Rise to Fame
At 18, he enlisted the same day he graduated high school. Getting shot down over the Pacific in September 1944, floating on a raft for four hours until a submarine surfaced, is how his public story started. He came home with the Distinguished Flying Cross, graduated Yale in under three years, and then spent the 1970s accumulating a resume nobody else had: UN Ambassador, RNC chairman through Watergate, envoy to China, CIA Director. Reagan still beat him in 1980 but made him VP anyway, and in 1988 he became the first sitting VP to win the presidency since Martin Van Buren in 1836.
In the Spotlight
The Gulf War is where he peaked. In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and he spent five months assembling a 34-nation coalition, getting UN authorization, and working Congress for support. Operation Desert Storm launched in January 1991; the ground war lasted four days. Post-victory, his approval rating hit roughly 90%. Then the economy tanked and took it all with it. In 1992, with the Cold War over and Germany reunited on his watch, he lost reelection to Clinton with just 37% of the popular vote. Gorbachev later called him a 'genuine partner' in ending the Cold War. History has been kinder than voters were.
Side Notes
The skydiving was a promise he made to himself in 1944 while floating in the Pacific waiting for rescue: if he survived, he'd jump out of a plane on purpose someday. He kept it, jumping on his 75th, 80th, 85th, and 90th birthdays. The 1992 Tokyo state dinner was less triumphant: he vomited on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and fainted, a moment that became a global punchline and an SNL sketch. His marriage to Barbara lasted 73 years, the longest presidential marriage on record at the time.
Final Chapter
His last words, spoken by phone to George W. Bush in Dallas, were 'I love you, too.' He lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda December 3-5, 2018, and his state funeral at Washington National Cathedral drew every living president. Trump attended but did not speak, the first sitting president to give no tribute at a state funeral since LBJ's in 1973. A custom locomotive numbered 4141 carried his casket by rail to Texas A&M, where he was buried beside Barbara and their daughter Robin.