Foreign policy of the George H. W. Bush administration

George H. W. Bush, whose term as president lasted from 1989 until 1993, had extensive experience with the United States foreign policy. Unlike his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, he downplayed vision and emphasized caution and careful management. He had quietly disagreed with many of Reagan's foreign policy decisions and tried to build his own policies.Greene, pp. 50, 90. His main foreign policy advisors were Secretaries of State James Baker, a longtime friend, and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Key geopolitical events that occurred during Bush's presidency were:Richard A. Melanson, American foreign policy since the Vietnam War (4th ed. Sharpe, 2005) pp. 193-232.See also Timeline of United States diplomatic history. The Gulf War, in which Bush led a large coalition that defeated Iraq following its Invasion of Kuwait, but allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power. The United States invasion of Panama to overthrow a local dictator. The signing of the START I (with the Soviet Union) and START II (with Russia) treaties for nuclear disarmament. Revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of Moscow-oriented Communism, especially in Eastern Europe. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, replaced by the Post-Soviet states (Russia and 14 other countries). German reunification in 1990, with the democratic West Germany absorbing the ex-Communist East Germany. The expansion of NATO to the east, starting with a united Germany.

Appointments

George H. W. Bush administration foreign policy personnelVice President Quayle(1989–1993)Secretary of State Baker(1989–1992) Eagleburger(1992–1993)Secretary of Defense Cheney(1989–1993) Ambassador to the United NationsWalters(1989) Pickering(1989–1992) Perkins(1992–1993) Director of Central Intelligence Webster(1989–1991) Kerr(1991) Gates(1991–1993) Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Scowcroft(1989–1993) Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Gates(1989–1991) Howe(1991–1993) Trade Representative Hills(1989–1993)

History Experienced leadership team In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Bush as Ambassador to the United Nations, and he became chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him Chief of the Liaison Office in China and later made him the Director of Central Intelligence. Bush sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, but lost to Ronald Reagan. He was then elected vice president in 1980 and 1984 as Reagan's running mate. The vice president, logged 1.3 million miles of travel to 50 states and 65 foreign countries, handling numerous diplomatic roles.Jon Meacham, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (2015) pp 153-208, 285-87.Greene, Bush, pp 24-26.

Bush was a longtime close friend of both his top advisers, Secretaries of State James Baker and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Baker dealt with tactical and managerial issues of the State Department and foreign policy, while Scowcroft was concerned with long-term strategy. Lawrence Eagleburger was the number two in the State Department. Robert Gates, an intelligence expert, was deputy to Scowcroft, And had a major policy-making role. The full National Security Council met three times a week. Vice President Dan Quayle handled ceremonial foreign-policy visits. Bush wanted to name Senator John Tower as secretary of defense, but Tower's colleagues in the Senate were annoyed at his imperious style and drinking problem. They rejected the nomination, so Defense went to Congressman Dick Cheney.James D. King, and James W. Riddlesperger. "The rejection of a cabinet nomination: The Senate and John Tower." Contributions In Political Science 393 (2002): 369-390. Colin Powell, more moderate than the others, became the powerful Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.Bartholomew Sparrow, The Strategist:: Brent Scowcroft and the call of national security (2015) pp 272-80.Eliot A. Cohen, "Playing Powell Politics-The General's Zest for Power." Foreign Affairs 74#6 (Dec. 1995): 102-110. onlineBob Woodward, The Commanders (1991)

Initial themes In his inaugural address, Bush called on bipartisanship in foreign policy to begin anew. Addressing the world, he offered a "new engagement and a renewed vow: We will stay strong to protect the peace." He mentioned Americans in other countries and the lack of knowledge on their whereabouts: "There are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands and Americans who are unaccounted for. Assistance can be shown here and will be long remembered. Good will begets good will. Good faith can be a spiral that endlessly moves on." Bush stated the administration's intent to retain alliances from prior administrations while "we will continue the new closeness with the Soviet Union, consistent both with our security and with progress."

A week into the administration, Bush was asked in what region he wished to move forward. He responded by saying "All of them", furthering there were "plenty of troublespots" and specifying Central America as one of them while insisting there needed to be complete reviews for major initiatives to take place and a bilaterally supported policy in Central America would take more time to develop.

By the end of his first year in office, Bush had traveled to fifteen countries, at the time tying him with Gerald Ford as the most traveled first year president. This record was broken in 2009 by sixteen trips of Barack Obama.

Victory in the Cold War Fall of the Soviet control in Eastern Europe

Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had largely ended Cold War tensions in the late 1980s. However Bush remained skeptical of Soviet intentions.Timothy Naftali, George H. W. Bush (2007) pp. 67-68 During the first year of his tenure, Bush pursued what Soviets referred to as the pauza, a break in Reagan's détente policies.Greene, pp. 110–112 While Bush implemented his pauza policy in 1989, Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe challenged Soviet domination.John Robert Greene, The Presidency of George Bush (2nd ed. 2015) p. 119 Bush helped convince Polish United Workers' Party leaders to allow democratic elections in June, won by the anti-Communists. In 1989, Communist governments fell in all the satellites, with significant violence only in Romania. In November 1989, massive popular demand forced the Communist government of East Germany to open the Berlin Wall, and it was soon demolished by gleeful Berliners. Gorbachev refused to send in the Soviet military, effectively abandoning the Brezhnev Doctrine.George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (2008) pp 904-6. Within a few weeks Communist regimes across Eastern Europe collapsed, and Soviet supported parties across the globe became demoralized. The U.S. was not directly involved in these upheavals, but the Bush administration avoided the appearance of gloating over the NATO victory to avoid undermining further democratic reforms especially in the USSR.Mary E. Sarotte, "In victory, magnanimity: US foreign policy, 1989–1991, and the legacy of prefabricated multilateralism." International Politics 48.4-5 (2011): 482-495.Zbigniew Brzezinski, "The Cold War and Its Aftermath" Foreign Affairs 71#4 (1992), pp. 31-49 online

Bush and Gorbachev met in December 1989 in summit on the island of Malta. Bush sought cooperative relations with Gorbachev throughout the remainder of his term, putting his trust in Gorbachev to suppress the remaining Soviet hard-liners.Naftali, George H. W. Bush (2007), pp. 91-93 The key issue at the Malta Summit was the potential reunification of Germany.Greene, p. 126 While Britain and France were wary of a re-unified Germany, Bush pushed for German reunification alongside West German chancellor Helmut Kohl. Gorbachev resisted the idea of a reunified Germany, especially if it became part of NATO, but the upheavals of the previous year had sapped his power at home and abroad.Herring, pp. 906–907 Gorbachev agreed to hold "Two-Plus-Four" talks among the U.S., the Soviet Union, France, Britain, West Germany, and East Germany, which commenced in 1990. After extensive negotiations, Gorbachev eventually agreed to allow a reunified Germany to be a part of NATO. He did not get Washington's agreement that NATO would not expand into the new eastern European countries of the former Warsaw Pact. With the signing of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, Germany officially reunified in October 1990.Greene, pp. 134–137

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

While Gorbachev acquiesced to loss of control over the Soviet satellite states, he suppressed nationalist movements within the Soviet Union itself.Greene, pp. 120–121 Stalin had occupied and annexed the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in the 1940s. The old leadership was executed or deported or fled; hundreds of thousands of Russians moved in, but nowhere were they a majority. Hatreds simmered. Lithuania's March 1990 proclamation of independence was strongly opposed by Gorbachev, who feared that the Soviet Union could fall apart if he allowed Lithuania's independence. The United States had never recognized the Soviet incorporation of the Baltic states, and the crisis in Lithuania left Bush in a difficult position. Bush needed Gorbachev's cooperation in the reunification of Germany, and he feared that the collapse of the Soviet Union could leave nuclear arms in dangerous hands. The Bush administration mildly protested Gorbachev's suppression of Lithuania's independence movement, but took no action to directly intervene.Herring, p. 907 Bush warned independence movements of the disorder that could come with secession from the Soviet Union; in a 1991 address that critics labeled the "Chicken Kiev speech", he cautioned against "suicidal nationalism".Herring, pp. 913–914

In July 1991, Bush and Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) treaty, the first major arms agreement since the 1987 Intermediate Ranged Nuclear Forces Treaty. Both countries agreed to cut their strategic nuclear weapons by 30 percent, and the Soviet Union promised to reduce its intercontinental ballistic missile force by 50 percent.Greene, p. 204 In August 1991, hard-line Communists launched a coup against Gorbachev; while the coup quickly fell apart, it broke the remaining power of Gorbachev and the central Soviet government.Naftali, George H. W. Bush (2007), pp 137-138 Later that month, Gorbachev resigned as general secretary of the Communist party, and Russian president Boris Yeltsin ordered the seizure of Soviet property. Gorbachev clung to power as the president of the Soviet Union, until 25 December 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved.Greene, pp. 205–206 Fifteen states emerged from the Soviet Union, and of those states, Russia was the largest and most populous. Bush and Yeltsin met in February 1992, declaring a new era of "friendship and partnership". In January 1993, Bush and Yeltsin agreed to START II, which provided for further nuclear arms reductions on top of the original START treaty.

Americas Argentina

Argentina wanted very good relations with the United States, as it moved toward more economic liberalism, and agreed with Washington's priorities regarding cooperative security, peacekeeping, and drug control.

Canada

New presidents traditionally make their first foreign trip to Canada. Bush did so on February 10, 1989. He met with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and discussed air quality issues especially acid rain. On July 8, 1990, the two countries had "agreed to begin negotiations for a practical and effective air quality accord" and the initial discussions would center around sulfur dioxide reduction as well as other acid rain precursors. They met on March 13, 1991, to discuss developments in the Middle East.

Colombia