When world leaders gather at the National Cathedral in Washington on Wednesday to mourn George Herbert Walker Bush, they will celebrate his life of courage, honor and devotion.
His conduct was a too-often overlooked triumph, the incredible made to seem ordinary by an extraordinary generation. And his presidency, driven by stability, deep experience and an unshakable belief in this nation’s principles and future, has been equally underrated.
While Bush — who died Friday in Houston at age 94 as the oldest former president in U.S. history — served only four years between the reigns of two juggernauts, he was a leader of unusual courage and insight.
Start with Bush’s controversial decision not to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 1991 after U.S.-led coalition forces drove the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. Bush reasoned that “we would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.”
It fell to his son, President George W. Bush, to prove the wisdom of that call 12 years later with his own invasion of Iraq and its long-troubled aftermath.
Or consider the elder Bush’s leadership in facing the fiscal abyss of 1990, when he was willing to do something that’s all but unheard of today: He was willing to put his presidency on the line by violating his famous 1988 “read my lips” pledge and agreeing to raise taxes.
This was not a decision made in weakness. It was made because Bush held the traditional Republican view that federal deficits were bad for the economy and that the country couldn’t mount an energetic climb from recession until it reduced what it owed.
In the end, Bush was correct. But unfortunately for him, he was not in office to enjoy the long boom that followed. The tax deal, and the third-party candidacy of Ross Perot in 1992, cost him a second term.
But if Americans didn’t applaud his courage then, we should honor it now. In an age of ceaseless political acrimony, Bush’s willingness to compromise on the big issues and to lead are virtues in short supply.
The most recent presidential campaign was difficult for the genteel Bush. He saw his son Jeb and other Republican contenders ridiculed by eventual winner Donald Trump, who also savaged the presidential record of another son, George W. Bush. The elder Bush criticized Trump’s behavior and questioned his leadership ability.
But the strongest counterpoint George H. W. Bush offered to Trump was a long record of service — as a World War II Navy pilot, a member of the House of Representatives, ambassador to the United Nations, director of Central Intelligence, and vice president under Reagan.
Bush’s passing followed that of Barbara Bush, his beloved wife of 73 years, who died April 17 at age 92. His heartbroken devotion to her touched the nation.
He leaves a legacy of leadership and loyalty we hope others will try to emulate.
