A @joshtpm reader, sometimes referred to by me through use of the perpendicular pronoun, has some thoughts about GHW Bush. More on this later. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-th…
2. As GHW Bush is laid to rest today, it's worth reflecting on what he brought with him to the Presidency. I mean his long experience in government, primarily as a subordinate, charged with implementing policies decided upon by others.
3. Bush learned to be well-prepared, to consult widely, to retain composure, and to avoid improvising major actions. He learned judgement -- a useful skill in government -- including the ability to choose wisely among conflicting advice offered by similarly trusted counselors.
4. What he did not learn was how to initiate policies on his own, or how to respond quickly to situations not anticipated in his briefing. His background was reflected in some of the best and worst aspects of his record in the White House.
5. By far the most important contribution George H. W. Bush made to the nation and the world as President was his management of American policy during and after the Soviet collapse, a masterful performance contributing to a result few would have anticipated mere years earlier.
6. Recall that the establishment and maintenance of Soviet power had featured a really astonishing amount of bloodshed. American strategy since the Truman administration had been based on a determination to avoid adding to this, at least in Europe.
7. American strategy counted on time being the mortal enemy of Soviet Communism, and so it proved to be. The moment at which Soviet power over Eastern Europe wavered, though, could have gone badly wrong; the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union could have as well.
8. That neither happened was due in large part to the steadfastness of the Western alliance Bush then led. The key tactical insight -- that Gorbachev was a trustworthy negotiating partner -- may have been Reagan's; the crucial decisions as the Iron Curtain crumbled may have...
9...been made in Europe rather than Washington. But Bush kept American policy focused on taking one step at a time, letting history move in our direction. A President from a different background, one more used to making decisions seen always to be his, might not have done that.
10. A different President, too, might not have had the judgement to accept the case West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl made for immediate German unification. Other European allies, mindful of the Continent's long history with a united Germany, blanched at the prospect.
11. Bush backed Kohl, and was proven right. The two great questions that had preoccupied Europe and America throughout the entire post-war period -- Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and the status of Germany -- were effectively resolved within three years.
12. It is a measure of Bush's achievement that we take for granted today what the world of 1980 would scarcely have been able to conceive. It is a feature of that achievement that no one part of it was entirely his.
13. But every coin has two sides. Having united the world in 1990 against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and deployed an American military reformed and empowered in the 15-odd years since South Vietnam's collapse, Bush presided over an overwhelming battlefield victory in the Gulf War.
14. What followed has been widely praised, with no more determination than by associates of Bush himself. The United States declared victory, accepting terms from subordinate Iraqi generals while an internal revolt Bush's statements had encouraged was crushed by Saddam Hussein.
15. This was sober realism, went the official line; this was heroic restraint. Imagine if the United States had sought to occupy all of Iraq! What was it really, though? It was a muddled, uncertain response to a situation Bush had not anticipated or been briefed on.
16. Armistice terms were left to Gen. Schwarzkopf, the American commander in the field, with scant guidance from Washington. Nothing was asked of Saddam personally with respect to the surrender. The Bush administration made the wishful assumption he would go away, somehow.
17. The course Bush set was received with relief by America's allies, and by a Saudi government to which Bush was especially close. They saw a return to the status quo ante (and, to be fair, the entire responsibility for this not being possible rests with Saddam, not Bush).
18. The events of spring, 1991 were a disaster for Iraq, and a serious setback for American interests. More Iraqis died in Saddam's suppression of Shiites than had died in the war over Kuwait; the seeds of sectarian hatred that would later overwhelm the country were well sown.
19. Having beaten Saddam's army but not weakened his regime, Bush found it necessary to establish containment of Iraq -- a sustained, large scale commitment of American ground forces in the Middle East earlier administrations had wisely avoided.
20. Bush saddled the next President with the burden of sustaining international support for progressively harsher sanctions on Iraq as well as military containment. By deploying American forces in & around Saudi Arabia he also made the United States a target of Sunni Islamists.
21. The aftermath of the Gulf War illustrates the limitations of qualities that had served Bush so well as the Soviet empire dissolved. Long preparation, extensive consultation with allies, taking one step at a time as history moved in America's direction all proved inadequate
22...when history took an unexpected turn. Many people that Bush never knew -- he was always considerate of people he did know -- suffered greatly in consequence, and so did America's global position. In a way, this was an analog to his experience with domestic policy.
23. Bush played a constructive role making possible domestic policy achievements that did not originate with him or his administration. Like any President, he deserves credit for this. Faced with a national recession and public unease about an economy already undergoing...
24...some fundamental changes, though, Bush had little to say; if he seemed out of touch by 1992, this was largely because he was. His preparation for the Presidency had involved implementation of other people's ideas and policies. An excellent foundation in some situations...
25...in others this produced indecision and drift. The very best Presidents are able to move history in America's direction even when it isn't moving that way on its own. For all his achievements, George H. W. Bush couldn't manage that. [end]
.@threadreaderapp Please unroll.
