Bush on Bush

摘要

Politics of past, present and future swirl around "41: A Portrait of My Father", a new biography of President George H.W. Bush by his son, the 43rd president. Start with the past. The younger George Bush calls his book "a love story" that he hopes will correct the historical record about his father, who he feels earned too little credit for bringing the cold war to a peaceful end. The book, launched on November 11th in Texas, recalls the criticism that rained down on his father for his unemotional response to the demonstrations that spread through the eastern bloc in 1989. When President Bush declined to rush to Berlin after the wall fell, critics scolded that: "Bushism is Reaganism minus the passion for freedom." That was missing the point, the book insists. Mr Bush was trying to avoid provoking a Soviet intervention, saying: "I'm not going to go dance on the wall." He was also a humble man (raised by a formidable mother, a New Englander whose catchphrase was "no one likes a braggadocio"). Pondering the 1991 disbanding of the Soviet Union, the younger George Bush credits his grandmother for teaching the 41st president the sporting val-ues-"win with grace, don't brag, think of the other guy"-that helped to secure world peace.