TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/031191/03119918.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 83 lines

                                                                                THE GULF WAR, Page 55

THE PRESIDENCY

Of Force, Fame and Fishing


By Hugh Sidey


    Never before has an American President stood so grandly
astride this capricious world as George Bush does these days.
Historians scratched their heads last week and looked back for
something comparable. There was nothing.

    "Woodrow Wilson had a dominant position in world affairs
after World War I," notes former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger. "But there were other players on that stage." The
aging tiger Georges Clemenceau, France's Prime Minister, still
prowled the premises, as did Britain's Prime Minister David
Lloyd George, another heavyweight. "No nation in any historical
period has had the spectacular success of the U.S. these past
two years," adds Kissinger, who was a professor of history
before he became a shaper of policy and then a wealthy
consultant on international relations.

    "There may be some similarity with the emergence of the U.S.
at the end of World War II," suggests foreign affairs scholar
Kenneth Thompson. But again there were other major figures
shaping events: the Kremlin's Joseph Stalin, a menacing but
victorious war leader; and Britain's Winston Churchill, the man
of the half-century.

    In June 1945, just after the German surrender, George
Gallup's polling organization registered an 87% job-approval
rating for Harry Truman, the highest Gallup figure for any
President on record even today. But researchers acknowledge
that Truman himself had little to do with that endorsement,
having taken office only two months before, when Franklin
Roosevelt died. The unknown Truman rode the crest of relief and
joy.

    A number of current polls show that Bush's rating has soared
into the 80s and 90s. But Gallup, perhaps the most respected
sampler, waited until the gulf victory had sunk in and then
launched its canvass over the weekend. The figures will be
announced this week. The Gallup experts predict that Bush will
equal the Truman mark and perhaps even top it.

    Bush's ascendancy is quite different from that of any other
President. He had extraordinary luck in the timing of the gulf
war. Kissinger points out that the collapse of the communist
system and all its ripples through the client states rendered
the Soviet leadership virtually helpless when Iraq invaded
Kuwait. "There was no able leader comparable to Bush around,"
says one of the President's advisers. "Gorbachev for all his
peace efforts was a sideshow. Margaret Thatcher was gone." The
widespread notion that Bush would forever remain in the
charismatic shadow of Ronald Reagan or be viewed as a foreign
policy amateur compared with Richard Nixon has evaporated. It
will probably never rise again.

    But the hazards of such an exalted position in the world are
obvious. War is almost always easier to run than peace,
especially when you have such a magnificent military machine.
The tributes to Bush last week in the U.S. Congress will endure
about as long as it takes to say "pork barrel." The
instantaneous maneuvering of the diplomatic corps for Bush's
favor was heard at dozens of dinner tables through the week.

    Fortunately, Bush knows better than anyone else the
fragility of exaltation and has warned about it since his
Inauguration. Even better, Barbara plans to drag him off to a
fishing vacation as soon as possible. Herbert Hoover, who never
had Bush's luck or touch, nonetheless left some pertinent
wisdom for Presidents. He urged them to go fishing at every
opportunity. "It is discipline in the equality of men," said
Hoover. "For all men are equal before fish."