When Things Went Right: The Dawn of the Reagan-Bush Administration

Images

President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush outside the Oval Office, . (White House photo) Where it all began: the staff of freshman congressman George Bush of Texas in his office in the Longworth Building, June . The author is at far left, and at far right is Don Rhodes, the Bush family’s invaluable friend and helper for over forty years. Fourth from the right is Rose Zamaria, then the office manager and two decades later the director of administration in the first Bush White House. (US House photo) The author walking with Vice President Bush from the West Wing to the White House Residence on  March . At rear left is C. Boyden Gray, counsel to Bush as both vice president and president. At rear right is the Rev. Thaddeus Garrett, assistant to the vice president for domestic policy. (White House photo) The Boeing  known as SAM (for Special Air Missions)  was used by George Bush as Air Force  during his vice presidency (–), primarily on international trips. It was the first jet to be Air Force , having taken President Dwight D. Eisenhower on his foreign travels in –. (US Air Force photo) The President comes to lunch,  March : standing in the Vice President’s West Wing office (under the gaze of the nation’s second vice president, Thomas Jefferson) are, from left: the author; Barbara Hayward, personal secretary to the vice president; President Reagan; Jennifer Fitzgerald, scheduling assistant to the vice president; Vice President Bush; and Kim Brady, Ms. Fitzgerald’s assistant. (White House photo) In his private cabin aboard Air Force , returning to Washington from Austin on the afternoon of  March , Vice President Bush hears from presidential counselor Ed Meese that President Reagan had come through surgery well after being shot a few hours earlier. From left: speechwriter Vic Gold, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Vice President Bush, and the author, getting Bush’s thoughts on a dramatic day. (White House photo) The author (back to camera, second from the left) describes the model of a nineteenthcentury US warship to West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Vice President Bush in the Vice President’s West Wing office on  January . At far left is Adm. Dan Murphy, vice presidential chief of staff. (White House photo) Famed portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (“of Ottawa”) speaking with Vice President Bush in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing on  January . Through the door at the rear and across a narrow passage is the Oval Office. (White House photo) “Just your typical palace”: the Akasaka Detached Palace, where the Bushes and their party stayed in Tokyo, April . The Akasaka is “detached” from the Imperial Palace, located nearby within formidable walls and moats. (Japanese government photo) Invitation to a luncheon with the Emperor of Japan at the Imperial Palace in honor of Vice President and Mrs. Bush,  April . The imperial seal is a golden chrysanthemum with sixteen petals; the Japanese government uses a paulownia flower on its seal. (Author’s collection) The menu for the Japanese emperor’s luncheon (in French): clear turtle consommé, managatsuo (butterfish) in champagne sauce, filet of beef au Richelieu, green salad, ice cream in the shape of Mount Fuji, and miscellaneous sweets. (Author’s collection) Vice President and Mrs. Bush with Emperor Hirohito of Japan after a private audience in the Imperial Palace, Tokyo, on  April . (White House photo) Flying from Hangzhou to Beijing, China, on  May , US officials entertain (and try to distract) Vice Foreign Minister Han Xu in the lounge aboard Air Force  (SAM ). From left: the author; Donald Gregg, then of the National Security Council staff and soon to be Vice President Bush’s national security advisor; Han; and John Holdridge, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The retractable partition at rear encloses the private cabin. (Author’s collection) Vice President Bush boosting the Senate campaign of Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey (right) at a fundraising dinner in New Brunswick,  October . Applauding at left are Barbara Bush and Gov. Tom Kean. (White House photo) Pope John Paul II gives the author a commemorative medallion after a private audience for Vice President and Mrs. Bush and their staff in His Holiness’s private library at the Vatican,  February . The Bushes...