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George Bush, 1989  © Bush was the 41st president of the United States whose term in office was dominated by foreign affairs.

Bush was born on 12 June 1924 in Massachusetts. In his infancy, the Bush family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. Bush served as a naval pilot during World War Two. He returned to Yale University to complete his education and then moved to Texas to work in the oil industry.

In 1964, Bush ran unsuccessfully for the Senate as a Republican. In 1966 he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1970, he again ran unsuccessfully for the Senate. In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Bush as US Ambassador to the United Nations, the first of several high profile appointments Bush was to receive during the 1970s. In 1973, he was chosen to head the Republican Party National Committee. He took up the post as the Watergate scandal deepened, and showed his loyalty to the party and Nixon in his consistent defences of Nixon's conduct. Gerald Ford appointed Bush to be chief US liaison to China, then in 1976 persuaded him to become director of the CIA, serving for a year.

In 1979, Bush announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency. Ronald Reagan won the nomination and chose Bush to be his vice-presidential running mate. He served two four-year terms as vice president. In 1988, he ran for president and won. Foreign policy dominated his presidency. At Bush's meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Malta summit in December 1989, the two leaders declared an end to the Cold War. In 1990 - 1991, Bush constructed the international coalition which ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's armies from Kuwait, defeating Iraq in February 1991.

However, Bush was unable to shake off the perception that he was not concerned with growing problems caused by a recession in the US economy, and he fought a lacklustre re-election campaign in 1992. He was defeated and retired from politics. In 2000, his son George W Bush was elected president, the first time a father and son had been president since John Quincy Adams (1825 - 1829) succeeded his father John (1797 - 1801).