What an excellent day in College Station, TX at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library. Most of those reading our blog are familiar with our 41st President, his background first as a Texas oil man, then as a member of the House of Representatives, Ambassador to the U.N. and Director of the CIA before becoming Ronald Reagan’s Vice President and then President Himself. There is a large part of the museum dedicated to his and Barbara Bush’s families, with heavy emphasis on the values their parents demonstrated to them. Both lived very privileged lives, but President Bush says about his father, “We were never aware of our father’s wealth; only his achievement and respect.” And his mother was all about teamwork and service to others. President Bush was quite the athlete and recalls calling home to tell her about four scores he made during a particular game. “That’s nice, George,” she said, “but how did the team do?” If he was telling her a story about his day she might say, “There were too many Is in that sentence, George.”
We found it ironic that during his tenure as U.N. Ambassador, after the murder of the Israeli athletes during the start of the 1972 Olympics, it was then Ambassador Bush who argued that terrorism was fast becoming an international problem that needed to be addressed by the governments of many nations, not just one. Thirty years later his son would be president when terrorism hit his own homeland.
Bush was Director of the CIA during Watergate, and writes about the emotional toll that took on him. He had had a close relationship with Nixon, admired and respected him. When the tape indicting Nixon was released, he felt it his duty as a friend to be honest with Nixon and wrote him a letter encouraging him to resign.
About Ronald Reagan, Bush says, “I learned a lot about common decency and honor from President Reagan. I admired him tremendously.”
For us, one of the coolest things in the library is a gift from the Saudi people. It is in the photo on this post just before the portraits of the First Lady and the President. It is a Gate of Kuwait, presented in 1993 to then Former President George Bush in acknowledgement of his great involvement in freeing Kuwait from Iraqi occupation and aggression and as an expression of his place in the hearts of the Kuwaiti people. The door is over 100 years old. It’s frame has gold plaques on each side inscribed with the names of the American service men and women who died in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Part of the dedication reads, “There is an old Kuwaiti proverb: “When a man gives you the key to his home it means that you are the best and most valuable friend to him, and when a man gives you the door of his home it means you are one of his family.”
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