In the eyes of the public, George W. Bush, as the 41st president of the United States, was a loyal practitioner of Reaganism. During his tenure, he experienced far-reaching international events such as the Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, bringing the United States and the world from tense confrontation to the détente atmosphere of the post-Cold War era.
He was also the last U.S. president to have experienced in the smoke of war. The wars and military operations he participated in and commanded from his youth to his presidency epitomized that half century of American history.
Bush, who is in his early 20s, already has 1,000 hours of flying experience
After Pearl Harbor, Americans were enthusiastic about joining the military. Bush, who had just graduated from high school, immediately signed up for the Navy and was trained as a naval air force pilot.
He piloted the famous TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. Readers familiar with World War II may know that TBF, though ugly, won with high speed and load. Not only is it strong and reliable, but it is also a powerful firepower, and it is a ship killer that the combined fleet fears very much in the late world war II.
TBF torpedo bombers skimming over the carrier
Bush's Squadron of 51st Torpedo Aircraft flew aboard the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto into a counteroffensive in the Pacific Theater. During the bombing of the Japanese radio tower in the Ogasawara Islands, the TBF bombers piloted by Bush were hit by anti-aircraft fire. He had to skydive off the Ogasawara Islands and managed to climb into an already inflated yellow life raft to await rescue.
At that time, the Ogasawara Islands were not a good place for a crash pilot. The Americans already knew that the Japanese garrison had publicly hacked and killed four American prisoners of war and eaten their livers to boost morale.
The U.S. Navy's CVL-30 San Jacinto aircraft carrier, which Bush served in the past
Fortunately, after a period of actual combat exploration, the RESCUE procedures of the US military for the fallen pilots have been relatively mature and effective. After a Hellcat fighter guided Bush into a lifeboat, several more planes circled around Him. They used machine-gun fire to drive out the Japanese who tried to approach him, and radioed friendly ships nearby to come to the rescue. Searching for the submarine Fin Whale, which had fallen into the water nearby, the submarine rushed to catch Bush from the dangerous enemy waters.
Rescued Bush returned to his squadron and continued to fly TBF bombers into combat until the end of the Pacific War. Less than half of his squadron of 51st bombers survived Japan's surrender. Among them, he was the only one of the crew members who followed Bush on the bombing mission to the Ogasawara Islands. This also allowed Bush, who was only in his early twenties, to witness the cruel nature of war.
Bush was salvaged from a submarine
After the war, Bush began to enter the political circles
After the war, Bush, who had experienced the temper of war, began to enter the political circles. Before becoming President of the United States, he had demonstrated outstanding abilities at all levels of his duties. Including in the early 1970s, when the United States was in decline, he briefly served as ambassador to the United Nations, and exchanged words with representatives of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries.
Bush, who served as ambassador to the United Nations
Beginning in 1975, Bush, who was the director of the CIA, showed his skill and determination during his tenure. Operation Bald Eagle, which he led, fermented throughout almost the entire Latin American region. The famous military dictator Pinochet became his solid ally. Their hatred of the left has made their cooperation very successful. Bush's support for the Chilean president also helped the latter successfully transform the broken Chile into the only developed country in South America. For this reason, Bush himself has also been criticized by the left-wing ideological trend in the United States.
During his tenure as CIA director Bush led Operation Condor in South America
In the '80s, Bush joined Reagan's campaign and helped the latter become president of the United States. Subsequently, the capable Bush became vice president of the Reagan administration. Together with Reagan, he firmly promoted the revival of liberal ideas. When Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pinochet teamed up to unleash the world-changing changes that affected the world during that decade, Bush was one of many doers working behind the scenes.
I was talking and laughing with Mrs. Thatcher
Official makeup photo after becoming vice president of the United States
In 1989, with Reagan's early departure, Bush temporarily became acting president. In the Panama crisis, Bush, who first came to the forefront of the world, once again showed his decisiveness to the world.
Bush, sworn in as President of the United States
In Panama at the time, the first democratic elections since the 1960s were held, with opposition candidates narrowly winning. Dictator Noriega refused to recognize the election results and pushed out his own presidential-elect. Bush left to announce economic sanctions against Panama. Noriega responded with national readiness and declaration of a state of war with the United States. His demands for the takeback of ownership of the Panama Canal and his policy of sheltering drug lords from laundering money have prompted the United States to crack down on them militarily.
Panamanian dictator Noriega
In this military operation, the US military proved that it had gradually come out of the shadow of the Vietnam War and laid the foundation for future strength. Several key tools that formed the core of the later US military surgical scalpel strike were applied in the Panama operation.
F117 made its debut in top secret
The F-117 stealth fighter-bomber, which had not yet completed its test flights, first invaded Panama's anti-aircraft fire network to bomb its anti-aircraft artillery positions, kicking off the entire military operation. Subsequently, the US paratroopers used low-altitude parachuting technology to carry out a surprise attack on the Pakistani army. The Navy SEALs formed a special operations squad and infiltrated the airport to blow up Noriega's private jet. In the face of the Pakistani counterattack, the US military dispatched AC-130 gunboats and helicopter gunships to suppress it. Its tactics are the same in Syria to bloodied Russian mercenaries.
U.S. Army M113 armored vehicle on the streets of Panama
On January 3, 1990, Noriega walked out of the Vatican Embassy and surrendered to the U.S. military. In this one-day conflict, the U.S. military killed 314 Pakistani troops and captured more than 2,000 people at the cost of 23 killed and 324 wounded. The U.S. military's demonstrated proficiency in the use of advanced weapons and its ability to respond flexibly to complex situations laid the groundwork for outstanding performance in the Gulf War.
Noriega, who was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
The Gulf War became an end-of-era show
On August 1, 1990, negotiations on the division of oil fields between Iraq, the Middle East's largest military power, and Kuwait, a small southern power, broke down. Saddam Hussein decided to fully occupy Kuwait. The next day, he sent three divisions of the Republican Guard to invade Kuwait, igniting the Gulf war that lasted for more than a year.
Saddam Hussein's move was intended to force Europe and the United States to give up interfering in the affairs of the Arab world by manipulating oil dominance. Thus paving the way for him to unify the Arab world and become the second Saladin the Great. But the fire he lit in the Gulf didn't just affect the Middle East.
Always fantasize that he is Saladin's second stupid big wood
In 1990, the United States was on the eve of the information revolution, and the economic revitalization had begun to emerge. If oil prices rise sharply at this time, it could destroy the hard-won economic recovery of the United States and cause the embryonic information technology revolution to die halfway. At the same time, the Persian Gulf raid war carried out by the United States against Iran in the Iran-Iraq War was not well dealt with, which directly led to the occurrence of the oil crisis. The unit price of crude oil in the international market once soared by $100 a barrel. Rising oil prices have hit the economies of the United States and Europe hard, and made Europeans more skeptical about whether the United States has the ability to maintain world economic security.
On the other hand, as the planned economic system gradually failed, the Soviet Union became increasingly dependent on the profits from oil exports in the late 1980s. The once-low oil prices of the mid-1980s hurt Soviet revenues. Without external funds to guarantee it, not only did the soviet people's lives fall into difficulties, but even the most priority arms projects were affected. What the Soviets most wanted was for the Gulf crisis to continue for a long time, so that oil prices would always run high. If the Soviet Union had been able to keep its money plentiful, its dissolution might have been delayed even longer.
Pre-war Iraqi T72 tank group
But the decision to use force is risky. Despite the successful precedent of panama's operations, Iraq's military, as a military power in the Middle East, is clearly not comparable to that of the small country of Panama. At that time, the general public opinion believed that the US military needed to pay at least 30,000-40,000 casualties to eliminate Saddam's army. Some extremist media even believe that the US military will suffer 100,000 casualties, and Saddam Hussein will turn Iraq into a second Vietnam. Even General Powell, the most assertive of the main war factions, could only publicly declare that 1,000 people might be killed in the battle to crush Saddam Hussein. At the same time as ordering troops, the US military also prepared 15,000 body bags.
But Bush, who lived through the war, understood that victory could not be achieved without the determination of his leaders. He also knew that the high-tech means of the US military could defeat Saddam's large but technologically backward army.
The Gulf War became a full-fledged allied assault on soviet-style armies
The course of subsequent wars showed that even high-tech weapons, which accounted for a small amount of the total, could play the role of a force multiplier. The introduction of some advanced equipment, such as new night vision goggles, early warning aircraft and information management systems, has greatly enhanced the capabilities of the US military in conventional operations and put the Iraqi army in an embarrassing position of being unable to counterattack. The confrontation, which was expected to be very fierce, eventually became a one-sided hanging. Saddam's pre-war high-profile muscularity contrasts with the massive and frenzied surrender of Iraqi soldiers during the war.
The Gulf War thus kicked off the prelude to a new military revolution, and the new type of army with smaller scale, more advanced weapons, more intelligent equipment, and more developed information will gradually eliminate the old-style army that relies on the number of armored vehicles and artillery to be bold. This process continues to function to this day.
F15E fleet deployed at Saudi airfields during the Gulf War
An Iraqi convoy destroyed by airstrikes on the way to frantic escape
Angry crowds on the streets of Moscow
In 1989, the governments of Eastern European countries fell one after another. By December 1991, the Soviet Union, which had been at odds with the United States, had also collapsed. The world was also liberated from the fear of the outbreak of World War III. During his tenure, President Bush witnessed the end of an era.
Bush Reagan and visiting Gorbachev, the last soviet leader
But in the rapidly developing 1990s, peaceful development became the focus of voters' attention. The young leftists who used to ridicule Bush's role as a C.I.A. have used the economic recovery that Reagan created in the '80s to grow into influential leaders. It was also the appearance of these people who invited Bush, as a war hero, out of the political arena of the White House.
Before Lewinsky became famous, Clinton's image was close to perfection
Many people still analyze history with fantasies after the fact. With Clinton's personable demeanor, contrast the war story of Bush Sr. Finally, it is concluded that war is obsolete, and how peace is...
But they would not want to see that the mild-mannered Clinton had the most military conflicts in office than any U.S. president. When delta special forces were killed in the streets of Mogadishu, the U.S. military rushed into the Bosnian war. When Tomahawk cruise missiles exploded in Sudan and Afghanistan, U.S. warplanes launched a painless air strike at Saddam Hussein. Until the year after the twentieth century, there were also large-scale military operations brought about by the Kosovo turmoil.
Three fathers and sons of the Bush family
Bush, who has retreated behind the scenes, admires the growth of the sons of the two governors. In 2000, the election of George Walker Bush made the Bush family's position in the history of American politics soar in an instant, two Roosevelts a hundred years ago.
2017 Group photo with current U.S. Vice President Mike Pence
With the accumulation of years, the former current affairs figures will surely become part of history. The difference is only in the position occupied in the comments section. Is it the creator of the legend, or the center of the storm? Is it a clown whose deeds can be used as a joke, or a victor who is more glorious with the superposition of history? Posterity can see more clearly than we can...