approval ratings
reached 89%,
at the time,
the highest in the history
of presidential polling.
MORGAN FREEMAN:
Mr. President,
you set down ideals
and standards
that because they were
carried on
NARRATOR:
A few days later,
Bush attended a tribute
to President Lincoln
at the Theater
where he had been shot.
FREEMAN:
if they could stand
where I stand now,
their message would be
overwhelmingly simple.
Thank you, Mr. President.
And thank you, Mr. President.
(applause)
(whistling)
(festive music playing)
NARRATOR:
Americans celebrated a victory
that seemed to put an end
to the national self-doubt
that had lingered
since the Vietnam War.
But George Bush was not elated.
Intelligence reports had
predicted the Iraqi military
would overthrow Saddam.
That had not happened.
GEORGE H.W.:
To be very honest with you,
I haven't yet felt this,
this wonderfully
euphoric feeling
that many of the American
people feel.
And I'm beginning to.
I feel much better about it
today than I did yesterday.
But I think it's, it's, um,
it's that I want to see a, a,
an end.
You mentioned World War II;
there was a definitive end
to that conflict.
And now we have Saddam Hussein
still there,
the man that wreaked this havoc
upon his neighbors.
We have our prisoners
still held.
We have people unaccounted for.
NARRATOR:
The days of "phone calls
to foreign leaders,
"trying to keep things
moving forward,
managing a massive project,"
were over,
Bush wrote in his diary.
"I don't know
whether it's the anticlimax
"or that I'm too tired
to enjoy anything,
but I just seem
to be losing my perspective."
SCOWCROFT:
Would have been great
to have a formal surrender
and all of that.
And it just sort of ended.
And it really didn't end,
because Saddam right away,
as soon as he'd put down
the uprisings in the country
and he started using
his helicopters.
And then he was a thorn
from, from then on.
So it never really was over.
And that gave President Bush
a sense
of being unfulfilled.
(speaking foreign language)
NARRATOR:
Within days
after the cease-fire,
Saddam Hussein's Sunni
Republican Guard brutally
suppressed an uprising
by Iraqi Shia in the South.
(people screaming)
Then they suppressed an uprising
by the Kurds in the north.
During the war,
Bush had encouraged
such uprisings as a way
to topple Saddam.
GEORGE H.W.:
There's another way
for the bloodshed to stop.
And that is
for the Iraqi military
and the Iraqi people
to take matters
into their own hands
and force Saddam Hussein,
the dictator, to step aside.
And then comply with the United
Nations Resolutions
and rejoin the family
of peace loving nations.
NARRATOR:
Some felt US support was
implicit in Bush's statement.
Bush did not.
GEORGE H.W.:
But do I think that the United
States should bear guilt,
because of suggesting
that the Iraqi people take
matters into their own hands?
With the implication
being given by some
that the United States
would be there
to support them militarily.
That was not true,
we never implied that.
NARRATOR:
In coming months,
many questioned Bush's decision
not to go to Baghdad
to take out Saddam Hussein.
LARRY KING:
America has growing doubts
about our victory over Iraq.
MAN:
Was it all worth it?
Should US troops march on
Baghdad and finish the job
that we should have finished
six weeks ago?
SOLARZVO:
If we were prepared
to use force
to drive Saddam Hussein
from power
it would be over
probably in four days,
no more than four weeks.
BAKER:
Some people said, "Why didn't
you guys take care of Saddam
"when you had the chance?
Why didn't you go to Baghdad?"
Well, guess what.
I got that question a lot
when I used to go out and speak.
Nobody asks me that question
anymore.
SCOWCROFT:
We heard no, no rumbles
of discontent at all.
They-they emerged shortly after,
and then for a number
of years we heard,
"Why didn't you finish the job?"
We don't hear that anymore.
POWELL:
In recent months,
nobody's been asking me
about why we didn't go
to Baghdad.
Pretty good idea now why Baghdad
should always be looked at
with some reservations.
NARRATOR:
After the Gulf War,
Osama Bin Laden left Saudi
Arabia vowing revenge
against the United States
for defiling Saudi soil.
After the Gulf War,
George Bush had amassed
all the political capital
a president could have.
No one knew he would
not be able to use it.
SMITH:
By the spring of 1991,
the Bush presidency was
something of an exhausted
volcano.
George Herbert Walker Bush had
fulfilled his historical role,
he was left with the infinitely,
to him unappealing,
option of defining
a domestic sequel
to the end of the Gulf War
that would unite this fractious
conservative coalition.
And, um,
and-and then he was playing
to his weaknesses.
NARRATOR:
The rest of Bush's presidency
would be a steady decline.
In May 1991,
Bush's health became a concern.
He developed a shortness
of breath
while jogging at Camp David.
He had heart arrhythmia
and an overactive thyroid,
diagnosed as Graves' disease.
Members of his team
began to wonder
if he would have the strength
to endure another
presidential campaign.
His dealings
with Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev came under attack.
When Bush met
with the Soviet leader
to sign an important
arms control agreement,
he was criticized
for "clinging to Gorbachev"
when he should have been
courting Boris Yeltsin,
president
of the Russian Parliament,
who was more committed
to democracy and free markets.
"My view," Bush said,
"Is you dance
with who's on the dance floor.
"Especially
if your dance partner controls
more than 12,000
nuclear warheads aimed at you."
The treaty Bush signed
with Gorbachev
would eliminate
almost 5,000 of them.
Well, I am very pleased
to announce
that I will nominate
Judge Clarence Thomas
to serve
NARRATOR:
In the summer of 1991,
Bush tried to appeal
to his political right,
which he had largely neglected,
by appointing
conservative justice
Clarence Thomas
to the Supreme Court.
And the fact
that he is black and a minority
has nothing to do
with this in the sense
that he is the best qualified
at this time.
ANITA HILL:
After a brief discussion
of work,
he would turn
the conversation
NARRATOR:
This backfired amid charges
of sexual harassment
by a former employee,
Anita Hill.
He spoke about acts
that he had seen
in pornographic films
involving such matters
as women having sex
with animals.
PEOPLE (chanting):
26 weeks is not enough
26 weeks is not enough
NARRATOR:
A sluggish economy
nagged at Bush.
America's wonderful,
ain't it, Mr. Bush?
Maybe you'll be unemployed.
Thank you.
(overlapping chatter
and applause)
Lay off Bush!
DARMAN:
People were very worried
about getting
displaced from their job
as 40 to 55-year-old workers,
and being unable
to find new jobs.
People were worried
about long-term care
for their parents.
People were worried about
their own health insurance.
There were a lot of things
that contributed
to a sense
of economic insecurity.
GEORGE H.W.:
People are hurting.
And they're hurting here
in New York,
and they're hurting
across this country.
And families trying
to make ends meet,
proud Americans trying
to keep their dignity
when they lost their jobs.
And I don't know any American
who sees this happening
who is so callous
that he cannot feel,
or she cannot feel a tug
in her heart,
who doesn't want to reach out
actually and hold out a hand
and try to
try to help these people.
NARRATOR:
Bush believed
there was little he could do.
Jobs were going overseas
and would not return.
The onset of globalization
helped push
the unemployment rate to 7.4%.
Bush was not willing
to extend unemployment benefits
for fear of increasing
the budget deficit.
(indistinct crowd chatter)
When he tried
to encourage consumer spending
to spur the economy,
the press saw him
as unsympathetic
to those without money to spend.
Sorry we're holding up
your shopping
FITZWATER:
The problem was
that when you would ask him
to do something symbolic,
like going down
to this little town
near Camp David
and showing concern
for the economy,
he saw it as not being true,
as not real.
And, uh, what was real
to him was,
he needed to buy some gifts
for his grandkids.
And so in his mind,
that was a far more
realistic thing to do.
GEORGE H.W.:
Yeah, we got a guy
that's that age.
FITZWATER:
And it's just one
of those things
where it ended up
working against him.
WOMAN:
Paying cash?
GEORGE H.W.:
Cash. Cash.
Well, I don't normally have any,
but I just got replenished
for the occasion.
(orchestra plays
American patriotic tune)
NARRATOR:
When Bush flew to Tokyo
with American automakers
in an effort to create
more jobs, he soldiered on
despite a case of the flu.
At a formal state dinner,
he got sick
on the Japanese prime minister.
"These last two months have been
the worst of my presidency,"
he told a friend.
"And the last year
has been the worst
of my political career."
Things would not get any better.
(applause)
The next month, he was skewered
for seeming out of touch
at a grocers' convention.
(beep)
He marveled at new technology
that could read
a shredded bar code.
Pass the product across the
Just like that?
NARRATOR:
The New York Times said
he didn't know how an ordinary
check-out counter worked.
MAN:
Mm-hmm.
GREEN:
The story stuck
because it fed in
with what was being argued
by his opponents,
both on the far right
and in the Democrats,
that Bush had lost touch
with the American people.
(waves rumbling)
In October of 1991,
the cascade of ill fortune
literally hit home.
A nor'easter, the perfect storm,
lashed Bush's house
at Walker's Point
in Kennebunkport.
HEMINWAY:
He had all his memorabilia
in there.
And to see it in rubble,
and this
With rocks and water
and seaweed it's just
It was terrible for everybody.
(camera shutters clicking)
BARBARA:
It, um, was devastating.
But life goes on,
and, you know, a lot
of people's homes were hurt,
all the way up
and down the east coast.
And, uh,
we had another home
The White House, temporarily
And so we could
we could survive.
A lot of people had
a lot more trouble than we did.
MAN:
Mr. President, did
you give any thought
to perhaps after two
storms in 13 years,
of moving to higher ground,
or are you determined
to come back here?
We'll be here. We'll be here.
It means something to us.
It means something to us.
It's our, uh, family's strength.
Be careful getting out this way.
(orchestra plays Russian music)
NARRATOR:
Bush could take some comfort
on Christmas day 1991
when the Soviet Union dissolved.
Mikhail Gorbachev's
last phone call
as president was to him.
(translated):
George
GORBACHEV (translated):
I said that I will be
stepping down,
that I will be resigning,
and Bush, at that time,
thanked me for
very fruitful work
that we did together
in international affairs,
in building
the bilateral relationship.
And he said
that he felt
that I had made
a great decisive contribution
to positive change in the world.
RICE:
That last phone call from
Gorbachev to President Bush
is, to me, still one of the most
remarkable things in history.
That the general secretary
of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union,
the president
of the great Soviet Union,
in its dying moments,
would choose to call the
president of the United States.
It says that, I think,
Gorbachev needed affirmation
that what
he was doing was right,
to let the Soviet Union die
a peaceful death.
(translated):
We had a very good
and serious
and friendly conversation,
and at that time,
President Bush gave me
serious moral support.
RICE:
I talked to President Bush
about that on a couple
of occasions.
And what's very funny is that
he didn't see it
as particularly extraordinary.
And that says something
about his modesty
and about his humility.
GEORGE H.W.:
I'd like to express,
on behalf
of the American people,
my gratitude
to Mikhail Gorbachev
NARRATOR:
If ever anyone needed a big win,
it was George Bush.
Yet that Christmas,
he did not talk of winners.
Instead, Bush televised
his thank you note to Gorbachev.
GEORGE H.W.:
This struggle shaped the lives
of all Americans.
It forced all nations
to live under the specter
of nuclear destruction.
That confrontation is now over.
(applause)
NARRATOR:
A month later,
he did talk of winners.
It was the beginning of
a presidential election year.
But the biggest thing
that has happened in the world
in my life,
in our lives, is this.
By the grace of God,
America won the Cold War.
(cheering and applause)
NARRATOR:
Still, Bush called no attention
to his role in helping shepherd
the Soviet Union
out of existence
without a shot being fired.
And I have an announcement
to make.
Uh
(applause, cheering
and whistling)
I want to continue serving
as your president
four more years,
so from this moment
(loud cheering and whistling)
NARRATOR:
The fact that he waited
until February 1992
to announce his candidacy
led some to believe
he was not interested
in a second term.
Bush would campaign
without Lee Atwater,
the bare-knuckled
campaign advisor
who had masterminded
his success four years earlier.
Atwater had died
of brain cancer.
GREENE:
The death of Lee Atwater
was the most important event
in the Bush campaign of 1992.
It took out of the mix
the one person
who could make George Bush fight
and make George Bush see
the logic
for negative campaigning.
SMITH:
I don't think you can exaggerate
the significance
of what was lost
to the Bush presidency
when Lee Atwater died.
It's as if
one lobe of the president's
brain was, uh was removed.
The political part.
And for someone who was already,
in many ways, uncomfortable
with the demands
of the political presidency,
it was a crushing blow.
NARRATOR:
Chief of Staff John Sununu,
who had delivered New Hampshire
for Bush in '88,
was forced to resign
at the end of 1991.
He had used presidential planes
for personal business,
including trips to his dentist.
DEMONSTRATORS (chanting):
We want Bush! We do!
We want Bush! We do!
No protectionism.
NARRATOR:
The Republican Party
continued to fracture.
In New Hampshire,
Bush was challenged
by Pat Buchanan,
a conservative talk show pundit
and former aide
to presidents Nixon and Reagan.
PEOPLE (chanting):
Four more years!
NARRATOR:
Buchanan hammered Bush
for raising taxes.
It was not some liberal Democrat
who declared, "Read my lips,
no new taxes"
(laughter)
and then broke his word
to cut a seedy back room deal
with the big spenders
on Capitol Hill.
NARRATOR:
Bush could not campaign on the
things in which he took pride
The Clean Air Act and the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
To movement conservatives,
they simply expanded government
at taxpayer expense.
SMITH:
So in addition
to Bush's innate modesty,
there's also
a political imperative.
Bush doesn't want to call
that much attention
to these accomplishments
because, in his political
universe,
they are the right thing to do,
they are the responsible thing
to do,
they are the establishment thing
to do,
they are the thing
that Prescott Bush would do
if he was in the White House,
but in the new political era
in which George Bush
finds himself,
they're actually liabilities.
VIGUERIE:
They were major liabilities.
And there's few things that send
the conservatives up the wall
and off the wall
more than to be told
by establishment Republicans,
we can do anything we want.
We can advocate
most any policy or program,
because we are still
a little bit better
than the Democrats, so you have
no place else to go.
And this angers us.
And so because we felt we had
no stake in his presidency,
it was easy
to oppose his nomination.
GREENE:
The Republican Party changes
during Bush's administration.
It swings, lurches to the right.
And it's a seismic shift.
And the reason for it is because
conservative Republicans
were able to position
George Bush
as having let them down,
as having broken
the Reagan faith.
And a lot of that's true.
George Bush
was a moderate Republican.
He was not a Reagan Republican.
Nice to see you.
Good to see you.
SCHWARZENEGGER:
I wanted to vote
at the same time
send a message to congress,
at the same time send
a message to Pat Buchanan
Hasta la vista, baby.
Thank you.
(laughter)
The Buchanan brigades
met King George's army
NARRATOR:
On February 18, 1992,
Bush won
the New Hampshire primary,
but Buchanan captured
37% of the vote.
(crowd cheering)
PEROT:
If you, the people
will, on your own,
I don't want some
NARRATOR:
Two days later, Ross Perot,
a Texas tycoon
and Bush's old friend,
challenged him
as a third party candidate.
PEROT:
Number one
I'll promise you this,
between now
and the convention
we'll get both parties'
heads straight.
NARRATOR:
Bush had problems.
So did Democratic candidate
Bill Clinton,
governor of Arkansas.
REPORTER:
Governor, did you burn
your draft card?
No.
There are
questions about
No.
Yes, I was Bill Clinton's lover
for 12 years.
NARRATOR:
Bush thought no politician
could survive these accusations.
I would have liked to think that
after a 12-year relationship
FITZWATER:
I think the president felt
at the time
that Clinton's record
would preclude him winning.
Uh in this country,
we had never really had
a candidate
who was a a philanderer
and who'd had
the marital problems he had,
uh, and still win an election.
We certainly never had
a president
who'd been accused
of draft dodging
and still be elected president.
And that seemed like
pretty heavy baggage.
And so I don't think anybody
believed Clinton could win.
(crowd cheering)
There is a clear pattern
to Governor Clinton's past.
A pattern of deception.
Character does matter.
A pattern of deception is not
right for the Oval Office.
(cheering)
NARRATOR:
Clinton may have had baggage,
but he was capable of hitting
Bush where it hurt.
You know what George Bush
said yesterday
to David and Rita Springs?
He said, if you want to get
the economy going,
go buy a car or buy a house.
It's a good time to buy a car,
it's a good time to buy a house.
It's a good time to buy a car
or a house
because if you're on welfare
and food stamps,
you can't pay the light bill and
be a thousand points of light
much less buy a house or a car.
(crowd cheering, band playing)
(cheering fades)
NARRATOR:
In hindsight, the recession
was over by the spring of 1992.
Bush's budget agreement
was paying off
but so slowly,
people didn't feel it.
GEORGE H.W.:
Gross domestic product,
GNP is moving.
Uh, industrial production is up.
Payroll employment is up.
So things are turning around,
and yet, at this juncture,
the American people
haven't felt it.
When they do,
I expect to see some change.
NARRATOR:
In the second quarter of '92,
the economy grew more slowly
than Bush had hoped.
FITZWATER:
Well, the president
was getting a report
from his economic advisors,
and he took a look
at the first quarter figures,
uh, and the second quarter
figures,
and it wasn't getting
any better.
And he just slumped
in his chair,
ashen-faced, and said, "What are
we going to do about this?
That's the worst news
I've ever heard."
(cheering and applause)
(cheering)
NARRATOR:
Bush accepted his party's
nomination that August
with an appeal
to the accomplishments
in which he took most pride.
The Soviet Union can only
be found in history books.
The captive nations
of Eastern Europe
and the Baltics
are captive no more.
(cheering)
And a slab of the Berlin Wall
sits right outside
this Astrodome.
(cheering)
This convention is the first
at which an American president
can say,
"The Cold War is over,
and freedom finished first."
(cheering)
SMITH:
Presidents traditionally, when
they run for re-election,
particularly in the modern era,
uh, make it a referendum
on what they've done.
And in 1992, that wasn't enough.
Because what he had done,
significant as it might be
and historically impressive
as it might come to be seen,
was irrelevant to what
the American people
increasingly wanted him
to concentrate on
which was pocketbook issues,
which was domestic security
to match the foreign security
to which he had dedicated
his presidency.
By universal consensus
Americans were demanding
a different kind of leadership,
a different kind of agenda,
a different kind of government.
And, you know, it wasn't
in George Bush to give.
(music playing, thunderous
cheering and applause)
NARRATOR:
"We still had no message,
no campaign plan,"
a Bush aide would write.
"We never did develop an answer
to the basic question:
Why should George Bush
be reelected president?"
Politics is always about
History is replete
with evidence of this
That you're, you know,
it's always about "What have you
done for me lately?"
And the shelf life of anything,
including the Persian Gulf
conflict, was short.
NAFTALI:
He never connected
with the American people.
They never quite understood what
he had done on their behalf.
He didn't know how to sell it,
and to a certain extent,
he didn't want to sell it,
because it he didn't think
it was right to sell.
Or when he tried to sell it,
he did it wrong.
Uh, George Bush
was not his own best friend
when he tried to explain
George Bush.
There was something about
George Bush that always said,
"If they'd just pay attention
"if they would listen to me,
if they'd see what I've done.
"If they don't pay attention
"to the glitz and the glamour
of my opponents,
"if they weigh my results,
they'll know I have a vision.
"And I don't have
to tell it to them.
I don't have to stoop
to that level."
The problem is that you do have
to stoop to that level.
You do have to articulate
a vision,
particularly
when your opposition
is-is holding you accountable
for not articulating a vision.
CLINTON:
And you have to vote
for somebody with a plan.
That's what you have
elections for.
People say, well,
he got elected to do this
NARRATOR:
During a presidential debate in
October, Bush seemed disengaged.
MODERATOR:
We have a question right here.
WOMAN:
Yes, how has the national debt
personally affected
each of your lives
and if it hasn't
His lack of enthusiasm
conveyed to much
of the American public
a a lack of appetite,
a lack of desire.
GREENE:
I was watching the debate
with one of my classes,
and Bush is sitting,
looking completely disengaged.
Did one of these.
He just went
He looked at his watch
as if he was completely bored
and trying to figure out
when his next appointment was.
I jumped up,
started yelling at the screen,
"The election's over,
the election's over."
Bush, in that split second,
showed himself to be a candidate
who didn't want to campaign.
He thought
that his accomplishments
would speak for themselves.
You know, if you listened
to the Clinton-Gore ticket,
the only way they can win
is to convince America
that we're in a deep recession.
NARRATOR:
A week before the election,
Bush finally could announce
good news on the economy.
BUSH:
This morning,
the-the figures were announced
for the third quarter of this
of this growth,
the gross domestic product.
The third quarter was plus 2.7%.
It grew twice as much
(cheering)
NARRATOR:
This was the beginning of the
economic boom of the 1990s
of the Clinton years.
The good news came too late
to save Bush's presidency.
Objective analysts have looked
at the Clinton surpluses.
Uh, the Congressional
Budget Office,
the Senate Budget Committee,
some people at the Brookings
Institution and others,
um, have said that they think
that of the policy changes
that accounted for the
for the Clinton surplus,
roughly 60% came
in the 1990 budget agreement,
thanks to President Bush.
NEWSWOMAN:
An embarrassing revelation
for George Bush.
Evidence released for the first
time today contradicts his
NARRATOR:
After the good news
came the bad news.
Just four days
before the election,
a special prosecutor
finally issued his report
of the Iran-Contra scandal
six years before.
Bush, it seemed, was more
in the loop than he had claimed.
NEWSWOMAN:
with an "Iran-Contra
haunts Bush" banner,
and from across the river,
with a well-placed sign.
GEORGE H.W.:
It's all a matter
of public record.
And now, at the last minute,
the Friday before an election,
you have this charge re-aired
by a desperate Clinton campaign.
CARVEY (imitating Bush):
What do you want,
you want me to beg?
Okay. I'm begging.
Please, please vote for me.
Please.
NARRATOR:
In the final days
of the campaign,
Clinton was able to turn the
character issue against Bush.
CLINTON:
Today's disclosure
not only directly contradicts
the president's claims,
it diminishes the credibility
of the presidency.
("Don't Stop Thinking
About Tomorrow" playing)
(crowd cheering)
(cheering and applause)
NARRATOR:
Bill Clinton won
with 43% of the vote.
George Bush got 37%.
Ross Perot claimed 19%.
It was the most
decisive rejection
of a sitting president
since 1912.
GREENE:
Bill Clinton did not beat
George Bush in 1992.
Pat Buchanan beat George Bush
in 1992.
Bush let the right get away.
He let the right be hijacked
by Pat Buchanan.
He let the right be hijacked
by Newt Gingrich.
He did not cater to them.
He did not consider them
to be as important
as they had grown to be
during the Reagan years.
It was that lack of prescience,
it was that lack
of understanding
the power
of the political right in 1992
that cost George Bush
the election.
He was bothered
that his failure
to be reelected in 1992
would lead historians
to denigrate
Not only denigrate
his presidency
But denigrate his commitment
to the future of this country.
He's not grandstanding here,
he's not politicking here.
This is what
he was really concerned with.
(loud, overlapping
crowd chatter)
FITZWATER:
And so we were all
in the tunnel,
waiting to go
into the convention hall,
and we're all kind of stunned
and-and beat up and tired,
and the president was
in the lead with Mrs. Bush,
and he just turned to everybody,
and everybody kind of
fell silent.
And he said,
"Now, we're going to go out here
and do this
with dignity and style,"
and turned around
and walked out.
(loud cheering, whistling
and applause)
Thank you all very much.
Thank you so much.
(crowd chanting)
Well, here's the way I see it.
(chanting continues)
Here's the way we see it,
and the country should see it,
that the people have spoken.
And we respect the majesty
of the democratic system.
I just called Governor Clinton
over in Little Rock and
offered my congratulations.
He did run a strong campaign.
I wish him well
in the White House, and, uh
Yeah, I'll tell you a term
he used to me.
Thought he was a sleaze ball.
He was contemptuous of Clinton.
POWELL:
Uh, he said, "It hurt."
It hurts a lot."
As it must have.
"Never thought it would happen.
It hurt a lot."
He didn't think
that, um, uh,
the American people would turn
in that direction so quickly.
It was very disappointing,
to put it mildly,
that-that he didn't win.
I now think that we were saved
the four most miserable years
of our life.
(indistinct crowd chatter)
I think the press would have
been all over him,
worse than ever.
And I think the Congress
He never had a Congress,
Senate or House.
They would have just
clobbered him.
Maybe Newt saved us.
Maybe.
Miserable four years.
(indistinct chatter
and laughter)
BRADY:
After the loss
to Bill Clinton in '92,
he said, "You know,
I think I'm only an asterisk
between Ronald Reagan
and Bill Clinton."
I said to him,
"Just give it time,
Mr. President.
Don't be so hard on yourself."
NAFTALI:
People make the argument
that Ronald Reagan created Bush.
No. That's baloney.
The notion of, um,
economic prosperity,
of constant economic growth,
of peace abroad
All of these ideas
that are associated
with Reagan's legacy,
would have been impossible
without George Bush.
His most important contribution
was, uh, bringing
the Cold War to an end,
after Reagan did all
of the exciting, glitzy stuff.
And George Bush took us
through those next few years,
in a way
that has produced a Europe
that is whole free and at peace.
SCOWCROFT:
This was one of history's
major transformations,
from one kind
of a world to another.
And rarely does that happen,
except accompanied
by some kind of cataclysm.
It didn't.
Some of it was luck.
A lot of it was the careful,
thoughtful, methodical work
of a president
who saw what he needed to do
and worked his way through it.
Not histrionically,
not the big guy
standing up on the parapet,
but just got it done.
SMITH:
Certainly no one can see
George Bush as an interregnum
between the drama
of the Reagan years
and the roller coaster ride
of Bill Clinton.
There is a significant,
distinct historical impact
that George Bush left
upon not so much the presidency
and certainly not on the
political culture of his time
In many ways, he was a victim
of that culture
But he left it
on a much larger stage.
He left it on the world stage,
which is, as I suspect,
the way he would want it to be.
NARRATOR:
After four decades
of public life,
George Bush feels his most
important accomplishment
is that his children
still come home.
The 41st president remains
a fundamentally private man.
When Ronald Reagan learned
he had Alzheimer's disease,
he wrote a letter for history.
He addressed it
to the American people.
At summer's end in 2001,
nine years after his defeat,
George Bush wrote a letter.
He addressed it to his children.
GEORGE H.W.:
This is my last day
in Kennebunkport
after almost five months
of great happiness.
There is something
about this place
that gets into one's very soul.
Don't you agree?
I had a little plaque made.
It says CAVU.
CAVU C-A-V-U was the kind
of weather we Navy pilots wanted
when we were to fly
off our carrier in the Pacific
"Ceiling and Visibility
Unlimited."
I will not pass by it without
realizing how lucky I am,
for the plaque describes
my own life
as it has been over the years,
as it is right now.
NARRATOR:
After leaving office,
Bush saw his son George W.
Get elected governor of Texas
and his son Jeb
governor of Florida.
JEB:
I felt like he really had
a heart for serving,
and it's a good model.
Giving back was a measurement
or part of being still is
Being part of how you define
success in life.
I learned that from my dad.
NARRATOR:
When George W.
was elected president in 2000,
it was the first time
a father and son
had occupied the White House
since John and John Quincy Adams
almost 200 years earlier.
GEORGE H.W.:
I used to seek
broad horizons in life,
and I found plenty.
Now I don't care
if I can't even see Ogunquit.
Limited horizons are okay by me
just so family is in view.
(cheering)
I don't want to sit
at the head table
or be honored or get a medal
or have stuff named for me.
That's happened.
To say that I am pleased
to be here
is the classic understatement
of the year.
This is any naval aviator's
dream come true.
I have been truly grateful,
but no more need come my way.
Your mother and I sit out here
like a couple
of really old poops,
but we are at total peace.
She does crossword puzzles,
reads a ton of books,
plays golf,
and occasionally gets mildly
To use an old Navy expression
Pissed off at me.
BARBARA:
I didn't say what I'm quoted
as saying, that dirty dog.
He tells everybody that
that's the largest free fall
since the 1992 election.
I really didn't say that.
He says it all the time.
Of course I wouldn't say that.
Maybe.
GEORGE H.W.:
I can handle it, though.
I fall back on bad hearing
and changing the subject.
Both work.
(voice breaking):
The true measure of a man is
how you handle, handle victory
and also defeat.
NARRATOR:
In 2006, as his son Jeb's term
as governor of Florida
was winding down,
Bush was invited to speak
to a group of his supporters.
And so my dad saw this crowd
of 300 people,
and, uh, just, I think,
felt so much love
for his boy
that he just broke down,
I mean, uncontrollably.
I normally am,
like, second best crybaby,
but, uh, I had to keep
the place together.
What a guy.
I love him dearly.
GEORGE H.W.:
Because of the five of you whose
hugs I can still feel,
whose own lives
have made me so proud,
I can confidently tell
my guardian angel
that my life is CAVU,
and it will be
until the day I die.
♪
Captioned by
access.wgbh.org
♪
♪
Find out more
about the presidents
at American Experience online,
where you can watch
complete programs,
explore connections
between past presidents
and the current election,
and share your views.
All this and more at pbs.org.
Major funding
for American Experience
is provided by:
Major corporate funding
is provided by:
American Experience is also
made possible
by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting and: