George Herbert Walker Bush, the son of Prescott Bush, a senator from Connecticut, was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on 12th June 1924. On his 18th birthday he enlisted in the armed forces, becoming the country's youngest commissioned pilot. During the Second World War he served on 58 missions from 1942 to 1945 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war he studied economics at Yale University. In 1951 he established Bush-Overby Oil Development, an oil-drilling business in Texas. Later he joined forces with others to create Zapata Petroleum Corporation. There is also evidence that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency during this period. He also provided information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a proposed assassination attempt by James Parrott of John F. Kennedy. On 29th November 1963, Bush informed J. Edgar Hoover about a conspiracy involving a group of pro-Castro group in Miami.

Bush became involved in politics was active in the Republican Party. He was elected to the Ninetieth Congress. He was appointed to a series of high-level positions: Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-73), Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-74), Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China (1974-76), and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976-77).

Bush was unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1980, but was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with President Ronald Reagan (4th November, 1980) and was re-elected in 1984.

In 1988 Bush was elected as the 41st President of the United States after defeating the representative of the Democratic Party, the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis. A beneficiary of the reforms made by Mikhail Gorbachev that led to the end of the Cold War, Bush could concentrate on other regions of the world. This included the sending of American troops into Panama to overthrow the government of General Manuel Noriega.

On 2nd August 1990 Saddam Hussein ordered an invasion of Kuwait. The United Nations immediately impose economic sanctions on Iraq and demanded an immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. In January 1991 a United States led coalition of 32 countries launch an attack on Iraq. Operation Desert Storm is a great success and after Iraq left Kuwait Bush was able to declare a cease-fire on 28th February.

In April 1991 Hussein agreed to accept the UN resolution calling on him to destroy weapons of mass destruction. He was also forced to allow UN inspectors into his country to monitor the disarmament. A no-fly zone was established in Northern Iraq to protect the Kurds from Saddam Hussein. The following year a no-fly zone was also created to protect the Shiite population living near Kuwait and Iran.

At their fourth summit conference, Bush reached agreement with Mikhail Gorbachev on nuclear weapons and in July 1991, they signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

Despite these foreign successes Bush was unable to deal with the country's faltering economy. His campaign pledge, “no new taxes” made it impossible to balance the budget and in 1992 was defeated by his Democratic Party challenger, William Clinton.