George Bush (1924 - 2018)

It's the son, "Dubya," who should be burdened with initials. Until he rose to power, his father was just plain George Bush. A senator's son and a New Englander turned Texan, the first President Bush was the last American chief executive to have fought in World War II, but he was somehow labeled a "wimp" in implicit comparison to that Hollywood tough guy, Ronald Reagan. During the 1980 Republican primaries he had it right when he called Reagan's notions "voodoo economics," but he made his peace with the Gipper and became his political heir. While many still give Reagan the credit for winning the Cold War that actually ended on Bush's watch -- it may be more accurate to say that Mikhail Gorbachev renounced it -- it was Bush who offered a vision of a post-Cold War world and acted on it,to the wonder of much of the world and the alarm of some. His rallying of a global consensus against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was arguably an unprecedented and irreproducible diplomatic feat, though in retrospect he may have taken too middling a course against Saddam Hussein, undermining a secular ruler but not deposing him at a time when Iraq might have proved more malleable in American hands. Instead, his caution appears vindicated by his son's overreach and its enduring consequences. On another front, we can speculate about Bush's approach to Russia in a second term, wondering whether the rise of Putin might have been less likely had Bush been less aggressive about expanding NATO. As it was, economics did him in, along with the Perot campaign. Already on the American right there were stirrings of resentment against a nebulous establishment that Bush seemed to embody, while his invocation of a new world order provoked irrational dread on both the right and the left. To some he seemed inauthentic and out of touch, but it's hard to argue that the nation benefitted from his son appearing more personable, or from a wealthier successor acting more like a common man. Bush's presidency may be deemed a failure because he wasn't reelected, but it grows more obvious with every subsequent administration that his time was a summit of U.S. power and prestige that may never be regained.