American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 41.1 George H W Bush

Episode Date: July 29, 2023

Before Dubya Bush, there was Daddy Bush. he is perhaps the most overlooked of modern presidents due to his single term, but who was this man? What was his early life? Find out in ep1!

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, George H. W. Bush. Part 1. Hello, and welcome to American Presidents Totalus Rankium. I am Jamie. And I'm Rob, ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Biden. And this is episode 41.1. It's Daddy Bush. Daddy Bush. Daddy Bush. Love Bush. Yeah, Bush the first.

Bush, yeah. Bush senior, George H. hw bush uh it's just clunky jamie isn't it it is it is very clunky there are two george bushes there were two george w bushes but i can see why they're avoiding numbering people that's all very royal isn't it so yeah okay yeah i don't know so i think we think we will settle on the traditional Daddy Bush, I think. That's how he's usually referred to. Yeah. Here we are. It's a new president. We're going to do three episodes on George H.W. Bush, which I was not planning on.

But you know what? I was enjoying the research. So... Three episodes again? Yeah, so three episodes. Ooh, interesting. I was fully expecting just two episodes on Bush, but no, we're going to go for three. Fair enough.

Let's hope I haven't made the wrong decision. But before we jump in, let's do a start, shall we? Yeah. Should I throw you a softball or should I make it mean? You do whatever you want. Okay, it starts off with blackness. A few stars twinkling in the background. And it's slowly, the scene shifts towards like a nebula.

And the words, narrator Patrick Stewart, start with space the final frontier and then it goes on right right oh then the whole whole credit scene as well it's not just that it's the whole credit of next generation right and then i assuming patrick stewart says captain's log yeah and other topics you know in you don't know, but it names the episode in the blue writing at the top. You could say George Bush part one. Yeah, okay. Captain's Log. We are here on blah, blah, blah.

Patrick Stewart says Captain's Log, stardate 494. 4-2.1. Nice, nice, nice. Had a bit of trouble yesterday, says Patrick Stewart. Someone accidentally leaned on the accelerator and we ended up going around the sun a few times a bit too fast yesterday, says Patrick Stewart. Someone accidentally leaned on the accelerator and we ended up going around the sun a few times a bit too fast. And you know what? We ended up back in bloody time.

Who'd have thought it? But, sir, I don't believe that's possible. Shh, quiet. Anyway, we're looking for some whales for some reason. But there's a big ballywar on, don't you know, back in Earth time. Because we found ourselves in 1944. and we're in a big ocean somewhere we're looking for whales but oh there's a bit of chaos going on so um anyway oh my god it's an airplane and then suddenly it zooms out of the front window of the enterprise and there is a

plane hurtling towards the Starship Enterprise. And who's that flying the plane? It's George H.W. Bush. Oh, nice. And the two craft just smash into each other in a big fiery ball and in the smoke just comes up George H.W. Bush, part one. See, I know about Star Trek. I put some references to Star Trek into that.

You did. You definitely put some references to Star Trek into that. You did. You definitely put some references in, yeah. Yeah, and they made sense and everything, didn't they? Anyway, moving on. George Bush. So, what was he like? Cool. Okay, well, it's been a while since we've had a good old-fashioned,

born-into-American-aristocracy president, hasn't it? Yeah. We've had all of these people being born into relative poverty and stuff yeah oh don't worry jamie we're gonna get someone born with a whole set of silver spoons again which is nice isn't it yes that's uh where it should be the ruling class after all uh yeah so they are our betters yes exactly so on on June the 12th of 1924, Dorothy and Prescott Bush have their second child and they name him after his maternal grandfather,

George Herbert Walker. That's why he is called George Herbert Walker Bush or George H.W. Bush. H.W. Bush, I've got it. So it's like, oh, we'll name him after my dad, says Dorothy. And I imagine Prescott went, oh, George, that's a good idea. No, we're going for George Herbert Walker. We're doing the whole thing.

Not going in but half measures here. Some people would say four names is perhaps a name too many for a child. But not me. No. No, no, no. I think the more the better. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, the Bushes were, to put it bluntly, Jamie, rich. I've always had that feeling. No. No, no, no. I think the more the better. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, the Bushes were, to put it bluntly, Jamie, rich.

I got that. I've always had that feeling. Yeah. We're not talking Kennedy levels of stupid rich, by the way. I mean, the Kennedys were in their own sphere where only a few families could exist. But the Bushes certainly were well off enough. The Bush side of the family had made their money in steel and then used that money and connections for Prescott

to get into investment banking. So as you can imagine, money. Yeah, he was working with one of the most elite banks in the country, whereas Dorothy's family, that's the Walkers, obviously, were also in investment banking. So, yeah, little George had money coming out of both sides of the family yeah which is nice uh the bushes were in middleton massachusetts a very wealthy suburb of boston when george hw bush was born now having the same name as his grandfather

obviously has problems doesn't it it'd be confusing at parties. Exactly. The family parties. Confusing at parties. Don't worry. George, yes? Yes. Well, don't worry. They've sorted this out because Grandfather George already had a nickname, Pop. Oh, there we go. Yeah, there we go.

So you'd think it would be sorted, but no, because Little George got a nickname, Poppy. So you had Pop and Poppy. Right. So you can differentiate between the two. But, of course, what happens if you call someone Poppy as a nickname, Poppy. So you had Pop and Poppy. Right. So you can differentiate between the two. But, of course, what happens if you call someone Poppy as a nickname? It gets shortened. And what do you shorten Poppy to?

Pop. Pop. So in the end, they were both just called Pop. So there you go. That's nice, isn't it? Brilliant. Brilliant. Yeah.

Everything's sorted. Yeah, anyway, little Poppy has an older brother named after their dad, Prescott, and he was known as Prezzy. So he had Prezzy and Poppy. The two boys played together a lot as kids. They had a very large garden with lots of trees in. And these trees were big trees, and they liked nothing more than scrambling up and down the trees.

Usually they're more of encouraging them every step of the way. It's like it tied them out. Good start. That's always good. And taught them... An hour before bedtime. Quick, climb trees, climb trees. Yeah, and taught them resilience as well.

It's just a broken leg. You can still get up there. Come on. You've got another. Exactly. That's why you were born with two, damn it. Yeah, so scrambling up and down trees as a tiny little nipper was Poppy. Around this time, three more siblings were born, Nancy, Jonathan and William.

So, a reasonable-sized family there. George would later say that their mother brought them up like a drill sergeant. High expectations. High expectations. It's the only way to keep the five of them in check. This seems to be a bit of an exaggeration, as she also spent a lot of time encouraging them to play sports And generally have a nice time

It was an easy life for the Bush children But in the same way that we've talked about presidents in the past Being brought up in poverty and not realising because they were children Well the same is true for the Bushes You just don't notice these things when you're a child So to them it was just normal Their father was a little bit more aloof than their mother stayed out of the way slightly but he would deal with the genuine talons off if they'd really done something wrong

one day prezzy and poppy thought it would be hilarious to dare one of the neighbor's little girls to run naked through the house for a nickel. Yeah, the girl did it. Got a nickel. William, the little brother, I can only assume forever known after this as William the Snitch, then went and told their mother. God, he's the loser brother. He is the loser brother. That's the only time I ever mention him.

So I can only assume Prezzy and Poppy killed him and buried him in the garden. Not surprised. Let's say that's true. Let's never check it out. Anyway, Prescott outraged at his two sons for doing this, so he picked up a badminton racket and chased them out of the house, shouting at them to go and apologise to the mother of the girl.

So, yeah, good discipline there. So you just get the sense that the summers were long and lazy and fun and everyone was having a nice time. They quite often went to stay with their grandfather, Pop, the elder George. They went on his boat a lot. He had a boat that went out into the water. As boats tend to do. Yeah, exactly.

They'd lounge around on it. They'd read. Prezzy and Poppy loved it so much they were out in all weathers. They became good enough on this boat that the family soon trusted them to go out alone. Like you do with two small boys. He's three. He can pull the

rigging. They were a bit older by this point, to be fair, but different times back then. It's like, yeah, it's blown up a bit of a hurricane here but uh it's fine you go out and they uh did regret this one day because uh one day an angry fisherman came and knocked on uh grandfather pop's door demanding to be seen to give you a bit of an insight what their grandfather was like uh pop refused to see the fisherman because he was far too busy having his lunch to be talking to the likes of the fisherman uh so he just refused to see the fisherman because he was far too busy having his lunch

to be talking to the likes of the fisherman. So he just refused to see him. But the help passed on the message. And then he forced the boys to go and apologise to the fisherman because they'd just rammed into his boat and that's not what you should do. He's lied we had gone. Yeah, exactly.

Just sinking in the water behind him. Yeah. Anyway, so, yeah, I think things are pretty good. But then, Jamie, the Depression hits. Ah, good old 27, 28, 29. Yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. Obviously, what's going to happen when the Depression hits? I mean, they're a wealthy family, so this is going to do nothing.

Do nothing to them whatsoever. Is it because their money's not tied up in stocks? It's because they've just got so goddamn much money. Oh, okay. Oh, we've lost only three million, that's fine. Yeah, they're just rich. It doesn't affect them. It's absolutely fine.

Just exactly the same as the Kennedys. Young Kennedy did not notice the Depression. He read about it later. Yeah, young Bush does not notice the Depression. It just doesn't touch the sides for them. Anyway, in 1929, little Poppy is now off to school. That's something he does notice. So he got up eager, put on his school uniform, I imagine, picked up his school bag,

then got into the car with his brother and was chauffeured to school by the family's driver. Oh, my goodness. Yes. I mean, even just having a car in that time is insane. Yeah. Poppy did well enough to begin with at school. However, the phrase, claims more than his fair share of time and attention in class,

appears in his second report at the school. Now, you and I are teachers, and we both know what claims more than his fair share of time and attention in class means. That is damning, damning words from a teacher yeah that is brutal that is very brutal but it's different times back then you were allowed to be honest about the children you were writing about so maybe this isn't as bad as it now looks in in modern eyes true yeah um he also earned a nickname around this time have half it's a clunky nickname but it's quite a nice one because apparently he was in such a habit Of just giving out half of his sweets

That it's like, oh here, have half Have half And yeah, he got the nickname Have Half That's nice, isn't it? Especially since he's only little at this point So, yeah, there you go It's nice And, I mean, he's filthy rich

So have half to some of the other children It's probably a week's worth of food. Probably not. He's going to a rich school. They're all going to be rich. Anyway, he wasn't amazing. He did well enough, though, at school. He's no high flyer.

He's not flunking out. He developed a habit of working hard at things but hiding it, so he would come across as naturally good at stuff. He didn't like the idea that people thought he wasn't good, didn't want to seem like he had to work at it. Yeah, so he hid his studies, if and when he did them. By the time he finished his first school in 1937, at the age of 13, he had changed somewhat. He wasn't quite the young, eager have-half that he was when he first arrived. His parents were worried that he was putting too much pressure, his parents were worried that he was

putting too much pressure on himself. There was a questionnaire that they had to fill in for his next school, where they had to write all about their son. And we've still got it, so we can see exactly what they thought of young Poppy at this time. It's quite an interesting read. They claim that his future plans, under the heading Future Plans of Your Child, it's like his future plans in under the heading future plans of your child it's like his future plans are to go to yale but uh nothing beyond that he's not figured out what he's going to do beyond that yet it's like he's 13 he's 13 but he knows he's got to go to yale because he's a bush and bushes go to yale he's got a whole family of bushes who went to yale then there was another heading called special needs or attentions and they put and i quote plenty of sleep as he gets so intense over of Bush's who went to Yale. Then there was another heading called Special Needs or Attentions,

and they put, and I quote, plenty of sleep as he gets so intense over everything he undertakes, lessons as well as sports. So you get the impression he's quite stressed at this age about living up to the family name. Well, it's a big thing to carry, isn't it? It is, and him and his brother were really quite close in age and very close personally as well. And being the second son, it's always going to be tricky because your slightly older brother's there getting there first on everything. Yeah. Which is very annoying. Anyway, he's off to big school now. His next school was called Andover.

This was a school that was specially designed for those of the social status of the Bushes. A rich kids' school. Well, yeah, but with a difference, Jamie. And they put some thought into this. The whole idea of the school was to rub the cockiness and smugness out of the children that being born into the American aristocracy could bring. Oh. Yeah.

No one seemed to think that just sending them to, I don't know, a normal school could do that. So instead, they were't know, a normal school could do that. So instead, they were spent to a specially funded school that cost a fortune to go to, to teach them humility. I get you now. The rich is a whole different world, isn't it? So there you go, that's nice. And unfortunately, Poppy did not adjust well to his new school. He quite liked it in his old one. A early report said, and I quote, wow to his new school. He quite liked it in his old one. A early report

said, and I quote, not well measured in all respects. Parents of a wealth and social position, cocky and high hat, very mediocre performance. This was an internal review of him, by the way. This wasn't one handed to the parents.

But yeah, it's doesn't show him the best of lights. He also got very ill several times at this point. He got a staph infection. He had to be removed from school. But he recovered. He carried on with his studies.

His reports slowly improved. Eventually, reports were saying things like he was a nice boy who got on well with others. And I'll quote here, he can analyse well, but he is slow in doing it. Not a neat boy. So he's a bit scruffy, I'm guessing in his presentation of his work, around his physical appearance by that. So yeah, he's fully into his teens by this point, when he's starting to improve, he's getting older. Time goes on and World War II starts. This is obviously big news,

but not hugely important to the lives of the children in the school. They were happy playing baseball and doing their lessons. There was a war going on on the other side of the world. But a couple of years later, in 1941, the radio announced that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Now, once everyone had rushed off to find a map to find out where the hell Pearl Harbor was, they realised this changed everything. Poppy and his classmates were 17 at this point. 17?

Yeah, we've kind of scooted through school. There's not many stories about George in school. He doesn't really do much. So he's now hit 17 when Pearl Harbour is hit. Would he be old enough to sign up at 17? No. Does he? And he's still at school. But you're absolutely right.

The talk instantly amongst his classmates is only about one thing, and that is signing up to fight. There was no question otherwise. Prescott, Poppy's father, had fought in World War I in an artillery unit, and Poppy was determined to follow in his footsteps. I'm going to be like my father. But not artillery. Perhaps he'd heard his father actually mention what it was actually like,

so I don't want to do that. No. All my friends got shredded. Yeah. No, Poppy wanted to fly. Uh, oh. Yeah. Okay.

Because there had been a small flying program in the school. Yes, that's right, Jamie. The school had flying lessons. To just... That's a bloody hot ball. This is the, uh, the school to, like, rub off those, uh, pretentious airs. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, of course, yeah. Fly in the air, look down on the poor. They all look like ants. Yeah, um..., yeah. Fly in the air, look down on the poor. They all look like ants. Yeah. That is right. Yeah, so he's determined he wants to be a flyer. That's what he wants to do. Live the dream, be up in the air, up with the clouds.

So he decided, as soon as he could, he was going to sign up to the Navy. What? The Navy, Jamie. That's what you do i know i guess it's like it's like the flying of the sea i guess yeah no don't forget if you want to be a flyer what you want to do is you want to be on a plane and how do the planes get to the theater of war on these big cruisers oh the aircraft carriers yeah so actually the best place to fly is in the navy that's where all the flying action is it just sounds weird doesn't it

so does want to be a flyer right pilots don your rubber rings yeah don't forget your armbands and snorkel enter the cockpit yeah exactly well i mean if you're going to be flying over lots of water i mean that makes sense yeah so anyway he diesel. Yeah. So anyway, he's going to join the Navy as soon as he can, but he can't quite just yet. He's a few months off. He needs to graduate school. He needs to turn 18. So instead, he heads home for Christmas. It's going to be his last one, not in uniform, he promises himself. And while he's back home, he attended a dance with some of his old friends. And there, across a crowded room, his eyes fell upon Barbara Pierce. Barbara Bush?

Well, not yet, but... No, okay, sorry. Sorry, spoilers. Spoilers. Unless he happens to meet another Barbara, and this is, like, his first Barbara. You don't know. Maybe he went through a whole bunch of Barbaras. But, no, you are absolutely right.

This will become Barbara Bush. She is Barbara Pierce at this time. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, and they danced. They didn't dance the night away. They danced very briefly. The song stopped, and then a tango came on, and Poppy didn't know how to dance tango,

so they stopped immediately. Just stood in the dance floor awkwardly, everyone. Yeah, apparently so. They were wetting behind. But that's fine, because there was another dance tomorrow. So we should dance tomorrow, not to a tango. So there you go. Instantly, they arrange another date.

Fantastic. So the next day, Poppy turns up and there is Barbara. She's there. And who's that with her? Oh, all her brothers. All her brothers are there. Why do they look so angry? They wanted a word.

I've just got an image of them all, like, six and a half foot, one with a baseball bat. Yeah, crowbar. Yeah. Oi. All right, George, have a word. Yeah, they did want a word, actually. They pulled him to one side.

Oh. Fancy stepping outside and organising a game of basketball sometime. Yeah, okay. Yes, yes, of basketball sometime. Yeah, okay. Yes, yes, definitely. Anything. Yes, no. Apparently he passed the brother test. They were happy enough for him to be courting their sister,

so they danced the night away this time. They arrange another date. They go and see Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane. Yeah, they go and see it. I assume they sat there and went, hmm, this apparently is the perfect film. And then they left.

Never seen it. I have seen it, but it was so long ago that I don't think I appreciated what I was watching. And whenever I'm told it's the perfect film, I always go, okay, I'll have to rewatch that to figure out why. But does it have lightsabers? Probably not. The version I saw did. Oh, cool. Yeah.

All right. That's really good. It is I saw did. Oh, cool. Yeah. All right. That's really good. That is the perfect one. It's director's cut. Schneider cut. Yeah. Anyway, so they continue to see each other whilst George was on his holiday from school.

And he goes back to school and they continue to write letters to each other. And then Poppy invites Barbara to be his date at the prom when they graduate, which she does and he very happily shows her off to all his friends at school and yeah, it's all

very nice. And then in June, he graduates on his 18th birthday. How nice. Yes. So that's the two things he's been waiting for. Like buses, they came up once. So excellent. Right, I'm off to sign up, he said, which he did.

He was accepted and was assigned to the 6th Battalion Company K2nd Platoon. And as you're so rich, you can be a captain. Not quite yet, but just wait for it. Sorry. Lieutenant them. captain. Not quite yet, but just wait for it. Poppy and Barbara then have their first real

kiss, like on the lips, Jamie. Oh, yeah. That's a bit forward. It is a bit forward. But he's off to war. He's off to train. But did he get her father's permission? Well, no, no. They did it. He did write to his mother about it and said that

he hopes that she took it well. Such innocent times. Yeah. And then it's off to North Carolina to do his basic training which starts up, which I'm assuming is just identical to the start of the

Band of Brothers series because that's what I was imagining whilst writing my notes here. He was trained to recognise aircraft and ships. This is a plane. Ah, and this here? This is an elephant. Yeah, he had to get really good at spotting the difference between ships, planes and other things. No, obviously the details.

Learning the silhouettes so he could tell from a distance, the sounds of engines and stuff, like really starting to get to grips with all the stuff that's going to be out there. Do you know what's amazing? My grandparents always used to be able to do that. Like in Coventry, because we're near where we live, we're surrounded by kind of old air places in Warwickshire and stuff. And occasionally you get these old planes flying over and they could always know exactly what kind of plane it was

just from the sound of the engine. I'm guessing it probably brought back a lot of trauma from the war. Yeah, I was going to say. How old were they during the war? Twenties, I'm guessing. Oh, right, yeah. So they would have good memory of it then. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so he's learning about all the planes and the ships. He's also obviously doing lots of physical training, running obstacle courses, going on marathons. Marathons? Runs. Probably not marathons. Maybe marathons. Running a lot. After about a month, Poppy had become obsessed with becoming an officer and earning his wings. He decided he's made the right choice here.

He was not regretting a thing. He was going to do well. And in fact, he was doing well enough with basic training. He passes that, and then it's on to flight school. So at this point, I stopped imagining the start of Band of Brothers, and I started imagining a very rubbish version of Top Gun, because no one can actually fly yet. That Blackadder episode. Yes, actually. A bit like that.

Everyone's nicknames is just a bit more rubbish. It's not Iceman, it's Liquor Man. Goose. Instead of Goose, it's... No, that's a crap nickname anyway. Yeah, Goose name stays. There's a Goose. Instead of Maverick, there's just Mildly Disobedient. Anyway, lots of practice begins. Poppy was slightly shocked by the behaviour of some of the other young men he'd trained with. He wrote home to his mother, which he did a lot, and I quote, there were so many different types here. In other words, this is the first time he has encountered people who don't come from rich high society.

He's just, it's just like normal people. Some of these people I can barely understand, they keep saying words like y'all. Well, in one slightly strange letter to his mother, he wrote about how much the other boys were doing it. Now again, I will make sure I'm clear here, this is a letter to his mother, and I will quote. Doing what? You're about to find out. So I will quote. Most fellows here take sex as much as they can get. This pertains to every town in the country, to college campuses, yes, even Yale. Boys you know, boys I like very much, and boys I even admire, have had intercourse with women. Oh.

Yeah. And then, it's the really weird bit, he signs it, and again I am quoting here, much love, Pop, Professor of Sexology, PhD.

Oh. I'm guessing that was, oh yeah, I mean it's obviously a joke. It is a joke. Very humorous. It is a joke. But a bit weird.

It's just a bit weird. I just love the the bits like boys that you know mother mother you've met people who have had sex before are you even aware of this because i know you and papa certainly haven't yeah it's uh a strange letter anyway uh tell that maybe he was feeling let's be blunt a little bit horny um yeah and all of these pure jealousy all of these uh other guys all around him were off doing it and it was just a different world to him completely different world anyway he carries on uh training to fly his plane there was a near miss one day where he was flying too low and his wheel clipped the top of a tree and he nearly lost control and crashed and would have been killed instantly if he was a foot lower

it would have killed him but he just managed to get control of it again so near miss there anyway in november of 1942 he took his test in the washing machine this was how they tested all of their pilots. The washing machine was a plane. It wasn't actually a washing machine. I was just wondering. Yeah, budgets weren't that tight. No, it was called the washing machine because the test washed out

the bad pilots from the program. Yeah. So he gets in. It's a very foggy day. He's basically told to do all the stuff you'd expect in a test can you read the license plate what do you do if there's a red light and he gets in and he's asked to slowly pull away and all that stuff emergency brakes yes that one was interesting three-point turn in the air was also tricky but he he got through it. He was asked to do the reverse round corner, which he loved because that was the easiest one of all the maneuvers. Yeah, so it's

great. Yeah, no, he gets through it absolutely fine. He passes. So it's on to Texas to find out his assignment, and shortly after he arrives in Texas, he is given his wings and he graduates as an officer. He was assigned to fly torpedo bombers in the Pacific, so he was off to the Pacific Theatre of War. That's where he'd be going. Yeah. Before heading off, though, Poppy had just enough time to head home. And once there, the Bushes and Barbara's family all got together

and the two became engaged, which is very nice. It sounds like it's a very formal thing, though. Well, sort of. I imagine the family's discussing it rather than Barbara and George. preached which is very nice it sounds like it's a very formal thing though well sort of i imagine the family's discussing it rather than barbara and george but no they they just got together and then the two of them went off for a walk and uh poppy popped the question it's about a year and a half after they met and so we're full-on war story here like two young people in love and one of them's got to go off to war and they get engaged on the night before he leaves.

So that's literally what's going on here. Because, yeah, the trip was short, and sure enough, he was soon on his way. He arrived at Fort Lauderdale, and he was introduced to his plane. This is what you'll be flying, and it was a TBF Avenger, which is a cool-sounding name. That is a cool name. Slight problem, it's a little bit larger than the one he trained to fly in. The plane he trained to fly in was 20 foot long.

This one was 40 foot long. It was twice the size. Ah, planes are plane. I'm sure it's exactly the same. Which is the attitude they all had. They were all very cocky young men. Poor idiots. Yeah, it's a wingspan of 52

feet as well. This is a... Wow. Yeah, it's... I mean, don't think massive bomber. They were small planes, but this would have him flying, and it would have two people in the back. One on the guns, one on the radio. So a three-person plane

about the size of a bus. Think of it like that. Anyway, so it's like we best actually learn how to fly these things. None of us have ever flown one of these before, so they just start taking them out over the lakes in Florida and do some practice runs. But soon enough, they're on their way. He boarded the USS San Jacinto, a light aircraft carrier. He boarded along with 1,500 other men, and the ship held 45 planes. It's called a light aircraft carrier, but this is a bit of a beast.

I mean, I'm assuming you get larger ones because it's called light. But yeah, don't think small little boat here. No. The ship sailed south, then went through the Panama Canal, and then on to Hawaii. south, then went through the Panama Canal and then on to Hawaii. And then by May of 1944, Poppy finds himself in the heart of the Pacific Theatre of War, ready to start combat flights. His first target was a Japanese base on Wake Island. His plane would have two crewmen, like I say, he's got his gunner, who was called Leo Nadu, and his radio man, who was John Delaney. So he's got his crew now. Yeah called leo nadu and his radio man who was john delaney so he's got his crew now yeah the name john delaney yeah as soon as i read that out loud it did sound

familiar but that must just be a coincidence there must be another john delaney we've heard of before certainly not this guy leo later said that uh they took comfort that george herbert walker bush was looking calm because that's right poppy had a new nickname because here was this posh boy with four names come along to fly the plane and when they found out that he had four names everyone started calling him george herbert walker bush uh yeah but obviously that's a mouthful, so it didn't stick. So that got shortened to George. There you go. His nickname Poppy kind of dies out in the war. Everyone just starts calling him George, and that's it. He's just George from now on. And he later said that he was very nervous about his first mission, understandably, but he also was very relieved to find that he wasn't scared. He

was nervous, but it wasn't paralysing him. So he gets in the plane, so does his two crewmen, Leo and John, and off they go. And it's a success. He goes, he bombs the target, he comes back. But once he gets back, he heard that one of his friends he had trained with was missing he was never found george took this very hard but like everyone he cried alone in his bunk staying very quiet and showed no fear whilst on deck because that's just what everyone did understandable if everyone was just running around deck in floods of tears because everyone kept dying uh nothing would get done and everyone would be panicked all the time uh but it sounds bloody horrible anyway the days went by if they weren't flying and going on missions they were playing volleyball and eating rubbish food so yes the uh volleyball scene from top gun takes place yet again yes yeah

only this time they can all fly so so it's actually like Top Gun. Yeah. Yeah, Lukemore Man has been promoted to Ice Man. It's great. So, yeah, they're eating rubbish food as well. Apparently the steaks tasted like the sole of a boot. Not good. Missions came, missions went.

All of them were very dangerous. Any one of them could have killed him. He was flying right into targets that had anti-aircraft guns that were constantly shooting at his planes when he went in. He dodged the fire, he dropped his bombs, he came back. Then, in September of 1944, there was a mission to bomb a radio tower on Chichijima. This was a very heavily fortified position for the Japanese and a main communication hub. Now, just before the flight, in ways we have seen before on this podcast,

a lieutenant whose father knew George's father came along and asked to join in. He's not seen any action yet. He doesn't want to go home not having seen any action, that kind of thing. So it's like, George, my dad knows your dad. Any chance I can take place if you're gonna? So, yeah, of course. George says, it's going to be a tricky flight. It's going to get a bit hairy, but if you really want to come, you can come. Yeah, the lieutenant says, yes, I want to come. So Leo, George's gonna, gave up his seat and went back inside.

This new person joining in, has he just recently got married? And is his wife's pregnant kind of thing? Is that kind of story? Yeah, and really strangely although everyone else is wearing military uniform, he's just got a red jumper on. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's strange. Does that have a little target on it or something? Yes.

Lieutenant Fodder is his name. Yeah. Anyway. um yeah anyway so uh they they take off they head to the target uh george gets closer and as he's trained to do he flies through the anti-aircraft fire and then as he gets closer to the target starts diving at a 35 degree angle to get in and out as quick as possible. But the closer you get, the easier it is to hit with the bombs. So they're nosediving. All the bullets are coming at them. As they approach the island, however, the plane was hit. Smoke filled the planes.

A thick black smoke just erupts everywhere. And then flames start licking up the side. George realised very quickly that this is fatal to the plane. It's going to go down if it doesn't blow up beforehand. So he radios behind him and tells the other two, put on your parachutes, as if they needed to be told. I assume they knew exactly what they were doing. Yeah, they're already out probably.

Well, they were so close to the target, George realised that it would be stupid to try and turn away now. It's like we are practically on top of the target. So he carries on for that little bit more and then drops the bombs anyway, which hit the radio tower. So the mission is a success. But the plane is in a really bad shape. He manages to turn the plane and get it over the sea.

He shouts behind him to hit the silk, which obviously means get your parachutes ready. But looking behind him, the smoke's too thick. He can't tell whether they're still back there or not. So he turns the plane so they would be out of the slipstream when they jumped. He just prayed his crewmen have already jumped because there's nothing more he can do. And he opens the door next to him. He was ripped out of the plane, as you can imagine. And he goes flying backwards and his head is caught on the tail of the plane as it shoots past him.

Yeah. Big gash above his eye. He completely dazes him, but he manages to stay conscious just about. He's spinning in the air. As he does so, he's panicking, understandably. There's chaos going on all around the place. He's in free fall. So he pulls the cord on his parachute too soon because he's disorientated.

The parachute opens and parts of his chute are just ripped away because he's going too fast and he's all over the place. But fortunately, it just holds together and he levels out. Everything goes calmer like it does in the films when you're parachuting. Maybe even when it does in real life. Maybe it's like that. I've never parachuted. Try it out one day.

Sounds terrifying. Yeah, so everything calms down. He looks around. He sees his plane hit the water. He looks around for his crewmates, but he can't see anything. But before long, he realises he's got to unbuckle and hit the water before the chute does, otherwise you'd get caught up in it. So he unbuckles himself, he hits the water, he pulls his inflated jacket underwater,

kicks off his shoes, all the training kicks in, and he was able to reach the surface in time. Once there, coughing up sea water wiping the blood from his eye he spotted his flight commander flying above him and pointing so this is one of the other planes that he was flying with close enough that he can actually see people in the window pointing they're pointing to something uh he swims in that direction and realizes that it's the small one-man inflatable life raft that was part of his life jacket that's come off. So he's got that now, which is good.

So he inflates it, he scrambles in, and this is a small little tiny thing. It's essentially a rubber ring with a bottom in it that he can sort of sit in. So he's there, and then he looks for his crew, but there's just nothing to be seen. There's no parachutes in the air, there's nothing floating in the sea apart from his parachute. There's no rafts, there's nothing. He was then distracted by the fact that the current was taking him towards land. Yeah. Yeah, this is Japanese occupied land.

And he had heard stories of the Japanese prisoner of war camps, so he starts paddling with his hands as fast as he can. He's not doing much apart from just about managing to stay still. One of the planes from his squadron dropped down medical supplies, so at least he knows that the others know where he is. At least he knows that he's not all on his own, but he's not in a good way. He knows that there is a submarine ready to pick up survivors, that's standard, but it was probably about 10 miles away. It's not going to get here immediately. So George spent the next however long, probably a good couple of hours or so,

paddling with his hands to try and stay still, and occasionally stopping and vomiting seawater, because he'd inhaled quite a lot of that when he went under. And then, to his dismay, he sees a Japanese boat getting closer and closer. They're going to come and pick him up. Fortunately, the US planes have supremacy in the air still, and they're able to strafe bullets at the boat and keep it away. And then all of a sudden, with a fanfare of trumpets that didn't really happen,

but it should, what's this? It's a submarine, Jamie. Submarine comes out of the water. I'd like to think a little periscope sort of came up right next to the raft and the blinking eye. Yeah. Yeah, there's submarines there. The planes above him had started to flip their wings

to signal exactly where to go. So I'm assuming the submarine was on the surface looking for him rather than a periscope suddenly arrives. But I surface looking for him rather than a periscope. But I'd like to think it was a periscope. In fact, I'd like to think it came up underneath him and then he's just sat on top of the submarine in his little dinghy. Yeah, so he's rescued.

He's taken aboard the submarine and the submarine dives under the water and he is safe. George was physically fine apart from the gash on his head, where he'd hit the tail of his own plane. But apart from that, he was okay. He was given medical attention, and then told that the submarine would drop him off as soon as they were next in dock.

Hooray. When would that be? About a month from now. Great. Looks like I'm now working on a submarine then yeah it's i just found this really weird it's like a whole month but i suppose they did long tours didn't they yeah yeah i just think these are small things i imagine submarines were picking up uh people who fell out of planes like not every day but it must have been fairly regular.

They were rescuing people. He would have thought he'd get quite cramped. He probably did get quite cramped. Anyway, so he spends a month on a submarine. He gets used to the life there. It was very cramped, but he got on well enough. He didn't get severe claustrophobia or anything. I mean, he didn't like it.

He volunteered to go on the surface to do any jobs, like on top of the submarine when it was on the surface as much as possible, just to get some fresh air. But then so did everyone. I mean, it's not nice in a submarine. His biggest surprise was the fact that the food was really good. Apparently the steaks were quite nice. It's like, how the hell have you guys got really good food? Sea cows. Sea cows. yes, exactly. Malacies. Yeah.

Whilst in the submarine, he wrote a letter to his parents, which quite honestly was a haze-ian in vibes. Definitely reminded me of a haze letter. Because there had been a report of another parachute that had not activated properly, that came out of his plane, but that was it. So it's like, yeah, his two crewmates are dead. Yeah. And George did not take it well.

He really struggled with survivor's guilt. He spent a lot of time thinking on that submarine, and he was not in a good way about it, as you can imagine. And he wrote to his parents, All in all, it's terribly discouraging, and frankly, it bothers me a good deal. It's almost British. I'm sorry, the Americans need to stop, like, making fun of us British people for being so reserved. The more you look into it, it's just like, seriously. But yeah, yeah, you get the

feeling he was putting on a stiff upper lip there. He must have been in quite a bad way. In fact, in later life, he admits that he was really struggling at this time. However, despite the fact that obviously this was a tough time for him, he did manage to hide it from his crewmates on the submarine. They later commented that he was a lot of fun on the sub, and they kept him in stitches the entire time that he was down there, which might be more if you're interviewing someone about the president who used to be on your submarine.

You're not going to go, oh, I didn't really speak to him that much, did I? You're going to make a nice story and you're going to say he was really fun. So who knows? But apparently he was, it was all fun, which does kind of fit George's personality up until this point, I think.

So yeah. That's true. Anyway, eventually the submarine docks on Midway Island, and then George flew to Hawaii and was offered the chance to go home for short leave, essentially. It's like, you've been through an ordeal, go back

see your fiancé. He refuses. No, I've got a job to do, I want to go back with the men. So he arrives back on the San Francisco and gets back on with the job. In November, he receives a letter saying his grandfather's organised a job for him after the war in banking. So that's nice. Investment banker. Yeah, that cheered him up. It felt, it's like, okay, I've got something to look forward to after the war. But the war wasn't

over. He was still flying missions. It was still dangerous. There was one spot that was particularly tricky, where he was on a mission, and he ran out of fuel on the way back home. Yeah. So he just ran on fumes for a while, and then he, I don't know, just ran on hope.

Essentially, the plane sort of hit the ship where Alvin landed. plane sort of hit the ship before Alvin landed. It sort of just, just made it. It is ridiculous how close it was. His crew had no idea because he didn't want to worry them, so he kept it to himself.

It was only when they got out of the plane and they noticed George was white as a sheet and shakily said, well, we made it. Did it become clear to Leo that they'd almost died because they'd ran out of fuel? But yeah, that was fine. Another time that really stuck with him was when a plane did botch its landing on the ship and it crashed, like flipped and exploded.

And yeah, George was there on the deck and just found himself staring at a severed leg that was just lying in front of him. Nasty. But then he was shaken out of it by orders to clear the runway because the next plane was coming in and obviously it would just crash again unless they managed to clear this mess up quickly. So everyone scrambled and just picked up a leg. Yeah, just got on on with it uh but yeah things like that stuck with him as you can imagine anyway you don't think about that when you think about a plane crash just think of explosion and nothing but no there's there's gonna be bits yeah uh anyway then in november of 1944 the ship was ordered to return to the states uh this gave the men a time for some shore leave, which was nice,

until they were going to be reassigned and sent back out. Everyone assumed that this was a break they were being given before the big push into Japan itself, and that was just going to be even worse. So this was the calm before the storm. Once home, George wasted no time. He'd been engaged throughout the whole war. He was then nearly killed. He wanted to get married, damn it, before he was sent out again. He wanted to find out what all the fuss was about from all those guys he trained with for a start, I imagine.

So in January of 1945, he and Barbara were wed in a fairly extravagant affair, but unfortunately it was mostly outer of relatives who could attend. A lot of their friends were tied up with the war, so it wasn't quite the wedding that they would have preferred, but still it was all very nice. So, newlyweds

do what newlyweds do. They're having a nice time of it. But then shortly after this, news comes through. The president, FDR, has died now the bushes were very much a republican family but still this was roosevelt and he'd been president forever and he was the leader of the war uh this shook bush quite a bit but these things happen uh then more news shortly after this this impacted george far more directly. The United States had just dropped

two atomic bombs and the Japanese had surrendered. George would not have to go back out. Huge celebrations all around. Lots of people

very happy that they're not being sent off to war anymore. They'd done it. They'd survived the war. Hurrah. So George was discharged. He was awarded

various medals. I was going to list them but it would have just become quite boring. He got quite a few medals. He did a lot. He flew in 58 missions in total. Every single one of them would have been life-threateningly dangerous. Thousands of hours of flying time in combat.

So, yeah, he'd had quite the war. All the presidents we've covered so far who went through World War II, there were various different jobs. And I need to be reminded it's like it's a war. Not everyone was in the middle of the fighting, but everyone was doing important jobs. But George really was in the thick of fighting, and his job was dangerous.

But he got through it. But the war's over now, so what does he do? Oh, isn't he banking or something? Well, yeah, exactly. He had that job lined up from his grandfather. But actually, now he thought about it. Is that what he wants to do? That sounds boring.

It sounds boring. It's not what any of his friends are doing. Everyone else is going to university. And he was a bush, and the bushes go to Yale. So he was going to go to Yale, damn it. So that's what he decides to do instead. The post-war intake to Yale was, as you can imagine, very unusual. It was, for a start, huge.

That intake for that year had more people in than all the other years combined, because obviously a lot of young men had gone off to war and not signed up. So they had to hastily build accommodation for them, just to fit them all in. Now, there's some advantages to the fact that all of these were military men coming into Yale, because on one hand, they were military disciplined in their lodgings. So they knew how to organise themselves, which you can't say.

Very neat beds. Yeah, exactly. You can't say that for students all the time. Or very often indeed. On the other the other hand however these were all young men who were in the middle of a survivor's high they had survived the war they wanted to live life fast so that's what they did they they partied hard they enjoyed themselves while at university ge George played baseball. He joined secret societies with various Greek letters in them. He generally had a very typical rich boy experience. It was everything you would expect for a bush at a university. It had just been delayed.

That was all. However, there was one major difference. Of course, he's married at the moment. That's a good point. Yeah. So Barbara was around as well and she was super pregnant in june of 1946 they have their first child george w bush that's how they said his name yeah you might want to like put a box around uh little george w bush i'm not

sure why but um yeah uh incidentally the way, this is a very interesting time because three weeks roughly before this, Donald Trump has been born. And in about five weeks' time, Bill Clinton would be born. Wow. That's weird. Yeah. Biden's already at university at this point. He's probably retired at this point. That's not true. Biden's at university. Biden is is hang on

let me work this out biden's about four years old at this point yeah yeah so now the only president not to have been born is barack obama

obama yeah post war a lot of people got very happy lots of children probably probably name name it something about a big explosion of

children or something i'm not sure what uh anyway um yeah so the big bang yeah name it something about a big explosion of children or something. I'm not sure what. Anyway, yeah, so... It's a big bang. Yeah, so after the excitement of the war, there were a few tales from Yale to tell. It's not much. Sometimes we can come up with amusing shenanigans

that people got up to when they were at university, but it just all seems a bit frivolous after he's literally gone through a war and he's like been shot at and all of that so yeah uh he just gets on with it really uh i mean he has a good time but he gets on with it he graduates in two and a half years instead of the four that it should have been that's not him being a genius a lot of people were just accelerating the courses getting work done quicker because they wanted to get on with their lives, they felt like they'd been cheated at for a couple of years because of the war. And also, academic life just seemed easy after the military life.

I guess so. They were used to getting up at the crack of dawn and working bloody hard. And it's like, all of a sudden they're at university, and it's like, don't need to spend four years doing this. You have a lectureate of 11. Yeah, so they just got on with it. He then had to decide what to do with his life once more because going to Yale has taken up a couple of years, but what now?

Well, as ever, there's always that banking option. His family on both sides are in banking. That's where the money comes from. He's being given a job, but he just doesn't want to do it. It does not appeal to him. He wanted to make something of himself, not rely on his family. In fact, I'll quote him, I'm not sure I want to capitalise completely on the benefits I received at birth. That's interesting.

Yeah, it's possibly hanging around with everyone in the military. Maybe opened his eyes slightly to what the world is like for other people. I don't know, maybe that school genuinely did work and robbed the privilege away slightly. Who knows? But he wants to make his own way in the world. So in a conversation with a family friend, the idea of going west and making money in oil came up. George liked this idea.

It's almost like the Wild West, the gold rush. Yeah. Yeah, it's a gamble but oh imagine if you made it okay maybe we could do this so that's what he was going to do he was going to go off make his own fortune starting out with nothing making something for himself starting out with nothing but the huge safety net of a fortune waiting for him if things went wrong. But apart from that, nothing else. So he set off to Texas with nothing but a job in a firm owned by a friend of his father.

So he was given a job straight away, like you do. To be fair, though, this was not given a cushy, high-up job in an oil company. This was just a normal job, just a really normal job. His technical job description was equipment clerk for a firm that dealt with oil equipment, but he did all sorts for the company. It wasn't massive. He was technically in sales, but he also tended bars at conferences, just serving whiskey. Sometimes he was literally out in the oil fields painting oil derricks in the blazing sun. He just did whatever the company needed him to do, basically.

And just got on with a normal job. His family had soon followed him down, as soon as he'd gone down there. And by 1949, they were living in Santa Fe when they got some bad news. Barbara's mother had died, which was very sad. How do you think Barbara's mother died? Old age? No, it wasn't old age. So, Barbara's mother and father had gone out driving

in 1949, remember? Barbara's father was physically driving the car barbara's mother was sat next to him in the front of the car she gets out the china cups and starts pouring out the drinks whilst they're driving along right yeah in 1949 i could only imagine the suspension in this car china she she like slit her own throat on her. No, no, no, no. She pours out a drink, and then she puts it on the seat next to her. This is, like, the seats go all the way across in these old type of cars,

so there's space between them, and she just puts it on the seat next to her. Barbara's father looks down, sees this china cup full of, I'm assuming, tea or something, and realises that it's going to spill. Of course it's going to spill. You're in a car built in the 40s, and it's just an open china cup. That's what he said. So he's distracted by it. He looks down, and he goes to grab it.

But because he's distracted, he then drives off a cliff. Oh. Oh. Yeah. But that was okay. Well, I say cliff. It was more of a very, very steep embankment. So don't think like free fall drop, but this very steep embankment of a hundred foot had a stone wall at the bottom.

Yeah, the mother dies instantly. The father ends up in hospital. So that's how the story is relayed, I'm guessing. Yeah. If they both died, how do you know about the china cup? Yeah, I don't know how to feel about this story. It is obviously very tragic. But there was something darkly humorous about someone trying to drink out of a china cup

and then driving off a cliff so um we'll just move on shall we that's probably the best yeah i just i came across this story and i had so many questions and it was just it just yeah anyway it is very tragic for the people who had to actually live through this um because uh barbara, her father's in hospital, her mother's dead, and she is heavily pregnant, and halfway across a very large country, in an age where travel was not easy. So she's not able to get up to the funeral or anything.

Yeah, very tough time for the Bushes. But the birth of a daughter soon afterwards helped. Yeah, which is nice. Dear Arseata, sister. Ooh, George Dubya. Yeah. But just move on oh then george was uh offered a job in banking again it's like you guys are having a hard time down there in texas are you sure you don't want to come back to you know this civilized area of the country and just get into banking so i'm sure you've had your fun down there in Texas but come on back East George was tempted at this point

Barbara was going through a really tough time but no, he's determined to do it he went down there to make it big to make money for himself to get away from the Bush money and create his own life he didn't want to give up it made him realise actually

what was he doing working for this firm, just doing odd jobs? What he wanted to do was make money. And how do you do that? Well, you own a business. He needed to own his own oil business. So he had a friend by this point who was in a similar situation as him, and they talked it over. Well, could we do this? Could we actually start up a business? I mean, you need a lot of investment to start an oil business. It's not like just starting up a podcast or something. It's a bit more involved, I imagine. So can we do this on our own? Well, no, but George pointed out we could find investors. So I'll do that. I will go looking for investors. He didn't need to look far, as you can imagine.

After a phone call and a quick visit, he's sat in front of his uncle, his uncle Herbie Walker. It's good to stay away from the Bush money, isn't it? No, no, no, no. This is the Walker side of the family. Okay, fair enough. Yeah, after having lunch with Herbie Walker, Uncle Herbs, his uncle invested $50,000 into his nephew's venture. And this got the ball rolling. If Herbie Walker was investing in the oil firm, other relatives were surely chipping.

Yeah, so there you go. Yeah, doing it for himself. Doing it for himself, yeah. So George and his friend, John Overby, were able to start their own oil company. Meanwhile, by the way, George's father, Prescott Bush, has just been elected to the National Senate. His father's decided to get into politics.

He was soon a golf buddy with the president, who is Eisenhower at this point. We're not going to go into the ins and outs of how all that happened. This isn't Prescott's episode. But just know that George's father is now hobnobbing with the President of the United States. So that's nice. But then the good news is cut very horribly short. You can probably guess what's about to happen based on a comment I made just a while ago. Because one day their three-year-old daughter, Robin, said she was feeling very tired they took her to the doctors and they ran some blood tests and the news was utterly devastating little robin

had leukemia oh yeah uh george and barbara were utterly stunned i mean very little was known about leukemia at this time no and yeah they literally didn't know what it was. They were just absolutely horrifically shocked when they were told that their daughter, left untreated, had maybe three weeks to live. This was, like, this was going to kill her off quick. Now, unable to process this, George phoned one of his other uncles. This is Dr. John Walker.

John Walker happened to be the president of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City. The family of rich. I don't know if you've... Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, he told his nephew, get the child to me as quick as possible. Bring her to New York. Bring him to my hospital. We will throw everything at this. So that's what they do. But once they get there, it's discovered there's actually very little they can do. Second opinion was the same as the first.

Robin was beyond treatment that would do anything other than extend her life, and even then, only for a short while. So knowing this, the Bushes take their daughter back to Texas, try and have the nicest time they can with their daughter while they've got this, the Bushes take their daughter back to Texas, try and have the nicest time they can with their daughter while they've got it, but as you can imagine, it's not going to be easy. It was perhaps made harder the fact that Robin rebounded for a while and actually just went back to her normal self. So much so that one neighbour asked George what

had happened to his sick daughter that he'd heard about, whilst Robin was right there with them, because the name assumed that that was a different kid. Yeah. Now, obviously, George and Barbara in bits at this point, but they had one rule, no tears in front of Robin, which they found very tricky. George often had to just leave the room abruptly, gallows humour style. Barbara joked that Robin probably thought that he had a

really weak bladder because he had to keep going to the toilet. Yeah, it's just really nasty stuff. And then obviously things get worse because that's what happens. They take her back to New York City to George's uncle's hospital and there she dies in October of of 1953 yeah the next months pass in misery they try to keep it together for little george and their new baby because they just had another boy around this time as well this is jeb bush by the way who obviously also goes on to politics wow well sort of uh anyway uh yeah yeah, things are really horrible. It didn't help that one visitor said, obviously gunning for least tactful comments would be a decade award.

I'll quote here, at least it wasn't your firstborn and a boy at that. People are arseholes. Yes, they are. It's a shame it's an audio podcast So it won't pick up on your expression That you had when I said that Yeah just absolutely Awful

Incidentally I'll just say It now I'm getting most Of the stuff in this episode from John Meacham's biography Of Bush which is called Destiny and Power. I'm just going to say, I think this is possibly one of the best biographies I've ever read.

It is an incredibly good biography. Yeah. One of the reasons is, is he did lots of interviews with Barbara and George Bush when they're in their 80s, and they're remembering this stuff. So you get little nuggets like this, and it's because they were in their 80s remembering

what this idiot of a neighbour had said to them. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're interested in reading more about it, this is definitely a biography I recommend. I can't say that about all the biographies I read. This one's a good one. It's well written.

Anyway, life goes on as it does. Things are tough, but they slowly ease up. Over the next couple of years, two more boys are born, Neil and Marvin, so there's now four little boys. George, meanwhile, throws himself into his work. The new company soon had two more partners that they brought in. This was two brothers from Oklahoma, and the joining of them created a brand new company,

which was called Zapata Petroleum. The idea was to have a name near the start or the end of the phone book, because it would be easier to find. That's a logic I don't quite understand. I guess you have to wade through everything. It's either like... You've still got to open the book, don't you?

Yeah, but you don't have to go through the whole middle. Like, the middle bit's bigger than the beginning and the end, right? Is it? Maybe, I suppose. Anyway, that's the idea. The four of them seem to agree, so they came up with Zapata Petroleum. Pretty much all of George's money is tied up in this business.

And the Bushes felt poor for the first time in their lives, because the money was tied up in the business. Now, to be clear, they weren't poor, but for them, they felt it. It felt like a tough time. The company, however, was doing well enough. I mean, don't think it's like just a little well in the back garden somewhere that just goes down to some oil. No, this was starting to do some real business offshore and internationally. This is, yeah, real money starting to come through.

There were some problems. There was a legal problem in England. Technicalities I started to look into and then got very bored, so I stopped and decided all I'm going to say is there was a legal problem in England that needed to be sorted out. George was forced to fly to London and try and sort it out. He had to go and talk to various lawyers and Lloyd's Bank and just try and get things sorted. But while he was there, he felt awful. He had many stomach problems. He was in a lot of pain. He then started throwing up

and let's just say what was coming out the other end was not pleasant. That's British food for you. Well, after dealing with the bankers and lawyers, he was in his hotel room just before heading back to the United States when he felt like his stomach was about to explode and he collapsed on his hotel room floor and passed out. about to explode and he collapsed on his hotel room floor and passed out appendicitis no don't worry the doctors are on this jamie the doctors are on it when he came to he blurrily saw the call button uh so he called for help and a maid came up and went oh no a collapsed person and then went and found a doctor who went, ah, oh no, a collapsed person. But then said, don't worry, old chap, I'm quoting here,

it's just a bit of indigestion. And George was prescribed Coca-Cola. Oh, brilliant. Good old British doctors thought Bush. The hell is this? This is what you get for universal health care well yeah um so he was not best pleased he was in agony something was obviously wrong he passed out and all the doctor did was say have a coke uh anyway was he a doctor was he a coke salesperson

good question maybe the maid just grabbed the first person off the street. Anyway, Bush then heads home where he goes to go and see a real doctor. Good old American doctor. The American... You have ghosts in your blood. Have some cocaine. The American doctor said it might be a stomach ulcer and then told George

to just stop worrying about things. A very disgruntled George was very frustrated at the American doctors as well. Yeah. At least I got a Coke in England. It's free. Yeah. Here, I'm just told to stop worrying.

I mean, in the end, the ulcer did clear up, if it was indeed an ulcer. Whatever it was did clear up. Came back a couple of times in his life, but it wasn't ever as serious as this. Also, the legal problems cleared up as well, which was nice, so that's good. Around this time, the family moved to Houston, and George took over the offshore business of Zapata Petroleum, which was then separated into a different company for various reasons, but he's now in charge of that section and its own business. He was, by this point, making decent money.

And for a bush, decent money means rich. So they're doing okay at this point. Then in 1959, Barbara gives birth to a daughter, who George described as a wild, dark version of Robin, which is nice. Anyway, by this point, the politicians in Texas had started to notice George and started to court him because, after all, his father was Prescott Bush, Senator. Girlfriend. Girlfriend of the President and Senator. And here is his son here in Texas. He's a successful businessman. He's a war hero.

He's very electable. We maybe should be getting him on our side. Now, at this time, the Democrats were far more popular in Texas than the Republicans. If you wanted to be anywhere, you needed to be a Democrat. However, the Democrats were splitting up and having a civil war, because in Texas you had the liberal faction of the Democrats, and you had the very conservative wing of the Democrats. And the two were very separate at this point. Essentially, the Republicans were so useless in Texas, the Democrats had formed into two separate parties. But the tide was turning with this, because as the Democrats just kept scrapping with themselves, the Republicans that were there started to become slowly more powerful. And this is what was happening at this point.

George had always considered himself a Republican, and he wasn't about to change, so he turned down all overtures from the Democrats. No, I'm not going to work with you guys. I don't care if you're the conservative wing of the Democrats. I, I'm not going to work with you guys. I don't care if you're the conservative wing of the Democrats. I don't want to be a Democrat. However, when the Republicans came looking, George was more interested. The moderate wing of the party were currently fighting off the more extreme right wing of the party. They were looking for a man to fill a suddenly vacant Senate seat in Texas. Now, if Bush Jr. was anything like his dad Prescott, then he would be perfect, thought the moderate wing of the party.

So they start chatting to George. However, in his time in Texas and the oil industry, George's political beliefs had shifted somewhat, and he was slightly more right-wing than his father, especially more than those in the party realised. He didn't always see eye to eye with his dad on politics. They sometimes got into debates, generally around laws about oil production and distribution and the selling of.

But still, yeah, they didn't always see eye to eye. So when the far-right faction of the GOP came calling to court George, he listened to them a little bit more. He figured that he would have more success with them in Texas. I mean, we're in Texas. Everyone's more conservative down here. Well, yeah. I kind of agree with this wing of the party. I'm going to throw my lot in with this lot, he thinks. So in September of 1963, George H. W. Bush announces that he is going to run for the Senate. He was up against a Democrat from the left of the party, so wildly different. You've got someone from the right of the Republicans against someone from

the left of the Democrats. This was a judge and a World War II veteran as well. They were going to go up against each other. George hired someone to manage his campaign. This was a judge and a World War II veteran as well. They were going to go up against each other. George hired someone to manage his campaign. This was a man named James Leonard. And James Leonard immediately told Bush that he was far too eastern and elite for Texas. You need to change your image. For a start, the HW has to go. Stop calling yourself George HW Bush.

From now on, you're simply George Bush. Okay? That's far more Texan sounding. And also, stop using such big words all the time. Like, you just delivered a speech where you used the word prolificate. Why? Don't use that word. No one uses that word.

No one knows what that means. Yeah. So stop using your big, fancy Eastern words. All right? You're in Texas now. And also, have you considered, and I'm just going to put it out there, wearing a Stetson every now and again? Just help you fit in, wouldn't it? George wasn't best pleased with any of these suggestions, but he also realised he'd hired a campaign manager for a reason, so he went with it.

The campaign was close. George thought it was winnable. A lot of people thought it was winnable because all the signs were there. Kennedy is the president at this point, and he's up for re-election. And he wasn't doing great in the polls. And up against him was Goldwater. Now, Goldwater I've not really mentioned much before,

but if you remember in Reagan's episode, I said how Reagan was taken by the far-right faction of the party to become their champion. And they tried this before, and it had failed. But this is the time before Reagan that the far-right of the GOP tried for a big push, and they tried with Goldwater. And as we see, it fails, it falls apart ultimately. But this is the far right of the GOP

making a big push to take over the party. So Kennedy's up against Goldwater. And Goldwater was winning in the most recent poll. This is great news for Bush, because the national race mirrored his race. He was seen as a Goldwater man. He's from the far right of the GOP. And his opponent was seen as a Kennedy man. He's from the liberal wing of the Democrats. So if Goldwater's winning, I'm winning, thinks Bush. And then one day, when Bush was about 100 miles from Dallas campaigning, yeah, news comes in over the radio, someone has shot killed kennedy and the texan governor had also been wounded obviously very shocking news uh bush ditches his plans for the day heads straight back home to catch up on the news barbara wrote to her family that they were hoping but it was not a far

right nut job but instead a commie nut job in fact fact, I quote her, you understand we think that they are both nuts, but we just hope that he wasn't a Texan. So let it be someone not from here and someone who is not politically aligned to us who has done this, which I just found interesting because you still get that to this day, depressingly, and atrocity happens

and people immediately are jumping in trying to figure out who did they vote for in the next election but yeah apparently it was the same back when kennedy was shot that's exactly what people were thinking straight away uh anyway the worry after the shock was that this would give bush's opponent a boost as sympathy for the democrats swept the country but this didn't seem to happen the polls for the Senate race remained close. Bush, during this campaign, was attacked for being another far-right nut

aligned with the far-right of the GOP. He was also attacked for not being a Texan. He's just one of these elite Easterners, which I just find really weird, because when I think of the Bushes, I think Texan. Because obviously I think of his son. Yeah, me too. W. Yeah, I don't think of this Bush. So I think Texan. Because obviously, I think of his son. Yeah, I don't think of this

Bush. So I think of Texas. But no, it really was not the case here at all. Bush was able to argue against the second point that he wasn't from Texan. He replied by saying, I was born outside the state. I did that so I could be close to my mother, which I quite liked. A little bit of humor there. Anyway, in the end, the election was decisive. Bush lost. Yeah, quite decisively, 44% to 56%. Bush was shocked.

He really thought that this was going to be a close run thing, but he thought he had a good chance of getting it. And in the end, no, it just didn't work. He knew exactly who to blame. It was the far right of the party. The country had taken one look at Goldwater and decided, we don't want the far right extremists of the GOP taking over. We want the more moderate people.

And actually, Bush had come to this conclusion himself. He had grown to really dislike the faction he had thrown his weight behind, calling their philosophy humorless and mean and damaging to the party. And I'll quote him here, when the word moderation becomes a dirty word, we have some soul-searching to do. Years later, in his 80s, when he's doing interviews for this biography that I've read, he speculates that yeah i went far too far to the right there because i was ambitious seeing that now though aren't we seeing more extreme right-wing policies in the uk and the us yes i think it'd be an easy

win well as we see this was um the far right's attempt to take over the gop falling apart goldwater goes nowhere The moderates of the GOP think, ha ha, we've got it, we're safe. And as we see, Reagan then sweeps in, in just a handful of years, really, in the grand scheme of things. But no one knows that that's going to happen yet. At this time, Bush decides that he is not going to carry on supporting that faction of the party. He's going to go with his heart, which is far more moderate. So he's 40 at this point, Jamie.

40. That's not that far off our age, Jamie, and look at all the stuff he's done. Such a loser. I've done nothing with my life. He's got five kids, a wife, he's a war hero, he owns his own international oil company. And he did it from nothing, Jamie.

Nothing but a multi-million dollar family. Anyway, so he's unsure what to do. Does he get back into the oil business? I mean, technically he's still in the oil business, but he's got half a foot out because he wants to do politics. He could always go into banking. That's always an option. He just really doesn't want to do it. He's got his heart set on politics. He really wanted to win that race. So he decides to go all in. He sells his stock for roughly a million dollars in his firm and he quits. That's roughly 7 million today. So there you go. He made 7 million on his business.

That's pretty good. Pretty good. From nothing, Jamie. Anyway, he is going to run for the House. That's what he's going to do. It's not the Senate. No, it's not. But it's still Washington.

It's still politics. He made a lot of noise about it. I'm going to run for the House, he said, wherever he went. He was determined to be seen as the logical choice by the party. He was talking on radio shows and doing interviews and all sorts. So much so that one of little Dorothy's friends, who was six years old, that's his six-year-old daughter, her friend came round one day and said that she had seen Dorothy's dad on TV

talking about the erection that he was going to have. Yeah. The child was swiftly taken to one side and taught the word election. Which is very amusing. My dad's having a massive erection. At least he's planning to have one.

He's planning to be successful with it. Anyway, Bush's new campaign manager got rid of the old one. Let's get a new campaign manager in. And his new campaign manager instantly told Bush that he wasn't Texan enough. He was far too elite and Eastern to come across as a Texan. Yeah. Try rolling your sleeves up and holding your jacket over your shoulder like you're in business. Yeah.

Yeah. The rough and tumble. Wear these cowboy boots. Yeah. Get on this horse. Wear these spurs and the leather waistcoat with the tassels on oh yes yeah and carry a revolver yeah just fire into the sky shouting yee-haw get get toothpick get two toothpicks three teeth just

get all the toothpicks in your mouth and then keep spitting tobacco into jars that you've placed strategically around the place damn it it. Call yourself a Texan. Well, hello, I am a Texan. So, yeah, on the campaign trail once more. Learning from before, however, Bush went out of his way to be seen more of a moderate Republican this time. This is not the same Bush he was running before. He would say things like, and I quote, I want the Republican Party's conservatism to be seen as sensitive and dynamic. Yes. There's no dramatic stories in this election. I'm not just not going to go into it. Just know that he campaigned, he did all right, and then he won. Yeah, about as decisively as he lost the Senate race. So he's in. In November of 1966, he becomes

a member of the United States House of Representatives. The Bushes move to Washington, and George gets on with his job. And as per usual, what happens when someone becomes a congressman? Their stories dry up. Because life just becomes work and laws. But let's go through what he does briefly, shall we? As a brand new congressman, obviously, Bush is going to have to start at the bottom of the pile, do some low-level committee work. That is, of course, if his dad had not been a prominent senator for the last decade. He stepped down three years previously, but he still had all the connections.

So, wouldn't you know it, after a call to the right person, Bush suddenly found himself on the very prestigious and powerful Ways and Means Committee. It's so surprising, that, isn't it? So yeah, he just straight away just bypasses a whole bunch of people. He's already up there in the higher echelons of power in the House immediately. Anyway, he gets to work. He generally found himself in the middle of government. He wasn't lying when he campaigned, saying that he was going to be a more moderate Republican,

because Judson is in charge at this time, and his Democrat-backed bills, Bush voted for 54% of the time. Now, later on in life, when Nixon is president, he backs the Republican-backed bills 55% of the time. So, identical. Yeah, he is not very partisan in his politics when he is in the House. He is just working through the bills, working on the committees. He meets President Johnson numerous times. The two of them get on really quite well, despite their political differences. They just sort of click with each other. Soon after Martin Luther King is assassinated, Bush voted for the Fair Housing Act. This was a change in politics

for Bush. The Fair Housing Act was an act put in place to stop the law that said that people selling houses could discriminate based on race. So in other words, black people can now legally buy houses

that they couldn't buy before, which obviously was awful. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Bush backed this, and this was, for a Republican from Texas, a bold move. Bush, up until this point, had always been against the civil rights movement because he disliked it from the big government involvement aspect. It's just, it did not concern him. He's never really come up across racism. It's just not part of his life. And he doesn't like the idea of government stepping in and changing things.

So he's got that conservative view, but he's also a rich white man that hasn't experienced racism. Exactly. So he's always just gone, what is this stuff? It just isn't something that's on his radar. So him voting for this is a change in him. It shocked a lot of people. In fact, more than shocked a lot of people, a lot of people were very angry. He had visited Vietnam as part of his committee work on the Ways and Means Committee. And when he was there, he had met several black soldiers and realised they were risking their lives for America. And then he gets back home and there's this bill being discussed.

And he just has a moment where he goes, you know what, it's not really fair, is it, that these black people who are risking their lives in this country, once they get home, won't be able to buy certain houses because of the colour of their skin. That just seems wrong somehow. So he votes for the law to be removed, essentially. Now, he knew that there was going to be backlash from back home, but he was not prepared for the tidal wave of racist abuse that came his way. Like I say, he's never really been in this world.

No. And I quote, that anyone would resort to this kind of talk makes me ashamed to be American. Yeah. He was particularly shocked when a very rich oil business owner called him a word I'm not going to use lover in a letter. Now, this was one of Bush's people. This was a rich oil businessman.

He expected better from his class of people. Yeah, it seems like this genuinely shocked Bush. It's almost as if at the age of 40-odd, he discovered that racism exists and was slightly shocked by it. So there you go. However, he was cheered up when he heard a rumour. If Nixon got the nomination, he was perhaps thinking of asking Bush to be his vice president. He didn't, though, did he? Spoilers, Jamie. Certain high-up members of the GOP had seen Bush on TV talking, and they liked his style. He came across as very calm and assuring. He seemed like he'd do a good job. More importantly, Bush would be a moderate to balance out Nixon,

who, although wasn't technically in the far-right faction of the GOP at the time, he certainly flirted with it. So, yeah, it would cheer up the moderates, they thought. But however, as you know, Nixon did not choose bush in the end a huge blow to bush he did not make it a secret that he wanted to be vice president he thought that sounded great but no nixon in the end chose uh spiru agnew who only isn't more well known for being such an awful and corrupt vice president uh because nixon turned out to be such an awful and corrupt president so but yes it should go down in history as one of the worst vice president choices.

I suppose it does. It's just you don't think of Agnew because Nixon. Anyway, Nixon wins the election. A disappointed Bush carries on in the House. But he starts getting restless at this point. He's soon going to be in charge of the most powerful committee in the House. He's been getting restless at this point. He's soon going to be in charge of the most powerful committee in the House. He's been there for a few years now. It's only a matter

of time before he gets the chair of that committee. And that's it. He's set up for life if he gets that. I mean, once you're there, he could probably go on to be Speaker or something. But yeah, but he'd be in the House and that's where he'd stay he didn't like that idea he he got a whiff of being the vice president and that sounds more exciting doesn't it so he sought some advice from none other than the old president president johnson like i say the two two got on quite well despite being in different political parties, they get on well. So he reaches out to Johnson and meets up with him, and they have a conversation. Should I play it safe and stay in the House, or should I risk it all and go for the Senate? And Johnson answered this, and I'll

quote, son, I've served the House and I've been privileged enough to serve the Senate too. They're both good places to serve. But the difference between the Senate and the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken. So Bush decides to go for the Senate. That's what he's going to go for. He writes to Nixon, asks for his endorsement. He's invited to the Oval Office as are a whole bunch of photographers. Nixon gives his full endorsement. This was when Nixon was very popular, by the way. He was up against Benston, a Democrat who was roughly Bush's age, who was also a centralist, and the two even looked quite similar to each other.

The two candidates were so similar, the press remarked, that there were not two cents worth of difference between the two. It was almost like the same man was running against himself. Yeah. So Bush, desperate to differentiate himself, starts to lean into some of the Southern strategies that Republicans were using at the time. In other words, caught the racists. Which he does slightly. He certainly doesn't go in hard with it like some of the politicians did at the time, but he makes noises about how awful it is that schools are being forced to change their ways

because now you can't segregate. Yeah, so things like that. But he can't bring himself to go all in. He suggested making marijuana possession a misdemeanor rather than a felony, for example, and that wasn't part of the Southern strategy. He also suggested the regulation of interstate sale of arms. And I quote,

so every nut job with a plate in his head can't get a firearm by mail order. That's fair. Yeah. Again, interestingly, we are still seeing the GOP being relatively sensible with their gun control. We're still yet to see the NRA infiltrate party. Anyway, in the end, the race was too close to call.

But in the end, it goes to Benston. Yeah, Bush loses once again in his attempt to become a senator. For the second time in his life, he was forced to think about what he wanted to do. And for a second time, he decided that what he wanted to do, damn it, was progress in politics. In fact, by this point, he had his heart set. One day, he wanted to be the president. Ooh. So what's he gonna do?

Find out next time, Jamie. Oh. On Totellus Rankium. Oh. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Yeah. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Bwah. So, there you go.

What are you thinking? Um, he seems quite likeable. He does. I don't know whether that's just because I'm reading a very well-written biography of the guy. I mean, it's not the only biography that I've read. Obviously, I'm reading the American President series as well, and I'm also picking up bits from another couple. But usually with each president, I read cover to cover at least one big, chunky biography. And this is the one I happened to choose for this one.

And it's just very well-written, and I'm enjoying reading it and so maybe i'm slightly colored in my uh impression there but he does come across as quite likable yeah and then i asked myself why am i finding this surprising and i think it's because it's bush and i grew up yeah in the era of bush being the american president and well we'll get to that when we get to that. But, yeah, I was expecting something a bit more like Reagan, where it's interesting, but I can't say I like the guy. Whereas this, I'm finding it interesting. And it's like, okay, he was born with all the silver spoons, but he didn't choose that.

He's gone off and he's doing his own thing. And, yes yes he's using the silver spoons every step of the way but i mean you would well yeah um i find it quite interesting so far and i wasn't expecting it to i out of these last presidents saying from reagan on so all the presidents have been president whilst i've been alive i kind of assumed that this bush would be the also-ran I'm not that interested in, but I've quite enjoyed it so far. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, he comes across as quite nice. Yeah, I mean, just, like, naive in some ways. The fact that it's like, what, racists exist? It's like, yes, yes. He obviously has no idea what it's like for a normal human being in America. He is completely on a different planet.

But I know he's coming across, he's got a very similar start as Kennedy and he's coming across as a lot nicer than Kennedy did. Yes, yeah, definitely. Which, if you'd said that to me when I first started this series, I would have been utterly shocked. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

Anyway, we will have to find out what it's like and next time uh the plan is the next episode will take him up to being elected president and then episode three will be his presidency so what we've got to look forward to is watergate and him being the vice president and stuff next episode so that's to come right okay then um i think that's all we need to say there might be a little bit of interruption with the episodes being released because you're going away for a couple of weeks or so um but hopefully it won't be interrupted too much no there'll be an episode coming out on our patreon feed about star trek as well yes that's going to be coming out yeah that's going to be coming out soon so, that's going to be coming out soon.

So keep an eye on that. Okay, so thank you very much for listening. And thank you for downloading us from wherever you download us from. Yes, and all that needs to be said is... Goodbye. Goodbye. The following is a series of letters written from George H.W. Bush, aged 18, 1943. Dear Mama, most fellows here take sex as much as they can get it. This pertains to every town in the country, to college campuses.

Yes, boys you know, boys I like very much, and even boys I admire have had intercourse with women. Lots of love, Pop, Professor of Sexology, PhD. Letter 2 Dear Mama, they're still doing it.

Wherever I look, they're doing it. I can hear the banging on the wall, I can hear the bed springs going. All the boys are doing it, and Mama, even the girls are doing it as well. How do you do it? Lots of love, Pop. Professor of doing it. Letter three. Dear Mama, I've been having a conversation with Madwing and he's been showing me some sketches and explaining the whole sexual intercourse thing and doing it. And he said that that's how babies are made, by doing it. But there are no babies here at college. I don't understand. And if that is how you get babies, does that mean you and Papa love pop? Letter four. Dear Mum, I want to do it.

I want to do it so bad. I really want to do it. I want sexual intercourse with lots and lots of women, lots of girls. I want to to do it. I want sexual intercourse with lots and lots of women, lots of girls. I want to just do it. I want to make my bedspring bowing. I want to make my headboard bang. I want to bang. I want to do it. I want to be the professor of sexology. Lots of love. Professor of horny PhD. And D stands for you know what. Letter five. Dear mama, please disregard the previous letter. I've since had a cold shower and I now understand that I need to keep a level head. I need to focus on my training. From your loving son, Pop. Letter six.

From your loving son, Pop. Letter 6. Dear Mama, just a quick question. If you could speak to Barbara's family, how do you think they'd feel about moving the wedding forward? To say, next week on my leave?