https://www.foxnews.com/us/george-h-w-bush-41st-president-of-the-united-states-dead-at-94


As with many political figures, you can nitpick about their faults and shortcomings, but I think history will be kind to George H.W. Bush. And already has been.

Arguably the most qualified person to ever run for president, and someone who mostly continued and solidified Reagan's legacy, and oversaw the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But also a president who was disappointingly not as conservative in his four years as his predecessor, oversaw the passing of NAFTA and GATT, and (along with Bill Clinton, George W., and Barack Obama) oversaw the shrinking of the middle class, the move toward his "New World Order" of globalism, and the offshoring of U.S. industry to southeast Asia, the rise of China, and in the wake of the Afghan war a power vaccuum that led to the rise of Al Qaida.

Bush was a moderate who did his best to put out fires globally before they spread into larger regional wars, such as Bosnia and Kuwait, and could have continued the war from Kuwait into Iraq to eliminate Saddam Hussein's threat, but chose not to for the bloodbath of civil war he, Cheney and James Baker thought it would create. And when the stalemate of no-fly-zones in Iraq (1991-2000) was used as a rationalization for 9-11-2001, Cheney and George W. Bush reversed that strategy and invaded Iraq to eliminate that festering problem. With obviously mixed results.

I think Bush only was prevented from getting re-elected in 1992 by independent candidate Ross Perot's taking 19% of the vote, that allowed Bill Clinton (as G-man has cited often) to win the election with 43% of the vote (mostly taking votes from Bush's fiscal-conservative base, including myself and most Republicans I knew at the time).

But Bush's presidency will no doubt be remembered for continuing Reagan's legacy, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Soviet influence over eastern Europe, and ultimately with the collapse of the Soviet Union itself in 1991.

Perhaps Bush will also be remembered for his civility and reaching across the aisle. He and Bill Clinton over the last three decades had become good friends before his death.