president under george w. bush, secretary of transportation under george h. w. bush. and we have andrew s. natsios, a executive professor at the bush school at texas a&m university and director of the skill prostitute of national affairs. he has been a distinguished professor at the university of george brown. a veteran who served in the gulf war, u.s. special envoy to sudan during the door for crisis and now, go today they have edited and produced transforming our world. president h. w. bush and foreign policy. a collection of foreign policy essays from well-known practitioners who participated in the unfolding of international events as part of that bush administration. as we get going i want to make sure everyone knows we will have your audience questions right at the end of our program. if you have questions please submit them to event at wilson center dot org. please include your name and affiliation. let me get things going. for me a recurring theme in this book, even though it was written by 20 authors in terms of the essays is good footed. the notion that geor

bush, and secretary to george h w bush. we have executive director of fiscal institute of international affairs. he has been it distinguished professor on diplomacy at georgetown, vice president of worldvision, a veteran who served in the gulf war, us special envoy to the darfur process and most especially administer of international development. today they have edited and produced transforming our world, george h w bush and american foreign policy, a collection of essays from well-known foreign-policy practitioners who participated in unfolding international events in the administration. i to make sure everyone knows we will have time to take some audience questions near the end of the program. if you have questions please submit them to event@wilsoncenter.org. please include your name and affiliation. let me get things going. for me, a recurring theme in this book even though it was written by 20 authors in terms of the essays is good fortune. and ocean that george w. bush was uniquely qualified to lead the free world whe

president george h. w. bush famously said i do not do that, with just one and what's stick with nato, stick with its ability to expand. there was a strong u.s. preference for sticking with pre-existing security organizations. there were people at the time who pushed back. there were central and eastern europeans, many of them former dissidents who had gone from prisons to presidencies once the revolution succeeded. and, many of these people who were pacifists that had refused to do military service in their country. they did not like either the soviet bloc or nato. and, many of them who were in positions of political authority said wishes be cognizant of the great historical tragedies that have happened in central and eastern europe. we should, in response that we have a chance, dissolve the borders in central and eastern europe. demilitarize and through nuclearize it and create a permanent zone of peace between east and west. you can say that would have been crazy, but that would have been a new world orde

these countries were targeted by the george h w bush, or george w bush, the senior vice president of ronald reagan and bribed with hundreds of millions of dollars. and these monies were given the countries in exchange for their acquiescence and their submission to american military and economic and political objectives. no ring of nato military bases is being formed around russia. the u. s. and nato have over $600.00 military base is. well, dwight, russia has just 18. but the west still claims that russia has aggressive intent by turning this russians. the soviets, and to this dangerous bo, you man, that wants to take over the world. that was a conscious strategy to create this image of the soviets. as out for world conquest, which was not the case, then for now. ah, nato should have died, but they will give it meaning. it is about infected, created by, by nato nature's business machine. because you must remember, if nato, what is bad, that shareholders in united states and elsewhere in lodge obs companies would lose millions and millions. they'd only have one year instead of 2 yards

so, after he left the white house, he no longer had to do that, but george h. w. bush, he had the honor and the law pleasure to and counter him a few times. i used to teach at texas a&m at the george bush school of public service. he used to come to my class. he always struck me as one of the most decent individuals to occupy the white house. and, the most -- i had no idea that he had this sense of humor and this capacity for humor, but it was not long after he left the white house, at about the time that his presidential library was opening, and schools opening at texas a&m, he gave a closed door address to students at texas, closed-door in the sense that the press was not allowed. and, one of the things that president often have a hard time with, and george h. w. bush really had this problem, when the press was around, he sort of had to act presidential. and, so he often came across as sort of -- lyndon johnson had the same problem. but, once he knew there were no reporters in the room, no cameras, he could just, sort of, let himself go. and, he did an imitation

a vote for george h. w. bush for president, in 1988, has turned out to be a vote to revoke a constitutional right. his son, george w. bush, created the department of homeland security, which endorse, and began wars that he could not complete. but, his most enduring legacy is, now, the delivery of samuel alito to the united states supreme court. the first supreme court justice to write an opinion revoking a constitutional right. donald trump did something no one-term president has ever done before. he appointed three supreme court justices. the last president to appoint three's court justices, was ronald reagan, and it took him eight years to do it. the president least capable, in our history, of evaluating candidates for the united states supreme court, got to a 0.3 of them, and all three are voting to revoke a constitutional right. 70% of the country as opposed to what the supreme court is doing, in a democracy, this would never happen. we do not live in a democracy, because of the electoral college, and th

we watched george h. w. bush personally moved to the right in realtime when he was selected by ronald reagan as his vice president running mate in 1980. george aclu bush was then forced to formally endorse the republican platform opposing roe v. wade. in a recently revealed passage of his wife's diary. first lady barbara bush wrote in her own handwriting, what do i feel about abortion? not a presidential issue. abortion is personal, between mother, fathers and doctors. that is what george w. bush's mother thought about abortion. when george w. bush became president, he was even more strongly opposed to roe v. wade than his father had been. if you voted for george h. w. bush in 1988, thinking he wasn't serious about overturning roe v. wade, you bet wrong. clarence thomas is the only legacy of the first bush presidency. and without clarence thomas's vote, roe v. wade is would not be overturned. if you voted for george w. bush, you voted for overturning roe v. wade. he made that very, very clear. and if you did

it's the george h. w. bush intelligence center come so that's the kind of impact just one year on the job. >> you are at doj, the number two there. you become acting attorney general when attorney general thornburgh gets convinced to run for senate with the unfortunate death of senator heinz. it was supposed to be the dog days in washington, right, in august a sleepy time. you had to do with a very major issue early on. tell the audience about that story. that was a component part of the book for me. >> so i initially at justice, bush put me in the head of the office of legal counsel which is like a legal beagles office, i call the eggheads of the department. we give constitutional advice. i don't have that job for year but it was a fantastic job and it really made me number two which is the chief operating officer, the deputy attorney general. and then dick thornburgh had to go and run for the senate because john hinds heinz n killed in the plane crash. and the president said look, would make the decision

. >> if you voted for george h. w. bush, you voted for this, because he appointed crimes illness, was one of the deciding votes here. if you voted for george w. bush, you voted for this, because he appointed samuel alito whose writing this opinion. and of course, if you voted for donald trump, you voted for three of the justices who made this the majority opinion here. and so, any vote for any one of the last three republican presidents has turned out to be a vote to repeal this constitutional right. and, i didn't necessarily see in that way in 1988, voting for george h. w. bush, or even in 2000, when it seemed like, as brett kavanaugh was kept saying in his confirmation hearing, starring decisive this would hold roe v. wade in our law. what has changed within the republican party over that time so that this now became something they actually could the chief and did achieve this way through the court? >>, it just became a chorus about politics and the maneuvering to gain advantages and republican primaries. i've seen i

h w bush who had come to head the cia. he had been the ambassador to china. came to head to cia and i established my relationship with bush. i was 26 years old at the time and that relationship was obviously. pivotal in my life because he eventually made me attorney general. he served in that role for a year if i recall. yeah, he was in that role as a head of cia for one year and during this time. the cia was under investigation by six committees and one commission. this was for alleged. excesses during the cold war things like attempted or successful assassinations and things like that. and so he had to defend the agency during the time where everyone was trying to tear it apart. and he did such a great job in that one year and he won the respect of the agency professionals who are the old-time cold warriors in those days? that they named the cia campus and building after him. it's the george hw bush intelligence center. so that's the kind of impact. it could have even just one year in the job. you your doj. you're the nu