Acting President of the United States
An Acting President of the United States is an individual who legitimately exercises the powers and duties of the office of President of the United States though that person does not hold the office in their own right. There is an established order in which officials of the United States federal government may be called upon to take on presidential responsibilities if the incumbent president becomes incapacitated, resigns, is removed from office during their four-year term of office. Presidential succession is referred to multiple times in the U. S. Constitution – Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, as well as the Twentieth Amendment and Twenty-fifth Amendment; the Vice President is the only officeholder named in the Constitution as a presidential successor. The Article II succession clause authorizes Congress to designate which federal officeholders would accede to the presidency in the event that the vice president were unable to do so, a situation which has occurred on three separate occasions.
The current Presidential Succession Act was adopted in 1947 and last revised in 2006. The order of succession is as follows: the Vice President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the eligible heads of the federal executive departments who form the president's Cabinet, beginning with the Secretary of State. If the president dies, resigns or is removed from office, the vice president automatically becomes president. Were a president-elect to die during the transition period, or decline to serve, the vice president-elect would become president on Inauguration Day. A vice president can become the acting president if the president becomes incapacitated. If the presidency and vice presidency both become vacant however, the statutory successor called upon would not become president, but would only be acting as president. To date, two vice presidents—George H. W. Bush and Dick Cheney —have been acting president. No one lower in the line of succession has yet been called upon to act as president.
The qualifications for Acting President are the same as those for the office of President. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 prescribes three eligibility requirements for the presidency. At the time of taking office, one must be a natural-born U. S. citizen of the United States, at least thirty-five years old, a resident of the United States for at least fourteen years. A person who meets these requirements may still be constitutionally disqualified from the presidency under any of the following conditions: Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, gives the U. S. Senate the option of disqualifying individuals convicted in impeachment cases from holding federal office in the future. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits any person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, rebelled against the United States, from becoming president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress; the Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected to the presidency more than twice.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 makes the vice president first in the line of succession. It empowers Congress to provide by law who would act as president in the case where neither the president nor the vice president were able to serve. Two constitutional amendments elaborate on the subject of presidential succession and fill gaps exposed over time in the original provision: Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment declares that if the president-elect dies before his term begins, the vice president-elect becomes president on Inauguration Day and serves for the full term to which the president-elect was elected, that, if on Inauguration Day, a president has not been chosen or the president-elect does not qualify for the presidency, the vice president-elect acts as president until a president is chosen or the president-elect qualifies, it authorizes Congress to provide for instances in which neither a president-elect nor a vice president-elect have qualified. Acting on this authority, Congress incorporated "failure to qualify" as a possible condition for presidential succession into the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
Sections 3 and 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment provide for situations in which the president is temporarily or indefinitely unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office. On April 4, 1841, only one month after his inauguration, William Henry Harrison died, he was the first U. S. president to die in office. Afterward, a constitutional crisis ensued over the Constitution's ambiguous presidential succession provision. Shortly after Harrison's death, his Cabinet met and decided that John Tyler, Harrison's vice president, would assume the responsibilities of the presidency under the title "Vice-President acting President". Instead of accepting the Cabinet's proposed title, Tyler asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of the office and had himself sworn in as president, setting a critical precedent for an orderly transfer of power following a president's death. Nonetheless, several members of Congress, such as Representative John Quincy Adams, felt that Tyler should be a caretaker under the title of "Acting President", or remain vice president in name.
Senator Henry Clay saw Tyler as the "vice-president" and his presidency as a mere "regency". Throughout Tyler remained resolute in his claim to the title of President and in his determina
Military hospital
A military hospital is a hospital, owned and operated by the armed forces. They are reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well, they may not be located on a military base. In the United Kingdom and Germany, British military hospitals have been closed. Service personnel injured in combat operations are treated at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine. Former British military hospitals include: West Germany BMH Hanover, Germany - closed and mobilized as 32nd Field Hospital to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War in 1990 BMH Rinteln, Germany - closed and now home to charity organization BMH Iserlohn, Germany - closed 1990s RAFH Wegberg, Germany BMH Hostert, Germany - 1950s/60s BMH Münster BMH Wuppertal BMH BerlinUnited Kingdom BMH Cowglen Glasgow Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot Colchester Military Hospital - Colchester Garrison DKMH Catterick - Friarage Hospital Duke of Connaught Unit Northern Ireland Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, Millbank Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich Musgrave Park Hospital Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley Netley Hospital Royal Hospital Chelsea Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich Stoke Military Hospital, Devonport Tidworth Military Hospital Military Hospital Wheatley - now Wheatley Park School Cyprus TPMH RAF Akrotiri BMH Dhekelia BMH NicosiaEgypt BMH AlexandriaChina BMH ShanghaiHong Kong BMH Bowen Road Hong Kong BMH Mount KellettOthers - Asia BMH Singapore - now Alexandra Hospital - part of National University Health System BMH NepalGhana 37 Military Hospital Kumasi Military HospitalAmericas Belize HospitalIndia Command Hospitals only treats military and civilians are not entertained.
They are located in 7 cities. Africa-Middle East King Hussein Medical Center, Amman - Jordan BMH Nairobi BMH Gibraltar BMH Malta Pictures of Israeli military hospital in 1948. Field hospital Military Health System Royal Naval Hospital
Washington metropolitan area
The Washington metropolitan area is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D. C. the capital of the United States. The area includes all of the federal district and parts of the U. S. states of Virginia, along with a small portion of West Virginia. While not a part of the Washington metropolitan area, St. Mary's County is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area; the Washington metropolitan area is one of the most educated and most affluent metropolitan areas in the US. The metro area anchors the southern end of the densely populated Northeast megalopolis with an estimated total population of 6,216,589 as of the 2017 U. S. Census Bureau estimate, making it the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the nation and the largest metropolitan area in the Census Bureau's South Atlantic division; the U. S. Office of Management and Budget defines the area as the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV metropolitan statistical area, a metropolitan statistical area used for statistical purposes by the United States Census Bureau and other agencies.
The region's three largest cities are the federal territory of Washington, D. C. the county of Arlington, the independent city of Alexandria. The Office of Management and Budget includes the metropolitan statistical area as part of the larger Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, which has a population of 9,546,579 as of the 2014 Census Estimate; the area is sometimes referred to as the National Capital Region by federal agencies such as the military and Department of Homeland Security. Another term used to describe the region is the D. C. Area; the area in the region, surrounded by Interstate 495 is referred to as being "inside the Beltway". The city of Washington, at the center of the area, is referred to as "the District" because it is the federal District of Columbia, is not part of any state; the Virginian portion of the region is known as Northern Virginia. The U. S. Census Bureau divides the Washington statistical metropolitan area into two metropolitan divisions: Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV Metropolitan Division, comprising the majority of the metropolitan area Silver Spring–Frederick–Rockville, MD Metropolitan Division, consisting of Montgomery and Frederick counties The area includes the following counties and independent cities: Washington Calvert County Charles County Frederick County Montgomery County Prince George's County Alexandria Arlington County Clarke County Culpeper County Fairfax County Fairfax Falls Church Fauquier County Fredericksburg Loudoun County Manassas Manassas Park Prince William County Rappahannock County Spotsylvania County Stafford County Warren County Jefferson County Founded in 1957, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is a regional organization of 21 Washington-area local governments, as well as area members of the Maryland and Virginia state legislatures, the U.
S. Senate, the U. S. House of Representatives. MWCOG provides a forum for discussion and the development of regional responses to issues regarding the environment, public safety, homeland security, affordable housing, community planning, economic development; the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, a component of MWCOG, is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for the metropolitan Washington area. The metropolitan area includes the following principal cities Washington, D. C. Arlington, Virginia Alexandria, Virginia Bethesda, Maryland Fairfax, Virginia Frederick, Maryland Gaithersburg, Maryland Reston, Virginia Rockville, Maryland Silver Spring, Maryland The relative strength of the major political parties within the region is shown by the presidential election results since 1960, as presented in the adjacent table; the area has been a magnet for international immigration since the late 1960s. It is a magnet for internal migration. Racial composition of the Washington, D.
C. area: Non-Hispanic White: 45.8% Black or African American: 24.9% Hispanic or Latino: 15.5% Asian: 10.0% Mixed and Other: 3.8% White: 54.8% Black: 25.8% Asian: 9.3% Hispanic: 13.8% Mixed and Other: 3.7% White: 51.7% Black: 26.3% Asian: 8.4% Hispanic: 11.6% Mixed and Other: 2.0% White: 67.8% Black: 26.0% Asian: 2.5% Hispanic: 2.8% Mixed and Other: 0.9% The Washington metropolitan area has ranked as the highest-educated metropolitan area in the nation for four decades. As of the 2006–2008 American Community Survey, the three most educated places with 200,000 people or more in Washington–Arlington–Alexandria by bachelor's degree attainment are Arlington, Fairfax County and Montgomery County, Maryland. Forbes magazine stated in its 2008 "America's Best- And Worst-Educated Cities" report: "The D. C. area is less than half the size of L. A. but both cities have around 100,000 Ph. D.'s."The Washington, D. C. metro area has held the top spot in the American College of Sports Medicine's annual American Fitness Index ranking of the United States' 50 most populous metropolitan areas for two years running.
The report cites, among other things, the high average fitness level and healthy eating habits of residents, the widespread availability of health care and facilities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, parks, low rates of obesity and tobacco use relative to the national average, the high median household income as contributors to the city's community health. In the 21st century, the Washington metropolitan area has overtaken the San Francisco Bay Area as the highest-income me
John Connally
John Bowden Connally Jr. was an American politician. He served as the 61st United States Secretary of the Treasury, he began his career as a Democrat but switched to Republican in 1973. Born in Floresville, Connally pursued a legal career after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. During World War II, he served on the staff of James Forrestal and Dwight D. Eisenhower before transferring to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. After the war, he became an aide to Senator Lyndon B. Johnson; when Johnson assumed the vice presidency in 1961, he convinced President John F. Kennedy to appoint Connally to the position of United States Secretary of the Navy. Connally left the Kennedy Administration in December 1961 to run for Governor of Texas, he held that position from 1963 to 1969. Connally was wounded during the assassination of Kennedy in 1963. Connally was a conservative Democrat. In 1971, Republican President Richard Nixon appointed Connally as his Treasury Secretary. In this position, Connally presided over the removal of the U.
S. dollar from the gold standard, an event known as the Nixon shock. Connally stepped down from the Cabinet in 1972 to lead the Democrats for Nixon organization, which campaigned for Nixon's re-election. Connally was a candidate to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew after the latter resigned in 1973, but Nixon chose Gerald Ford instead. Connally sought the Republican nomination for president in the 1980 election, but withdrew from the race after the first set of primaries. Connally did not seek public office again after 1980 and died of pulmonary fibrosis in 1993. Connally was born on February 27, 1917, into a large family in Floresville, the seat of Wilson County southeast of San Antonio, he was one of seven children born to John Bowden Connally Sr. a dairy and tenant farmer. His six siblings included four brothers: Golfrey, Merrill and Stanford Connally and sisters Carmen and Blanche. Connally attended Floresville High School and, upon graduation, was one of the few graduates who attended college.
He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the student body president and a member of the Friar Society. He subsequently graduated from the University of Texas School of Law and was admitted to the bar by examination. Connally served in the United States Navy during World War II, first as an aide to James V. Forrestal as part of the planning staff for the invasion of North Africa by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, he transferred to the South Pacific Theater. He was a fighter-plane director aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex and was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery, he was shifted to another Essex-class aircraft carrier, the USS Bennington and was awarded the Legion of Merit. He was involved in the campaigns in the Gilbert, Marshall and Philippine islands, he was discharged in 1946 at the rank of lieutenant commander. On his release from the navy, Connally practiced law in the Alvin Wirtz law firm, until Lyndon Baines Johnson a newly elected senator, persuaded him to return to Washington, D.
C. to serve as a key aide. He had close ties with Johnson before his navy days and maintained them until the former president's death in 1973. Two of Connally's principal legal clients were the Texas oil tycoon Sid W. Richardson and Perry Bass, Richardson's nephew and partner, both of Fort Worth. Richardson's empire in the 1950s was estimated at $200 million to $1 billion. Under Richardson's tutelage, Connally gained experience in a variety of enterprises and received tips on real estate purchases; the work required the Connallys to relocate to Fort Worth. When Richardson died in 1959, Connally was named to the lucrative position as co-executor of the estate. Connally was involved in a reported clandestine deal to place the Texas Democrat Robert Anderson on the 1956 Republican ticket as vice president. Although the idea fell through when Dwight Eisenhower retained Richard Nixon in the second slot, Anderson received a million dollars for his efforts and a subsequent appointment as treasury secretary, the same position that Connally would fill for Nixon fourteen years in 1971.
Moreover, in another coincidence, Anderson had been Eisenhower's first Navy secretary, the post that Connally filled for John F. Kennedy in 1961. At the 1960 Democratic convention in Los Angeles, Connally led supporters of Senator Lyndon Johnson, he claimed that John F. Kennedy, if nominated and elected, would be unable to serve as president for a full term because of Addison's disease and dependence on cortisone. Kennedy, had wrapped up the needed delegates for nomination before the convention opened. Kennedy realized that he could not be elected without support of traditional Southern Democrats, most of whom had backed Johnson. Therefore, Johnson was offered the vice-presidential nomination. At Johnson's request, in 1961 President Kennedy named Connally Secretary of the Navy. Connally resigned eleven months to run for the Texas governorship. During Connally's secretaryship, the Navy had a budget of $14 billion and more than 1.2 million workers–600,000 in uniform and 650,000 civilian–stationed at 222 bases in the United States and 53 abroad.
Connally directed the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea on a new kind of "gunboat diplomacy." The USS Forrestal landed in Naples and brought gifts to children in an orphanage. Connally ordered gifts: to a hospital in Cannes, France that treated children with bone diseases. Presents were sent to Turkish children in Cyprus and to a camp in Beirut for homeless Palestinian refugees; the Bay of Pigs incident occurred under his w
United States Department of Defense
The Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with national security and the United States Armed Forces. The department is the largest employer in the world, with nearly 1.3 million active duty servicemen and women as of 2016. Adding to its employees are over 826,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists from the four services, over 732,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.8 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, just outside Washington, D. C. the DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security". The Department of Defense is headed by the Secretary of Defense, a cabinet-level head who reports directly to the President of the United States. Beneath the Department of Defense are three subordinate military departments: the United States Department of the Army, the United States Department of the Navy, the United States Department of the Air Force.
In addition, four national intelligence services are subordinate to the Department of Defense: the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. Other Defense Agencies include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Health Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Defense Security Service, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, all of which are under the command of the Secretary of Defense. Additionally, the Defense Contract Management Agency provides acquisition insight that matters, by delivering actionable acquisition intelligence from factory floor to the warfighter. Military operations are managed by ten functional Unified combatant commands; the Department of Defense operates several joint services schools, including the Eisenhower School and the National War College. The history of the defense of the United States started with the Continental Congress in 1775.
The creation of the United States Army was enacted on 14 June 1775. This coincides with the American holiday Flag Day; the Second Continental Congress would charter the United States Navy, on 13 October 1775, create the United States Marine Corps on 10 November 1775. The Preamble of the United States Constitution gave the authority to the federal government to defend its citizens: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Upon the seating of the first Congress on 4 March 1789, legislation to create a military defense force stagnated as they focused on other concerns relevant to setting up the new government. President George Washington went to Congress to remind them of their duty to establish a military twice during this time.
On the last day of the session, 29 September 1789, Congress created the War Department, historic forerunner of the Department of Defense. The War Department handled naval affairs until Congress created the Navy Department in 1798; the secretaries of each of these departments reported directly to the president as cabinet-level advisors until 1949, when all military departments became subordinate to the Secretary of Defense. After the end of World War II, President Harry Truman proposed creation of a unified department of national defense. In a special message to Congress on 19 December 1945, the President cited both wasteful military spending and inter-departmental conflicts. Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive. On 26 July 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up a unified military command known as the "National Military Establishment", as well as creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, National Security Resources Board, United States Air Force and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The act placed the National Military Establishment under the control of a single Secretary of Defense. The National Military Establishment formally began operations on 18 September, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense; the National Military Establishment was renamed the "Department of Defense" on 10 August 1949 and absorbed the three cabinet-level military departments, in an amendment to the original 1947 law. Under the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958, channels of authority within the department were streamlined, while still maintaining the ordinary authority of the Military Departments to organize and equip their associated forces; the Act clarified the overall decision-making authority of the Secretary of Defense with respect to these subordinate Military Departments and more defined the operational chain of command over U. S. military forces as running from the president to the Secretary of Defense and to the unified combatant commanders.
Provided in this legislation was a centralized research authority, the Advanced Research Projects Agency known as DARPA. The act was written and promoted by the Eisenhower administration, was signed into law 6 August 1958; the Secretary of Defense, appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by federal law (1
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States of America. It consists of the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard; the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and forms military policy with the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, both federal executive departments, acting as the principal organs by which military policy is carried out. All five armed services are among the seven uniformed services of the United States. From the time of its inception, the U. S. Armed Forces played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of national unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War. So, the founders of the United States were suspicious of a permanent military force, it played a critical role in the American Civil War, continuing to serve as the armed forces of the United States, although a number of its officers resigned to join the military of the Confederate States.
The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold War's onset, created the modern U. S. military framework. The Act established the National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense, it was amended in 1949, renaming the National Military Establishment the Department of Defense, merged the cabinet-level Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, Department of the Air Force, into the Department of Defense. The U. S. Armed Forces are one of the largest militaries in terms of the number of personnel, it draws its personnel from a large pool of paid volunteers. Although conscription has been used in the past in various times of both war and peace, it has not been used since 1973, but the Selective Service System retains the power to conscript males, requires that all male citizens and residents residing in the U. S. between the ages of 18–25 register with the service. On February 22, 2019, however, a federal judge ruled that registering only males for Selective Service is unconstitutional.
As of 2017, the U. S. spends about US$610 billion annually to fund its military forces and Overseas Contingency Operations. Put together, the U. S. constitutes 40 percent of the world's military expenditures. The U. S. Armed Forces has significant capabilities in both defense and power projection due to its large budget, resulting in advanced and powerful technologies which enables a widespread deployment of the force around the world, including around 800 military bases outside the United States; the U. S. Air Force is the world's largest air force, the U. S. Navy is the world's largest navy by tonnage, the U. S. Navy and the U. S. Marine Corps combined are the world's second largest air arm. In terms of size, the U. S. Coast Guard is the world's 12th largest naval force; the history of the U. S. Armed Forces dates to 14 June 1775, with the creation of the Continental Army before the Declaration of Independence marked the establishment of the United States; the Continental Navy, established on 13 October 1775, Continental Marines, established on 10 November 1775, were created in close succession by the Second Continental Congress in order to defend the new nation against the British Empire in the American Revolutionary War.
These forces demobilized in 1784. The Congress of the Confederation created the current United States Army on 3 June 1784; the United States Congress created the current United States Navy on 27 March 1794 and the current United States Marine Corps on 11 July 1798. All three services trace their origins to their respective Continental predecessors; the 1787 adoption of the Constitution gave the Congress the power to "raise and support armies", to "provide and maintain a navy" and to "make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces", as well as the power to declare war. The President is the U. S. Armed Forces' commander-in-chief; the United States Coast Guard traces its origin to the founding of the Revenue Cutter Service on 4 August 1790 which merged with the United States Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915 to establish the Coast Guard. The United States Air Force was established as an independent service on 18 September 1947. S. Signal Corps, formed 1 August 1907 and was part of the Army Air Forces before becoming an independent service as per the National Security Act of 1947.
The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps was considered to be a branch of the United States Armed Forces from 29 July 1945 until its status as such was revoked on 3 July 1952. On March 1st, 2019, the Department of Defense sent a proposal to Congress that would establish the United States Space Force as an independent military service within the Department of the Air Force. If approved, this would become the sixth military service branch to be created. Command over the U. S. Armed Forces is established in the Constitution; the sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief. The Constitution presumes the existence of "executive Departments" headed by "principal officers", whose appointment mechanism is provided for in the Appointments Clause; this allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act. The DoD is headed by the Secretary of Defense, a civilian and member of the Cabinet.
The Defense Secretary is second in the U. S. Armed Forces chain of command, with the exception of the Coast Guard, under the Secretary of Homeland Security, is just below the President and serves as the
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush was an American politician who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd vice president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he held posts that included those of congressman, CIA director; until his son George W. Bush became the 43rd president in 2001, he was known as George Bush. Bush postponed his university studies after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, enlisted in the Navy on his 18th birthday, became one of its youngest aviators, he served until September 1945, attended Yale University, graduating in 1948. He moved his family to West Texas where he entered the oil business and became a millionaire by the age of 40 in 1964. After founding his own oil company, Bush was defeated in his first run for the United States Senate in 1964, but won election to the House of Representatives from Texas's 7th congressional district in 1966, he was reelected in 1968 but was defeated for election to the Senate in 1970.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Bush as Ambassador to the United Nations, he became Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. The following year, President Gerald Ford appointed him Chief of the Liaison Office in China and made him the director of Central Intelligence. Bush ran for president in 1980, was defeated in the Republican primary by Ronald Reagan, as Reagan's running mate Bush became vice-president after the ticket's election. During his eight-year tenure as vice president, Bush headed task forces on deregulation and the war on drugs. Bush in 1988 defeated Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis, becoming the first incumbent vice president to be elected president in 152 years. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency. Bush signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States and Mexico. Domestically, Bush signed a bill to increase taxes, he lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession and the decreased importance of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate.
After leaving office in 1993, Bush was active in humanitarian activities alongside Clinton, his former opponent. With George W. Bush's victory in the 2000 presidential election and his son became the second father–son pair to serve as President, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams. At the time of his death, he was the longest-lived president in U. S. history, a record surpassed by Jimmy Carter on March 22, 2019. George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1924 to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Bush; the Bush family moved from Milton to Connecticut shortly after his birth. Bush was named after his maternal grandfather George Herbert Walker, known as "Pop", young Bush was called "Poppy" as a tribute to his namesake. Bush began his formal education at the Greenwich Country Day School attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts beginning in 1938, where he held a number of leadership positions which included president of the senior class, secretary of the student council, president of the community fund-raising group, a member of the editorial board of the school newspaper, captain of the varsity baseball and soccer teams.
Six months after the United States entered World War II following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Bush enlisted in the U. S. Navy after he graduated from Phillips Academy on his 18th birthday, he became a naval aviator. After completing the 10-month course, he was commissioned as an ensign in the Naval Reserve at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943, just three days before his 19th birthday, which made him one of the youngest aviators in the Navy. In September 1943, he was assigned to Torpedo Squadron 51 as the photographic officer; the following year, his squadron was based in USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, where his lanky physique earned him the nickname "Skin". During this time, the task force was victorious at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, one of the largest air battles of World War II. Bush was promoted to lieutenant on August 1, 1944, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands, he piloted one of the four Grumman TBM Avengers of VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima on September 2, 1944.
His crew included Lt. William White, his aircraft was hit by flak during the attack, but Bush released bombs and scored several hits. With his engine ablaze, he flew several miles from the island, where he and one other crew member bailed out. Bush spent four hours in his inflated liferaft, protected by fighter aircraft circling above, until the submarine USS Finback came to his rescue, he participated in the rescue of other aviators. Several of those shot down during the attack were executed, their livers were eaten by their captors; this experience shaped Bush profoundly, leading him to ask, "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?"In November 1944, Bush returned to San Jacinto and participated in operations in the Philippines until his squadron was replaced and sent home to the United States. By 1944 he had flown 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, the Presiden
United States of America
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