1 “Docks” refers to Kennebunkport, Maine, where my mother’s side of the family, the Walkers, had spent their summers since 1901, when my grandfather bought the property that would eventually become known as Walker’s Point.
2 Most of my early letters will be signed “Pop” or “Poppy.” My mother’s brothers gave me the nickname Poppy when I was born. I was named for their father, my maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker, whom they called Pop. So they called me Little Pop or Poppy.
3 I don’t ever remember calling Barbara “Bobsie,” but that’s whom I’m talking about here.
4 George Mead was a Marine, killed in combat. His sister, Louise, married my mother’s brother Dr. John Walker.
5 At the time, Barbara was a high school student at Ashley Hall, a boarding school in Charleston, South Carolina. Mum had helped convince Barbara’s mother, Mrs. Marvin Pierce, that it would be fine for Barbara to come visit me in Chapel Hill.
6 Ensign James Charles Crume Jr. was my primary flight instructor. Ensign J. A. Boyle was another instructor I occasionally flew with.
7 Today the bracelet is on display at my presidential library.
8 Terms used to describe two special maneuvers.
9 Fred Von Stade, a family friend and uncle to the opera singer Frederica Von Stade.
10 Fred Waring, a music maestro and glee club leader, who was a friend of my father’s.
11 This was the plane I ultimately flew into combat. Called the Avenger, TB stood for “Torpedo bomber,” and the F was the symbol for the manufacturer, Grumman. (The plane was later built by General Motors and designated TBM.) It was huge; the largest single-engine plane in the Navy.
12 Ganny was my maternal grandmother, Loulie Wear Walker. Flash was her daughter, my mother’s sister, Nancy Walker.
13 I was referring to the commissioning of the USS San Jacinto (CVL 30), the ship to which my squadron was assigned, which took place on December 15, 1943, at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. Mom and Barbara did attend.
14 I was having a camera installed on my plane because I was training to become VT-51’s aerial photographer.
15 Every new ship takes what is called a shakedown cruise to break in the new crew and make sure all systems are go.
16 Our ship was about to come under attack from Japanese planes, so we hastily launched all our planes. Mine developed engine problems with four five-hundred-pound depth charges (used to sink submarines) in the plane’s belly. I had to make a forced landing in the water.
17 We were rescued by the destroyer C. K. Bronson, then transferred several times before getting back to the San Jac. A “breeches buoy” transfer was pretty dicey—all ropes and pulleys while you dangled between ships over the water.
18 A nickname for high-ranking officers.
19 Because of his poor eyesight, Pressy was 4-F, which was a huge disappointment for him. He took a job working for Pan-American Airlines in Brazil.
20 My two regular crewmates were John Delaney and Leo Nadeau, who was the gunner.
21 Our inflatable yellow life vests were called Mae Wests.
22 Later I learned that a Japanese boat did start out for me only to be strafed by one of our planes.
23 Stuart Clement was a first cousin.
24 We later learned from an American pilot, and then confirmed years later after we obtained the Japanese records of the incident, that two chutes did open.
25 This was an expression used a lot by my parents. It was taken from the Greenwich Country Day School’s report card, where there was a line for “Claims more than his fair share of time and attention in class.” If this was checked on our card, we were in big trouble. I was a student at GCDS until age twelve.
26Commander Robert R. Williams Jr., who was awarded a Silver Star for enemy ships sunk on this very patrol.
27 Ensign Bill Edwards of the Finback filmed my rescue. Years later, when I was a candidate for Vice President, he contacted me and told me he had the film. It is now on display in my presidential library.
28 Our garbage collector.
29 This is Jack Guy, with whom I’m still good friends today. Jack found and had refurbished an exact replica of my Avenger airplane to hang in my presidential library.
30 A term used—rather derisively—by submariners to describe pilots.
31 A nickname of mine when Pres, Nancy, and I were the only children.
1 Title of the state song.
2 G. H. Walker Jr., the oldest of my mother’s four brothers. Most people called him Herbie, which I often spelled “Herby.”
3A close friend of the family and a classmate of my father’s.
4 My parents lived on Grove Lane in Greenwich, Connecticut.
5 In addition to Whittier, we also lived in Bakersfield, Ventura, and Compton during our one year in California.
6 The “Senator” is Gerry’s father, Samuel Bemiss. He was not really a senator, but he was a true Virginia gentleman of the old school, and we called him Senator.
7 John O’Connor, to whom I reported from time to time, was executive vice president of Dresser Industries.
8 I was referring to the war in Korea. Since I was not a member of the Navy Reserves, chances were slim I would be called back, but everyone at least thought about it.
9 Dad ran for the U.S. Senate in 1950, but lost by just a few votes to Democrat William Benton.
10 The royalty is the interest retained by the owner (the lessor) of the land or minerals—in those days it usually was one-eighth of the production. The operator (the lessee) owns the remaining seven-eighths but pays the full amount of drilling, development, and operating costs. Both types of interest are actively traded.
11 Brothers Hugh and Bill Liedtke, originally from Oklahoma.
12 If I remember right, Moose was a young kid who had worked for us in the oil fields the previous summer.
13 Barbara’s father had remarried, to a woman named Willa Martin from Greenville, South Carolina.
14 Alger was the only Republican congressman from Texas. There were so few Republicans in Texas in those days that we used to joke we held our meetings in phone booths.
31 Gerry had been elected to the state legislature..
15 R.G. LeTourneau was revolutionizing the off-shore oil drilling business with his invention of the three-legged drilling barge. Zapata signed up as one of his first customers.
16 I was in New York on a business trip. Robin was buried in a Greenwich, Connecticut, cemetery.
17 Our fourth boy, Marvin Pierce Bush, had been born October 22, 1956.
18 The Longest Day, which went on to be made into an award-winning and popular movie.
19 Lads was a term my father used a lot.
20 My parents had a home in Hobe Sound, Florida.
21 In Nixon’s 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy.
22 John represented Texas in the U.S. Senate.
23 All of this is in reference to the ultraconservative John Birch Society, which did not like me. A man named General Walker, an extremist, was one of their leaders. Among the nasty propaganda they put out was a letter saying that Barbara was “an heiress who spent all her time on the Cape.” At that point in her life, Barbara was fairly certain she had never set foot on Cape Cod, but she immediately wrote her father and inquired if she was “an heiress.” She was disappointed in the answer.
24 My Democratic opponent, the incumbent senator.
25 Tom Dixon, a friend and supporter, and an African-American.
26 Ike Kampmann of San Antonio. He and his wife, Flo, were among my early supporters in Texas.
27 Dean Burch was put in by Barry Goldwater as head of the Republican National Committee, and he did resign soon after this. At this point I had never even met Burch. Later on he became one of my closest friends and supporters. I found him to be broad-minded and certainly able. The lesson here is “Do not judge others without knowing them personally.”
28 This refers to my boat, Rebel.
29 Fortunately, the rig had been totally evacuated and no lives were lost.
30 Hoyt Taylor was one of the company vice presidents and chief engineer; Buster Whittington was the drilling superintendent and in charge of all the rigs.
1 He actually spells his name “Jerry,” but I had not figured that out yet.
2 Being in the minority, Republicans had the image in some quarters of being “against” everything, or in slang terms, aginners. The reference to “the 90th” means that I would be a member of the Ninetieth Congress.
3 Mel was then a congressman from Wisconsin and chairman of the Republican Conference; he was later secretary of defense in the Nixon administration.
4 The retiring senator from Wyoming and the father of the future senator and my good friend Alan Simpson. We had decided to go ahead and buy a house and move the family to Washington. However, George W. was already a student at Yale, and Jeb stayed in Houston to finish school there, living with our good friends Baine and Mildred Kerr.
5 This was less about my dad and more about the fact that a Republican from Texas was still a rarity.
6 Powell, a Democratic congressman from New York, was eventually denied his seat because of charges he misused government funds.
7 Dorsey had blasted LBJ’s State of the Union message, both the substance and style. He thought LBJ wanted to spend too much of the taxpayers’ dollar and give the federal government too much power over the states. I agreed with him on both counts. He also thought LBJ’s delivery was boring.
8 My secretary’s name was Aleene Smith, but Paul insisted on calling her Mrs. Brown. For some reason, he also decided he didn’t like her and suggested she be fired.
9 Senator Robert Kennedy of New York.
10 It was about time we were on a first-name basis.
11 Instead of getting my first choice, the Appropriations Committee, I was appointed to the more powerful Ways and Means Committee.
12 Member of Congress.
13 The powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for whom I had great respect; respect that he earned simply by knowing more about the subjects before Ways and Means than anyone else.
14 He had written Johnson & Johnson complaining that their mouthwash commercials were irritating, especially when viewed while eating.
15 My mother’s brother Dr. John Walker.
16 This was before Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. That would not happen until 1975.
17 Texas Southern University, a historically black college in Houston.
18 Francis Williams got a lot of bad press in those days, including being accused of putting murderers on his payroll.
19 Jimmy was my campaign manager, then organized my congressional office and served as administrative assistant.
20 The North Koreans had seized the USS Pueblo and its eighty-three-man crew in the Sea of Japan (they were released in December); de Gaulle, president of France, had been bashing America; the Great Society was President Johnson’s domestic program, which Republicans generally disliked because of its huge cost.
21 I felt the bill was unfair to real estate agents, since it forced them to play under different rules from homeowners who sold their houses directly, without an agent.
22 I’m likely referring to Martin Luther King’s funeral, but I don’t remember now which Republican leader was being criticized for attending.
23 Ho Chi Minh, the president of North Vietnam. VC stands for the Viet Cong.
24 This is in reference to comments Senator Kennedy had made saying the South Vietnamese military was not doing its part.
25 This was the chant of protesters in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.
26 I did not believe that all communists were engaged in a united effort to overthrow all noncommunist governments.
27 The comic strip character.
28 The protesters targeted the Agriculture Department, demanding more food stamps for the poor. The demonstrations were often ugly and violent.
29 League of United Latin American Citizens.
30 This was long before Planned Parenthood began emphasizing abortion as a form of family planning. At that point we had a parting of the ways.
31 Bob was a Texas supporter who moved to Colorado.
32 The Harris County GOP newsletter.
33 The outrageous article referred to “filthy rich Hebrews with tall willowy blondes on either arm.”
34 Jack, an insurance agent in Houston, had become one of our best friends when we moved to Houston. He encouraged me to get into politics, then became my most loyal supporter. He worked for me for years and never accepted a dime in payment.
35 Peter Marshall, a minister well known for his inspirational words.
36 The Senators was Washington’s major league baseball team, which is now known as the Texas Rangers.
37 Representative Wilmer Mizell from North Carolina, who was a former major league player for the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals.
38 My good friend and former superstar of the Boston Red Sox was managing the Senators at that time.
39 Bentsen, the future vice-presidential nominee and secretary of the treasury, had shocked everyone by challenging the incumbent for his party’s nomination. Bentsen had served in Congress, but at the time he ran for the Senate, he was an executive in the insurance industry in Houston. The “Connally” is John Connally, the former Texas governor.
40 Perot’s number one cause for years was the release of American prisoners in Vietnam. I was sympathetic to this cause and even suggested to Jerry Ford that Congress hold a special session to address the POW problem. However, years down the road, I believe it is this same issue that drove a wedge between Perot and me.
41 Doro, then in the fifth grade, had cried almost uncontrollably, telling her mother, “I’m the only girl in my class whose father doesn’t have a job.”
1 H. R. Haldeman was Nixon’s chief of staff. I liked Bob and felt my relationship with him was good. He was straightforward with me at all times.
2 Several White House staff, especially Chuck Colson, constantly called on the Republican National Committee to do their bidding, such as being the main “attack dog” against the press.
3 John Lindsay was mayor of New York City; Arthur Goldberg was a former ambassador to the United Nations.
4 The current U.N. ambassador, Charles Yost, who had been appointed by President Johnson. He was a senior career Foreign Service officer and had never been close to President Nixon.
5 Charles Bartlett was a Pulitzer Prize—winning journalist, savvy in Washington ways. He had been a close friend of John F. Kennedy’s, and was at my side in Washington through good times and bad.
6 Secretary general of the United Nations.
7 Secretary of state in the Johnson administration.
8 Rogers Morton had just been appointed secretary of the interior.
9 The President had provided Secret Service protection for Kissinger because of some threats made against him. Tiddleywinks was a game all Bushes played growing up. Mother was the champion. It was a real icebreaker. With a large plastic shooter chip, the goal is to flick smaller chips into a little jar. Thumb control is the key.
10 I’m talking about my temporary office at the State Department, since I had not yet been confirmed by the Senate. I did not take charge of the U.N. post until March 1.
11 I would rather not use his full name. He was dismissed.
12 The official residence of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was an apartment in the Waldorf Towers.
13 I sent a copy of this letter to many of my former House colleagues.
14 Yakov Malik, the Soviet Union’s ambassador to the United Nations and a true cold warrior who could make my life difficult. The Four Powers Meetings included the U.N. ambassadors from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.
15 This was the Soviet trading company headquartered in New York City.
16 The Jewish Defense League, led by the outrageous and radical Meir Kahane, continually used disruptive, radical tactics against the Soviet Union while protesting the treatment of Soviet Jews.
17 J. Edgar Hoover, the powerful director of the FBI.
18 Bryce was a counselor to Nixon and a close confidant. He was respected and well liked by everyone.
19 A congresswoman from Illinois.
20 I really mean the turbulent times—war protests, civil unrest, our troubled college campuses.
21 On June 13, the New York Times began publishing classified documents that became known as the Pentagon Papers detailing U.S. involvement in Vietnam. They were leaked by Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, one of the analysts who helped write the report.
22 France’s ambassador at the United Nations and later a foreign policy adviser to Paris mayor Jacques Chirac, now president of France.
23 Piero Vinci, Italy’s engaging ambassador to the United Nations.
24 A boarding school in Washington, D.C.
25 Sally and Bill McKenzie are good friends and supporters from Dallas.
26 Tom was my very able assistant. Later, he worked for me at the Republican National Committee.
27 Black September was a radical Arab terrorist organization that shocked the world when they assassinated eleven members of Israel’s Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
28 The apartment number in the Waldorf Towers.
29 Fred and his wife, Marion, were among our best friends in Texas. A few years down the road, Bar would name our next dog in Fred’s honor.
30 Ehrlichman was a top White House aide; John Mitchell had been attorney general but left that post to head up the Committee for the Re-election of the President.
1 Haig had been named chief of staff after Haldeman resigned.
29 He asked about my father’s two sisters and brother.
2 Laird, formerly secretary of defense, was now a White House counselor.
3 President Nixon picked Michigan congressman Gerald Ford to replace Agnew.
4 The Paris Peace Accord had been signed January 27; the last U.S. troops left Vietnam March 29; and 590 American POWs were released by April 1.
5 Egypt and Syria had attacked Israel on October 6; Israel counterattacked. A cease-fire took effect October 24 and a U.N. peacekeeping force was sent to the Middle East.
6 White House press secretary.
7 I have since changed my mind about Chuck Colson, who totally changed his life around while serving a prison term and today is doing wonderful ministerial work in prisons and elsewhere.
8 Buchanan worked for Nixon as a speechwriter.
9 Pete was a close family friend from Kennebunkport, a good friend of my Walker uncles and of mine.
10 Tex McCrary, a strong Republican and a big Nixon supporter.
11 Our four sons, George, Jeb, Neil, and Marvin. (Apparently I thought Doro was too young at the time to receive this letter.) My dad had used the old-fashioned term lads a lot, and I have always used it—jokingly—to refer to our four sons.
12 Fred was secretary of commerce and a close personal friend.
13 The president of Yale, and very liberal. He later served as ambassador to Great Britain under Jimmy Carter.
14 One of the main student centers on the Yale campus.
15 Larry O’Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
16 Magruder, who had been Mitchell’s deputy at the Committee for the Reelection of the President, was one of the first Watergate participants to come forward and testify against his colleagues, always downplaying his own involvement (at least in my opinion).
17 One half of the Evans and Novak commentary team.
18 Republican congressman from Maryland.
19 Tom Railsback, Republican congressman from Illinois.
20 John Connally was indicted and later acquitted in the famous “milk fund” scandal. Connally was accused of accepting a bribe from a dairy organization that wanted a promise of higher milk-price supports from the federal government in return for campaign contributions.
21 My close friend John Rhodes, congressman from Arizona, was House minority leader. Fred Buzhardt was the chief White House lawyer.
22 I’m talking about the “smoking gun” tape where we learned Nixon had lied about his knowledge of the cover-up.
23 Bill Steiger and Jerry Pettis, both congressmen, were among my closest friends on the Hill. Martha Griffiths was a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan. She and I had served on the Ways and Means Committee together.
24 At this point Kissinger was both secretary of state and the NSC adviser.
25 I later recommended Mary Louise Smith, whom President Ford did appoint. Mary Louise was the first woman to head up one of the two major political parties.
26 Bill Timmons was one of Ford’s top advisers.
27 Being ambassador to the United Kingdom was considered expensive since the ambassador was expected to provide lavish entertainment, only a fraction of which was covered by the government.
28 Meaning California, where they were then living.
1 When we lived in China, Beijing was still spelled Peking. In 1979, the Chinese government began using a new system of transliteration—in other words, how you represent corresponding letters in different alphabets. This changed the English spelling of the names of people and places—e.g., Peking became Beijing. Names will appear in this chapter as they were spelled when we lived there.
2 Jaworski was still investigating Watergate.
3 Robert Mardian was a good friend of Nixon’s who worked at the Committee for the Re-election of the President and was among those indicted for wrongdoing. All charges were later dropped.
4 Eastern Asia, a division within the State Department.
5 I replaced Ambassador David Bruce, perhaps our most distinguished diplomat, who was the first head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing.
6 Bob Strauss, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a great friend to this day. As President, I named him ambassador to the Soviet Union.
7 C. Fred Bush, our cocker spaniel. There weren’t many dogs in China, so Fred was an oddity.
8 Hap Ellis, my sister Nancy’s son, and his wife, Robin.
9 United States Liaison Office.
10 John Holdridge was deputy chief of mission (or the number two man) at the liaison office. He went on to become ambassador to Singapore, assistant secretary of state for the Far East, and ambassador to Indonesia. He and his wife, Martha, became good friends of ours and I considered him a mentor on Chinese affairs.
11 Chiao was then foreign minister, but I had gotten to know him when, as vice foreign minister, he accompanied the first People’s Republic mission to New York to take their seat in the United Nations. A brilliant man, Chiao suffered at the hands of the radical Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
12 Huang was my counterpart in Washington.
13 Soon after the Chinese arrived in New York, I had invited the delegation to my mother’s house in Greenwich for an informal Sunday-afternoon get-together.
14 You probably recognize him as Deng Xiaoping, who was then vice premier. The staffers who went with me, in addition to Holdridge, were Don Anderson, our expert on Chinese political affairs, and Brunson McKinley, who was an aide.
15 This war took place while I was at the United Nations and resulted in the creation of a new country, Bangladesh. The United States tilted diplomatically toward Pakistan. The Chinese openly sided with Pakistan; the Soviet Union with India, which caused a great deal of international tension.
16 Nancy Tang, an excellent interpreter, was close to the top Chinese leadership. She was the daughter of the highest PRC official at the U.N. Secretariat. Wang Hai Jung was Mao’s niece.
17 I am Bill Steiger Jr.’s godfather.
18 United States Information Service.
19 N.B. is from the Latin nota bene, which means “note well.”
20 I always called the kids “weiner” or “tennie weeny.” Today, all the grandkids are weiners.
21 Jeb had married Columba—we call her Colu—Garnica Gallo in February 1974. They were living in Houston, where Jeb worked for Texas Commerce Bank.
22 President of Zaire.
23 Perhaps I overestimated the impact of Chinese propaganda. Much of it was aimed at their own people, not at the outside world.
24 Donald Rumsfeld, then Ford’s chief of staff and later his secretary of defense.
25 Mr. Wong is still running things at the ambassador’s residence in Beijing.
26 Today we know VTRs (videotape recorders) as VCRs (videocassette recorders).
27 Marvin underachieved at Andover and changed schools to Woodberry Forest where he did very well. He went to the University of Texas for one year, but then transferred to and graduated from the University of Virginia, which he loved.
28 “Friendship first” was an often-repeated slogan.
29 Famous football coach of the University of Alabama.
30 When I visited China as President in 1989, Premier Li Peng gave Barbara and me bicycles as gifts, to remind us of our China days. On my many trips to China since 1992, both in Beijing and in other cities, many people still refer to our bike-riding. Amazing!
31 Jerry, now a Hollywood producer, and I became friends when he married longtime family friend and famous singer Jane Morgan. At this time, Jerry managed tours of many singing stars, including John Denver, Elvis Presley, and Neil Diamond.
32 The full title is Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House.
33 Mrs. Tang gave Bar and me Chinese lessons one hour a day, five days a week.
34 We had given the Chinese two musk ox as presents, just as they had given us the famous panda bears.
35 Domestic Service Bureau, which was responsible for looking after all the embassies.
36 Pete was working at the White House for Rumsfeld.
37 Bill was deputy assistant secretary for East Asian affairs.
38 Senator Bill Roth of Delaware. His wife, Jane, is a federal judge.
39 William Paley, president of CBS, and a good friend of Dad, who served on the CBS board.
40 Oscar was head of the China Desk at the State Department.
41 Brent Scowcroft was Kissinger’s number two man on the National Security Council. Over the years, Brent and I became the best of friends, and as my national security adviser when I was President, he was a most trusted confidant.
42 Neil and his wife, Ann, were visiting.
43 It must seem odd that Doro was baptized in China. Over the years, for a variety of reasons, her baptism had been scheduled and postponed a number of times. Twenty years later, at a well-attended church service in a bigger church, we saw one of the ministers who had baptized Doro.
44 The hot dog buns did make it in time.
45 The day before he had to have a tooth drilled in a Chinese hospital.
46 I had taken a whirlwind trip back to Washington.
47 The CIA.
1 George W. wrote us a letter on behalf of all the kids, giving us their full support. “I look forward to the opportunities to hold my head high and declare ever so proudly that yes, George Bush, super spook, is my Dad and that yes I am damn glad for my country that he is head of the agency.”
2 Voice of America.
3 There were many other changes afoot. Scowcroft was going to replace Kissinger as National Security Council (NSC) adviser; Kissinger, who remained as secretary of state, had been doing double duty. Donald Rumsfeld was replacing James Schlesinger as secretary of defense.
4 Mao would say, “One, ten, one hundred years” to solve the Taiwan problem.
5 The Shanghai Communiqué was the statement issued by President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai during Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972. Much of it dealt with Taiwan, and the United States carefully agreed with the view of Chinese on both the mainland and on Taiwan that there was but “one China” and the issue should be settled by the Chinese themselves.
6 My brother Jonathan’s son.
7 Jack was a counselor to the President and helped shepherd me through the confirmation process. He later became secretary of the army.
8 Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, was being vocal about his opposition to my CIA appointment, saying it was too political. Newspaper columnists were hammering away on the same point.
9 Vice President Rockefeller would not be on the GOP ticket in 1976.
10 The man I would be replacing at the CIA.
11 David Bocskor, Robert Booth, John Chornyak, and Evan Dewire, the State Department security officers assigned to the liaison office.
12 A Chinese national who worked at the USLO.
13 An office in the Old Executive Office Building, in the White House complex.
14 President Ford disagreed with this point and did not give me cabinet rank. He was absolutely right. I attended only those cabinet meetings where I was needed. On the other hand, President Reagan did give his CIA director, William Casey, cabinet rank, and Casey often annoyed the other cabinet members by interfering with domestic affairs. I did not give either of my very able CIA directors—William Webster and Robert Gates—cabinet rank.
15 The director of the CIA (DCI) not only is the head of that particular agency, but also coordinates intelligence activities of other government agencies, such as the Department of State, Department of Defense, FBI, etc. They all come under an umbrella organization called the Intelligence Community, which had a separate staff that reported to the DCI.
16 The 40 Committee operated within the framework of the National Security Council and was made up of a group of undersecretaries from the various departments.
17 Henrietta Morris, a dedicated career Foreign Service secretary, who served with us in China.
18 Harry Thayer, who was my number two, was acting chief at the liaison office.
19 President and Mrs. Nixon were in China, which was controversial at home. It came during the primary season when former California governor Ronald Reagan was challenging President Ford for the GOP presidential nomination. At that time, Reagan felt both Ford and Nixon had been too accommodating to China.
20 Paula Rendon, our longtime housekeeper, who came to us right after Doro was born.
21 I am referring here to the congressional hearings during the last several years that had examined and for the most part greatly criticized the CIA; hearings that had also disclosed sensitive information, thus making getting cooperation from abroad much more difficult.
22 George had been in Lubbock the day before on behalf of President Ford’s campaign.
23 William Crawford Jr., ambassador to Cyprus.
24 An old friend, an ex-newspaperman who had worked on my 1970 Senate campaign.
25 Harriman had a distinguished career in public service, including as the Democratic governor of New York and ambassador to the Soviet Union during World War II. He and his brother Roland were partners in my dad’s Wall Street firm, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., although Averell was not an active partner. Averell was a supporter of the CIA.
26 Larry was deputy undersecretary for management. During my administration, he was number two at the State Department under Jim Baker. After Jim resigned in 1992 to be White House chief of staff, Larry became the secretary of state and did a great job during the final months of my presidency.
27 A loyal Republican.
28 The Soviet’s Backfire bomber was one of most controversial issues I had to deal with while DCI. There was huge disagreement in the Intelligence Community on the Backfire’s capabilities—especially whether it had the range to reach the United States. Needless to say, it was important to know the truth, not only for national security but also for arms controls negotiation purposes. The CIA was accused of downplaying the Backfire’s capabilities, which was ridiculous. I refer in this memo to Sandy McDonnell, president of McDonnell Douglas, who was advising us on the issue. General Jones is David Jones, head of the Air Force.
29 It would be another twenty years before Carlos the Jackal, perhaps the most famous terrorist ever, would finally be apprehended.
30 Philip Agee was a former CIA agent who had violated his secrecy obligations after leaving the Agency and contributed to the “outing” of undercover agents. Based on these activities, I viewed Agee as a traitor and still do. I believe he was morally responsible for several agents’ deaths.
31 George had also been chairman of Chase Bank.
1 Bill Simon, treasury secretary under Nixon and Ford; John Connally; Jim Baker; Bob Mosbacher, a close Houston friend and successful oilman whom I would name secretary of commerce; and Senator Bill Brock of Tennessee.
2 The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens in Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States. The idea was to draw together leaders from all sectors to discuss common problems facing those countries. My short-lived membership (I didn’t have time to be a member) would cause me some heartburn down the road, since some people thought the Commission conspired to rule the world.
3 George Prescott Bush, son of Jeb and Columba, had been born April 24, 1976, in Houston.
4 First International Bancshares in Dallas.
5 Perot had asked me to run his oil business in Houston.
6 A very conservative Republican activist was already running, so now there would be a primary.
7 Several people had approached me about possibly becoming president of Yale University. I asked that my name be taken out of consideration.
8 Pro-Soviet leftists had overthrown the government in a bloody coup. The Shah of course was right about Afghanistan; by 1979, the Soviet Union was involved in a full-scale guerrilla war.
9 Anwar Sadat, the respected leader of Egypt.
10 Obviously Reagan and I had not yet formed a personal friendship; I was disappointed only that he had endorsed anyone in the primary at all.
11 Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the House.
12 Alan was not yet head of the Federal Reserve Board. (Reagan would appoint him in 1987 and I would reappoint him in 1992.) At this time he was president of Townsend-Greenspan & Co. and had been chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under President Ford.
13 Both Toby and his sister Elsie Hillman were good friends and members of my national steering committee. Toby pointed out I had low name recognition nationally, despite my already long career in public service. He also reminded me I was not known as a charismatic speaker, a problem I never quite overcame.
14 Carter brought together Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat for peace talks at Camp David, which resulted in the Camp David Peace Accord.
15 David, now a successful attorney and businessman in San Antonio, was my traveling companion—the “bag carrier.” I came to think of him almost like a son.
16 Campaign songs sent in by Mrs. Carton.
17 Jeb had moved back to Texas to work full-time on the campaign.
18 Neil met his wife, Sharon Smith, while campaigning for me in New Hampshire.
19 George had married Laura Welch from Midland.
20 Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee.
21 When your poll numbers are so low, you are not even listed by name, but instead only by asterisk, under the group heading “All Others.”
22 My baseball coach at Yale.
23 A columnist from the Washington Post. She was always very tough on me, but apparently she hadn’t gotten tough yet, except about my clothes.
24 There were rumors that President Ford might enter the race at this late date. He did not.
25 Like all of the candidates, I had Secret Service protection.
26 I won the Connecticut primary.
27 Some friends were already encouraging me to try again in 1984!
28 The site of the Republican convention.
29 Hank Knoche, one of my top deputies at the CIA.
30 I’m referring to President Carter. Lud was a Democrat.
1 Ed, one of Reagan’s top aides, was instrumental in staffing the administration.
2 President Reagan clearly overrode my advice and appointed William Casey. (Casey had been a member of the CIA’s forerunner, the OSS, during World War II.) Given that I was appointed DCI without prior intelligence experience, I could not say too much.
3 President Reagan used to joke about all my “home” states. I had grown up in Connecticut, had a home in Maine, my father was from Ohio, I was born in Massachusetts, and I lived in Texas. I actually left one out: my mother was from Missouri.
4 I almost always went hunting around Christmastime (usually between Christmas and New Year’s) near Beeville, Texas, with my good friend Will Farish.
5 The vice president’s official residence, which is on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington.
6 Bar and I had just bought Walker’s Point, which had been put up for sale after Uncle Herbie’s death. When it was about ready to be sold out of the family, we decided to step in and buy it, mainly so Mum could keep her house on the Point. It of course turned out to be one of the best decisions we ever made. We were in the middle of major renovations since little had been done to the house after it had been clobbered by a storm several years earlier.
7 The remaining fifty-two American hostages still being held in Iran were released on January 20.
8 Fred was a distinguished newspaper editor and perhaps one of the most respected citizens of New Hampshire’s North Country. He thought he resembled President Reagan and offered to stand in for the President at times if it would help improve his security. His offer was serious and sincere.
9 It was eventually published as C. Fred’s Story and raised a lot of money for literacy. Barbara was Fred’s ghostwriter.
10 George and Laura were expecting a baby. It turned out to be two babies—Jenna and Barbara, born November 25.
11 Jim was Reagan’s chief of staff.
12 Former Democratic senator from Maine, secretary of state, and presidential candidate.
13 I had already attended one state funeral that year.
14 There was tremendous concern about security at the funeral. President Reagan thought he should go, then decided neither of us should. Instead, Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter went.
15 Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.
16 Airborne Warning and Control Systems, an electronic surveillance aircraft. Israel was strongly opposed to the sale.
17 Katharine Hepburn had won best actress for On Golden Pond.
18 Hugh Gregg, former governor of New Hampshire and chairman of my 1980 campaign in that state.
19 Don has been my loyal assistant since I was elected to Congress in 1966 and is still with me.
20 Howard Baker of Tennessee.
21 Former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and at this time a congressman from New York.
22 The Reverend William Sloane Coffin, a liberal activist.
23 A respected civic leader and perhaps the leading rabbi in Houston.
24 Doro had gotten married earlier that month, to Billy LeBlond.
25 George had replaced Al Haig as secretary of state.
26 Andrei Gromyko was the Soviet foreign minister.
27 My Cigarette boat that I kept in Maine.
28 President Reagan and I had lunch every Thursday. It was just the two of us, no agenda, with the understanding that what we talked about would stay between us.
29 One of Reagan’s many Hollywood friends.
30 To visit the United States.
31 The multinational force.
32 Although Doro eventually named her first child Sam, we do now have a grandchild named Walker Bush, as fine a name as they come.
33 His official title is His Highness Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. Barbara and I became great friends with Katie and Sadri while we were at the United Nations. Sadri was then the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. The son of the late Aga Khan, he was vitally interested in and well informed about international affairs.
34 A reference to the two world wars.
35 The national security adviser.
36 Tensions were particularly high in the Gulf region because Iran—embroiled in the Iran-Iraq War—kept attacking neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf.
37 Although he was strongly against tax increases, President Reagan did raise taxes in 1982, 1983, and 1987.
38 Ferraro and her husband, John Zaccaro, had come under fire from the media on their personal finances and income tax questions. As a result, the media tried (unsuccessfully) to find something wrong with my tax returns.
39 Much to her dismay, Barbara became famous that campaign when in a moment of extreme frustration (the Mondale campaign kept referring to me as a rich elitist), she called Ferraro that “four-million-dollar—I can’t say it but it rhymes with rich.” She felt horrible and called Geraldine to apologize. Gerry could not have been more gracious.
1 Mike Deaver, a good friend of Reagan’s and a former White House staffer.
2 Members of Congress.
3 Some people called George P., “P,” just as they later would call George W., “W.”
4 The Mets catcher.
5 I took President Leon Febres-Cordero of Ecuador.
6 Whitey Herzog managed the St. Louis Cardinals, whom the Mets were playing that day. Johnson was the Mets’ manager.
7 My brother Pres and I paid her ten cents to run across the room naked. She did, then went home and tattled. I’m not sure we had ever seen our dad so angry, and he made us go apologize.
8 Americans living in or traveling to Beirut were routinely taken hostage by Arab extremist groups during this time. It was a horrible situation that the government could do little about.
9 My nickname for Neil was Whitney; it started out as Whitey, because of his blond hair, and somehow it evolved into Whitney.
10 Neil and Sharon had just had their second child.
11 Arthur was the longtime road secretary for the Mets and now works for the Yankees.
12 Arthur had arranged for a number of players to call Marvin and cheer him up.
13 Jonathan Pollard, the CIA employee who was given a life sentence for spying on the United States for Israel.
14 Gulf Cooperation Council.
15 Walt Harrington of the Washington Post had just written a cover story about me for their magazine. I thought he did a fair, balanced job, although he focused too much on the so-called class issue.
16 Neil and Sharon were living in Denver where Neil had just started a business. Therefore, it was not possible for him to campaign full-time in New Hampshire, as he had in 1980.
17 Marvin had married Margaret Molster from Richmond, Virginia. They had just adopted a beautiful little girl, Marshall Lloyd Bush.
18 Henry and Jessica Catto were good friends from Texas. He had a long, distinguished diplomatic career, including representing the United States in the Organization of American States and serving as ambassador to El Salvador. I named Henry my first ambassador to Great Britain.
19 Don Regan, former secretary of the treasury and now chief of staff. After the 1984 election, he and Jim Baker literally switched jobs.
20 The arms sent to Iran were spare parts and defense weapons.
21 Marine colonel Oliver North, who was a member of the NSC staff, was in the middle of the Iran-contra controversy and ended up taking most of the blame, along with National Security Adviser John Poindexter. They had both resigned from the NSC in November, shortly after the news broke.
22 C. Fred had suffered a stroke and died. The household was forlorn so I wasted no time in getting Barbara a new dog, an English springer spaniel who was destined to become even more famous than Fred.
23 Baker had replaced Don Regan as chief of staff; Carlucci had replaced Poindexter as NSC adviser.
24 Their son, Navy SEAL Robert Dean Stethem, had been killed in 1985 during the hijacking of the TWA plane to Beirut. Lebanese Mohammad Ali Hamadei had been arrested for the murder.
25 About a year later, I would be asked in one of the presidential debates to name some of my personal heroes. I named Dr. Fauci because I was so impressed with his unselfish dedication to AIDS research.
26 Doro and Billy’s baby girl.
27 Colin Powell was deputy national security adviser at this time; in a few months, he would become the top man at the NSC, when Carlucci became secretary of defense.
28 The maximum amount of money an individual can contribute to a presidential campaign.
29 Our friend Jack Steel, who ran my office in Houston, and all the wonderful volunteers who staffed it, many of whom still work in my office today. For years we’ve had many running jokes, including about “vulgarity.”
30 Now ninety-one years old and still opening mail in my office.
31 Jim McClure of Idaho.
32 I had agreed to participate in a debate, moderated by Bill Buckley, with the other GOP candidates.
33 In politics that means not attacking your opponent.
34 General Wojciech Jaruzelski, head of Poland. Over the years I would get to know him well, and although he was a communist, he also was a patriot and a military hero.
35 Dave Beckwith, who went on to work for Dan Quayle when he was Vice President.
36 Now Senator Olympia Snowe and wife of the former governor Jock McKernan.
37 Judd is the son of Hugh Gregg, the former governor who ran my campaign in New Hampshire. Judd was then a congressman, went on to be governor, and is now Senator Gregg.
38 Then the governor of New Hampshire.
39 Margaret Warner, pledging that the story would be a good one, was given full access to our family for a Newsweek cover story. Then we were tipped off that the cover headline was “Fighting the Wimp Factor.”
40 Country-western singer whose Houston-based place, Gilley’s, was made famous in the movie Urban Cowboy.
41 I am now on the Board of Visitors at M.D. Anderson and will be chairman in 2001.
42 A good friend from Houston who is now a federal judge.
43 Eduard Shevardnadze, the foreign minister, for whom I have great respect.
44 Anatoly Dobrynin was the Soviet ambassador to the United States for twenty years. At this time he was a special assistant to Gorbachev. Alexander Yakovlev was Central Committee secretary.
45 This was in reference to the Gary Hart–Donna Rice controversy, which forced Hart to suspend his presidential race for a few months.
46 President and Mrs. Reagan generously offered us the use of Camp David for the holidays.
47 The fabulous Navy stewards who staff Camp David, the White House, and the Vice President’s house.
1 I much prefer to do my interviews live or to tape them to length. That way you avoid your forty-minute interview being cut and pasted down to four minutes, the result being that sometimes your words can be taken out of context.
2 Pete Teeley, who had been my press secretary but by now had gone back to the private sector. I still depended on him for advice—and still do today.
3 This refers to an incident in 1987 when Dan Rather was upset by his network’s decision to finish airing a tennis match at the U.S. Open instead of starting the news as scheduled. He stormed off the set to call the president of CBS News, and when the tennis match ended earlier than expected and the network switched to the news, they had six minutes of dead air-time.
4 I won the battle with Dan Rather that night, but he won the war. His coverage of my campaign and presidency was consistently negative.
5 I am credited, or discredited, for coining the phrase “the Big Mo” when I beat Reagan in Iowa in 1980. Reagan proved then that the Big Mo can be terribly overrated. If I lost in Iowa, I was hoping to prove the same thing in 1988.
6 Congressman Jack Kemp, former Delaware governor Pete DuPont, and former secretary of state General Alexander Haig.
7 After the New Hampshire primary, the next big hurdle was Super Tuesday, when most of the Southern states would hold their primary on the same day.
8 One of my Maine fishing buddies.
9 Duberstein was then deputy chief of staff. In a few months he would take over the chief of staff’s position when Howard Baker decided to retire.
10 A reporter from the Washington Post who covered my campaign.
11 I swept all sixteen GOP primaries held on Super Tuesday, giving me more than half the delegates I needed for the nomination.
12 President Reagan had just created the bipartisan National Economic Commission, something Cuomo had suggested.
13 President Nixon had insisted I start calling him by his first name.
14 By this time it had been determined that Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis would be my Democratic opponent.
15 In February, a federal grand jury in Florida had indicted Manuel Noriega of Panama on drug-trafficking and other related charges. The Reagan administration was trying to work a deal with Noriega that if he would leave Panama until after democratic elections could be held, the charges would be dropped.
16 Negotiate with a terrorist, a hostage holder, or a criminal.
17 Rumors were flying that Noriega had a fifty-two-page document, dating back to my days at the CIA, that would connect me to his drug-dealing. I knew it was nonsense and ignored his threats, although they continued after I was President.
18 In the end Noriega called our bluff and turned down the deal, staying in power illegally. Unfortunately, it made the United States look rather foolish.
19 Jack Allin, at one time the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, was one of the pastors at our summer church, St. Ann’s in Kennebunkport. He became a close friend and spiritual adviser, and we felt a great loss when he died in 1998.
20 Writer Gail Sheehy had written one of those touchy-feely “get inside my head” profiles of me for Vanity Fair. I hated it.
21 Dukakis had picked Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate.
22 Roger had joined the campaign as a media consultant. He is now head of Fox News.
23 I had picked Indiana senator Dan Quayle as my running mate. The press were hard on him from the beginning, first by unfairly accusing him of avoiding the draft by joining the National Guard. He kept his head high and was loyal to me, and I never regretted my choice.
24 Murphy was a young sergeant on the Prince George’s police force in Maryland. Married just three weeks, he had been killed in a drug raid.
25 That I was a wimp.
26 Owner of the Washington Post, which owned Newsweek.
27 Texas A&M University, Tom’s alma mater and a school that I loved. Eventually I would decide to locate my presidential library on the A&M campus.
28 James Baker.
29 The final debate was in Los Angeles.
30 A great friend and senator from Wyoming.
31 Debbie was my first cousin. She had married Craig Stapleton and they had two children, Walker and Wendy.
32 This would be Uncle Lou Walker’s dog Caper. Lou was Debbie’s father.
33 House minority leader.
34 Speaker of the House.
35 Jimmy Carter’s NSC adviser.
36 Carlos Salinas had just been elected president of Mexico.
37 She had sent me a wonderful note of congratulations, taking credit for teaching me everything I knew about debates. Another note: I first used the term a thousand points of light in my convention speech, referring to the importance of volunteerism.
38 One of their sons had been in some legal trouble.
39 Elsie is a great friend and one of my strongest supporters.
40 Martha and Fred Zeder.
41 Famous Mississippi author whose works include North Toward Home. Although he was a liberal, we were friends.
42 The founder of the very liberal Texas Observer newspaper.
1 After years of abuse, the savings and loan industry was reeling from bad debt and bankruptcy. My goal was to protect the depositors—not the owners—and to put into place tough new rules to get the industry back on track and protect Americans’ investments. It was an expensive and ugly task but an accomplishment I am proud of.
2 Dan Rostenkowski, Democratic congressman from Illinois.
3 Republican senator from North Carolina.
4 Sonny, a Democrat from Mississippi, and one of my best friends. We entered Congress together in 1967.
5 I was suffering from laryngitis.
6 Tower lost in the Senate, a terrible blow to a man who had served his country with distinction. I quickly nominated Dick Cheney, then minority whip in the House. I hated to steal from our congressional ranks, but I knew Dick would be accepted on the Hill and would do a great job. I was right on both counts.
7 At this point Gorbachev was beating us at the public relations game through high-profile visits in Europe calling for peace and change.
8 Lee was sort of the “chief operating officer” of my 1988 presidential campaign. He was young, aggressive (some people would say ruthless), and brilliant at politics. After the election, I appointed him chairman of the RNC. I wrote this note before he was to be roasted at a charity event.
9 I had asked the foreign policy team to do a thorough reevaluation of our foreign policy and where we should go from here. The press was accusing me of dragging my heels, especially since it was a tumultuous time in Eastern Europe where the cries for democracy were growing louder. However, I felt strongly it was important to know where we wanted to go before we started going there.
10 A young, aggressive, bright congressman from Georgia.
11 Sarah Brady had been active in the antigun lobby since her husband, Jim, was shot the same day as Reagan. I had great respect for them, but we did not agree on gun-control issues. She and Jim eventually supported Governor Bill Clinton in 1992.
12 I had just appointed Bill Bennett head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a newly created position that still exists today. As “drug czar,” his job was to coordinate our efforts on the war on drugs.
13 Richard Darman, head of the Office of Management and Budget.
14 The Gramm-Rudman bill was passed in 1985 and set maximum budget-deficit levels for each year. When those levels were met, the legislation provided for automatic cuts across the board, although some programs such as Social Security were off limits.
15 By this I meant when I said, “Read my lips, no new taxes.” If I could take back that one statement, I certainly would.
16 This was a secret code for family and friends to put on personal mail, to make sure it ended up on our desk.
17 I had appointed Dr. Burton Lee to be White House physician.
18 Barbara’s very able chief of staff for both the vice-presidential and presidential years.
19 Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Kennebunkport, which we attend in the winter, spring, and fall months. Our other church in Maine, St. Ann’s, is open only in the summer.
20 I had invited François Mitterrand to visit us at Walker’s Point since we were both scheduled to speak at Boston University’s commencement. That visit was a turning point in our relationship personally and helped improve the relationship between the two countries.
21 Marlin Fitzwater, my press secretary and also a good friend and key adviser. I had of course called President Reagan, along with all the other presidents. Will’s information was wrong.
22 NATO secretary general.
23 The “formulation” was a detailed plan on how to negotiate with the Soviet Union on both nuclear and nonnuclear weapons.
24 My national security adviser. I always suspected Brent would have preferred to have been secretary of defense, but I needed him at my side in the White House.
25 Domingo Quicho was the faithful Oval Office steward.
26 The dissident Fang had taken refuge in the American embassy in Beijing. Eventually China expelled him and he came to this country.
27 Much to my disappointment, the Supreme Court had just ruled 5–4 that the Constitution did not protect the flag from being burned. Justice Scalia was in the majority opinion. His wife feared I might be holding it against him, which of course I did not. However, I did immediately call for a constitutional amendment banning flag burning.
28 I had long talks with both Lech Walesa and General Jaruzelski during my visit about the importance of their working together as they tried to navigate these exciting but still potentially dangerous times. Freedom was most important, but so was stability.
29 Walesa took us to the shipbuilding town of Gdansk, where Solidarity was born. We first had lunch at their modest home, then went to the town square.
30 After Tiananmen Square, I had suspended all military sales and contracts between our countries.
31 Javier Perez de Cuellar, the secretary general of the United Nations.
32 Merle sent me a song about patriotism and the flag.
33 Robin Higgins, also a Marine, and a courageous woman. I saw her again in April 1999, when I attended the commissioning of the USS Higgins, a fitting tribute to a fallen hero.
34 Ranger was really Marvin’s dog but eventually he became mine.
35 He was then Gorbachev’s most outspoken critic and a leader of the opposition.
36 My daily classified intelligence report contained reports of Noriega’s continuing bullying of people in Panama, including Americans who were stationed in the Canal Zone. His continued narco-trafficking and his aborting of the results of the last election in Panama made me more determined than ever to bring him to justice.
37 The International Monetary Fund, which we had asked to help Poland with its financial crises.
38 Now that East Germany appeared to be collapsing, Moscow was worried about a unified Germany again. Actually, it wasn’t only Moscow, but almost all of Europe, whose memories of World War II were still rather raw.
39 I gave Lech the Medal of Freedom.
40 Lane, president of the AFL-CIO, and other union leaders had been supportive of the Solidarity movement and deserved a great deal of credit for its success.
41 Senator from Maine and Senate majority leader. He and I tangled a lot, and although I respected George, I found him partisan and therefore sometimes difficult to work with.
42 One of Gorbachev’s advisers.
43 These were the key words of Gorbachev’s reform movement. Glasnost stood for more “openness”; perestroika simply meant “reform,” in this case, economic reform.
44 Marvin and Margaret’s daughter who was adopted.
45 Brent’s deputy at the NSC. I would later make Bob director of Central Intelligence.
46 The uprising ended without major incident.
47 Leftist rebels had been engaged in civil war in El Salvador for ten years.
48 One of our aircraft carriers, the USS Forrestal, was also in the waters off Malta.
49 Everybody was a little excited, especially the Secret Service, watching the President of the United States transferring from one boat to another with swells almost overtaking our launch boats. It didn’t bother me a bit, but I felt bad it caused such a furor.
50 Most Favored Nation, a term used to describe the status given to our best trading partners. Congress had enacted legislation making it available to the USSR and other communist countries, but only under special conditions.
51 Daniel Ortega, the dictator who ruled Nicaragua and head of the Sandinistas, a communist.
52 Doro’s daughter.
53 Organization of American States.
54 Guillermo Endara had been elected president and Guillermo Ford had been elected vice president back in May, but Noriega had overturned the election results.
55 The plan was for the democratically elected leaders to immediately be sworn in and take power.
56 Noriega gave himself up to American authorities shortly after the New Year and was brought here to stand trial. He was found guilty on drug-trafficking charges and is serving a 120-year sentence.
57 Bar was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, which affects the thyroid, but she was doing better on medicine.
1 I also sent notes to George and Jeb, asking them to visit wounded soldiers in their areas.
2 The Scowcroft Award was a highly coveted recognition that I handed out upon occasion to cabinet members and White House staffers. It went to the person who could fall asleep in a meeting but make a good recovery and act as if he or she had not been sleeping. It was named for Brent, who was the champion at this. (I should add here, Brent fell asleep only because he worked impossible hours and cared for his invalid wife.)
3 Members of the ranking committee, whose sole job is to judge the tennis-playing ability of friends and family, are secret. Their meetings are closed to the public. The ranking-committee chairman, also a secret, is all-powerful.
4 Daughters of the American Revolution, located just down the street from the White House.
5 He had written his mother telling her, “I have never been afraid of death but I know he is waiting at the corner . . . do not mourn for me . . . revel in the life that I have died to give you . . . remember I joined the army to serve my country and insure that you are free to do what you want and live your lives freely.”
6 Gorbachev had sent in troops to end ethnic violence between the Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
7 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and Conventional Forces (nonnuclear weapons) in Europe.
8 All of the Baltic states, but especially Lithuania, were clamoring for independence.
9 The program focused on drug problems and poverty in Mexico.
10 Timberwolfe was my Secret Service code name.
11 Marvin and Margaret had adopted their second child, Walker, who was born in November 1989.
12 Director of the Secret Service.
13 Colombian president Virgilio Barco, who was fighting a courageous battle against the drug lords.
14 Brian Mulroney was prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. He was a close friend and wonderful ally, and I depended a great deal on him for advice.
15 Dan is a great friend and a great author of books such as Semi-Tough, Life Its Ownself, and Bubba Talks.
16 We had agreed to give NBC special access for one day so they could do a “Day in the Life of the President” with Tom Brokaw. I was not thrilled with the idea but then enjoyed the program.
17 Peggy Say is the sister of Terry Anderson, the AP reporter being held hostage at that time in Lebanon. She wrote us a heartbreaking letter about their ordeal. Terry, along with all the other hostages, was released in 1991.
18 This would be actor William Conrad, who had moved to Hawaii during his TV series Jake and the Fatman. He had agreed to be commissioner of Roach Bowl III.
19 Our friend Fred Zeder, who has a home in Hawaii, knew these charity cockroachers and was responsible for my involvement with their causes.
20 National Endowment for the Arts. They were under fire for underwriting an art exhibit that featured a controversial painting of Jesus.
21 Barbara had been asked to be the commencement speaker for Wellesley College in Massachusetts. A group of seniors objected loudly because she wasn’t a “career woman.”
22 I can’t even remember now what they were, so they must not have been too serious.
23 Lithuania had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 against its will.
24 Many world leaders were urging Lithuania to go a little slower, including suspending their declaration-of-independence resolution.
25 Tom Foley from the state of Washington was now Speaker of the House.
26 Barbara was a smash and the speech is still quoted today: “What happens in your house is more important than what happens in the White House.” She took Raisa with her, which was also a hit.
27 Tim McBride, who was my wonderful personal aide.
28 Helen is dean of the White House press corps. I respect her professionally, and like her personally, but I don’t miss her yelling at me during events.
29 We had a biannual horseshoe tournament at the White House that included teams from the household staff, the medical unit, the uniform division of the Secret Service, groundskeepers, Marine I and Air Force I staffs, and of course my team—Marvin and me.
30 Ron Jones, Buddy Carter, and George Haney, all members of the residence staff.
31 Gulf Cooperation Council.
32 Up until this point I had tried hard not to criticize the Democrats on the budget negotiations. I truly wanted to work together in a bipartisan spirit. However, they were pounding me in the media, and I had had it.
33 Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was secretary of commerce under Clinton until his tragic death in a plane crash while visiting Bosnia.
34 Saddam Hussein was calling for “elections” in Kuwait. His plan, of course, was to install a puppet government.
35 The federal fiscal year ends September 30. Without a new budget, we would be forced to shut down all nonessential federal offices on October 1, which we did end up doing for a few days.
36 Jim was a Republican congressman from Iowa.
37 This is in reference to Newt Gingrich, who led us to believe he would support the budget deal, then revolted against us in the eleventh hour and convinced other Republicans to join him in voting against it.
38 Lou was secretary of Health and Human Services; Connie Newman, director of the Office of Personnel Management; and my old friend Art Fletcher, chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
39 Head of the European Community.
40 We had started telling each other jokes at Camp David, but to avoid an R rating on the book I can’t share them. Joke-telling is a great icebreaker and I really think it helped our friendship.
41 The Air Force visit was to a military airlift-command base in Dhahran; the Army base was miles and miles into the desert.
42 General Norman Schwarzkopf was in charge of the allied troops.
43 We were asking the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution approving the use of force to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. On November 29, with Jim Baker chairing the meeting, the council approved the resolution by a vote of 12–2—Cuba and Yemen voting against; China abstaining. The resolution gave Hussein a deadline of January 15.
44 Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz.
45 Shortly after getting back from the Middle East, I visited Mexico, then went to South America. The timing was terrible, but when I became president, I had promised not to neglect our southern neighbors and the trip had already been postponed once.
46 They had testified on the Hill about the situation in the Gulf and had indeed done an outstanding job.
47 Government officials cannot accept gifts valued at more than $100.
48 I must have been psychic. We had only twelve grandchildren then; we have fourteen now.
49 Hussein had decided to let the foreign “guests” leave Kuwait and Iraq.
50 I had discussed Pan Am 103 with Assad during our meeting and suggested he could be helpful in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
51 His congressional district in Chicago.
52 Four-star-general Max Thurmond was the commander of the Panama forces. At this time he was dying of leukemia and I called him in the hospital.
53 In wallyball, which is volleyball played in a racquetball court. The walls are “in play.”
54 They had spent Christmas with their father. Doro and Billy had divorced earlier in the year.
1 They voted on January 12 to authorize the use of force. Although a number of Democrats supported us, I was disappointed that the entire Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate opposed the resolution. It is ironic that many of those who opposed use of force then are now among the strongest advocates of President Clinton’s policy of using force in the Balkans.
2 A CNN reporter who stayed in Baghdad.
3 Saddam had launched SCUD missiles at Israel, hoping to draw them into the conflict, which would put the Arab members of the coalition in a difficult position. Anticipating such a move by Saddam, we had sent Israel Patriot defense missiles, which were helping. But I sent Larry Eagleburger to Israel as well to convince them not to retaliate. Prime Minister Shamir did not, which took a great deal of courage on his part, since it was an unpopular decision at home.
4Unfortunately several allied pilots had been shot down and were being held captive. Eventually, they all returned safely.
5 Killed in action.
6 Our code word for the start of the ground war.
7 Civilian leaders micromanaged the Vietnam War and second-guessed the military leaders.
8 My friend and former partner was dying of cancer.
9 Terry Moore was a glamorous movie star, a native of Lubbock, Texas. She used to play on the Lubbock team when she was around. Glenn Davis was an all-American football hero at West Point who was also from West Texas.
10 David Boren was a Democratic senator from Oklahoma, and Lee Hamilton was a Democratic congressman from Indiana.
11 Turgut Ozal, president of Turkey and a wonderful friend and ally. His support before and during Desert Storm was crucial.
12 Florence Gantt, Brent’s loyal secretary.
13 Dick literally handed me a note during church saying things were going well.
14 Fort Sumter, in South Carolina.
15 She had just bought a house in Washington.
16 Dave was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an important member of our team.
17 Andy was a longtime supporter and friend who was deputy chief of staff. In a few months I would name him secretary of transportation.
18 We were working hard on Fast Track legislation, which would give me the authority to negotiate international trade agreements and send them to Congress for approval as is. Congress would not be allowed to tack on any amendments.
19 Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
20 David Demarest, director of communications.
21 Secretary of the Treasury Nick Brady.
22 Gary Sick, an NSC staff person from the Carter administration, had just written a book speculating that a hostage deal had been made. Congress investigated and Sick was proven wrong.
23 Lee was the former chief of protocol and the wife of our good friend and former ambassador to Great Britain Walter Annenberg. She was one of eight people at Table 8.
24 NBC’s White House correspondent. I called her “Barbara,” as in Walters, by mistake.
25 A White House key chain.
26 I shocked everyone—even the Queen, I think—when I took her to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game. I thought she would enjoy the national pastime.
27 A historic typo. This note is to Mikhail Gorbachev.
28 Yevgeny Primakov, a senior Soviet official.
29 Robert Zoellick from the State Department.
30 The Golan Heights was a major sticking point in the Middle East. Once Syrian territory, it was now held by Israel.
31 Secretary of education.
32 Secretary of labor.
33 The Malibu home of Jane and Jerry Weintraub.
34 While on vacation in Kennebunkport, I announced that Clarence Thomas was my nominee for the Supreme Court. My first had been David Souter, in 1990, who was quickly approved and already doing a good job.
35 We are painfully aware today just how complicated the situation in Yugoslavia is. As of this writing in July 1999, the NATO military operations designed to end ethnic cleansing in Kosovo have ceased, though the problems are not solved. It’s a troubled part of the world, with ethnic hatred dating back centuries.
36 Then Senator Al Gore of Tennessee and now Vice President of the United States and running for President.
37 Republican senator John Danforth of Missouri.
38 Kitty Kelley was famous for writing scathing books about people, including Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, and Jacqueline Kennedy.
39 Senator from West Virginia.
40 Dick Gephardt, Democratic congressman from Missouri and majority whip.
41 I was leaving for Moscow in just a few days.
42 We visited the Gorbachevs in their country dacha.
43 Marvin had sat next to Princess Diana at a big Washington charity fund-raiser. He refused to dance with her, and we’ll never stop teasing him about it. Diana did sign the photo and referred to the fact Marvin refused to dance.
44 Jack Danforth knew Clarence Thomas well. Clarence had worked for Jack when Jack was attorney general of Missouri.
45 Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts was the first to enter the race.
46 Dmitri Yazov, the defense minister, and one of the coup plotters.
47 By this time Boris was president of the Republic of Russia. He was defending Gorbachev and trying to keep the coup plotters from taking control.
48 By this time the coup had failed and he was temporarily back in power.
49 Toward the end of Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings, a former colleague of his, Anita Hill, came forward to accuse Clarence of sexual harassment. He vigorously denied the charges. Eventually, Clarence was confirmed and he now sits on the Supreme Court. I am proud that he had enough courage to take the confirmation heat. I have never regretted selecting and standing by him.
50 King Hussein of Jordan.
1 A photo of the five living Presidents—Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and me—taken a few months earlier at the dedication of the Reagan Library.
2 My nephew, Nan’s son.
3 Danny Philbrick was rebuilding our home in Maine. For Christmas, all of the family had sent us “something that plugs in,” a brilliant idea organized by my cousin Susue Robinson. The idea was to help us restock the house in Maine.
4 Pat Buchanan was the only GOP challenger in the primaries.
5 My longtime friend and supporter is now the governor of Massachusetts.
6 Buchanan received 37 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, and some pundits said his “strong” showing was a “win.” New Hampshire was his high-water mark, although he hung in until the last primary.
7 A good friend and supporter from Detroit. Heinz, who came here from Germany, is a great entrepreneur and gained fame by inventing the sunroof.
8 Our administration had worked hard, and successfully, at getting permission for Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel.
9 Trammell Crow, a good friend and successful businessman from Dallas.
10 Republican senator Jim McClure of Idaho.
11 Perot had decided he wanted to be President. They were right and I was wrong. In the final analysis, Perot cost me the election.
12 By this time it was obvious Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas would be the nominee. I was convinced I could beat him.
13 Previously secretary of transportation, Sam was now my chief of staff.
14 Ann Devroy was a reporter for the Washington Post.
15 National Republican Congressional Committee.
16 Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, was running for President. He had the reputation of being a child of the sixties. Patricia Ireland was head of the National Organization of Women.
17 Prout’s Neck, Maine, where the Bells had a house. Ethan Shepley was a friend of ours from St. Louis.
18 Many of my friends and supporters felt my campaign was in disarray. Part of the problem was I was too darn busy trying to be President.
19 In retrospect, Phil Donahue was mild compared to today’s Jerry Springer types.
20 We were baby-sitting the kids while they were on their honeymoon.
21 For a CSCE conference on arms control.
22 I had decided my presidential library would be built at Texas A&M.
23 Al Gore was now Clinton’s running mate.
24 At that time Slobodan Milosevic was president of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
25 Franjo Tudjman, leader of the ruling party in the newly independent Croatia.
26 He said he would always be my friend.
27 I was watching his “good-bye” statement at the State Department.
28 Meaning House of Representatives.
29 Democratic congressman from New York who had lost his primary election.
30 In the final days of the campaign, Iran-Contra reared its ugly head again. The special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh brought a politically charged indictment against former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger just five days before the election. That in turn raised old questions about my involvement. There is no doubt in my mind that this indictment—written by Walsh’s deputy, who was a large contributor to Democratic campaigns—stopped our forward momentum.
31 Mary was deputy campaign manager and one of my most loyal campaign workers and friends. After the campaign, she married James Carville, who ran Clinton’s campaign.
32 Deke DeClementi, my old basketball coach at Andover. He went on to become the athletic director. He was a great influence on my life and I still keep in touch with him.
33 I am referring to the controversy surrounding Clinton and the Vietnam War and how he got out of the draft.
34 He offered us his yacht, to use whenever we wanted to get away. We took him up on his offer in the summer of 1993.
35 The efficient head usher at the White House, in charge of the residence staff.
36 With few mild exceptions, I feel I’ve stuck to this pledge.
37 We tease each other in our family about how easily we cry. It’s called the bawl patrol.
38 He did a rather whacky impression of me on the show.
39 Her cottage at Walker’s Point.
40 A rumor was sweeping the White House that I was so despondent from losing the election that I was going to resign. That made the surprise even more fun, which definitely did help lift staff morale. A year or so later, I tried to help Dana in return by doing a guest spot for him on Saturday Night Live.
41 Ironically, the economy grew by 3.9 percent during the third quarter and 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter. We were well on our way to economic recovery, heading straight to robust. That is probably the greatest gift an outgoing President can give the incoming one. I must confess to certain angst when I heard President Clinton take 100 percent credit for a healthy economy.
42 Probably the most destabilizing weapons in the superpower arsenals.
43 Unfortunately at this writing there is a lot of tension between Russia and the United States concerning the Balkans.
44 I pardoned Caspar Weinberger before leaving office.
1 A Memoir by Barbara Bush came out in the fall of 1994 and was an instant best-seller.
2 Rose ran my congressional office back in 1967–70 and was with me at the RNC. I asked her to come to the White House where she was director of White House Operations and for the last year was also in charge of the Oval Office staff.
3 Bob and I were friends and classmates at Andover. He has spent his life helping others through his wonderful AmeriCares relief organization.
4 I was devastated when Ranger died of cancer just a few months after we got back to Houston. Leave it to Fred Zeder to make me smile about it.
5 Some Desert Storm veterans were complaining of strange, unexplained illnesses.
6 John was deputy secretary of defense and had just been nominated by Clinton to be CIA director.
7 Jean Becker, who became my chief of staff after Rose Zamaria retired. Up until then, she had worked for Barbara.
8 On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the federal office building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including a number of federal law enforcement officials.
9 The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
10 Willis was one of four federal agents killed in an unsuccessful raid on the Branch Davidian cult headquarters near Waco, Texas. When federal agents tried to end the standoff fifty-one days later, the compound caught fire and burned down, killing seventy people inside. The Oklahoma City bombing was on the two-year anniversary of Waco.
11 The Forum for International Policy, Brent’s foreign-policy think tank.
12 George and Jeb both ran for governor of their respective states in 1994. George won; unfortunately, Jeb lost to the incumbent, Governor Lawton Chiles.
13 Margaret was my scheduler in the 1980 campaign and then went to work for James Baker. She probably is best known for being the spokeswoman at the State Department during my administration.
14 The new dog at Doro’s house. I really sent this letter to Sam.
15 To President Clinton, in the 1996 presidential campaign. Jerry Ford and I traveled with Bob for a few days the week before the election.
16 Danny was then a member of the Golden Knights, the Army’s elite parachute-jumping team. Chris is a former Golden Knight, now retired from the Army and running the United States Parachute Association.
17 We were having some work done on our house.
18 His Royal Highness Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. We became good friends during Desert Storm.
19 Colin was now retired from the Army.
20 Although the jump was sponsord by the U.S. Parachute Association, I wanted to jump with the Golden Knights, thus the involvement of the Army.
21 The Army base in Yuma, Arizona.
22 The Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
23 Tiger’s coach was Butch Harmon, who was the pro at Houston’s men-only Lochinvar course.
24 Pro golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, known for his down-to-earth sense of humor, had teased Tiger about not asking for “fried chicken and collard greens” at the Masters Champions dinner, which is held the following year for the returning champion. Some people interpreted the remark as racist.
25 One of my teachers at Andover.
26 I was writing him from Kennebunkport.
27 A World Transformed was published in September 1998.
40 Millie’s Book, published in 1990, earned more than $1 million for the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
28 The Monica Lewinsky scandal had just broken.
29 Ash Green at Knopf edited A World Transformed.
30 Woodward’s book about Desert Storm.
31 Since we left the White House, Doro and Bobby had blessed us with two more grandchildren, Robert and Gigi.
32 Sadie, our current English springer spaniel.
33 Michael Dannenhauer, my chief of staff.
34 North American Aerospace Defense Command, based in Colorado.
35 Quincy Hicks, who used to work for us and now is at McGraw-Hill in New York; Brent Scowcroft; Ron Kaufman, who supported me in 1980 and then worked for me during the vice-presidential and White House years as a political adviser and advises me still today on politics; Kathy Super, whom I first met at the RNC and who has worked for me off and on for years. She was my scheduler at the White House and still does all my scheduling.
36 One of my Maine fishing buddies.
37 For several summers I have taken the entire family on a Greek cruise, thanks to Greek shipping magnate Captain John Latsis, who lends us his beautiful ship, the MY Alexander.
38 James Ramsey and George Haney of the White House residence staff.
39 I used to be President of the United States of America—no kidding, I was!
1 Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska); Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont); Congressman David Bonior (D-Michigan); Congressman Ben Gilman (R-New York).
2 Queen Noor, King Hussein’s widow, was born in the United States, Lisa Najeeb Halaby.
3 My White House chief of staff John Sununu and press secretary Marlin Fitzwater.
4 Benjamin Netanyahu was the prime minister of Israel and a member of the conservative Likud Party. Thirteen years later, he is once again prime minister.
5 This refers to the Monica Lewinsky incident.
6 United States Secret Service.
7 Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia at the end of the year.
8 My aide at the time.
9 Linda Casey Poepsel is director of correspondence in my office, and Jean Becker is my chief of staff.
10 Our grandson George P. (son of Jeb and Columba) had been one of the convention speakers.
11 Karl Rove, George’s no. 1 political adviser.
12 Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House complex.
13 David was a longtime reporter and columnist for the Washington Post and a friend.
14 President of the United States.
15 Protests during a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999 had gotten totally out of hand.
16 Domingo was the Navy steward in charge of the Oval Office when I was President and had also been with me when I was Vice President. He died in 2003.
17 Kirbyjon, a friend of all Bushes, is pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston.
18 Soon everyone was referring to George W. as No. 43 and to me as No. 41. It was the only way to keep straight to which President Bush you were referring. It stuck. Eventually we called Bill Clinton No. 42.
19 Secretary of State Colin Powell.
20 Offutt Air Force Base has the most sophisticated command-and-control center outside Washington.
21 Bin Laden of course later “took credit.” He was killed by a Navy Seal team in May 2011.
22 Former President of Panama, whom I had removed from power as President. Many years earlier he was a CIA source.
23 Commander in Chief, Pacific Command.
24 It actually was Iwatake.
25 The man’s named was Warren, not Vernon. I am not sure how I got these names so wrong.
26 Warren Iwatake, with author James Bradley, came to visit me in Houston a few years later. He has since died.
27 James accompanied us to Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima and was instrumental in arranging the trip. His father was one of the seven men who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi.
28 A shooter had killed ten and wounded three others over three weeks in October in the Washington, D.C., area.
29 This is in reference to Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was blamed for gassing thousands of Kurds.
30 White House butler James Ramsey. Everyone calls him Ramsey.
31 My Kennebunkport fishing buddy.
32 Our beloved and loyal household staff: Ariel De Guzman, a former Navy steward who became our chef and house manager in 1995; Paula Rendon, who has been with us since 1959; and her daughter Alicia Huizar.
33 The Army’s elite parachute team.
34 Michele’s then boyfriend.
35 Teresa is another of Paula’s daughters. She worked for us in Maine one summer.
36 Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
37 This is campaign angst. I have great respect for Senator Kerry and we have exchanged pleasantries since the 2004 election.
38 My White House political adviser and longtime friend.
39 Joe was deputy chief of staff; Condi was national security advisor (she would become secretary of state in the second term); and Al was attorney general.
40 A reference to liberal author Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.
41 Neil had married Maria Andrews in March. She added to our family three wonderful step-grandchildren: Lizzie, Pace, and Ale.
42 New York Times reporter and columnist.
43 United States Agency for International Development.
44 The President had sent the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, along with several other Navy vessels, to assist.
45 My aide Tom Frechette and Chief of Staff Jean Becker, who accompanied us on the trip.
46 President Clinton was headed in a different direction to give a speech or two before heading home.
47 His name is Roberto Naldi.
48 President Clinton was with us.
49 Prime Minister Berlusconi turned out to be rather controversial and resigned in 2011.
50 He had just undergone a second heart surgery. I confess I encouraged him to make the trip as I thought it would be fun to have him along. It was.
51 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
52 Now Pope Benedict XVI.
53 Very popular lobster place in Kennebunkport.
54 There is no Peebles Fish market or Peebles Award. I made the whole thing up.
55 President Clinton and I did go to Houston that Labor Day, and visited with hundreds of refugees. However, the Secret Service would not allow us in the Astrodome.
56 Kevin worked for the United Nations as an expert in disaster relief. We also took with us Mark Ward of USAID, who had been very helpful in our tsunami work.
57 Paul Lariviere, my boat repairman, whom everyone calls Wazoo.
58 Our dogs are all buried on the lawn at Walker’s Point.
59 Former governor of Texas. He was with JFK the day he was shot.