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Prescott Bush - 05/15/1895 to 10/08/1972
Father of George H.W. Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush. He was a US Senator from Connecticut and a Wall Street executive banker at Brown Brothers Harriman. He got his early schooling at Douglas School and St. George's School, and then entered Yale University where he was active in sports and the Glee Club. He was "tapped" to become a member of the Skull and Bones Society on May 18, 1916 Others to join the Skull and Bones Society during this period of time were E. Roland Harriman (one of the Harriman Brothers investment bankers later to form), H.S. Fenimore Cooper (grandson of of James Fenimore Cooper), Knight Wooley (son of Ulysses Grant Wooley), Henry Neil Mallon (President of Dresser Industries where George W. Bush got his first job, and named a son after him). Prescott is famous for digging up Geronimo's skull and presenting it to the Skull and Bones Society.
After graduatiing Yale, he served as artillery captain toward the end of WWI, in the American Expeditionary Forces. He also received intelligence training in France and served both in artillery and intelligence duties. After the war he got his first job in Simmons Hardware Company. He married Dorothy Walker, daughter of George Herbert Walker. Their children were George H.W. (Herbert Walker) Bush, Prescott Bush Jr., Jonathan Bush, William Bush, and Nancy Bush.
In 1923 Prescott and family moved to Columbus, OH to work for Hupp Products Company. He failed in his business efforts here and later the same year moved to South Braintree, MA where he became president of sales for Stedman Products. In 1925 he move again to Greenwich Connecticut to become foreign division manager of the United States Rubber Company.
His real corporate success, as it were, started in 1926 when he started work for his father-in-law George Herbert Walker, and Averill Harriman. He became an officer in their investment banking firm, W.A. Harriman. Averill Harriman was the son of the Union Pacific Railroad tycoon, E.H. Harriman. Averill joined his fathers company and became chairman of the board by 1932, while also running the A.W. Harriman company. Averill also was an ambassador, advicing 5 different presidents. When W.A. Harriman merged in 1931 to become Brown Brothers Harriman, Prescott Bush became a managing partner in this new company. Prescott called it his "good fortune" to work with his good friends from Yale, and Skull and Bones members, including E. Roland Harriman, Knight Wooley, Ellery James, Robert A. Lovett, and Thomas McCance.
From his position in Brown Brothers Harriman, Prescott was able to sit on the board of several corporations, including:
Dresser Industries - oil drilling supply company. W.A. Harriman paid $4,000,000 for Dresser in 1928. Later, Prescott refinanced the company maintaining control. In 1930, E. Roland Harriman and Prescott Bush became members of the Board of Dresser. Bush made Henry Neil Mallon, a Yale classmate, chairman of the Board. Mallon and Bush became lifelong friends. In 1948, Mallon hired George W. Bush to work for Dresser. George W. Bush named one of his sons Neil Mallon Bush. In 1998, Dresser merged with Haliburton and is now known as Haliburton Company.
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) - Averill Harriman introduced Prescott to William Paley, the founder of CBS. Averill represented CBS in the merger with Paramount Studios. Bush was involved in helping Paley finance buying the company, and in 1932 Bush joined the Board of Directors.
Union Banking Corporation - established in 1924. George Herbert Walker was president, and Prescott was on the board, which included his friend E. Roland Harriman, from 1934 to 1943.
Harriman Fifteen Corporation - In the beginning Prescott Bush and Averill Harriman were the sole directors, while George Herbert Walker was President. It is located at 1 Wall Street. Half of the company was later purchaed by the Silesian Holding Company.
Hydrocarbon Research Company - Currently know as Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc., the company develops and sells chemical and energy technologies.
Vanadium Corporation of America - Charles M. Schwab and Jacob Leonard Replogle originally headed this company. In 1942 the U.S. Army Corps of Enginerrs establish the Manhatten Engineer District, also know as the Manhatten Project. They procured uranium and other raw materials used for the production of atomic weapons, and developed the atomic weapons. MED hired Vanadium Corporation of America to procure materials as well as U.S. Vanadium Corporation (owned by Union Carbide).
United States Guaranty Trust
The Continental Bank & Trust Company of New York
Commercial Pacific Cable Company
Hamburg-America Line
Prudential Insurance
Pan American Airlines - Prescott Bush Jr., Bush's son, joined this company in 1943.
Massachusetts Investors Second Fund
Rockbestos Products Corporation - Involved with supplying the Navy electrical cable in the late 1930s.
Pennsylvania Water and Power Company
Prescott was also a member of the Executive Council of the USGA (United States Golf Association) from 1928 to 1935. The Walker Cup is sponsered by the USGA, and is honor of George Herbert Walker who was its original President in 1920.
During the war (WWII) Prescott was campaign chairman of the United Service Organizations and the National War Fund.
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
Before actually running for office he was a member of the Yale Corporation, the principle group governing Yale University. Then he served as finance chairman for the Connecticut Republican Party from 1947-1950. In 1950, Bush ran as Replublican candidate for U.S. Senator of Connecticut, but lost to William Benton by 1000 votes. In 1951 Prescott was President of the United Negro College Fund and an avid supporter. In 1952, he ran again as a Republican for the U.S. Senate position in Connecticut vacated by the death of the incumbent. He defeated Abraham Ribicoff. He held the U.S. Senate office until 1963. Prescott was a big supporter of Eisenhower, and a strong defense for the Cold War.
Prescott Bush owned property all over the U.S. including homes in Long Island, NY and Greenwich, CN; a family compound in Kinnebunkport, ME; a plantation in South Carolina; and an island retreat off of Florida.
Richard Nixon held Prescott Bush in high esteem and considered him his political mentor.
WORLD WAR II NAZI BANKING CONNECTIONS
Fritz Thyssen was the major supplier of the German army's munitions and ore. He was one of Germany's biggest financial backers up until 1938. Harriman Bank was the main Wall Street bank for German companies, including Thyssen's. Trading with or financing Germany wasn't considered illegal until just after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. Six days later Roosevelt signed the Trading with the Enemies Act. A little over 10 months later, on October 20, 1942, the U.S. Government ordered a seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City. This included the following business interests which Prescott was deeply involved with:
It is interesting that Bush's interest in UBC was 1 share, but he was re-imbursed $1,500,000 for it.
George H. W Bush - Born 06/12/1924
Son of Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker. In his early years, from 1936 to 1942, he attended Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. He showed leadership ability and was captain of the baseball team. He became a member of an exclusive fraternity called A.U.V. (Auctoritas, Unitas, Veritas), which is Latin for Authority, Unity, Truth. After graduating in 1942, Bush joined the US Navy as a navy aviator. He was said to be the youngest ever naval aviator during that time, and received several medals and honors by the end of the war. He was shot down once and rescued by a Naval submarine.
After the war Goerge H. W. Bush attend Yale University, where he joined a fraternity. Later he was "tapped" into the Skull and Bones Society. A year later Bush "tapped" his friend from Phillip Academy, William Sloane Coffin.
He married Barbar Pierce in 1945. They had 6 childeren: George W. Bush, Pauline Robinson (died of cancer in less than 4 years), John (Jeb), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy Walker.
After the War Bush got involved with the Texan Oil business and through his father's connections became employed at Dresser Industries. George Bush's son, Neil Mallon Bush is named after his employer at Dresser, Neil Mallon. Mallon remained a close family friend of the Bushs. Later Dresser merged with Haliburton, one of the former CEOs of Haliburton is Dick Cheney who was campaign manager for George H.W. Bush, and then Secretary of Defense. And now Cheney is Vice President of George W. Bush. In the 1970's Bush was on the Board of Directors of Eli Lilly.
POLITICAL ACTIVITES
It is believed by many that George H.W. Bush joined the CIA in 1959 and was involved in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961. But formally, he started his political career by running for U.S. Senator in Texas against Ralph Yarborough, an established Liberal Democrat. Bush attacked Yarborough for voting for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, calling him an liberatl "extremist". Yarborough accused Bush of trying to buy a seat in the Senate. Bush lost by a landslide. He later ran for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1966 and won, and also in 1968. He tried once again in 1970 for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas and lost this time to Lloyd Bentson. During the 1970's Bush served in many positions under Nixon and Ford. He was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Convention, special Envoy to Communist China, Director of the CIA, and on the Committee on the Present Danger. This Committee later had 33 of its members assigned positions in the Reagan Administration, including Richard Allen, William Casey, Jeane Kirkpatrick, John Lehman, Richard Perle, George Shultz, and Ronald Reagan himself.
Bush ran for President in 1980 on the Republican ticket and lost in the Primaries to Ronald Reagan, governor from California. Although first considering Ford as his running mate, in the end Reagan chose Bush to run with him as Vice President. in 1980. The Reagan and Bush ticket ran and won again in 1984, defeating the Democratic ticket of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. Bush was the first Vice President to become the acting President while Reagan was incapacitated and still in Office. After serving 8 years as Vice President Bush ran for President in 1988 with a little known Senator from Indiana named Dan Qualye. The Democratic ticket was Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentson.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH AS PRESIDENT
The most memorable event during his presidency was probably the Gulf War of 1990-1991. Saddam Hussein had moved military forces into Iraq's neighbor Kuwait. Under the auspices of a UN Coalition Bush crushed the Iraqi military with the stated purpose of protecting Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from further invasion. The decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power came into question later on. His Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, had advised not to invade the country because the US would get "bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq". Bush also later said that he didn't want to invade Iraq because we would have "incurred incalculable human and political costs... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq," He also said to Gulf War veterans that invading Iraq was not a good idea because Americans "whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."
Bush had scored very high in the polls during the Gulf War and right afterwards as the population perceived the war to be a military success. However, the ratings slipped later as the country was in an economic recession. Bush ran for President for the third time in 1992 and lost to Bill Clinton, the primary reason probably being because of the country's econmic condition. But other factors that contibuted to his defeat was his decision to side with Congressional Democrats to raise Taxes in 1990, despite his famous "read my lips" promise not to raise taxes. This alienated a large number of the traditional Republican Party supporters. Another factor that worked against Bush and helped Bill Clinton was the fact that Ross Perot won 19% of the popular vote. One of Bush's last acts as President was the controversial act of pardoning 6 government employees involved the the Iran-Contra scandal, including former Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger. Part of the controversy about this act was that Caspar was scheduled to stand trial just 2 weeks after the pardon was issued. He was charged with lying about knowledge of the Arms Sales to Iran, and concealing evidence in his 1700 pages of diary notes. As presumably the notes contained evidence of Bush's approval of the Arms Sales to Iran, some considered Bush was attempting to avoid being called to a Grand Jury for testimony, and possible indictment.
After losing the election in 1992, Goerge H.W. Bush said he was retiring from public life.
George W. Bush - Born 07/06/1946
The current President of the United States, taking office in 2001. Bush atttended Yale, was in the Oil Business, and was Governor of Texas before running for President in 2000. He is the son of Goerge H.W. Bush and grandson of Prescott Bush.
Although G.W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, he was raised in Texas. He was George H.W. Bush's elder son. His younger brothers and sisters are: Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Bush followed his father's footsteps by attending Phillips Academy in Andover, MA from 1961-64. Also, like his father he attended Yale and was a member of the Skull and Bones Society. While at Yale he joined and was president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He played some sports in school and was also a cheerleader. After graduating from Yale in 1968, and in the midst of the Vietnam War, he was admitted to the Texas Air National Guard for a 6 year hitch. He was promoted twice and by 1970 was a First Lieutenant. He obtained permsision to drop the last 6 months of his service in 1973 in order to attend Harvard. There has been controversy about his National Guard record, however. Some say he was skipped over many others on the waiting list to get his call in the Guard. During the Vietnam War, there were large numbers wanting to opt for this non-combat service. There was also controversy about Bush not showing up for a physical and the lack of records of what he did during 1972, some believing he was AWOL. Bush graduated from Harvard with an MBA in 1975. He was the first US President to have obtained an MBA.
On Labor Day in September of 1976 Bush was pulled over and arrested near his family's home in Kennebunkport, Maine for drunk-driving. He was fined $150 and his license was suspended. Strangely enough, this information was never made public until released 5 days before the 2000 Election by the Kennebunkport Police Department.
In 1977 Bush married Laura Welch, and they had two daughters Barbara and Jenna. Overcoming alcoholism at age 40, Bush converted from his family's religion of Episcopalian to United Methodist. He became a "born-again" Christian in 1986 and said he never touched a drop of alcohol again. When asked on several occasions if he ever took cocaine Bush refused to answer.
POLITICAL AND BUSINESS ACTIVITES
Bush ran for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 1978, and lost to Democrat Kent Hance. After this, in 1979, he started an oil and gas exploration business called Arbusto Energy (Arbusto is "shrub" in spanish). The funds for this start up came from various sources including a large contribution from the Salem Bin Laden, of the well known multi-billion dollar bin Laden dynasty and brother of Osama bin Laden. This was done through James R. Bath whose was also a part owner of Arbusto and served with Bush in the Texas Air National Guard (he also showed up missing for the physical exam at the same time Bush did). Bath was Salem bin Laden's agent on a number of other purchases in the U.S. Bush changed the name of Arbusto to Bush Exploration Co. but the company could not find oil and was consistently losing money. But in 1982, Phillip Uzielli, a family friend and classmate of James Baker (of BCCI Banking scandal fame), invested $1,000,000 cash into Bush's company to keep it alive. The investment gave Uzielli a 10% interest in the company valued at $382,376 on the company's financial statements. In other words this gave Uzielli $38,238 equity for his $1,000,000 investment. It was speculated that Uzielli in part might have done this because of the oil business's special Tax provisions that allow up to 75% of their losses to be written off.
Bush still couldn't make any money in Bush Exploration but the cash investment kept the company alive long enough for Bush to sell it to Spectrum 7 in 1984 before it went bankrupt.. Actually, owner William DeWitt didn't want to pay cash for the remains of Bush Exporation so he made Bush CEO of Spectrum 7, put him on the Board, paid him $75,000 a year and $200,000 in consulting fees and gave him 1.1 million shares of Spectrum stock.
Two years later Spectrum was losing money and was $3,000,000 in debt. This time Harken Energy came along to bail Spectrum 7 out of trouble. Harken bought out Spectrum 7 with 2,000,000 shares of Harken stock, of which $224,000 worth of shares went to Bush. But within a few years time, Harken Energy also started failing as a business. In 1989, Harken was showing big losses. So, in that year, through some dishonest accounting practices, Harken sold 80% of its subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum, to a partnership of Harken insiders called Internaional Marketing & Resources for $12,000,000. But $11,000,000 of that $12,000,000 was a note from Harken for $11,000,000. So only $1,000,000 of it was up front. But the books showed a mark-to-market accounting of $7.9 million. So, in summary, Harken borrowed money from their own company to buy a subsidiary at an inflated price. They then booked the sales revenue as profit. By later selling their share of Aloha to another company they got the loan off the books. The final result in the statements to the shareholders were totally misleading, thus eventually leading to SEC involvement. The SEC later said the accounting was 'incorrect'. Harken was on a decline and by spring of 1990 the company was looking for options to keep the company afloat. Bush was on the Board of Directors and assigned to the "Fairness Committee" assess the effects bankruptcy would have on the stockholders. Shortly thereafter, Bush sold $848,560 worth of stock without notifying the SEC of an insider trade. In August of 1990, shortly after Bush's sale, the stock crashed, from $4/share to $2.37/share and eventually hitting $0.22/share. 8 1/2 months later Bush was under investigation for failing to report a stock sale (as an insider). Bush's father, H.W. Bush was president at the time. The SEC never brought charges against Bush, but also said that in no way they were saying he was innocent in the dealings.
With the money he got from the Harken sale, and help from family friends, Bush bought an 86% interest in the Texas Rangers for $75,000,000. Actually, Bush got $500,000 load from a back for part of his investment in the Rangers. The Rangers were sold in 1998, and Bush profited $14.9 million on the deal.
He acted as Managing General Partner of Texas Rangers until he ran for governor of Texas and was elected in November of 1994 defeating incumbent Ann Richards. He was elected for a second term in 1998, and then resigned in 1999 to run for president. During his term as governor, he was known for bipartisan politics, and such controversial acts as his use of the Texas Death Penalty. He signed 152 Death Warrants and executed the first woman in Texas history since the Civil War.
When campaigning for President against Al Gore in 2000, he stood for school vouchers, reduced taxes, drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, restructuring the Armed Forces, and a foreign policy of not using U.S. Forces for "nation building" abroad. One of his major campaign contributers was Enron. He won the 2000 election in one of the closes races in history. Although, he had a plurality of Electoral Votes, Al Gore won the popular vote by 540,000 votes. There was much controversy over the counting of votes in Florida concerning procedures and voting regulations, and as to whether Katherine Harris, Florida Secretary of State and former Bush campaign Co-Chairman, had the right to stop a voter recount. The final decision went to the Supreme Court and was decided in a 5-4 decision along party lines. Bush won in the end by 537 votes.
THE PRESIDENCY
One of the first controversies in the Bush Adminstration was the refusal to sign the Kyoto Agreement which attempts to limit Carbon Dioxide emissions, one of the cause of global warming. There was much criticism from European nations as well as at home. In 2004, the U.S. has the largest emissions of any nation in the world. Also, Bush's tariff on imported steel and Canadian soft lumber drew heat from both sides of the aisle since it didn't seem to consistent with his avowed free market policies.
Although while campaigning for election Bush said he didn't support "nation-building" and other small scale military engagements, after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, Bush deveoloped a new policy for the Middle East. Shortly after the 09/11 Bush launched an attack on Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, who were accused of harboring Osama bin Laden. He got wide International support for this initial action. However, after the quick unpowering of the Taliban, the "nation-building" efforts were long, drawn-out, and troublesome. And Osama bin Laden was never found. There is a large contingent of military forces and advisors there to this day. Elections were held on October 9, 2004 and despite much trouble and doubt about the validity of the election, some have called it a "fairly democratic" election.
The Iraq War is perhaps the biggest controversy during Bush's term. Late in 2002, the Bush Administration started insisting that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were currently producing and had stockpiled Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Although the UN inspectors had found none, and despite great efforts by the UN and others to give them for time to inspect further, the U.S. under Bush invaded Iraq in March of 2003, claiming there was a lack of cooperation from Iraq. The original stated purpose of the War was to stop Iraq from deploying and developing WMDs. The WMDs were never found and later Bush blamed it on faulty Intelligence Reports. Although, the war was declared over within a few months, there is still a full contingent of forces in Iraq, and warring "insurgents" carry on the battle still today.
On the Domestic front Bush has proposed Constitutional Amendments to make abortions illegal, and to ban gay marriage(though he leaves open the possibility of "civil unions"). Some conservative factions feel it is not the place of the federal government to make such decisions but it should be left up to the states. These controversial stands are also of course challenged by the Left. He came out against Affirmative Action, but supported the Supreme Court decision for college selection by Diversity. Bush has implemented tax cuts with large bipartisan support, but some analyze these tax cuts as benefitting the wealthy much more than the middle class. Bush supported the Medicare Act of 2003 which includes presciption drug benefits and prevented the government from negotiating for lower prices on drugs. Bush supported the No Child Left Behind bill and supported a 50% increase on Federal educational spending. Bush's environmental record has been widely criticized weakening environmental protection under the guise of passing Bills that sound like they are helping the environment.
Fiscally, under the Bush Adminstration, the National Debt has reached an all time high, and the Budget Deficit went from a surplus when Bush took office to an all time high deficit.
Bush pushed throught the passage of the Patriot Act shortly after the 09/11 terrorist attack. In retrospect, many feel that the Act has usurped many basic constitutional and civil rights of americans and non-americans in this country.
Neil Bush - Born 01/22/55
Neil was born in Midland, TX to George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush. He is the brother of the President George W. Bush and governor of Florida Jeb Bush. He was named after family friend Henry Neil Mallon, COB of Dresser Industries who was George H.W. Bush's employer. Mallon's employer was Goerge Herbert Walker, George H.W. Bush's grandfather.
Neil is probably best know for being on the Board of Directors of the Silverado Savings and Loan in the 1980s which was the center of the big Savings and Loan scandal. Although no criminal charges were brought against him, but there was a civil case brought against him and the other directors by the FDIC, which they setttled.
Neil co-founded an educational software company called Ignite in 1999.
John Ellis Bush (Jeb) - Born 02/11/53
Jeb was born in Midland, TX where his father, Goerge H.W. Bush had an oil drilling business. His mother is Barbara Bush, and his brother is Goergw W. Bush, the President. When he was 6 they move to Houston. He has gone by the nickname 'Jeb' since early childhood. In his earlier school years he first went to public school and then to a private school. He later transfered to Phillips Academy in Andover, Maine, the same school his father and brother George went to.
Concerning Phillips, Jeb once said he was "a cynical little turd in a cynical little school". He admitted smoking marijuana there. On a student exchange program when he was 17 he went to Leon Mexico, and there met Columba Garnica Gallo. He married her 3 years later. He is said to now speak fluent Spanish. He went to college at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1973 with a degree in Latin American Affairs.
After college he went to work at Texas Commerce Bank, which was partially owned by his father's friend James Baker. James Baker was Treasury Secretary during the Savings and Loan Scandal of the 80's and helped bail the Bush family out of trouble with the Enron scandal. In 1977 he was sent to Caraucus to open a bank and became involved in international finance. In 1979 he returned to the U.S. to work on his father's Presidential campaign.
After the election Jeb and family move to Dade County Florida, near Miami. He got a got in a Real Estate company and became a good Real Estate salesman. His father's name opened many doors for him and he soon was involved in many investments, including a shoe company, the Alaskan Pipeline, water pumps, and the Jacksonville Cougars. Some of these were international investments.
POLITICAL ACTIVITY
His first involvement in politics was as the Republican Party Chairmain of Dade County. He helped Bob Martinez get elected to governor in 1986 and was rewarded by being made the Secretary of Commerce of Florida. After his father was elected President in 1988, his real estate business really took off. In 1993 he sold his share for $1,000,000 and decided to run for governor.
His attempt at becoming governor in 1994 failed, but in 1998 he succeeded. His win was attributed largely to getting the moderate and hispanic vote. His brother George W. Bush also won his re-election bid in Texas in the same year. This was the first time brothers governed two states at the same time since Nelson and Wintrop Rockefeller in 1967-1971. Jeb was governor during the controversial Florida election count in the Presidentail race in 2000. His state became the critical state in winning the election for his brother.
Jeb was re-elected in 2002. Jeb is known to be active in Project for the New American Century which aspires to "American Global Leadership", and has as members such notables as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Richard Armitage, Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby, William Bennett, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Ellen Bork, wife of Robert Bork.