All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings
Page 82
28 The apartment number in the Waldorf Towers.
29 Fred and his wife, Marion, were among our best friends in Texas. A few years down the road, Bar would name our next dog in Fred’s honor.
30 Ehrlichman was a top White House aide; John Mitchell had been attorney general but left that post to head up the Committee for the Re-election of the President.
CHAPTER 5
1 Haig had been named chief of staff after Haldeman resigned.
29 He asked about my father’s two sisters and brother.
2 Laird, formerly secretary of defense, was now a White House counselor.
3 President Nixon picked Michigan congressman Gerald Ford to replace Agnew.
4 The Paris Peace Accord had been signed January 27; the last U.S. troops left Vietnam March 29; and 590 American POWs were released by April 1.
5 Egypt and Syria had attacked Israel on October 6; Israel counterattacked. A cease-fire took effect October 24 and a U.N. peacekeeping force was sent to the Middle East.
6 White House press secretary.
7 I have since changed my mind about Chuck Colson, who totally changed his life around while serving a prison term and today is doing wonderful ministerial work in prisons and elsewhere.
8 Buchanan worked for Nixon as a speechwriter.
9 Pete was a close family friend from Kennebunkport, a good friend of my Walker uncles and of mine.
10 Tex McCrary, a strong Republican and a big Nixon supporter.
11 Our four sons, George, Jeb, Neil, and Marvin. (Apparently I thought Doro was too young at the time to receive this letter.) My dad had used the old-fashioned term lads a lot, and I have always used it—jokingly—to refer to our four sons.
12 Fred was secretary of commerce and a close personal friend.
13 The president of Yale, and very liberal. He later served as ambassador to Great Britain under Jimmy Carter.
14 One of the main student centers on the Yale campus.
15 Larry O’Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
16 Magruder, who had been Mitchell’s deputy at the Committee for the Reelection of the President, was one of the first Watergate participants to come forward and testify against his colleagues, always downplaying his own involvement (at least in my opinion).
17 One half of the Evans and Novak commentary team.
18 Republican congressman from Maryland.
19 Tom Railsback, Republican congressman from Illinois.
20 John Connally was indicted and later acquitted in the famous “milk fund” scandal. Connally was accused of accepting a bribe from a dairy organization that wanted a promise of higher milk-price supports from the federal government in return for campaign contributions.
21 My close friend John Rhodes, congressman from Arizona, was House minority leader. Fred Buzhardt was the chief White House lawyer.
22 I’m talking about the “smoking gun” tape where we learned Nixon had lied about his knowledge of the cover-up.
23 Bill Steiger and Jerry Pettis, both congressmen, were among my closest friends on the Hill. Martha Griffiths was a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan. She and I had served on the Ways and Means Committee together.
24 At this point Kissinger was both secretary of state and the NSC adviser.
25 I later recommended Mary Louise Smith, whom President Ford did appoint. Mary Louise was the first woman to head up one of the two major political parties.
26 Bill Timmons was one of Ford’s top advisers.
27 Being ambassador to the United Kingdom was considered expensive since the ambassador was expected to provide lavish entertainment, only a fraction of which was covered by the government.
28 Meaning California, where they were then living.
CHAPTER 6
1 When we lived in China, Beijing was still spelled Peking. In 1979, the Chinese government began using a new system of transliteration—in other words, how you represent corresponding letters in different alphabets. This changed the English spelling of the names of people and places—e.g., Peking became Beijing. Names will appear in this chapter as they were spelled when we lived there.
2 Jaworski was still investigating Watergate.
3 Robert Mardian was a good friend of Nixon’s who worked at the Committee for the Re-election of the President and was among those indicted for wrongdoing. All charges were later dropped.
4 Eastern Asia, a division within the State Department.
5 I replaced Ambassador David Bruce, perhaps our most distinguished diplomat, who was the first head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing.
6 Bob Strauss, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a great friend to this day. As President, I named him ambassador to the Soviet Union.
7 C. Fred Bush, our cocker spaniel. There weren’t many dogs in China, so Fred was an oddity.
8 Hap Ellis, my sister Nancy’s son, and his wife, Robin.
9 United States Liaison Office.
10 John Holdridge was deputy chief of mission (or the number two man) at the liaison office. He went on to become ambassador to Singapore, assistant secretary of state for the Far East, and ambassador to Indonesia. He and his wife, Martha, became good friends of ours and I considered him a mentor on Chinese affairs.
11 Chiao was then foreign minister, but I had gotten to know him when, as vice foreign minister, he accompanied the first People’s Republic mission to New York to take their seat in the United Nations. A brilliant man, Chiao suffered at the hands of the radical Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
12 Huang was my counterpart in Washington.
13 Soon after the Chinese arrived in New York, I had invited the delegation to my mother’s house in Greenwich for an informal Sunday-afternoon get-together.
14 You probably recognize him as Deng Xiaoping, who was then vice premier. The staffers who went with me, in addition to Holdridge, were Don Anderson, our expert on Chinese political affairs, and Brunson McKinley, who was an aide.
15 This war took place while I was at the United Nations and resulted in the creation of a new country, Bangladesh. The United States tilted diplomatically toward Pakistan. The Chinese openly sided with Pakistan; the Soviet Union with India, which caused a great deal of international tension.
16 Nancy Tang, an excellent interpreter, was close to the top Chinese leadership. She was the daughter of the highest PRC official at the U.N. Secretariat. Wang Hai Jung was Mao’s niece.
17 I am Bill Steiger Jr.’s godfather.
18 United States Information Service.
19 N.B. is from the Latin nota bene, which means “note well.”
20 I always called the kids “weiner” or “tennie weeny.” Today, all the grandkids are weiners.
21 Jeb had married Columba—we call her Colu—Garnica Gallo in February 1974. They were living in Houston, where Jeb worked for Texas Commerce Bank.
22 President of Zaire.
23 Perhaps I overestimated the impact of Chinese propaganda. Much of it was aimed at their own people, not at the outside world.
24 Donald Rumsfeld, then Ford’s chief of staff and later his secretary of defense.
25 Mr. Wong is still running things at the ambassador’s residence in Beijing.
26 Today we know VTRs (videotape recorders) as VCRs (videocassette recorders).
27 Marvin underachieved at Andover and changed schools to Woodberry Forest where he did very well. He went to the University of Texas for one year, but then transferred to and graduated from the University of Virginia, which he loved.
28 “Friendship first” was an often-repeated slogan.
29 Famous football coach of the University of Alabama.
30 When I visited China as President in 1989, Premier Li Peng gave Barbara and me bicycles as gifts, to remind us of our China days. On my many trips to China since 1992, both in Beijing and in other cities, many people still refer to our bike-riding. Amazing!
31 Jerry, now a Hollywood producer, and I became fri
ends when he married longtime family friend and famous singer Jane Morgan. At this time, Jerry managed tours of many singing stars, including John Denver, Elvis Presley, and Neil Diamond.
32 The full title is Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House.
33 Mrs. Tang gave Bar and me Chinese lessons one hour a day, five days a week.
34 We had given the Chinese two musk ox as presents, just as they had given us the famous panda bears.
35 Domestic Service Bureau, which was responsible for looking after all the embassies.
36 Pete was working at the White House for Rumsfeld.
37 Bill was deputy assistant secretary for East Asian affairs.
38 Senator Bill Roth of Delaware. His wife, Jane, is a federal judge.
39 William Paley, president of CBS, and a good friend of Dad, who served on the CBS board.
40 Oscar was head of the China Desk at the State Department.
41 Brent Scowcroft was Kissinger’s number two man on the National Security Council. Over the years, Brent and I became the best of friends, and as my national security adviser when I was President, he was a most trusted confidant.
42 Neil and his wife, Ann, were visiting.
43 It must seem odd that Doro was baptized in China. Over the years, for a variety of reasons, her baptism had been scheduled and postponed a number of times. Twenty years later, at a well-attended church service in a bigger church, we saw one of the ministers who had baptized Doro.
44 The hot dog buns did make it in time.
45 The day before he had to have a tooth drilled in a Chinese hospital.
46 I had taken a whirlwind trip back to Washington.
47 The CIA.
CHAPTER 7
1 George W. wrote us a letter on behalf of all the kids, giving us their full support. “I look forward to the opportunities to hold my head high and declare ever so proudly that yes, George Bush, super spook, is my Dad and that yes I am damn glad for my country that he is head of the agency.”
2 Voice of America.
3 There were many other changes afoot. Scowcroft was going to replace Kissinger as National Security Council (NSC) adviser; Kissinger, who remained as secretary of state, had been doing double duty. Donald Rumsfeld was replacing James Schlesinger as secretary of defense.
4 Mao would say, “One, ten, one hundred years” to solve the Taiwan problem.
5 The Shanghai Communiqué was the statement issued by President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai during Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972. Much of it dealt with Taiwan, and the United States carefully agreed with the view of Chinese on both the mainland and on Taiwan that there was but “one China” and the issue should be settled by the Chinese themselves.
6 My brother Jonathan’s son.
7 Jack was a counselor to the President and helped shepherd me through the confirmation process. He later became secretary of the army.
8 Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, was being vocal about his opposition to my CIA appointment, saying it was too political. Newspaper columnists were hammering away on the same point.
9 Vice President Rockefeller would not be on the GOP ticket in 1976.
10 The man I would be replacing at the CIA.
11 David Bocskor, Robert Booth, John Chornyak, and Evan Dewire, the State Department security officers assigned to the liaison office.
12 A Chinese national who worked at the USLO.
13 An office in the Old Executive Office Building, in the White House complex.
14 President Ford disagreed with this point and did not give me cabinet rank. He was absolutely right. I attended only those cabinet meetings where I was needed. On the other hand, President Reagan did give his CIA director, William Casey, cabinet rank, and Casey often annoyed the other cabinet members by interfering with domestic affairs. I did not give either of my very able CIA directors—William Webster and Robert Gates—cabinet rank.
15 The director of the CIA (DCI) not only is the head of that particular agency, but also coordinates intelligence activities of other government agencies, such as the Department of State, Department of Defense, FBI, etc. They all come under an umbrella organization called the Intelligence Community, which had a separate staff that reported to the DCI.
16 The 40 Committee operated within the framework of the National Security Council and was made up of a group of undersecretaries from the various departments.
17 Henrietta Morris, a dedicated career Foreign Service secretary, who served with us in China.
18 Harry Thayer, who was my number two, was acting chief at the liaison office.
19 President and Mrs. Nixon were in China, which was controversial at home. It came during the primary season when former California governor Ronald Reagan was challenging President Ford for the GOP presidential nomination. At that time, Reagan felt both Ford and Nixon had been too accommodating to China.
20 Paula Rendon, our longtime housekeeper, who came to us right after Doro was born.
21 I am referring here to the congressional hearings during the last several years that had examined and for the most part greatly criticized the CIA; hearings that had also disclosed sensitive information, thus making getting cooperation from abroad much more difficult.
22 George had been in Lubbock the day before on behalf of President Ford’s campaign.
23 William Crawford Jr., ambassador to Cyprus.
24 An old friend, an ex-newspaperman who had worked on my 1970 Senate campaign.
25 Harriman had a distinguished career in public service, including as the Democratic governor of New York and ambassador to the Soviet Union during World War II. He and his brother Roland were partners in my dad’s Wall Street firm, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., although Averell was not an active partner. Averell was a supporter of the CIA.
26 Larry was deputy undersecretary for management. During my administration, he was number two at the State Department under Jim Baker. After Jim resigned in 1992 to be White House chief of staff, Larry became the secretary of state and did a great job during the final months of my presidency.
27 A loyal Republican.
28 The Soviet’s Backfire bomber was one of most controversial issues I had to deal with while DCI. There was huge disagreement in the Intelligence Community on the Backfire’s capabilities—especially whether it had the range to reach the United States. Needless to say, it was important to know the truth, not only for national security but also for arms controls negotiation purposes. The CIA was accused of downplaying the Backfire’s capabilities, which was ridiculous. I refer in this memo to Sandy McDonnell, president of McDonnell Douglas, who was advising us on the issue. General Jones is David Jones, head of the Air Force.
29 It would be another twenty years before Carlos the Jackal, perhaps the most famous terrorist ever, would finally be apprehended.
30 Philip Agee was a former CIA agent who had violated his secrecy obligations after leaving the Agency and contributed to the “outing” of undercover agents. Based on these activities, I viewed Agee as a traitor and still do. I believe he was morally responsible for several agents’ deaths.
CHAPTER 8
31 George had also been chairman of Chase Bank.
1 Bill Simon, treasury secretary under Nixon and Ford; John Connally; Jim Baker; Bob Mosbacher, a close Houston friend and successful oilman whom I would name secretary of commerce; and Senator Bill Brock of Tennessee.
2 The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens in Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States. The idea was to draw together leaders from all sectors to discuss common problems facing those countries. My short-lived membership (I didn’t have time to be a member) would cause me some heartburn down the road, since some people thought the Commission conspired to rule the world.
3 George Prescott Bush, son of Jeb and Columba, had been born April 24, 1976, in Houston.
4 First International Bancshares
in Dallas.
5 Perot had asked me to run his oil business in Houston.
6 A very conservative Republican activist was already running, so now there would be a primary.
7 Several people had approached me about possibly becoming president of Yale University. I asked that my name be taken out of consideration.
8 Pro-Soviet leftists had overthrown the government in a bloody coup. The Shah of course was right about Afghanistan; by 1979, the Soviet Union was involved in a full-scale guerrilla war.
9 Anwar Sadat, the respected leader of Egypt.
10 Obviously Reagan and I had not yet formed a personal friendship; I was disappointed only that he had endorsed anyone in the primary at all.
11 Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the House.
12 Alan was not yet head of the Federal Reserve Board. (Reagan would appoint him in 1987 and I would reappoint him in 1992.) At this time he was president of Townsend-Greenspan & Co. and had been chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under President Ford.
13 Both Toby and his sister Elsie Hillman were good friends and members of my national steering committee. Toby pointed out I had low name recognition nationally, despite my already long career in public service. He also reminded me I was not known as a charismatic speaker, a problem I never quite overcame.
14 Carter brought together Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat for peace talks at Camp David, which resulted in the Camp David Peace Accord.
15 David, now a successful attorney and businessman in San Antonio, was my traveling companion—the “bag carrier.” I came to think of him almost like a son.
16 Campaign songs sent in by Mrs. Carton.
17 Jeb had moved back to Texas to work full-time on the campaign.
18 Neil met his wife, Sharon Smith, while campaigning for me in New Hampshire.
19 George had married Laura Welch from Midland.
20 Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee.
21 When your poll numbers are so low, you are not even listed by name, but instead only by asterisk, under the group heading “All Others.”