Williams, John Henry, 656
Williams, Ted, 123, 379, 656
Winter, Bill, 487
Wolfe, Alan, 302
Woods, Rose Mary, 172
Woods, Tiger, 605–6
Woodward, Bob, 609–10
Wright, Jim, 412
Wykes, Anna, 42–43, 45–46, 47
Wykes, Jim, 42–43, 46, 47, 54
Yarborough, Ralph, 88, 89–90, 121, 125, 128
Yeltsin, Boris, 440, 534, 536, 582, 629
Yost, Charles, 133, 137
Yudhoyono, President, 677
Yushchenko, Viktor, 682
Zaeed, Sheikh, 658
Zahn, Paula, 654
Zapata Off-Shore Company, 82–83, 91, 94–95
Zapata Petroleum Corporation, 76, 77–78, 79–80
Zauber, Ray, 284, 299
Zeder, Fred, 372, 407, 466, 587
Zeder, Martha, 407
Ziegler, Ron, 174, 175, 184, 186–87, 193
Zoellick, Robert, 522
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 1
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.
CHAPTER 2
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.
CHAPTER 3
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.”
CHAPTER 4
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 p
rovided 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.
All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings Page 81