George H. W. Bush Changed the World—But Not for the Better

R. Jordan Prescott

Security, Americas

Donald Trump's “America First” approach may mark the end of the country's unfortunate lapse into imperialism.

One-term presidencies are the dead ends of American politics. Such presidents, once the vehicle for the nation’s hopes are remembered only for taking the country down a path that should not have been taken. Two such recent presidencies, those of Herbert Hoover and James Carter, have become bywords for presidential failure. In stark contrast stands the last one-term president, George H. W. Bush. His passing in November was marked by salutations for his incomparable character and astute stewardship of U.S. foreign policy, namely his accomplishments in securing peace in Europe after a decades-long Cold War and leading a world coalition against aggression in the Middle East. His success as the Gulf War commander-in-chief, however, overshadowed and proved more enduring than his achievements as a Cold War peacemaker. Bush 41 indeed left “a world transformed” but not necessarily a Republic poised for peace.

In 1938, the world’s leading liberal democracies, Britain and France, conceded to the demands of a German dictator for the territory a sovereign country. Instead of achieving “peace in our time,” the agreement only abetted greater belligerence. Germany’s aggressions one year later plunged the continent into a second world war. Convulsed by unprecedented destruction and the Holocaust, the victorious powers vowed to never again appease an aggressor.

After the war, the world’s new superpower, the United States, led the free world in applying these “lessons of Munich” to the challenge presented by the world’s other new superpower, the Soviet Union.

Between 1945 and 1960, successive American presidents presided over the reorganization of its defense establishment, the establishment of NATO, and the provision of assistance to states coping with communist insurgencies. When the Soviet Union attempted to blockade West Berlin, America immediately coordinated an airlift to supply the city. Unlike Czechoslovakia, the West would not concede one inch to the aggression of a dictatorship.