Word: bushing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...inherent prudence is now alloyed with what close friends and aides say is a noticeably more sober demeanor. The presidency has made Bush more circumspect than the sometimes loopy, arm-flapping creature of the campaign trail. He assumed a grim visage throughout the first week of the hostage crisis, despite efforts by aides to play down the preoccupation with Lebanon. Says an old friend: "The boyish enthusiasm is still there, but he's more careful, more one day at a time." Bush himself acknowledges as much: "Have I learned a lot? Sure. Do I think I'm maybe a little...
Even when Bush gambles, he does so only after carefully researching the odds. His boldest move so far was his unexpected proposal at the May 29-30 NATO summit in Brussels to slash U.S. and Soviet conventional-force levels in Europe. Last winter and spring Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was beguiling European public opinion with frequent disarmament offers while the President stood pat, waiting for his aides' review of American foreign policy. NATO allies were growing impatient, and Bush's popularity in some polls was inching downward. By early May, despite his public denials of concern, the President was feeling...
Early in the Administration, Bush and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft mulled ways to bring Soviet troop levels in Europe into rough parity with NATO's. At one point they even contemplated a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Europe. But the national security bureaucracy "absolutely hated it," said a White House official. "The idea just sank like a stone...
Unlike Reagan, Bush does not like to flout his own bureaucracy. But now he had reason for boldness: Gorbachev had ponied up deep cuts in Soviet conventional forces in Europe at a May 11 meeting with Secretary of State James Baker in Moscow. "That was really the green light," said an official. "If we didn't move then, we were going to go to the NATO summit without anything." In a May 15 Oval Office meeting, Bush, Baker, Scowcroft, chief of staff John Sununu, Joint Chiefs Chairman William Crowe and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney gathered to discuss ways to make...
Moving quickly, Crowe and Cheney formed a small task force to study the ! force cuts in time for a May 19 visit to Kennebunkport, Me. That session was followed by a Monday-afternoon meeting in the Oval Office. There, Crowe told Bush the military could accept a 20% reduction in manpower and a 15% cut in aircraft without significantly weakening NATO's plans for fighting a European war. Baker argued that 25% would sound more dramatic. The President listened closely and asked a lot of questions. Finally, he settled on the lower, safer number. "O.K., I think...