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BUSH TAKES OVER :)  In 1988, Vice president George Bush defied the odds and ran for the presidency. By him winning the election, Bush broke a 152-year-old tradition. For the republicans, Bush was an obvious choice to succeed Ronald Reagan. Eight years, President Bush had loyally supported the president, Bush's low profile encouraged Senator Robert Dole and television evangelist Pat Robertson to challenge him for the nomination. Bush and Dukakis competed for the best coverage on the short "sound-bites" of evening news programs. Bush brought a wide range of experience to the White house. As a pilot in World War II, he had won a medal for bravery. After he left the war, he had left his home state of Connecticut to start a successful oil business in Texas. Bush also served as a member of Congress, as ambassador, and as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Bush's Speech...."My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the measure of our lives.....We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he fount it." In the 1988 campaign, Bush had spoken out strongly on the need to control the spread of illegal drugs. Bush administration set up a federal agency to take over the failed banks, sell them, or sell off their assets.

A WORLD IN TRANSITION :) In 1947, George Kennan warned President Truman that the United States must act firmly to contain Soviet aggression. In 1989 the 85 year old Kennan told Congress, "The time for that sort of thing[a policy of containment] has clearly passed. Since the end of WWII, Soviet dominated governments that had controlled the nations of Eastern Europe. There were "freedom fighters" of Hungary in 1956 The Berlin Wall Falls The invasion of panama In the 1980's the industrial nations had become more dependent than ever before on oil from the Persian Gulf November 1990, President Bush convinced the United Nations Security Council to declare January 15, 1991, as a deadline for Iraq's removal from Kuwait