George H.W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush (1924–2018) served as the 41st President of the United States from January 1989 to January 1993. Before the presidency he held an unusually broad foreign-policy résumé: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973), Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (1974–1975), Director of Central Intelligence (1976–1977), and Vice President under Ronald Reagan (1981–1989).

His single term coincided with the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker managed the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989), negotiated the Two Plus Four Treaty (September 1990) enabling German reunification, and signed START I with Mikhail Gorbachev in July 1991, the first treaty to mandate reductions in U.S. and Soviet strategic nuclear arsenals. He also signed START II with Boris Yeltsin in January 1993.

In response to Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Bush assembled a coalition of roughly three dozen states and secured UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing the use of force. Operation Desert Storm (January–February 1991) expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait. In a September 1990 address to Congress, Bush framed the moment as a chance to build a "new world order" grounded in collective security.

Other notable actions:

• Ordered Operation Just Cause in Panama (December 1989), removing Manuel Noriega.
• Signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in December 1992 (ratified under his successor).
• Concluded the Chemical Weapons Convention negotiations; the U.S. signed in January 1993.
• Hosted the Madrid Conference (October 1991) on Arab–Israeli peace.

Domestically, a recession and his reversal of a "no new taxes" pledge contributed to his loss to Bill Clinton in 1992. He is the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida.