'Read my lips: no new taxes' (1988)
Pledge in his Republican convention acceptance speech, later broken
US Presidents · 20th century
George H. W. Bush
1924–2018 · American
Republican
In office: 1989–1993
George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president, had been a Second World War naval aviator, congressman, UN ambassador, CIA director and Reagan's vice president. He presided over the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany, led the coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, and lost re-election to Bill Clinton after breaking his "no new taxes" pledge. His son George W. Bush became the 43rd president.
How to spot them
- ▸'Read my lips: no new taxes'
- ▸Operation Desert Storm and the Gulf War
- ▸'A thousand points of light'; 'a kinder, gentler nation'
- ▸Father of George W. Bush; youngest naval aviator shot down over Chichi Jima in 1944
In office
The invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause) (1989)
Removal of Manuel Noriega
The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
Landmark civil rights law prohibiting disability discrimination
Operation Desert Storm (1991)
US-led coalition campaign that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait
The START I treaty (1991)
Strategic arms reduction treaty signed with Gorbachev
The 'new world order' speech (1990)
Address to Congress on the post–Cold War order during the Gulf crisis
Key ideas
- 'A thousand points of light': voluntary community service
Quick-fire facts
- •41st president; born in Milton, Massachusetts
- •One of the youngest US naval aviators of the Second World War; shot down over Chichi Jima in 1944
- •Captained the Yale baseball team
- •Served as ambassador to the UN, head of the US liaison office in China and Director of Central Intelligence
- •Vice president under Reagan (1981–1989); the first sitting vice president elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836
- •With George W. Bush, the second father–son presidential pair after John Adams and John Quincy Adams
- •Celebrated several birthdays, including his 90th, with parachute jumps
- •Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and an aircraft carrier are named after him; died on 30 November 2018
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Miller Center, University of Virginia — George H. W. Bush
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — George H. W. Bush