Politics: Democrats still haven’t come up with a horse. Cuomo is silent, he’s got big state problems and he’s now trying to talk conservative on economic matters. He’s fast on his feet and a lot of people think it will be Cuomo and Gore.36
Gore [they say] is “wooden” or something like that. An attractive guy, but he says he is a worse speaker than I. Poor guy’s in real trouble if he’s worse than I. That’s the Sunday, July 7th run down—I’m philosophizing.
July 25th
Have you ever had one of those days when it just isn’t too good?
Ranger wakes you up early.
It rains.
The budget deficit estimates get hit because they’re too low. Nick Brady is upset because Dick Darman pointed out that the re-estimate by the Treasury makes it low and he comes over to see me tonight shaking mad.
Before that the Soviets press their case for full membership in the IMF and the World Bank in spite of the agreement by the G-7 telling them they ought to apply for associate member. . . .
Jack Danforth37 comes down and we can’t work out a final agreement on civil rights, although it’s a very civil conversation.
And, the Democrats want to press for extended unemployment benefits and we simply can’t afford to do it and we don’t think it’s necessary with the economic situation. . . .
My medicine is making me tired on top of all of that.
Just one of those days when you want to say forget it. Oh, yes, the President of Paramount that owns one of the big book companies called in to say that Kitty Kelley wants to write a book either about the Bushes or the Royals and he turned it down. That’s nice—a book by Kitty Kelley38 with everything else I’ve got on my mind . . . I can’t see her ever writing anything nice. In any event, maybe she’ll settle on the royal family and do her number on them.
And then a discussion early this afternoon about a political meeting at Camp David and the big question about who goes, who gets left out, whose feelings are hurt if we don’t do it. I’m trying to postpone organization of the politics until much later, feeling if we get it organized now, it’ll press the Democrats into action.
And oh, yes, another vicious assault by a Democrat. This time Jay Rockefeller39 really going after me and slamming me—and also Gephardt40. They’ve got a new game plan: Knock the hell out of the President, but I’ve got to stay above their fray—be pleasant. I think it’s a little out of character for a nice guy like Jay Rockefeller . . . anyway, it all goes with the territory of being President.
Not a good day—tiring day. Getting briefed for the Soviet Union and getting criticized for going abroad a lot.41 I think I’ve been abroad less this year than in previous years—I’m going to have that looked up. So long July 25—I won’t miss you!
August 1st
The Moscow Summit went well. [Signing] START was more than ceremonial—it offers hope to young people all around the world. Idealism is not dead and this significant reduction in these damn intercontinental ballistic missiles is a good thing. I really did feel emotionally involved at the signing ceremony and I felt a sense of real gratitude to the people who worked tirelessly on the treaty. I ad-libbed in Ronald Reagan’s name, but there was Rick Burt [US Ambassador to Germany] and so many others who were extraordinarily helpful in all of this. The talks with Gorbachev were warm and friendly. . . .
Vice President Yanayev greeted me at the airport, took me back to the airport, and is flying with us as I dictate this on Air Force One on the way to Kiev. He’s a friendly man. He came out of labor. Apparently, he has some legal background too. Good sense of humor; and nobody talks about his importance in all of this. He didn’t sit in on any of the meetings, but I think it’s nice that he and some of his associates are flying with us on this magnificent airplane. . . .
August 1, 1991
(enroute Andrews Air Force Base)
Dear Mikhail:
We are now about 35,000 feet, flying from Kiev to Washington. I am relaxed and happy, because I feel the visits to Moscow and Kiev went well. You and Raisa could not have been more hospitable, so let me start by thanking you both for that.
I think the substantive talks were productive. I know that on our side, at least, there is a much clearer picture of where things stand between us, and of the problems we face. I am going home determined to find ways to assist the economic recovery that is so essential for your people.
The visit to Kiev was a good one, and I hope I did not inadvertently cause any problems. Your Vice President Yanayev, who, incidentally, was extraordinarily hospitable to me at every turn, felt that the speech had gone well. Perhaps some Ukranians were disappointed, because they wanted to hear a clarion call for “independence now.” My speech, instead, called for the Republics working matters out with the Center, stating that it is not for us to dictate regarding the internal affairs of the Soviet Union.
So, in sum, it was a great visit, and I am extraordinarily grateful to you for its pageantry. We had a lot of substance, and we had a few laughs along the way. And thanks for sharing those lovely dachas with us42—a magnificent setting, and some good talks.
These sincere best wishes come from your friend,
GB
August 5, 1991
Mr. Michael Jacobs
Viking Penguin Books
New York, New York 10014
Dear Mr. Jacobs:
I recently saw a copy of “Charles and Diana: The 10th Anniversary” by Mr. Brian Hoey. On page 63 of this book there is a picture of Princess Diana seated next to an unnamed man. That man is our son, Marvin.
Now for the special favor. I would love to get a copy of that photo. I would, of course, be delighted to pay any expense involved. The photo would be given to Marvin and would not be used in any way for any other purpose.
Can you help me on this family project? Having seen the Princess recently, and recalling that Marvin, on the night the photo was taken, was not in a dancing mood,43 I thought I might even ask the Princess to sign this for him.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
George Bush
I wrote this note to Senator Jack Danforth. I liked Jack a great deal but we could not agree on a civil rights bill.
August 6, 1991
Dear Jack,
Thanks for your most recent letter. I am now heading off for Maine. Before leaving I wanted to say a couple of things. . . .
Needless to say we don’t feel we are ‘turning back the clock on civil rights”. Indeed I have stated that I want to sign a civil rights bill. I’ve also said that it is important that we get a bill, and rather than haggle over what some have called tiny differences why not take a gigantic step forward by going with a bill where we have total agreement, leaving a handful of the knotty unresolved questions to later on.
In any event I will take the suggestions made in your letters of August 2 and go back to the legal drawing board. . . .
Isn’t it more important to take a 90% step forward than to take no step at all. . . . anyway, let’s keep plugging away not letting the extremes on either side of this debate carry the day.
I’m told you’re getting a little much deserved rest. I, too, will be doing that in just 4 hours, 17 minutes, and 32 seconds.
Love to Janet,
GB
PS: Thanks for the super job you are doing side by side with Judge Thomas44—He’s such a good man and you have made that so very clear.
[I signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 on November 21. It did not include quotas. It did promote the goals of ridding the workplace of discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, and disability.]
August 12th
The stories keep saying that I will be very hard to beat. The more we hear of this, the more worried I become. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” That sticks in my mind. The only good thing is the Democrats seem to be feeling a little bit of disarray.
Bill Clinton, a very nice man, may get into the
race. Jay Rockefeller is out. Cuomo keeps saying he’s not—dancing coyly on the sidelines, being anointed by the press as the best and the toughest of them all—and maybe he is. Tsongas45 wanting someone to come in to debate him. . . .
The fishing has been good. I love trolling when the big blues hit. They come in strong—we’ve gotten them almost every time we’ve been out. I still use a light tackle. Sometimes the most fun is when you use the surface plugs and the blues explode hitting the plugs and then our friends try to push each other away as they go after the plug and that’s a really good sport. Your mind gets totally taken away from the problems at hand as you try to get back through the school or cast into it.
And then on that boat, I count my blessings as I look and listen to the sea. Two or three days ago, we had a big storm come through. The waves were booming. Bar and I went out on the rocks and we watched in wonder as the sea pounded in. And there are other times I simply sit on the porch and watch the kids playing on the rocks. I wish Neil’s kids were here too. . . .
August 19th
At midnight on Sunday or maybe it was 5 minutes after midnight Monday morning the 19th, Scowcroft called me, woke me up, and said there was a report that Gorbachev had resigned for health reasons. I flip on the TV and I call the Situation Room around 5:30 a.m. and they give me the update that Gorbachev has been put out. Some of the news is that we were taken by surprise and I mention this to Brent this morning and he said, “Yes, so was Gorbachev!” And that’s about right. They don’t know. How the hell could we know! We’ll talk to Prime Minister Major, Kohl and probably Mitterrand. . . .
The new president is Yanayev. . . . He was the guy that met me at the Moscow airport. He was the guy that drove in with me. He was the guy that flew down on our plane to Ukraine. He was the guy that congratulated me after our speech in Ukraine about the respect for the Union and the people choosing. I liked the guy. I sent him fishing lures. And, he was rather pleasant. Now it appears from these early reports that he’s but a figurehead which we knew all along. It will be interesting to see how all this develops. The press, knowing as little as we do, are going around in circles. We’ll now go out and have a press conference at 7:30 this morning and then figure out what to do from here. There’s little we can do—in fact, nothing I’d say. . . .
I think of Gorbachev, now on a Crimean “vacation.” I think of his sense of humor, his courage. I’m wondering what condition he’s in, where he is, how he’s being treated. I think of the old guard military, Yazov particularly, who was grumbling all the time at the meetings that we had in the Soviet Union, drinking a lot, complaining at the table with John Sununu and others about how bad things were.46
. . . If I were to comment tonight, I would say: “Mikhail, I hope you are well. I hope we have not mistreated you. You have led your country in a fantastically constructive way even with attacks from the right and from the left—but you deserve enormous credit. Now, we don’t know what the hell has happened to you, where you are, what condition you are in, but we were right to support you. I’m proud we have supported you and there will be a lot of talking heads on television telling us what’s been wrong, but you have done what’s right and strong and good for your country and I am proud that we have been supportive. I like you and I hope that you return to power, skeptical though I am of that. . . .
August 20th
I place a call to Boris Yeltsin. Much to my surprise, I get him.47 We talk for 25 minutes. His building is surrounded. He’s worried. He thinks they might storm the building. He says there are a hundred thousand people outside and, all-in-all, this courageous man is standing by his principles.
. . . The complexities of all of this are absolutely phenomenal and, yet, I am determined to handle it without getting us involved in a war and, yet, standing by our principles of democracy and reform. Brent is absolutely convinced that the way we’ve handled the Gorbachev matter in the past is now totally vindicated, though we’ll be hit from the far right a little bit and on the left. People will be saying: “Well, you should have helped Gorbachev more with money to avoid this.” There will be a lot of second-guessing, but I’m not worried about all that.
August 20, 1991
Matters to address today.
1. Change vacation to rest and work, formalize briefings daily
invite key players to KB
invite outside experts to KB
2. Get Marlin Back to KB
3. Active telephone diplomacy depending on events—not frantic but keep other countries informed including those not on ‘front lines”—e.g. South America.
4. Message . . . steady as she goes, not acceptance of ‘coup’—perhaps more personal attention to Yeltsin as he calls for return of Gorb and maintaining democratic changes etc.
5. Avoid getting caught up in ’92 as it relates to Soviet crisis. Be sure our defenders are fully informed.
I wrote some notes to some key senators who were being supportive of how we were handling the crisis:
Aug. 20th ’91
The Day after
The Honorable Richard G. Lugar
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Dick—
Once again “thanks”. When the going gets rough the extremists weigh in. Political opportunists, no matter the gravity of the situation, try to make instant political hay. The extremes on both sides, be they “talking heads” (yes that cottage industry has been revived) or ultra right warriors or hand wringing second guessers on the left want to instantly pile on; but now is the time for steady, prudent leadership from Capitol Hill and from the White House. You’ve already contributed to the former.
Many thanks,
George
8-20-91
The Honorable John H. Chafee
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chafee,
Thanks for your words of confidence and support at this important time.
We must not let either the predictable political critics, the talking heads, or the coldest of the warriors prevail.
I will try to prudently manage all this with strength and conviction; but support such as you stated yesterday is vital—
Get some rest—
Gratefully,
George
August 21st
Talk about being in the middle of history—at 8:30 this morning, an hour and half ahead of the scheduled time that Yeltsin and I had agreed on, he called me from his federation building—from his building where he’s been for many hours. His tone was somewhat optimistic. He was not declaring victory.
. . . Four of his people [are] racing to the Crimea, but regrettably five coup leaders had left to go see Gorbachev hoping to get there before Yeltsin’s people got there. Yeltsin is trying to have them them intercepted . . . the Ukraine leader will try to have them intercepted and keep the five from landing at the Gorbachev villa, making them divert to another airport.
Yeltsin is very grateful for our support. We talked for 30 minutes or more and he still is quite obviously committed to the restoration of Gorbachev. . . .
I got to the house, into the bedroom, to take a call and it was Gorbachev. He sounded jubilant and he sounded upbeat. He was very, very grateful to me, more so than I wanted to say at the press conference, for the way we’ve conducted ourselves. The same exact statement that Yeltsin had made.
All this brings home to me the importance of how the United States reacts. We could have overreacted and moved troops and scared the hell out of people. We could have under-reacted by saying, “Well, we’ll deal with whoever is there.” But, I think the advice I got was good. I think we found the proper balance, certainly in this case—we are getting enormous credit from the key players in the Soviet Union.
September 2nd
. . . Sitting alone on our terrace, the last day of what has been a fantastic vacation inspite of the turmoil in the Soviet Union. I’m alone out here. Finished a clam chowder luncheon, a little h
am sandwich, glass of sherry. . . .
It’s perhaps the clearest September day I have ever seen here. My mind goes back to September 2, 1944—47 years ago, this very day, I was shot down over the Bonin Islands. So much has happened—so very much in my life and in the world.
Today I had a press conference. I recognized the Baltics. I talked to the Presidents of Estonia and Latvia today, having talked to Landsbergis of Lithuania a couple of days ago. I told them what we’ve got to do. I told them why we waited a few days more. What I tried to do was to use the power and the prestige of the United States, not to posture, not to be the first on board, but to encourage Gorbachev48 to move faster on “freeing the Baltics.” Yesterday, he did make a statement to this effect and today there is an agreement where the various republics would be entitled to determine their own relationship with the Center [the union] . . .
The pace will change now. Pressures will mount now, but I’ve got enough of this sea air, ocean and rocks and pools in my soul that it will give me the strength to get on through a long, cold winter, cold politically—who knows about meteorologically wise. But, it doesn’t matter, we’ll do O.K. and so, at the end of the vacation, I give thanks to God for my many blessings and for this special place and the special perspective that it gives this aging, but very grateful President of the United States. . . .
October 3, 1991
David S. Broder
The Washington Post
Washington, D.C. 20071
Dear Dave:
Thanks for your September 27 letter. Having read about your approach on the article about the Vice President, I am hopeful the portrait will present a positive view of a good man.
All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings Page 58