Looking Forward

pocket paperback, 268 pages. Illustrations. Index, text has darkened. George Herbert Walker Bush[a] (June 12, 1924 - November 30, 2018) was an American politician and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, Bush also served as the 43rd vice president from 1981 to 1989, in the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and as Director of Central Intelligence. Bush served in the navy during World War II. After the war, he graduated from Yale and moved to West Texas, where he established a successful oil company. He won election to the 7th congressional district of Texas in 1966. President Richard Nixon appointed Bush to the position of Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and to the position of chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him as the Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, and in 1976 Bush became the Director of Central Intelligence. Bush was elected vice president in 1980 and 1984 as Reagan's running mate. In the 1988 presidential election, Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis, becoming the first incumbent vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836. Bush navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. Bush presided over the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. Publishers Weekly described this book as an early salvo in the vice-president's campaign for the White House in 1988. It describe it as a standard candidate's biography but livelier than others because Bush has held such a variety of important positions. As a young man from Connecticut and a former Navy pilot in World War II, he went to Texas and made a fortune in the oil fields. After serving in the House of Representatives and two failed attempts at the U.S. Senate, he served as U.S. representative to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee (steering the party through the Watergate scandal), envoy to China in the last years of Chairman Mao and head of the CIA. Bush writes about his seven years as vice-president, stressing his belief that the prime requisite of the number-two spot is loyalty, and concludes by emphasizing his political conservatism. Victor "Vic" Gold (September 25, 1928 - June 5, 2017) was an American journalist, author, and Republican political consultant. Gold began his career as a lawyer and advisor to the Democratic Party in Alabama before switching to the Republican Party. He worked as deputy press secretary for Senator Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential election and press secretary for Vice President Spiro T. Agnew from 1970 to 1973. Gold left politics for a time to work as a writer and political commentator, returning in 1979 as a speechwriter to the presidential campaign of George H. W. Bush and was an advisor to Bush's 1988 and 1992 campaigns. He was the author of several published works of non-fiction. He co-wrote George H. W. Bush's 1987 autobiography and co-wrote a novel in 1988 with Lynne Cheney.…