We haven’t given proper attention to Neil. He’s engaged, and we’ve really said nothing about that, done nothing about it. The girl must wonder, what kind of family are we. . . .18
Doro has a boyfriend, the first time. Yet, we haven’t taken them out to dinner together—done any of the things that normally we do. Yet, the family is in close, in tight, doing well. George and Laura19 getting along fine on their own. . . .
December 2, 1979
Mr. Ray Zauber
OAK CLIFF TRIBUNE
Dallas, TX 75237
Dear Ray,
. . . My record is sound and strong and these really extreme types will never like me. I want the vote of all. I will get the vote of sound conservatives—not the conspiratorial ones. We are on the move Ray—I think I will beat Connally in some of the early states. If I do, he will be on the ropes if not KO’d. Baker20 must fall early too. Reagan is still tough out there. I respect his strength. You are right that the people want strong leadership. They want principled leadership and integrity and experience. I know I can fill the bill. . . .
This schedule is a real back breaker—96 hours at home in Houston since Sept 30th til Thanksgiving.
I am going to win this thing.
Best Ever,
George
December 23, 1979
Winging from Puerto Rico to Miami sitting next to a boring guy that recognized me. . . . he’s concerned about things—and I couldn’t be less interested; and yet, I’ve got to smile and sit here as I’m about to eat. “Okay fellow, let’s have your say—you solve all the problems.” Maybe that’s bad, but on the other hand, maybe it’s good. (It’s) bad in the sense that I should have some privacy, but good in the sense of what’s the point of turning off a fellow who says, “Boy, I’ll never get a chance to talk to a Presidential candidate.”
. . . That’s what our system is about; so why shouldn’t I be pleasant to this guy? I’ll drop off to sleep in awhile, and let him do his own number; but I think I’ll have to hear him out and who knows, I may learn something. . . .
12-29-79
relaxed—flying home
Dear Flo & Holt—
. . . I think of all you’ve both done for me over the years and my heart is full. I know this project is tough—but as the year ends I have a quiet confidence that it will work. When it does it will be because of the “asterisk” club. Those who were at my side while I was still an asterisk on the polls21—Consider yourselves “charter members”.
Bushes love Athertons
Gratefully,
George
On November 4, 1979, sixty-three Americans were taken hostage at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran. The crisis gripped the nation all of 1980.
January 12, 1980
Mr. James W. Beasley, Jr.
Beasley & Olle
Miami, Florida 33131
Dear Mr. Beasley,
. . . On the situation in Iran, I firmly believe that all of us, citizens and presidential candidates alike, should stand behind the President in the handling of this extremely sensitive matter. I say this with the conviction of having worked in two presidential administrations in a foreign policy role and seeing the United States weakened in the eyes of the world because potshots were taken at the President for political reasons. To do so in this present crisis might help me as a candidate but would be wrong for our country.
After all our hostage fellow Americans are returned safely from Teheran, we can then examine the decisions which caused the crisis to occur, and I expect to make my voice heard at that time.
Sincerely,
George Bush
January 12, 1980
Mr. R. W. Lundreen
Midland, Michigan 48640
Dear Bob,
. . . Your recommendation on reaching out to the so-called disadvantaged, letting them know that their hopes for a future, free of handouts, lies with the free enterprise system as defended by the Republican Party, is excellent. Too often we Republicans just say the words “free enterprise” and assume everyone knows what we mean; [that we] feel it’s a good thing for all citizens rather than an evil plot to help Big Business. I feel that, having built my own business, I can help articulate this message to precisely these groups. It’s already well received among Hispanic-Americans, who from their personal experience know how much opportunity and hard work can give worth and meaning to human lives, something that being a welfare recipient simply cannot provide. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
My campaign peaked on January 21 when I upset the front-runner, Ronald Reagan, in the Iowa caucuses. Of course we didn’t realize then we were peaking; we thought we were on our way to the White House.
January 28, 1980
Mr. Robert J. Arnold
Northeast Chemical Company, Inc.
Amherst, NY 14150
Dear Bob,
Thanks for your note. The “Sixty Minutes” appearance did not go badly at all, especially since those guys are given to pulling out a piece of paper and asking, “What color necktie did you wear on July 16, 1954?”
The Iowa results were tremendously heartening, but there’s a long way to go yet before the convention. Still, I’m getting more and more confident of winning both the nomination and the election. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
February 2, 1980
Mr. Ethan Allen22
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Dear Curly,
We’re still elated over Iowa but the road to the nomination is still long and difficult. The national publicity has been great, including Mary McGrory23 (her comments about my clothes notwithstanding.)
Sorry you missed seeing Georgie. All the kids are helping us all over the map. Neil is working New Hampshire and is engaged to a girl he met there. Talk about winning the hearts and minds of the people!
Sincerely,
George Bush
February 10, 1980
Mr. Ray G. Goodman
Boston, MA 02109
Dear Mr. Goodman,
Thank you for your advice about emphasizing the word “statesman” rather than “politician” in my speeches and publications.
I want to be—and, as President, I believe I would be—a true statesman. The only reason I shrink from using the word very often is that to many ears it sounds pretentious. But you’re right: “politician” hits other ears as badly, or worse.
Then again there’s the famous definition given by the 19th century Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, Tom Reed. He said a statesman is a politician who has died. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
February 10, 1980
Mrs. Eleanor Langley Fletcher
New York, NY 10021
Dear Mrs. Fletcher,
. . . As for my view on gay rights, I believe that the government should not harrass or allow discrimination against anyone on the grounds of their sexual preference. But this principle is rooted firmly enough in law and court decisions that I believe no further legislation is required. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
February 10, 1980
Mr. Robert L. Dixon
Rockport, Massachusetts 01966
Dear Mr. Dixon:
. . . One of the ways we can contain inflation is to balance the federal budget, something that I have pledged to do and will do if elected President. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
The low point of my campaign was February 23 in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Nashua Telegraph newspaper had invited Governor Reagan and myself to debate one-on-one, without any of the other GOP candidates. Both of us accepted these terms. Angry at being left out, the other candidates still in the race—John Anderson, Howard Baker, Bob Dole, and Phil Crane—showed up and insisted on being included. The Reagan camp reversed course and sided with them. I will be the first to admit I looked like a fool, rigidly playing by the rules. I also w
as angry. I wrote all the candidates this letter. Eventually, I lost the New Hampshire primary.
February 25, 1980
The Honorable John B. Anderson
1101 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D. C. 20515
Dear John:
I want to express to you my regrets about the misunderstandings relating to Saturday’s debate. The Nashua Telegraph has issued a strong statement that has clarified some points that you may not have been familiar with. Please let me quote in part from The Telegraph statement.
“There have been suggestions by some candidates—particularly some of those who were not invited to participate in The Telegraph-sponsored meeting—that George Bush was a party to The Telegraph’s insistence that the agreed upon format be observed. That suggestion and/or implication is totally without foundation. At no time did Ambassador Bush or any of his representatives take an intransigent or intractable position on the question of the meeting format. Mr. Bush’s representatives, in fact, made a point of informing The Telegraph that if we chose to change the format their candidate would have no objection whatsoever; that he was there at the invitation of the newspaper and would abide by whatever the paper decided. The Telegraph—the only sponsor of last night’s meeting—insisted that both candidates meet their commitment to participate under the terms of prior agreement.”
It now occurs to me that you might not have been informed of this position held by the newspaper or of the position taken by the campaign. If you did not know of my willingness to have you join the forum should The Telegraph have decided to alter its plans, that is partially my fault, and I express my regrets. I am sorry that in the course of the last couple of days we didn’t have an opportunity to discuss this matter. I wish I had called you and I hope you know that if you at any time had personally asked to see me or speak with me I would have come to see you, or returned your call. You should know that Governor Reagan never contacted me on any of this even though he had been in contact with most of the other campaigns. The first we heard that Governor Reagan might not debate as planned was when the newspaper contacted my New Hampshire manager Saturday afternoon. Confusion reigned until debate time. . . .
Unlike Governor Reagan, I have not ducked joint debates, having joined you on many occasions in joint events in many states. For this one particular occasion I was challenged by Governor Reagan. I accepted his challenge for a one-on-one debate. I was anxious to have that debate in addition to the other debates, past and future, we have scheduled. But the record should show that, as The Telegraph clearly stated, our campaign advised them we were prepared to enlarge the field should the sponsor have determined that was the thing to do.
One last point, twenty-five minutes after the program was to have started I received word to be on the stage. The Nashua Telegraph was anxious to commence the program. On the way to the stage, after this long delay, I was stopped by a prominent Reagan supporter who has been attacking me all across the State of New Hampshire. He asked me to have a joint meeting with you and the others and lectured me on the Republican Party. Now that I realize you might not have known that I was not blocking your participation, I wish in retrospect that I had met with you. A lot of misunderstanding might have been avoided. The producer was signaling me to the stage, the commitment that I had made was on my mind, and the emissary was not exactly the ideal choice. In addition, I felt that Governor Reagan had definitely not played fair with me. I wish we had been in personal touch. I’m certain that much of this unpleasantness could have been avoided.
Sincerely,
George Bush
February 27, 1980
Dr. Bernard M. Barrett, Jr.
Houston, Texas 77030
Dear Barney,
. . . The New Hampshire results were disappointing and I know the road to the nomination will be long and tough. But we’ll pull out of this temporary slump and win the nomination as surely as if the figures Tuesday night had been reversed. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
March 9, 1980
Pastor D. D. Peterson
Faith Baptist Church
Tulsa, OK 74112
Dear Pastor Peterson:
. . . I am a strong believer in the separation of church and state. Government must stay out of the area of religion except to guarantee religious freedom under the First Amendment.
Sincerely,
George Bush
March 10, 1980
Olga Jonasson, MD
Cook County Hospital
Chicago, Illinois 60612
Dear Doctor Jonasson:
I am grateful for your letter on the sort of gunshot cases with which you and your colleagues deal every day.
. . . I have the deepest admiration and respect for the tough job that you perform so well. I wish it were in my power as either a citizen or potentially as President to halt the senseless killing which stalks our land. But after many years’ thought on this question, I have concluded that no law will stop someone from taking a pistol and shooting another human being. We have had laws on this general subject since the greatest of them all was brought down from Mount Sinai, and they have had scant effect.
A law controlling firearms would be no different. What we in this country have is a human problem, infinitely complex in composition and certainly in solution. If the problem were simply one of weaponry, then legislators might well consider steps to control it. But when, for whatever twisted reason, a person intends to kill another, he or she will proceed to do so with whatever tool is at hand. It does not have to be a Saturday night special. It can be a knife, a shovel, or a firepoker. Without even visiting your highly-reputed emergency room I can predict you get a large number of patients who have been stabbed or bludgeoned, perhaps even more of these than you have gunshot victims. Yet no one seriously proposes outlawing every sharp or blunt instrument within the reach of a possible murderer.
I hope you understand, Doctor Jonasson, that I do not oppose gun control because I am insensitive to the sort of brutality you and your staff see every day. I do so because I believe gun control does not work. The actual solution lies far beyond the power of lawmakers and magistrates, in the vast territory of the human mind. There it is either adopted by rational man or woman in moments of anger or thrust aside in the impulse to kill.
Thank you for writing me, and I hope someday we have a chance to meet so I can visit the Trauma Unit.
Sincerely,
George Bush
March 10, 1980
Mr. Edward E. Joiner
St. Petersburg, FL 33706
Dear Mr. Joiner,
Many thanks for your constructive criticism of my speaking style.
I know I’m not a Churchillian orator and that definite improvements can be made in my delivery. It is hard to do a 100% effective job making speeches in a presidential campaign simply because a candidate gets so tired and must think of several things at once. And I suppose we both wish that voters (and, more importantly, political journalists) paid more attention to what a candidate says than to how he says it.
Sincerely,
George Bush
March 14, 1980
Mrs. Mia Grasich
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Mrs. Grasich:
. . . You asked my views on labor unions. I believe in every person’s right to organize into a union and work together for improved conditions on the job. The problem comes when unions begin to wield political and economic power far beyond the workplace. Our American system works best when all elements within it are balanced: government, industry and labor. When any one sector gains too much power, we all lose. . . .
Sincerely,
George Bush
After New Hampshire, I won a few primaries but lost many more. I wrote my friend Noel Gayler, former chief of naval operations:
March 14, 1980
Admiral Noel Gayler, U.S.N. (Ret.)
Steamboat Village, Colorado, 80499
&nb
sp; Dear Noel,
Many thanks for your kind, cheering note.
The past few weeks have not been the happiest of the campaign, but at least they have sorted out the crowd and given us a better idea of how things might go between now and the convention.
Despite New Hampshire and the southern primaries, my campaign remains strong, with the finances, organization, and top-level support (from people like you) to last through the final ballot. I’m in for the long haul, regardless of what President Ford24 decides to do.
Thanks again for your encouragement. Hope to see you soon.
Sincerely,
George Bush
March 31
Superior, Wisconsin and yet another Holiday [Inn] . . . Holidays are all right. The soap is not as thin as they are in some of the other places. When you take a shower, the toilet doesn’t bubble, or you don’t get scalded by that guy next door. The food isn’t bad. The Secret Service25 spoil you. Great Guys! We’re lucky to have them, but they do add to such a ‘big show.’ . . .
April 1, 1980
Mr. A. Reed Aiden
Buckhannon, West Virginia 26201
Dear Mr. Aiden:
I appreciate your frank letter wanting to find out why you should vote for me. I’ll be just as frank.
You should vote for me because of my qualifications for the job: starting and running my own small business, serving in the Congress, representing our country in difficult diplomatic jobs, holding our party together during the Watergate period, and heading our nation’s foreign intelligence arm during a time it was coming under great attack. These jobs give me the breadth of experience needed in a President for the 1980s.
All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings Page 32