George Bush Sr. died. US President, in which the Soviet Union ceased to exist

Hero of World War II

George Bush Sr. was the last president of the United States to participate in the Second World War. He decided to go to the army in December 1941-after Japanese aircraft destroyed the American base in Pearl Harbor-and became a sea pilot. In 1943-1945, Bush fought in several dozen battles on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, in the Philippines; Off the coast of Japan, his plane was shot down, he managed to jump with a parachute, spent several hours on an inflatable raft and was saved by the sailors of the submarine. In September 1945, after the surrender of Japan, Bush went into an honorary resignation with four combat medals

Ronald Reagan Vice President

After the war, George Bush had an ideal career: he became a millionaire in the 1960s, engaged in oil production; He was a senator, a representative of the United States to the UN, and then in China, in 1976 he became the director of the CIA and in 1980 decided to run for president. He lost the primaries of the Republicans Ronald Reagan, but he offered Bush the position of vice president. In this status, Bush was in Moscow at the funeral of the Secretary Generals of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in 1982-1985. In general, Bush tried to be in the shadow of Reagan-in 1984 he immediately ran for vice presidents-and in 1988 he again went to the polls and won this time.

A man who began "a storm in the desert"

In August 1990, the Iraq army invaded the territory of Kuwait and completely occupied the country. The answer was one of the largest military operations, called the "storm in the desert." Only 450 thousand soldiers participated in it alone, the contingents of three dozen countries joined them; For the first time after the Second World War, the USSR supported the actions of the American army. The operation began on January 24, 1991, and after four days the coalition completely freed Kuwait and took about 15% of the territory of Iraq. This war has become one of the main foreign policy successes of the United States under Bush, the American influence in the region has only intensified and significantly weakened the positions of one of the main world dictators of those years - Saddam Khussein.

All the foreign policy successes of George Bush did not help him re -elect for a second term. The budget deficit with him has grown three times, unemployment - almost twice. Bill Clinton, who promised to engage in the economy, was the new president of the United States.

President of the collapse of the USSR

The administration of George Bush did not want this breakdown - the consequences were too unpredictable. In 1989, Bush and the head of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev held a summit in Malta, during which they reached an agreement: the USSR did not intervene in the politics of the Eastern European countries, which came out of the socialist bloc one after another. On August 1, 1991, Bush made speech in Kiev (in the media it was called Chicken Kiev-“Kiev Cutlets”), where he warned Ukraine and other republics of the still existing USSR from “suicidal nationalism”. Just three and a little week after this, August 19, 1991, Bush called Moscow and found out where President Gorbachev disappeared. In December 1991, the American president was one of the first to learn about the signing of Bialowieza agreements, after which the USSR ceased to exist. “The United States welcome and support the historical choice in favor of freedom made by the new states of the Commonwealth. Despite the potential for instability and chaos, these events clearly meet our national interests, ”Bush said then.

In May 1992, he and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a document on the end of the Cold War. Now the American media put Bush on a par with Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman - with him, one of the main wars of the United States in the twentieth century has finally ended.

The father of the president

From 2001 to 2009, George Bush Jr. was the president of the United States. During his administration, the attacks of September 11 occurred, was executed by Saddam Hussein, relations with Russia began to deteriorate sharply. Despite the fact that the father of the new president was deeply involved in this subject, not a single media of the world reproached him for at least some kind of intervention in his son’s affairs. “It was assumed that he [Bush Sr.] was without enthusiasm for the right-wing policy of the administration of his son, but he remained acute, and no one knew what he felt-besides family pride,” wrote The Guardian.

In June 2014, he celebrated the 90th anniversary of a parachute jump -the 41st President of the United States developed Parkinson's disease, so he jumped with the support of the marine infantryman.

"Unflappable leader"

On November 30, 2018, George Bush died in his house in Houston at the age of 94.

“Many memories are connected with me with this person. We happened to work together during the years of huge changes. It was a dramatic time demanding from all great responsibility. The result was the cessation of the Cold War and nuclear weapons race, ”Mikhail Gorbachev said on December 1. “When democratic revolutions have bloomed in Eastern Europe, it was his confident hand of the diplomat that made it possible that no one believed in - to end the Cold War without a single shot,” the Barack Obama said in a statement . Donald Trump called him a “calm leader”, who prepared “decades of prosperity”. “He never stopped serving the country. I saw this close, working with him on the elimination of the consequences of the tsunami in Asia and here, after the hurricane “Katrina”. <...> I am deeply grateful for every minute that I spent with President Bush, and I will always consider our friendship one of the greatest gifts in my life, ” said Bush, who replaced George Bush Bill Clinton.

Andrey Kozenko