George H. W. Bush

• Date and time are PVNR's (Lesson 16: "Jun 12 1924, 11:40 AM, Connecticut"). The lesson names only the state "Connecticut" — no town, no coordinates, no zone. Bush was born at Milton, Massachusetts (the family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut soon after); the town, coordinates and the daylight-time zone on the line above are therefore NOT from the lesson. Either location gives the same chart at this time (Leo lagna ~15–17°, Sun and Mercury in the 10th in Taurus), which matches what PVNR reads.
• Chart pointers (PVNR): Atmakaraka Sun and Putrakaraka Mercury together in the 10th house — an AK+PuK Raja Yoga (rise through following), placed in the house of karma rather than in lagna/5th. Gnatikaraka Saturn in the 6th from the AK = constant rivals, strong opposition through life. Pitrukaraka Jupiter in mutual quadrant with the AK = support from elders, sponsored by authorities — "rose as Vice President first (patronage from elders), then President."

• Kind of work: public service at the top of the state — war pilot, oil entrepreneur, congressman, diplomat, party chairman, spymaster, vice president, president. A career built on appointment by seniors (Nixon, Ford, Reagan) more than on a personal mass following.
• Fame: world-famous as a US president; respected more in retrospect than in office; never a charismatic popular figure.
• Position / power: the highest — President and commander-in-chief of the sole remaining superpower at the moment the Soviet Union dissolved; led a 35-nation coalition in the Gulf War. Held it for one term only.
• Wealth: born into East Coast banking wealth (father Prescott Bush, Wall Street partner and US Senator); made his own fortune in Texas oil (Zapata) before politics; comfortable, not vast — estimated in the low tens of millions.
• Legal / negative: the Iran–Contra affair shadowed his vice presidency (he said he was "out of the loop"); his Christmas-Eve 1992 pardons of Caspar Weinberger and five others ended the inquiry. Broke his "Read my lips: no new taxes" pledge (1990). Late-life allegations (2017) of inappropriate touching, for which he apologised.
• Health: robust and athletic for most of life; survived being shot down in 1944; Graves' disease with atrial fibrillation (1991); vascular parkinsonism from about 2012 confined him to a wheelchair; repeated pneumonia hospitalisations in his nineties.
• Death: natural, at 94, at home, seven months after his wife of 73 years.

• 1924-06-12 — born George Herbert Walker Bush at Milton, Massachusetts, second son of Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker; raised in Greenwich, Connecticut.
• 1937 — enters Phillips Academy, Andover; captain of baseball and soccer, senior class president.
• 1942-06-12 — on his 18th birthday, straight out of school, enlists in the US Navy.
• 1943-06-09 — commissioned ensign, days short of 19 — one of the youngest naval aviators of the war.
• 1944-09-02 — his Avenger torpedo bomber is hit over Chichijima; he completes the bombing run, bails out over the sea, is rescued by the submarine USS Finback; his two crewmen die. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; flew 58 combat missions.
• 1945-01-06 — marries Barbara Pierce at Rye, New York.
• 1945-09 — discharged from the Navy at war's end; enters Yale.
• 1946-07-06 — son George W. Bush born (the future 43rd President).
• 1948 — graduates Yale (economics, Phi Beta Kappa; captain of the baseball team); moves to West Texas to enter the oil business.
• 1949-12 — daughter Robin born.
• 1953 — co-founds Zapata Petroleum; son Jeb born (February).
• 1953-10-11 — Robin dies of leukaemia, aged three — the great grief of the marriage.
• 1954 — president of Zapata Offshore; a millionaire by about 40.
• 1955 / 1956 / 1959 — children Neil, Marvin and Dorothy born.
• 1964 — runs for US Senate from Texas; loses to Ralph Yarborough.
• 1966-11 — elected to the US House from Houston (served 1967-01-03 to 1971-01-03).
• 1970-11 — second Senate bid; loses to Lloyd Bentsen.
• 1971-03-01 — Nixon appoints him US Ambassador to the United Nations (to January 1973).
• 1973-01-19 — Chairman of the Republican National Committee through Watergate (to September 1974); in August 1974 formally asks Nixon to resign.
• 1974-09-26 — Ford sends him to Beijing as Chief of the US Liaison Office (to December 1975).
• 1976-01-30 — Director of Central Intelligence (to 1977-01-20).
• 1980 — runs for the Republican nomination, wins Iowa, loses to Reagan ("voodoo economics"); accepts the vice-presidential slot in July.
• 1980-11-04 — elected Vice President.
• 1981-01-20 — sworn in as 43rd Vice President.
• 1981-03-30 — Reagan shot; Bush declines to land on the White House lawn — "only the President lands on the South Lawn."
• 1985-07-13 — Acting President for about eight hours during Reagan's surgery.
• 1986-11 — Iran–Contra breaks; his role is questioned for years.
• 1988-11-08 — elected President over Michael Dukakis (40 states) — first sitting vice president elected since 1836.
• 1989-01-20 — inaugurated 41st President.
• 1989-11-09 — Berlin Wall falls; he responds with deliberate restraint.
• 1989-12-02 — Malta summit with Gorbachev.
• 1989-12-20 — orders the invasion of Panama; Noriega captured January 1990.
• 1990-07-26 — signs the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• 1990-08-02 — Iraq invades Kuwait; he assembles the coalition ("This will not stand").
• 1990-10-03 — German reunification, which he had backed against allied doubts.
• 1990-11-05 — signs the budget deal raising taxes, breaking his 1988 pledge.
• 1991-01-17 — Operation Desert Storm begins; ground war 24 February; ceasefire 28 February after 100 hours. Approval rating touches ~89%.
• 1991-05-04 — atrial fibrillation while jogging at Camp David; Graves' disease diagnosed.
• 1991-07-31 — signs START I with Gorbachev in Moscow.
• 1991-12-25 — the Soviet Union dissolves.
• 1992-01-08 — collapses and vomits at a state dinner in Tokyo.
• 1992-11-03 — loses re-election to Bill Clinton in a three-way race with Ross Perot (37% of the vote), amid recession.
• 1992-12 — sends US troops to Somalia; signs NAFTA (17 December); pardons Weinberger and five others (24 December).
• 1993-01-20 — leaves office; retires to Houston and Kennebunkport, Maine.
• 1993-04 — Iraqi plot to assassinate him in Kuwait is foiled.
• 1997-03-25 — first voluntary parachute jump since 1944; repeats on his 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays.
• 2000-11 — son George W. Bush elected President (inaugurated 2001-01-20) — only the second father–son pair of presidents.
• 2005 — leads tsunami and Hurricane Katrina relief appeals with Bill Clinton.
• 2011-02-15 — receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.
• 2012 — vascular parkinsonism made public; uses a wheelchair thereafter.
• 2017-10 — several women allege inappropriate touching during photographs; he apologises.
• 2018-04-17 — Barbara Bush dies after 73 years of marriage; he is hospitalised with sepsis the day after her funeral.
• 2018-11-30 — dies at home in Houston, aged 94.
• 2018-12-06 — buried at College Station, Texas.

Nature & personality

Courteous, self-effacing, dutiful and competitive — raised on the maxim not to boast ("the Great I Am" was forbidden at his mother's table). A prolific writer of personal notes, a man of friendships and loyalty rather than ideology or oratory; awkward in speech, mocked for lacking "the vision thing." Physically restless: tennis, golf at a run, speedboats, parachutes. Courage under fire at twenty, prudence in office at sixty-five.

Profession, fame & status

A résumé without parallel: Navy pilot, oilman, congressman, UN Ambassador, party chairman, envoy to China, CIA Director, Vice President for eight years, President for four. Almost every step from 1971 to 1981 was an appointment by a superior — he lost both his Senate races and the 1980 nomination, and reached the top through the vice presidency. As President his strength was foreign policy: the peaceful end of the Cold War, German reunification inside NATO, START I, Panama, and the Gulf War coalition. At home a recession and the broken tax pledge cost him a second term.

Wealth & money

Inherited standing and connections; made his own money in the Permian Basin and offshore drilling (Zapata, 1953–1966), selling out to enter politics. Wealthy by ordinary standards, modest by presidential ones. The family compound at Walker's Point, Kennebunkport, was the fixed centre of his life.

Marriage, relationships & children

Married Barbara Pierce on 6 January 1945 — 73 years, the longest presidential marriage until the Carters. Six children: George W. (1946), Robin (1949–1953), Jeb (1953), Neil (1955), Marvin (1956), Dorothy (1959). Robin's death from leukaemia at three marked both parents for life. Two sons became governors (Texas, Florida) and one President.

Health (and accidents)

Shot down and rescued from the Pacific, 2 September 1944. Bleeding ulcer in the 1960s. Graves' disease and atrial fibrillation in 1991 (Barbara had the same thyroid disease). The Tokyo collapse of January 1992 was gastroenteritis. Hip replacements; vascular parkinsonism from about 2012 took the use of his legs; bronchitis and pneumonia admissions 2012–2018.

Legal troubles / controversies

Iran–Contra: the independent counsel found he knew more than he admitted, but never charged him; the December 1992 pardons closed the case. The "Willie Horton" campaign of 1988. The 1990 tax reversal. The decision to stop the Gulf War short of Baghdad. The 2017 groping allegations.

Death & legacy

Died 30 November 2018 at 94, then the longest-lived US president. His reputation rose steadily after office — the careful steward of the Cold War's end, and the last president of the wartime generation.

• Used in the Charakaraka lesson as the example of reading the AK's placement relative to the other karakas in the Rasi chart.
• AK = Sun; PuK = Mercury — both in the 10th house. Not in lagna or the 5th (where AK+PuK is the full Maharaja Yoga), "but still Raj Yoga through following in karma."
• GK = Saturn in the 6th from the AK → constant rivals, strong opposition in life.
• PiK = Jupiter in mutual quadrant with the AK → support from elders, sponsored by authorities. "Pattern: rose as Vice President first (patronage from elders), then President."
• Set against his son in the same lesson: George W. Bush has AK Venus + PiK Mercury in lagna — rose through his father's influence.

PVNR SJC Lesson 16. Life events from the public record.