(CNN) George H.W. Bush, the 41st President, whose steady hand and foreign policy vision led the nation through a period of sweeping global change, has died at the age of 94.

Bush's death, late Friday at his home in Houston, was announced by his son and fellow Republican, former President George W. Bush, who praised his father as "a man of the highest character."

Born into privilege and a tradition of service, Bush was a son of a senator, celebrated World War II combat pilot, student athlete, Texas oilman, Republican congressman, national party chairman, pioneering diplomat and spy chief. After his own 1980 presidential campaign came up short, he served two terms as Ronald Reagan's vice president before reaching the pinnacle of political power by winning the 1988 presidential election, soundly defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis.

After losing the White House in 1992, Bush became a widely admired political elder who leapt out of airplanes to mark birthday milestones. Emphasizing the generosity of his soul, he forged a close -- and unlikely -- friendship with Democrat Bill Clinton, the man who ended his presidency. When Parkinson's disease mostly silenced him in public, Bush flashed his sense of humor by sporting colorful striped socks.

Bush's death comes after his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, passed away on April 17 at age 92. Before her funeral, Bush was pictured in a wheelchair gazing at his wife's flower-covered casket, in a moment that encapsulated their life-long love affair.

On his final day, Bush was asked, according to a source, whether he wanted to go to the hospital. The former president said no, and that he was ready to go and be with Barbara and Robin, who died of leukemia as a child.

A source familiar with Bush's final hours told CNN that Bush spoke his final words to his son, George W., during a phone call. In the conversation, the son told the senior George Bush that he had been a "wonderful father."

"I love you, too," his father replied.

The elder Bush's final words were first reported by the New York Times.

Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures President George H.W. Bush attends the Republican National Convention in Houston in 1992. Bush dedicated his life to serving others and held many different roles in government, the highest being President. Hide Caption 1 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush is pictured with his sister, Mercy, in 1929. He was born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. Their father, Prescott Bush, was a successful Wall Street banker who became a US senator in 1952. Hide Caption 2 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush sits in his VT-51 Avenger in 1945. Two years earlier, he became the youngest pilot in the US Navy. He flew 58 combat missions in World War II and was awarded three Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Hide Caption 3 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures After the war, Bush attended Yale University and played baseball there from 1945 to 1948. He was team captain. Hide Caption 4 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Before he entered politics, Bush made a fortune drilling for oil in Texas. He created the Zapata Offshore Co., which introduced a new era in the drilling industry. Hide Caption 5 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush is pictured with his wife, Barbara, during his first campaign for Congress. He represented Texas' 7th District from 1967 to 1971, and he was appointed to the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Hide Caption 6 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush represents the United States at the United Nations in 1971. He served as US Ambassador from that year until 1973. Hide Caption 7 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush sits with members of his family in 1971. He met his wife at a country club dance in 1941, and they were married in 1945. They had six children. Hide Caption 8 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Under President Gerald Ford, Bush served as the chief liaison to China in 1975. Here, Bush greets well-wishers in Beijing. Hide Caption 9 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Ford meets with Bush in December 1975 to talk to about Bush taking over as director of Central Intelligence. Hide Caption 10 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures The Bushes stand with Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, in 1980. Bush lost to Reagan in the primaries but became his running mate. Hide Caption 11 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush and House Speaker Tip O'Neill listen to Reagan deliver his second State of the Union address in 1983. Hide Caption 12 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Reagan shakes hands with Bush in 1988. Bush served as Reagan's vice president from 1981 to 1989, and he would succeed him as President. Hide Caption 13 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures The Bushes pose for a 1986 photo in Kennebunkport, Maine. Hide Caption 14 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures The Reagans and the Bushes join hands after President Reagan endorsed Bush's presidential run at a dinner in 1988. Hide Caption 15 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush poses for a photo with real estate mogul and future President Donald Trump during a campaign event in 1988. Hide Caption 16 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush debates Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988. Hide Caption 17 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush joins supporters in Houston after learning he had defeated Dukakis in the presidential election. Hide Caption 18 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Shortly after winning the election, Bush casts a line while surf fishing in Gulf Stream, Florida. Hide Caption 19 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev takes in the New York skyline with Reagan and Bush in 1988. Hide Caption 20 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush was sworn into office as the 41st president of the United States on January 20, 1989. First lady Barbara Bush holds the Bible for her husband while Chief Justice William Rehnquist administers the oath of office. Hide Caption 21 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures President Bush delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 31, 1990. Hide Caption 22 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush holds up a plastic bag with crack cocaine during a televised speech about drugs in 1989. Weeks later it was revealed that government agents had bought the drugs from a dealer in front of the White House for the purpose of Bush's speech. Hide Caption 23 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush hosted Nelson Mandela, South Africa's anti-apartheid leader and future president, at the White House in June 1990. Hide Caption 24 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush and the first lady wave goodbye to US Marines and British troops after a Thanksgiving Day visit to Saudi Arabia in 1990. Hide Caption 25 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush and Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speak on separate phones in February 1991 while Joint Chiefs John Sununu, Robert Gates and Brent Scowcroft listen to a conversation about halting the Gulf War. Hide Caption 26 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush, at his vacation home in Kennebunkport, meets with Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991. Bush also appointed Justice David Souter in 1990. Hide Caption 27 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush plays golf with tennis player Andre Agassi in 1991. Hide Caption 28 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush and Gorbachev shake hands at the end of a news conference in Moscow in July 1991. Hide Caption 29 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures From left, Presidents Bush, Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon stand together at the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Library in 1991. It was the first time five presidents gathered in one place. Hide Caption 30 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle join hands at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston. They are joined by their wives, Marilyn Quayle and Barbara Bush. Hide Caption 31 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush checks his watch during a 1992 presidential debate with Ross Perot, right, and Bill Clinton. The memorable moment was interpreted as the President being out of touch. Hide Caption 32 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush takes a last look around the Oval Office with his dog, Ranger, before vacating the White House for Bill Clinton. Hide Caption 33 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush's eldest son, George Walker Bush, was elected President in 2000. They became the second father-son duo in history to hold the office (the first being John Adams and John Quincy Adams). The two Georges hug here moments after the youngest was sworn in on January 20, 2001. Hide Caption 34 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures With his father by his side, President George W. Bush sits at his desk in the Oval Office for the first time on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2001. Hide Caption 35 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush rides a Segway at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 2003. Hide Caption 36 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Celebrating his 80th birthday in 2004, Bush performs one of two skydiving jumps he completed with the Army Golden Knights. Hide Caption 37 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed his father and Bill Clinton to lead fundraising efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Hide Caption 38 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush arrives on the South Lawn of the White House in 2008. Hide Caption 39 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures President Barack Obama presents Bush with the Medal of Freedom in February 2011. "His life is a testament that public service is a noble calling. ... His humility and his decency reflects the very best of the American spirit," Obama said. Hide Caption 40 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Barbara Bush kisses her husband as they arrive for the 2012 premiere of a documentary about his life. Hide Caption 41 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush, in the wheelchair, arrives for the dedication of his son's presidential library in Dallas in 2013. Joining him, from left, are President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Hide Caption 42 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush holds up his wife's hand at a Republican presidential debate in 2016. One of their sons, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was among the candidates in the debate. Hide Caption 43 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures The Bushes participate in the ceremonial coin toss before the Super Bowl in 2017. Hide Caption 44 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush was admitted to a hospital in April 2017 for an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia. This photo of him and his son George was posted to Twitter. "Big morale boost from a high level delegation. No father has ever been more blessed, or prouder," the elder Bush wrote about the photo. Hide Caption 45 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush joins former presidents and first ladies at the funeral ceremony for his wife in April 2018. Behind Bush, from left, are Laura Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and current first lady Melania Trump. Hide Caption 46 of 47 Photos: President George H.W. Bush's life in pictures Bush is seen in the car after a stay in the hospital. His son Jeb tweeted the photo in May 2018, saying, "My beloved dad is in Maine." Bush had been admitted to the hospital after contracting an infection that spread to his blood, a family spokesman said. Hide Caption 47 of 47

The first sitting vice president to be elected to the presidency since 1836, Bush was also only the second person in US history to see his own son follow in his presidential footsteps when George W. Bush was elected in 2000.

In addition to the 43rd president, Bush is survived by his son Jeb, the former Florida governor and 2016 presidential candidate; sons Neil and Marvin; daughter Dorothy; and 17 grandchildren. His daughter Robin died of leukemia as a child, a tragedy that still moved Bush deeply late in his life. He will be buried alongside her and the former first lady at his presidential library in College Station, Texas.

Bush will lie in state at the US Capitol before a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, with a second memorial service to follow at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston. He will then be taken by a motorcade procession to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, where he will be laid to rest. Specific times and more details will be announced at a later time, according to the statement released by Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath.

President Donald Trump will designate December 5 as a national day of mourning, according to a White House statement, and the President and first lady Melania Trump will attend the funeral at the National Cathedral.

When Bush left office in 1993, he joined the dubious club of presidents rejected by voters after only one term in office. A career filled with top jobs preparing him for the presidency was cut short in its prime.

He lost to Clinton after failing to shake off his image as a starchy Yankee oblivious to the struggles of heartland Americans during an economic downturn.

But as time passed, his foreign policy acumen has come to define his presidency, leaving a legacy of wise and sure-handed management of world affairs.

The first Persian Gulf War

Bush, alongside national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State James Baker, engineered a soft landing for the Cold War as the Soviet empire shattered and Germany unified and then prospered -- despite widespread distrust at the time of its history and motives.

In another dangerous foreign policy test, Bush decided in 1990 to build a diverse international coalition, including more than 400,000 US troops, to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

"This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait," Bush vowed before getting to work on a successful mission that united US allies in Europe and the Middle East in a lightning war.

Later, with Iraqi forces routed, Bush decided not to push on to Baghdad to oust Saddam Hussein. That instinct later came to look prescient, given the blood and resources expended by the United States in his son's own war against Iraq.

The 1990s Gulf War was the first time the world learned of the huge leaps in precision weaponry used by US forces and ushered in a brief era of unchallenged American hegemony after the dented confidence of the post-Vietnam war era.

Earlier, Bush had also ordered US troops to invade Panama after an off-duty Marine was killed by forces loyal to dictator Manuel Noriega. The force quickly overwhelmed Noriega's men and he was overthrown in just four days and was later sentenced to 40 years in US federal prison on drug charges.

Bush also had to walk a fine line with China, imposing sanctions after a 1989 government crackdown on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but also seeking to prevent a permanent rupture in relations. Also on his watch, Washington backed early diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians, which led to the Oslo accords in the Clinton presidency.

Perception of being out of touch at home

But Bush's success abroad became a cross to bear at home. Voters appeared to get the impression he was more interested in striding the world stage than their economic struggles.

His failure to connect was encapsulated by an incident in which his fascination with a supermarket scanner during his 1992 re-election campaign triggered widespread mockery.

Former aides to this day insist that Bush was maligned by a New York Times report on the incident, which they say resulted from a misinterpretation of a pool report.

But in another incident, Bush exacerbated the idea he was out of touch by looking at his watch in a town-hall style presidential debate, then waffled when a woman asked how he was personally affected by the bad economy.

Bush was often criticized for lacking an overarching political philosophy, a charge he testily decried by complaining about "the vision thing."

'Read my lips'

He managed to undermine himself with powerful GOP conservatives by breaking his famous 1988 GOP convention pledge: "Read my lips: no new taxes."

On Election Day, with the right-of-center vote fragmented by third-party candidate and billionaire businessman Ross Perot, Bush carried only 18 states and just over 37% of the vote.

In many ways, Bush paid a price for ragged presentation skills. Even before his 1988 presidential campaign, there were questions about his political fortitude. Newsweek magazine, which in pre-social media days had immense power to set the political media narrative, published a cover story questioning whether the President was beset by the "wimp factor."

In her 1988 Democratic convention keynote speech, then-Texas Treasurer Ann Richards had lampooned Bush's upbringing and tongue-tied political style by joking Bush was "born with a silver foot in his mouth."

Other incidents in Bush's presidency entered popular culture. Once, he caused a brief panic when he collapsed at a state dinner in Japan. He blamed the embarrassment on a stomach illness. In 1990, he banned broccoli on Air Force One, saying he had hated it since he was a kid.

As elder statesman, he kept publicly quiet

Bush faded from view during the Clinton years, but was thrust back into the spotlight -- and became the subject of a torrent of amateur psychology -- when his son ran for president in 2000.

Once his son entered office, those expecting a restoration of the elder Bush's ways were disappointed. The new president responded to the September 11, 2001, attacks by rejecting the internationalism of his father and embracing the neo-conservative doctrine of preemptive war.

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There was much speculation about what Bush thought of his son's actions in Iraq, especially after some of his foreign policy lieutenants went public with criticisms of US policy.

But the elder Bush kept quiet in public, though he was outraged when Democrats branded George W. Bush a "liar" during his 2004 re-election bid.

The attacks on his other son, Jeb, who endured a bruising primary battle in 2016 against Donald Trump, the eventual GOP nominee and 45th president, caused him deep personal pain.

Sources said the elder Bush voted for Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival.

Both former Bush presidents did call to congratulate Trump soon after the New York businessman's win over Clinton. In one of his final political acts, Bush wrote to Trump to apologize for not being able to not attend his inauguration owing to his poor health.

But in many ways, the acerbic and bitterly divisive election of 2016 represented a final wrenching departure from the more courtly, old-fashioned politics practiced by George H.W. Bush, who until late in his life would pen handwritten notes to friends, former political allies and foes and even reporters who covered his presidency. He counted Democrats among his closest friends, and his death marks not only the passing of a president but a reminder of a bygone era of greater civility in Washington.

WWII hero became Texas oil prospector

Born in Massachusetts on June 12, 1924, George H. W. Bush was the son of wealthy Wall Street banker and future Connecticut Sen. Prescott Bush and Dorothy Bush.

He became the youngest naval pilot at age 18 following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and flew combat missions from the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto. As a "flyboy" in the Pacific War, Bush flew 58 combat missions and won the Distinguished Flying Cross.

One mission in September 1944 was almost his last. Bush's air wing attacked a radio installation on the tiny Japanese-held island of Chichi Jima. During the raid, his plane was hit and as flames licked around the cockpit, Bush gave the order to abandon the aircraft. The bodies of his crewmen, Ted White and John Delaney were never found. Bush, after desperately paddling his life raft away from the island and Japanese boats sent out to capture him, was miraculously rescued by a U.S. submarine.

It took decades before Bush was able to speak publicly about his experiences in the war.

"It was just part of my duty. People say, 'war hero.' How come a guy who gets his airplane shot down is a hero and a guy who's good enough that he doesn't get shot down is not?" Bush told CNN in 2003.

Late in his life, the former president's heroism was recognized when the Navy named a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier after him.

After returning from the Pacific, Bush attended Yale University, where he was a noted athlete and then went west with his new wife, Barbara Pierce, to set himself up as an early Texas oil prospector.

By the mid-1960s, politics was calling and Bush ran for the US Senate, but lost. In 1966, however, he was on his way, winning a seat in the House of Representatives.

Chosen by President Richard Nixon to serve as envoy to the United Nations, Bush later served as the head of the Republican National Committee during the Watergate scandal.

Then, he became one of the few prominent Westerners to get into China, which had been closed to outsiders for decades. Bush headed the US Liaison Office in Beijing, the forerunner of the US Embassy. He later detailed his experiences, including trips into the Chinese countryside on bicycles, in diaries published in 2008.

In 1976, Bush became the head of the CIA. He only held the job for a year, but was so well remembered that the agency later named its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, after him, and he would later say it was his favorite job.

In 1980, Bush ran for the White House, challenging former California Gov. Ronald Reagan for the GOP nomination, slamming what he said was his foe's "voodoo economic policy."

After a sometimes rancorous campaign, Reagan won, and after briefly flirting with picking former president Gerald Ford as his running mate, handed Bush the vice presidential spot.

'Nothing self-conscious in my love of country'

With Reagan set to leave office in 1989, with his popularity ratings on a high, Bush was in the ideal spot to claim the nomination and the presidency.

"I may not be the most eloquent, but I learned early that eloquence won't draw oil from the ground," Bush said in his 1988 convention speech.

"I may sometimes be a little awkward, but there's nothing self-conscious in my love of country. I am a quiet man -- but I hear the quiet people others don't," Bush said, vowing to fight for a "better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light."

It's an irony that it was not until he was well-settled in retirement that many Americans began to get glimpses into the character traits that might have helped him win a second term.

Refusing to bow to advancing age, he marked his 75th, 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays by going skydiving, with the money going to charity. His primary causes included literacy, cancer research and volunteerism, and he and Barbara Bush would raise more than $1 billion for charity in their years after the White House.

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He and Clinton became close friends after working together after the Asian tsunami disaster in 2004 and after Hurricane Katrina the following year.

"It was an amazing experience. This man who I had always liked and respected and ran against ... I literally came to love," Clinton said in 2011.

President Barack Obama awarded Bush the Presidential Medal of Freedom that same year.

Never completely got out of politics

Several bouts with illness and advanced age kept Bush out of the spotlight in recent years and he has rarely made public remarks.

But, in November 2014, he was in the audience in a wheelchair when George W. Bush published a biography entitled "41: A Portrait of My Father."

The younger Bush poignantly said he "wanted Dad to be alive" when the book came out.

In 2017, several women accused Bush of inappropriately touching them during photo ops, prompting his spokesman to release a statement saying that "on occasion, (Bush) has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner" and apologizing to "anyone he has offended."

The elder Bush revealed several years ago he suffered from a form of Parkinson's disease which left him unable to walk. He used a wheelchair or a scooter to get around.

Bush suffered multiple health scares later in his life. In December 2014 he was hospitalized for what aides described as a precautionary measure after experiencing shortness of breath, and the following July fell at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, breaking the C2 vertebrae in his neck. The injury did not result in any neurological problems, his spokesman said at the time.

This story has been updated.</s>Former President George H.W. Bush Dies At 94

Hide caption George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, speaks at a fundraiser in Dallas in 1991. Previous Next Marcy Nighswander/AP

Hide caption Bush is pictured with his sister in 1929. Previous Next AFP/Getty Images

Hide caption Bush served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945. He was one of the youngest pilots in the Navy during World War II. Previous Next AFP/Getty Images

Hide caption Bush married Barbara Pierce in 1945. They had six children and were married 73 years. Previous Next AP

Hide caption Bush made a fortune in the 1950s drilling oil as the president of Zapata Offshore Oil Co. Previous Next AP

Hide caption Bush celebrates after winning the U.S. House seat for Texas' 7th District in 1966. Previous Next Ed Kolenovsky/AP

Hide caption Bush ran against Ronald Reagan for the GOP presidential nomination in 1980 but lost. Reagan chose him to be his vice president. Previous Next Charles Tasnadi/AP

Hide caption Bush and his wife, Barbara, wave at a victory party after he beat Democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. Previous Next J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Hide caption Bush and his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, hold a July 1991 news conference in Moscow to announce the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Previous Next Mike Fisher/AFP/Getty Images

Hide caption The Bushes share the stage with Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, at the Republican National Convention in August 1992. Previous Next Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

Hide caption Bush concedes the presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton in November 1992. Previous Next Bob Daemmrich/AFP/Getty Images

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Hide caption Bush (center bottom) performs a tandem parachute jump with Army Golden Knight Sgt. Bryan Schnell in 2004 over the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. Bush made two jumps to celebrate his 80th birthday. Previous Next U.S. Army/Getty Images

Hide caption Father and son wave to the crowd before the Texas Rangers host the San Francisco Giants in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. Previous Next Christian Petersen/Getty Images

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Updated at 7:05 a.m. ET

George Herbert Walker Bush died Friday at the age of 94.

Former President George W. Bush released a statement, saying for himself and his siblings, "Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died."

"George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for," he said of the 41st president. "The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."

There were fears that after his wife, Barbara, died in April, Bush might die, too. He was admitted to the hospital with a blood infection on April 23, one day after the funeral for the former first lady, and remained there for 13 days. He also spent time in the hospital in May and June, but lived to be the first former president to reach the age of 94.

Bush was the patriarch of a political dynasty that included one son who served as president, another as a governor and a grandson who currently holds statewide office in Texas.

Enlarge this image toggle caption Charles Tasnadi/AP Charles Tasnadi/AP

The senior Bush had a lifetime of public service before he became president — as a young Navy pilot in World War II, Texas congressman, CIA director and faithful vice president to Ronald Reagan.

"His loyalty to Ronald Reagan was legendary," said biographer Timothy Naftali. "He did not always agree with Ronald Reagan. And he was so secretive about those moments where he disagreed, we don't even have good documentation — at least not available yet — on when he disagreed."

Bush famously disagreed with Reagan when he ran against him in the Republican primary of 1980. Bush branded Reagan's supply-side faith that government could slash tax rates without losing revenue as "voodoo economic policy."

History would prove that assessment right. Reagan later had to reverse some of his tax cuts in the face of mounting deficits. But by the time Bush ran to succeed Reagan, he knew what it took to win the confidence of conservative Republicans.

"Read my lips," Bush pledged at the 1988 GOP convention. "No new taxes."

Bush trounced Democrat Michael Dukakis that year to win the White House. But he ultimately backtracked on his lip-reading promise. During 1990 budget negotiations with Democratic congressional leaders, Bush, like Reagan before him, agreed to a tax increase.

Enlarge this image toggle caption J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images

His press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, recalled a budget meeting where the deal was presented.

"The minute I saw it, I looked around the table and the Democrats looked like the cat who ate the canary," Fitzwater said. "They knew they had negotiated a winner."

The tax hike cut the deficit, but it cost Bush dearly with conservatives. Years later, he would receive a Profile in Courage award from John F. Kennedy's grandson, who said, "America's gain was President Bush's loss."

Bush's most notable accomplishments in the White House came in the area of foreign policy. While Reagan is often credited with winning the Cold War, it was Bush who successfully navigated the aftermath. His low-key approach avoided inflaming communist hard-liners and allowed for the peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union.

"The soft landing that occurred, which was not inevitable, is in large measure due to George H.W. Bush's diplomacy," said Naftali.

Bush, who served as U.S. envoy to China as well as a globe-trotting vice president, had a thick Rolodex and plenty of experience working the phones. His lifetime of foreign contacts also came in handy when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Bush methodically assembled an international coalition to push them back.

Enlarge this image toggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP J. Scott Applewhite/AP

A five-week bombing campaign was followed by a 100-hour ground assault that routed the Iraqis from Kuwait. Some wanted allied troops to push on to Baghdad and topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But Bush said no.

"The president's decision was we are not going on to Baghdad," the late diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger recalled. "If we do, we will have violated the agreement we have with our allies, which was to bring Saddam out of Kuwait. It was not to bring Saddam down. And in addition, it will tie us into an area where we cannot be sure how soon we can withdraw."

Enlarge this image toggle caption Ron Edmonds/AP Ron Edmonds/AP

Bush's son George W. would revisit that decision a dozen years later, with costly results.

The first Gulf War was a clear victory for U.S. forces. As commander in chief, George H.W. Bush saw his approval ratings soar to nearly 90 percent. His lock on a second term seemed so solid that many national Democrats opted to sit out the 1992 election, leaving it to the governor of a small Southern state to challenge him.

Bill Clinton of Arkansas had one big advantage, though: the economy, stupid. As the country sank into recession, Bush's popularity sank with it. There was no parachute or soft landing this time. He lost a three-way race in the November election, carrying just 38 percent of the vote.

More than two decades later, George W. Bush, who experienced his own roller-coaster ride in the polls, wrote an affectionate portrait of his father, titled 41.

"I want people to better appreciate George Bush, as not only a great person but a very successful president," the younger Bush said.

Bush was also the linchpin of a political dynasty that now spans four generations — including a second son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who ran for the White House and lost in the 2016 Republican primaries as Donald Trump became the dominant force in a GOP that had evolved far from where it was when the 41st president was in office.

Whatever the senior Bush's political shortcomings, hindsight has cast his presidency in a kinder, gentler light.

President Trump praised George H.W. Bush on Twitter as someone who "led a long, successful and beautiful life."

Author Interviews From 2014: George W. Bush On His Common Enemy With His Father, Saddam Hussein Bush 41 And 43 Share Common Enemy: Saddam Hussein Listen · 7:22 7:22

"Whenever I was with him I saw his absolute joy for life and true pride in his family," Trump tweeted. "His accomplishments were great from beginning to end. He was a truly wonderful man and will be missed by all!"

The White House also issued a statement saying, "Melania and I join with a grieving Nation to mourn the loss of former President George H.W. Bush, who passed away last night."

The statement also referenced George H.W. Bush as a president who "guided our nation, and the world, to a peaceful and victorious conclusion of the Cold War."

Bush was the definition of establishment success: Yale graduate. Prosperous business career. Forty-first president of the United States.

But to one admittedly biased observer, the elder Bush has always been shortchanged.

"As a result of him being a one-term president, historians hadn't paid much attention to him," George W. Bush told NPR in a 2014 interview. He called his father "one of the greatest one-term presidents in the nation's history."</s>HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush, a patrician New Englander whose presidency soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait, but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, has died. He was 94.

Bush, the 41st president of the United States and the father of the 43rd, was a steadfast force on the international stage for decades, from his stint as an envoy to Beijing to his eight years as vice president and his one term as commander in chief from 1989 to 1993.

The last veteran of World War II to serve as president, he was a consummate public servant and a statesman who helped guide the nation and the world out of a four-decade Cold War that had carried the threat of nuclear annihilation.

His death marks the passing of an era.

Although Mr. Bush served as president three decades ago, his values and ethic seem centuries removed from today’s acrid political culture. His currency of personal connection was the handwritten letter — not the social media blast.

He had a competitive nature and considerable ambition that were not easy to discern under the sheen of his New England politesse and his earnest generosity. He was capable of running hard-edge political campaigns, and took the nation to war. But his principal achievements were produced at negotiating tables.

“When the word moderation becomes a dirty word, we have some soul searching to do,” he wrote a friend in 1964, after losing his first bid for elective office.

Despite his grace, Mr. Bush was an easy subject for caricature. He was an honors graduate of Yale University who was often at a loss for words in public, especially when it came to talking about himself. Though he was tested in combat when he was barely out of adolescence, he was branded “a wimp” by those who doubted whether he had essential convictions.

This paradox in the public image of Mr. Bush dogged him, as did domestic events. His lack of sure-footedness in the face of a faltering economy produced a nosedive in the soaring popularity he enjoyed after the triumph of the Persian Gulf War. In 1992, he lost his bid for a second term as president.

“It’s a mixed achievement,” said presidential historian Robert Dallek. “Circumstances and his ability to manage them did not stand up to what the electorate wanted.”

His death was announced in a tweet by Jim McGrath, his spokesman. The cause of his death was not immediately available. In 2012, he announced that he had vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that limited his mobility. His wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, died on April 17.

The afternoon before his wife’s service, the frail, wheelchair-bound former president summoned the strength to sit for 20 minutes before her flower-laden coffin and accept condolences from some of the 6,000 people who lined up to pay their respects at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.

Mr. Bush came to the Oval Office under the towering, sharply defined shadow of Ronald Reagan, a onetime rival for whom he had served as vice president.

No president before had arrived with his breadth of experience: decorated Navy pilot, successful oil executive, congressman, United Nations delegate, Republican Party chairman, envoy to Beijing, director of Central Intelligence.

Over the course of a single term that began on Jan. 20, 1989, Mr. Bush found himself at the helm of the world’s only remaining superpower. The Berlin Wall fell; the Soviet Union ceased to exist; the communist bloc in Eastern Europe broke up; the Cold War ended.

His firm, restrained diplomatic sense helped assure the harmony and peace with which these world-shaking events played out, one after the other.

In 1990, Mr. Bush went so far as to proclaim a “new world order” that would be “free from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice and more secure in the quest for peace — a world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak.”

Mr. Bush’s presidency was not all plowshares. He ordered an attack on Panama in 1989 to overthrow strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega. After Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in the summer of 1990, Mr. Bush put together a 30-nation coalition — backed by a U.N. mandate and including the Soviet Union and several Arab countries — that routed the Iraqi forces with unexpected ease in a ground war that lasted only 100 hours.

However, Mr. Bush decided to leave Hussein in power, setting up the worst and most fateful decision of his son’s presidency a dozen years later.

In the wake of that 1991 victory, Mr. Bush’s approval at home approached 90 percent. It seemed the country had finally achieved the catharsis it needed after Vietnam. A year-and-a-half later, only 29 percent of those polled gave Mr. Bush a favorable rating, and just 16 percent thought the country was headed in the right direction.

The conservative wing of his party would not forgive him for breaking an ill-advised and cocky pledge: “Read my lips: No new taxes.” What cost him among voters at large, however, was his inability to express a connection to and engagement with the struggles of ordinary Americans or a strategy for turning the economy around.

That he was perceived as lacking in grit was another irony in the life of Mr. Bush. His was a character that had been forged by trial. He was an exemplary story of a generation whose youth was cut short by the Great Depression and World War II.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Mass., on June 12, 1924. He grew up in tony Greenwich, Conn., the second of five children of Prescott Bush and the former Dorothy Walker.

His father was an Ohio native and business executive who became a Wall Street banker and a senator from Connecticut, setting a course for the next two generations of Bush men to follow. His mother, a Maine native, was the daughter of a wealthy investment banker.

Mr. Bush’s early years were hard ones for the country, although his family — which had a cook, a maid and a chauffeur — felt none of it. He attended the private Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. The close-knit Bushes spent summers at the family house at Walker’s Point, Maine, and Christmases at his grandfather’s shooting lodge in South Carolina.

At a prep school party during the 1941 Christmas season, he spotted a girl in a red-and-green dress. He asked another boy to introduce him to Barbara Pierce, whose father was head of the McCall’s publishing empire.

“I thought he was the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on. I couldn’t even breathe when he was in the room,” Barbara Bush would later say, adding, “I married the first man I ever kissed.”

Prescott Bush wanted his son to go right to Yale upon graduation from Andover. But Mr. Bush said his father had also insisted that privilege carried a responsibility to “put something back in, do something, help others.”

His own time to serve came on his 18th birthday, when he enlisted in the Navy; within a year, he received his wings and became one of the youngest pilots in the service.

Sent to the Pacific, he flew torpedo bombers off the aircraft carrier San Jacinto. On Sept. 2, 1944, his plane was hit by Japanese ground fire during a bombing run on Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands in the western Pacific. He pressed his attack even though his plane was aflame.

Mr. Bush bailed out over the ocean and was rescued by a submarine. His two crewmen were killed. The future president was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war, he went to Yale, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, the university’s storied secret society, and captain of the baseball team. Barbara took their baby son, George W., to the games.

In 1948, following his graduation, he was rejected for a post he wanted with Procter & Gamble. So he moved to Texas to go into the oil business, snagging an entry-level job through a family connection.

Mr. Bush began his political career as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party at a time when being a Republican in Texas was as much an electoral liability as having Northeastern roots.

In 1964, he ran for the U.S. Senate and was defeated by Democrat Ralph Yarborough. In 1966, after selling his interest in his oil company, Mr. Bush was elected to the first of two terms in Congress from a House district in Houston.

In 1970, at the request of President Richard M. Nixon, who wanted to shore up Republican fortunes in Texas and elsewhere in the Sun Belt, he made a second run for the Senate and lost to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen.

Mr. Bush recruited his longtime friend James A. Baker III — a nominal Democrat with little interest in politics — to run that campaign, in part to help Baker get through his bereavement after the death of his wife. Baker switched parties, and their friendship became an alliance that would help shape policy and politics for decades.

After Mr. Bush’s 1970 Senate defeat, there came a rapid progression of high-profile jobs that began when Nixon named him ambassador to the United Nations. In 1973 and 1974, Mr. Bush served as chairman of the Republican National Committee during the waning days of the Watergate scandal that would result in Nixon’s resignation.

He was disappointed when Nixon’s successor, Gerald R. Ford (R), chose Nelson Rockefeller, rather than him, as vice president in 1974. In 1974 and 1975, Mr. Bush was the chief U.S. envoy to China. In early 1976, he became head of the CIA. He was well regarded but left no great mark in any of those jobs. Nor did he commit any major blunders.

After former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter (D) defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential election, Mr. Bush returned to private life and began preparing for his most audacious move yet: a run for president.

During the 1980 primaries, Mr. Bush positioned himself as a moderate, pragmatic alternative to Reagan, and he derided as “voodoo economics” the former California governor’s vow to simultaneously cut taxes, boost defense spending and balance the budget.

Mr. Bush pulled off a surprise win in the Iowa caucuses and declared he had “big mo’ ” that would carry him to the nomination. Ultimately, he proved no match for Reagan and the conservative forces that had come to dominate the party.

Yet he found another opening at the Republican National Convention that year, when he emerged as the consensus choice to be Reagan’s running mate, after party elders botched an effort to put together a Reagan-Ford ticket.

It took no small amount of adjustment for Mr. Bush to remold himself according to Reagan’s brand of conservatism. Among other things, he changed to Reagan’s positions on abortion and supply-side economics. The cartoon “Doonesbury” later described him as having put “his political manhood in a blind trust.”

The ticket won in back-to-back landslides in 1980 and 1984. Once elected, Mr. Bush maintained a relatively low-profile role as vice president — chairing a number of task forces, offering counsel on foreign policy — while sharpening his bona fides and his political organization to make another run for the presidency.

Mr. Bush was barely brushed by Iran-contra, the major scandal of the Reagan presidency. He said he had been “out of the loop” when decisions were made to sell military equipment to Tehran to gain the release of U.S. citizens held hostage by pro-Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. This was contrary to Reagan’s declared policy of never dealing with terrorists. The profits from the sales were used to provide aid to the anti-communist contra rebels in Nicaragua, which was a violation of U.S. law.

Never fully accepted into the Reagan inner circle, Mr. Bush established some distance from his former boss in his 1988 Republican National Convention speech, when he promised a “kinder, gentler nation.” Reagan’s wife, Nancy, was widely reported to have bristled, asking: “Kinder and gentler than whom?”

In the 1988 election, Mr. Bush’s Democratic opponent was Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, who captured his party’s nomination largely on the strength of the “Massachusetts Miracle,” a surge of technology-driven economic growth.

The Bush campaign turned Dukakis into an object of scorn, raising questions about his patriotism, his competence, his environmental and fiscal records and, most damaging, his attitude toward criminals.

Dukakis had supported a program that allowed convicted murderers in Massachusetts prisons to earn furloughs for good behavior. One who did so was Willie Horton, who, while on furlough, went to Maryland and raped a woman after beating and knifing her fiance. Dukakis was appalled and promptly shut the program down.

To Lee Atwater, Mr. Bush’s chief campaign adviser, Horton was an irresistible opportunity. Horton was black, and his elevation into a national figure by Bush supporters was widely denounced as a crude appeal to racism. Atwater himself expressed regrets about the 1988 campaign before he died of cancer, at 40, in 1991.

Mr. Bush won the election with 53 percent of the vote. He carried 40 states and received 426 electoral votes. He was the first sitting vice president elected to the nation’s highest office since Martin Van Buren succeeded Andrew Jackson in 1837.

As president, Mr. Bush worked long hours and had a penchant for detail. Fred Malek, his campaign manager in 1992, described him as “a guy who wanted to do everything well.” But in stark contrast to his predecessor, Mr. Bush failed to articulate an overarching view of the principles by which he governed.

“The vision thing,” as he called it, eluded him. “Some wanted me to deliver fireside chats to explain things, as Franklin D. Roosevelt had done,” he confided to his diary. “I am not good at that.” He was, he said, a “practical man,” who preferred “what’s real,” not “the airy and abstract.”

Mr. Bush espoused generally conservative economic and social programs: lower taxes, regulatory reform, more support for commercial development and access to foreign markets. He negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, a measure that was ratified by the Senate in President Bill Clinton’s first term.

Mr. Bush supported voluntary prayer in public schools and adoption rather than abortion. He also supported gun owners’ rights. “Let’s not take away the guns from innocent citizens,” he said in a speech. “Let’s get tougher on the criminals.”

Faced with Democratic control of both houses of Congress, Mr. Bush followed what became known as his “veto strategy.” In all, he vetoed 44 bills. Ten of them were intended to ease restrictions on abortions. The others concerned various regulatory, tax and spending measures. All but one of his vetoes — of a bill to regulate the cable television industry — were sustained.

But Mr. Bush could not allay suspicions in some quarters that he lacked core beliefs. To critics, particularly in the right wing of the GOP, he seemed willing to say whatever was necessary to get elected.

His was a team of seasoned advisers who forged an active but pragmatic foreign policy and set a less divisive and less ideological course on domestic matters.

Mr. Bush placed a high value on loyalty and on cultivating relationships that became part of the through line of his career.

Chief among them was Baker, who at various points served as Mr. Bush’s campaign manager, secretary of state and White House chief of staff. Baker also did stints as Reagan’s chief of staff and treasury secretary, and in the messy aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, led the Republican team monitoring the Florida recount that put Mr. Bush’s eldest son, George W. Bush, over the finish line.

Other relationships would also link the two Bush presidencies. After his first choice for defense secretary, Sen. John G. Tower (R-Tex.), failed to be confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Bush tapped another old friend, Richard B. Cheney, a conservative Republican congressman from Wyoming, for the job. For chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he picked Gen. Colin L. Powell, who had been national security adviser in the Reagan White House.

Baker, Cheney and Powell played central roles in U.S. interventions in Panama and the Persian Gulf during Mr. Bush’s presidency. Cheney and Powell went on to hold high office in George W. Bush’s administration: Cheney as vice president and Powell as secretary of state.

One of Mr. Bush’s more impulsive selections was his choice of Dan Quayle, the junior senator from Indiana, to be his running mate in 1988. Mr. Bush made the move without consulting even his closest aides, leaving his campaign unprepared for what followed.

There were immediate questions about Quayle’s service in the Indiana National Guard during the Vietnam War. He also attended law school at Indiana University during that period. Critics noted that he had never practiced law and suggested that he had used the Guard to avoid the draft.

Quayle never fully laid to rest those questions or the broader doubts about his qualifications for stepping into the presidency. While the vice president earned high marks as the administration’s emissary to conservatives, Mr. Bush wrote in his diary that he “blew” the decision on Quayle in 1988. But in 1992, he refused to replace him on the ticket.

Mr. Bush made two nominations to the Supreme Court. The first was David H. Souter, a federal appeals court judge, who was confirmed without difficulty. The second was Clarence Thomas, an African American who was a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Thomas was appointed to succeed Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the high court. Anita Hill, a former aide to Thomas, accused him of sexual harassment. After rancorous hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, the full Senate confirmed him by a vote of 52 to 48, the closest margin since the 19th century.

It is not possible to appreciate the signature foreign policy achievements that occurred on Mr. Bush’s watch without viewing them in the context of the four decades that preceded them.

In the era after World War II, the United States sought to contain Soviet influence around the world. The nation fought divisive and demoralizing wars in Korea and Vietnam, headed the NATO alliance that stood against Warsaw Pact forces in Europe and engaged in a global nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union that infused the era with existential dread.

Within a year of Mr. Bush’s inauguration, the international situation changed almost beyond recognition. What Reagan had called “the evil empire” was collapsing, and the Soviet Union was lurching toward dissolution.

Mr. Bush approached the changing world with a view that was pragmatic rather than ideological. He had little faith in the so-called Star Wars anti-ballistic missile system that Reagan believed would protect the nation from nuclear attack, so he signed two nuclear disarmament agreements with Moscow.

As Reagan had, Mr. Bush saw an ally and a kindred spirit in Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the leader who tried to reform the Soviet system through “glasnost” (openness) and “perestroika” (economic reform). Mr. Bush said that he “could sit down and just talk. I thought I had a feel for his heartbeat. Openness and candor replaced the automatic suspicions of the past.”

In June 1989, Gorbachev announced that he would not enforce the Brezhnev Doctrine, under which Moscow reserved the right to intervene in satellite countries. Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia were escaping Soviet domination; the Baltic states were moving toward independence. Hungary opened its frontier with Austria. Thousands of East Germans used this route to defect to the West.

On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, a symbol of communist oppression, was breached. East Germany collapsed. Two years later, the Soviet Union voted itself out of existence.

Mr. Bush played a quiet role as Gorbachev and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany settled terms for the reunification of Germany. The deal was sealed when Kohl agreed to pay billions of dollars to shore up the Soviet economy and cover the cost of removing Soviet forces.

Mr. Bush helped convince Kohl that a reunited Germany should stay in NATO. Similarly, he agreed with French President François Mitterrand that German reunification was a matter for the Germans to decide and that only a “united Europe” could keep Germany in check. Prodded by former president Nixon, Mr. Bush gave economic aid to Moscow.

He was always mindful of Russian sensibilities. When the Berlin Wall came down, he told reporters that he did not “think any single event is the end of what you might call the Iron Curtain.”

Mr. Bush also put a high premium on stability, as evidenced by his measured — critics said inadequate — reaction to the Chinese crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. He suspended military sales and contacts with China but sent national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Eagleburger, the undersecretary of state, to Beijing to discuss the situation with Chinese leaders.

“What I certainly did not want to do was completely break the relationship we had worked so hard to build since 1972,” when Nixon opened relations with China, Mr. Bush wrote in his memoirs. “We had to remain involved, engaged with the Chinese government, if we were to have any influence or leverage to work for restraint and cooperation. While angry rhetoric might be temporarily satisfying to some, I believed it would deeply hurt our efforts in the long term.”

In Latin America, Mr. Bush ended U.S. support for the contra guerrillas in Nicaragua. In exchange for economic aid, the leftist Sandinista government agreed to free elections. A year later, the Sandinistas were voted out of power.

Reagan’s preoccupation with communism in Central America had been a major factor in the Iran-contra scandal. As Mr. Bush left office, he issued pardons for Caspar W. Weinberger, Reagan’s secretary of defense, and five other officials who had faced charges for their Iran-contra roles.

Although he had an affinity for diplomacy, Mr. Bush’s legacy will also be defined by his decisions to go to war.

In Panama, Noriega had once been a valued anti-communist asset of the United States, and for several years he was on the CIA payroll. As his power grew, he enriched himself at the expense of the Panamanian public, and he became a kingpin in the drug trade. In 1988, he was indicted on drug charges by a U.S. grand jury.

On May 7, 1989, Noriega overturned an election in which his slate was defeated. Three days later, the opposition staged a protest.

The Bush administration moved to protect the Panama Canal and U.S. civilian and military personnel living in the canal zone. In October, a Panamanian major staged an anti-Noriega coup. It was immediately suppressed. Tensions between the United States and Panama escalated, as U.S. forces in the canal zone were beefed up.

On Dec. 16, 1989, one day after Panama passed a resolution saying a state of war existed between the two countries, a U.S. Marine officer was killed by Panama Defense Force troops as he and three other officers drove away from a PDF roadblock. A Navy officer and his wife who witnessed the incident were taken into custody, interrogated and threatened with death before being released.

On Dec. 17, 1989, Mr. Bush ordered U.S. forces to invade. The action began Dec. 20 with air attacks and a spectacular nighttime parachute assault.

The fighting was over in a matter of hours. On Christmas Eve, Noriega took refuge in the residence of the papal nuncio, where he remained for 10 days, during which time U.S. forces surrounded the Vatican Embassy and blasted it with ultra-loud rock music. Noriega surrendered Jan. 3, 1990. He was flown to Miami, tried and convicted of an array of drug offenses.

Mr. Bush met his greatest international challenge in the Persian Gulf, where U.S. policy was driven by an insatiable need for oil. In 1990, about a quarter of U.S. oil imports came from the gulf states. A quarter of that total came from Iraq.

With stability in the region a paramount concern, Iran was regarded as the primary threat to U.S. interests after the revolution that overthrew the shah and brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power in the late 1970s. The United States turned to Iraq as a counterweight to Tehran and supported it throughout an eight-year war with Iran.

The Bush administration continued the pro-Iraqi policy, and in 1989 the United States provided $500 million in agricultural credits to the Baghdad regime, with plans for more. The aid continued despite increasingly hostile statements directed toward Israel by Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator.

Hussein had long coveted Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny neighbor to the south, which held 10 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. In the summer of 1990, Hussein massed troops on the Kuwaiti border, and in August he invaded.

The United States was caught by surprise, but the response of the Bush administration was quick. Comparing Hussein to Hitler, the president vowed that the invasion would not stand. Working the telephones and relying on his personal contacts, he organized the 30-nation Desert Shield coalition.

He obtained a mandate from the United Nations and another from a divided Congress that was haunted by the role it had played in getting the United States into Vietnam. The resolution supporting the war passed the Senate by five votes, with all but 10 Democrats voting against it. Israel was persuaded to stay on the sidelines for fear of offending the Arabs.

On Jan. 17, 1991, U.S. and allied planes struck Iraqi targets, and Desert Shield became Desert Storm.

The ground war commenced Feb. 24, and Iraqi forces were quickly routed. Mr. Bush ordered a cease-fire 100 hours after the fighting began. He had the support of Cheney, the defense secretary; Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the allied commander; and Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Iraq agreed not to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and U.N. inspectors were to monitor compliance. Schwarzkopf let the Iraqis keep their armed helicopters.

In the eyes of the American public and its military, the seemingly effortless victory marked the turning of a page from the national mortification endured in Vietnam.

But Hussein remained in power. He still had at his disposal the formidable Republican Guard, which had not been involved in the fighting. When Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq and Kurds in the north revolted, the guard used the helicopters to crush them.

The fighting had scarcely ended when Mr. Bush came under criticism for not pushing on to Baghdad and deposing Hussein. It was also said that he had urged the Iraqis to revolt and then abandoned the Shiites and the Kurds to a brutal fate.

The president’s answer was that the U.N. mandate called for expelling Iraq from Kuwait, not for invading Iraq or eliminating Hussein.

“Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq,” Mr. Bush wrote in his memoirs, “would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in ‘mission creep,’ and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs.”

Ultimately, it was Mr. Bush’s son who achieved Hussein’s removal from power, with a war that he launched in 2003, on what turned out to be inaccurate information that the Iraqi dictator had weapons of mass destruction.

The second Iraq conflict was part of what the younger Bush called the “war on terror,” launched in the wake of attacks on New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. It led to prolonged military engagements in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Foreign policy experts say the effort had the unintended consequence of further destabilizing the Muslim world, leading to the growth of new terrorist movements.

Mr. Bush bristled at the often-made suggestion that one of his son’s motivations was taking care of the family’s unfinished business. The elder Mr. Bush told Time magazine in 2003 that whether to go to war is a lonely call for any commander in chief: “It is the toughest decision a president has to make, to send the sons and daughters of Americans into harm’s way.”

The Gulf War was not the end of Mr. Bush’s foreign policy legacy. He subsequently sponsored talks in Madrid between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization that formed the basis of a decade-long effort to forge peace in the Middle East. In his last days in office, he ordered U.S. troops to Somalia, an African country in political chaos, to deal with devastating famine.

As the 1992 presidential election approached, the attention of the American public was turning homeward, and Mr. Bush’s political standing came crashing to earth. Eighteen months after his triumph in Iraq, his approval rating plummeted, and only 16 percent of those polled thought that the country was headed in the right direction.

Mr. Bush had promised a “kinder, gentler” America. He signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act, a broad civil rights measure that prohibited discrimination in employment, public services and public accommodations on the basis of physical or mental disability. Among his other accomplishments were far-reaching amendments to the Clean Air Act that had been stalled in Congress for years.

But he also was confronted with threats on the economic front, one of which was a menacing budget deficit, which grew from the Reagan years and clouded every aspect of the Bush presidency, domestic and foreign. The president acknowledged as much in his inaugural address when he told the nation, “We have more will than wallet.”

Another major economic problem inherited from the Reagan era was a savings-and-loan industry crisis, which threatened the stability of the banking system. (It was also a source of embarrassment to the president because of his son Neil’s connection to a Denver S&L that failed.) Mr. Bush quickly organized a rescue package.

The deficit proved a greater challenge. Holding the line on taxes was a basic tenet of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, and Mr. Bush made it the centerpiece of his 1988 campaign. Although he feared that it might tie his hands as president, he made a pledge to cheering delegates at the GOP nominating convention:

“The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again. All I can say to them is: Read my lips. No new taxes.”

But the nation’s accounts continued to hemorrhage red ink, and Mr. Bush decided he had to act. In 1990, he made a budget deal with the Democratic-controlled Congress, which raised taxes.

When he ran for reelection in 1992, Mr. Bush said the 1990 budget had been “a mistake,” but the damage was done. Conservatives never forgave him.

Meanwhile, as recession ravaged the economy, the president’s efforts to connect with the struggles of average Americans came off as hollow and sometimes laughable. During the Christmas season of 1991, his White House staged an infamous photo op of the president buying four pairs of socks at J.C. Penney and exhorting Americans to shop their way out of bad times. At one point, he told a town hall meeting in hard-hit New Hampshire: “Message: I care.”

In November 1992, Mr. Bush was defeated by a relative newcomer to the national scene, then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, whose campaign took as its major theme, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

In a three-way race that included independent candidate H. Ross Perot, Clinton received 43 percent of the vote, to Mr. Bush’s 38 percent and Perot’s 19 percent.

Eight years after Mr. Bush moved out of the White House, however, he and Clinton were on a platform together at a presidential inauguration at the U.S. Capitol — this time at the swearing-in of Mr. Bush’s eldest son, George Walker Bush, as Clinton’s successor.

Only once before had the offspring of a president been so elevated, when John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, took office in 1825.

The inauguration of the younger Bush was a triumphant and moving occasion for members of one of the nation’s most prominent political families. Mr. Bush’s second son, Jeb Bush, served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.

Jeb Bush was considered an early front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He lost to New York billionaire Donald Trump, who then defeated another dynastic candidate, Democratic nominee and former first lady Hillary Clinton, to be elected the nation’s 45th president. The elder Bush did not publicly support Trump and was reported to have voted for Clinton. A spokesman declined to confirm those reports, saying that Mr. Bush’s ballot was a private matter.

In 1988, Mr. Bush gave a list of the qualities he most cherished to Peggy Noonan, who wrote his speech accepting that year’s Republican presidential nomination. They were: “family, kids, grandkids, love, decency, honor, pride, tolerance, hope, kindness, loyalty, freedom, caring, heart, faith, service to country, fair (fair play), strength, healing, excellence.”

Mr. Bush viewed his family as part of his legacy. He was intensely proud of the sons who followed him into public service.

One of his greatest assets was his earthy and blunt first lady. Barbara Bush’s openness and wit made good copy for the media. Answering a question about her matronly appearance, she said, “My mail tells me a lot of fat, white-haired, wrinkled ladies are tickled pink.”

Mr. Bush enjoyed the perquisites of the presidency: Marine helicopters and Air Force One, Camp David, the Oval Office with its view of the Rose Garden in summer and blazing logs in the fireplace in winter.

He was also a hunter, fisherman and dedicated jogger, who was known to run between holes on the golf course for extra exercise. He loved barbecue, horseshoes and country music. He told reporters that he had never liked broccoli and that because he was president, he did not have to eat it.

Colleagues often commented on his charm and natural decorum. A friend remarked that as vice president, he had conducted himself with a “deferential Episcopalian tilt.”

He possessed a legendary Rolodex and called aides and colleagues at all hours of the day and night. He wrote thousands of notes to world leaders, friends, reporters and ordinary citizens.

The Bushes had six children. In addition to George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, their offspring included Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch.

A daughter, Pauline Robinson “Robin” Bush, died of leukemia in 1953, two months before her 4th birthday. Her parents considered her death the greatest sorrow they ever experienced.

“There was about her a certain softness,” Mr. Bush wrote to his mother. “Her peace made me feel strong, and so very important. . . . But she is still with us. We need her and yet we have her. We can’t touch her, and yet we can feel her.”

In the years after the White House, Mr. Bush wrote his memoirs and divided his time between Houston and the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he was a vestryman of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church. He chose College Station, the home of Texas A&M University, as the site of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

After the earthquake and tsunami that devastated African and Asian nations in 2005, Mr. Bush collaborated with Bill Clinton, his former adversary, to lead private relief efforts that raised nearly $2 billion in the United States.

So close did the unlikely friendship of the 41st and 42nd presidents become, that the 43rd joked: “My mother calls him my fourth brother.”

In 1997, Mr. Bush made a parachute jump for the first time since bailing out over the Pacific. He did it again in 2000 to mark his 75th birthday — and still again for his 80th, 85th and 90th ones.

“Old guys can do neat things,” he said.

J.Y. Smith, a former Washington Post staff writer who died in 2006, contributed to this report.</s>Former President George H.W. Bush has died at the age of 94.

Spokesman Jim McGrath confirmed his passing on Twitter with a statement from his son, former president George W. Bush, that read:

"Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."

He is preceded in death by Barbara Pierce Bush, his wife of 73 years.

Mr. Bush was elected president on Nov. 8, 1988, sworn in on Jan. 20, 1989, and served until Jan. 20, 1993.

During his term in office, a revolution of human liberty swept the globe, emancipating tens of millions of people and unleashing a series of transformative events: Freedom prevailed in the Cold War as the Soviet Union imploded; The Berlin Wall “fell,” and Germany united within NATO following 45 years of postwar division.

From Eastern Europe to the Baltic States to Latin America to the former Soviet republics, many liberal democracies supplanted totalitarian regimes. During this “historic period of cooperation” as he called it, President Bush worked with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and other key global figures to end the Cold War peacefully and usher in a new geopolitical era marked by political self-determination, the spread of market capitalism, and the opening of closed economies.

In August of 1990, after Iraqi troops under Dictator Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait, President Bush forged a coalition of 32 disparate nations to restore Kuwaiti sovereignty and uphold international law. He subsequently convened the Madrid Peace Conference in the Fall of 1991, bringing Israel and her Arab neighbors together in face-to-face discussions for the first time in history.

President Bush also drastically reduced the threat of nuclear attack by signing two Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties in 1991 and 1993, and negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992 – which President Clinton later signed into law. He ordered military operations in Panama in December of 1989 to restore democracy and bring an international drug trafficker to justice, and in Somalia in December of 1992 to re-open food supply lines shut by feuding warlords that had precipitated a famine.

Mr. Bush was the first sitting vice president elected to the presidency since Martin van Buren in 1837, and only the second American president elected to serve a full term without party control in either chamber of Congress. Nevertheless, on July 26, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, which among other accomplishment eliminated the barriers to employment, public accommodations, and transportation services for some 43 million citizens with disabilities.

Later that same year, he signed the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which guided America’s environmental policy for more than two decades. The education summit Mr. Bush hosted in 1989 with all 50 U.S. governors helped to spur a national reform movement. The 1990 budget agreement he signed codified into law real caps on discretionary spending by Congress while cutting the budget deficit by historic levels.

As president, Mr. Bush launched his “Points of Light” initiative to promote volunteerism and community service across America, but long before he entered the political arena he demonstrated his belief that “there could be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others.” In 1953, for example, he helped establish the YMCA in Midland, Texas, and served as chairman of the founding board. The Bushes also started the Bright Star Foundation to support cancer research following the death of their 3-year-old daughter, Robin, from leukemia on Oct. 12, 1953.

After leaving the White House, President Bush chaired the Board of Visitors at the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 2001 to 2003, as well as the National Constitution Center from 2006 to 2008. Together with his wife, Mr. Bush served as honorary co-chair of C-Change – a collaborative group of key cancer leaders from government, business, and nonprofit sectors who are committed to eliminate cancer as a major public health problem. He also served as honorary chair of the Points of Light Foundation and the World Golf Foundation’s First Tee program.

Of special note was his partnership with his successor, President Bill Clinton, to spearhead public awareness and relief efforts for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008. In 2005, President Bush accepted an appointment from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Special Envoy for the South Asian Earthquake Disaster following an earthquake in Pakistan.

On Nov. 6, 1997, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum opened on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, followed that same year by the adjoining George Bush School of Government and Public Service. Both institutions thrived with the active involvement of President and Mrs. Bush, who kept an apartment on campus and were regular fixtures at “Aggie” athletic events. Outside his family, President Bush considered the Bush School, which educates principled leaders in public service and international affairs, his most important legacy.

In 1998, President Bush and his former national security advisor, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, co-authored A World Transformed about the Bush administration’s foreign policy. In 1999, President Bush released “All The Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings,” a collection of letters written throughout his life.

President Bush received numerous honorary degrees and, after leaving the presidency, was awarded high honors from such nations as Kuwait, the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany, Nicaragua, Poland, the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia. The CIA headquarters in northern Virginia, Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and several elementary and high schools were named for the former president.

He made seven post-presidential parachute jumps, the most recent of which took place on June 12, 2014, near his seaside home in Maine to mark his 90th birthday.

George Bush’s career in public service began in February of 1963, when he was elected chairman of the Harris County Republican Party. After losing his first campaign for the United States Senate in 1964, he was elected in 1966 to the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas’ 7th Congressional District and served two terms. Mr. Bush accepted a series of senior-level appointments following a second unsuccessful try for the Senate in 1970: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1971); Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973); Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China (1974); and Director of Central Intelligence (1976).

“There were always doubts at the beginning whether he (Bush) was up to these jobs,” New York Times columnist Scotty Reston opined in 1979, reflecting on this flurry of presidential appointments, “but applause for his record at the end.”

In 1980, Mr. Bush lost his first bid for the Republican presidential nomination to former California Governor Ronald Reagan, but accepted a spot on the GOP national ticket and served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. In that position, Mr. Bush managed federal deregulation and anti-drug efforts, and headed the Reagan administrations’ effort to combat terrorism.

In foreign policy, President Reagan dispatched him at a pivotal and contentious time to help manage negotiations with key NATO allies leading to the deployment of Pershing II missiles in West Germany – a critical turning point in the Cold War.

In 1988, Vice President Bush won the Republican nomination for president and, with Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, defeated Democrats Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts and Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas in the general election. That year, the Bush-Quayle ticket claimed over 53 percent of the popular vote en route to winning 40 states and 426 electoral votes.

Born on June 12, 1924 in Milton, Mass., George Bush admired his parents, Prescott and Dorothy, and credited them for the enduring lessons that shaped his life.

“My parents were my most important role models,” he later confided. “My dad stood for something and believed in giving back. My mother taught us fundamental things: ‘Don’t brag.’ ‘Think of the other guy.’ ‘Be kind to people.’ The things they taught me served me in good stead all the way through my presidency.”

Early in life he was nicknamed “Poppy” after his maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker, whose sobriquet was “Pop.”

George Bush attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Secretary of War Henry Stimson encouraged the graduating class at Phillips to enter college. Young George, instead, enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday and flew torpedo bombers off the USS San Jacinto in the Pacific. He was shot down on September 2, 1944 while completing a mission over Chi Chi Jima Island and, tragically, lost his two crewmen William “Ted” White and John Delaney. By the time he was honorably discharged in September of 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Bush had logged 1,228 hours of flight time, 126 carrier landings and 58 combat missions. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the U.S. Navy Air Medal with two gold stars. Mr. Bush later credited his Navy service with “making a man out of a scared little kid,” introducing him to shipmates from all walks of life, and later informing his decision-making as commander-in-chief.

After becoming secretly engaged in 1943 to the “first girl I ever kissed,” the returning war veteran married Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York on Jan. 6, 1945. The newlyweds welcomed their first child, George Walker Bush, in July of 1946 while the elder George attended Yale University. There, he also played baseball in the first two College World Series and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics. In June of 1948, the young Bush family moved to West Texas where Mr. Bush began making his way in the oil business. One of his companies, Zapata, eventually became the Pennzoil Corporation, but long beforehand Mr. Bush launched a subsidiary, Zapata Off-shore Co., that pioneered in offshore drilling with operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Brunei, Venezuela, the Sea of Japan and the Persian Gulf. After moving to Houston in August of 1959, the Bushes joined St. Martin’s Episcopal Church where Mr. Bush served as a vestryman from 1965 to 1968.

Together, President and Mrs. Bush had six children – George W., Robin, John “Jeb,” Neil, Marvin, Dorothy “Doro” – 17 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Their oldest son, George W., served as the 46th Texas Governor from 1995 to 2000 and as the 43rd President of the United States of America from 2001 to 2009. Their son Jeb, meanwhile, served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.

President Bush, or “41” as he was informally known after George W. was elected president, loved nothing more than fishing with his family and grandchildren in the coastal waters of Maine – where he also reveled in driving his motorboat at high speeds and entertaining an endless procession of guests. He considered Houston, Texas his home – and Walker’s Point, the family home where he spent a part of every summer except 1944 (when he was serving in World War II), as his “anchor to windward.”

“Now that my political days are over,” he said the day his presidential library was opened in 1997, “I can honestly say that the three most rewarding titles bestowed upon me are the three that I’ve got left: a husband, a father and a granddad.”

George Herbert Walker Bush prized loyalty and duty, and was devoted to his faith, the wife and family he loved, his countless friends, and the country he served always to the best of his ability. Despite the rancor and cynicism that occasionally engulfed politics during his lifetime, he considered public service a noble calling.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University at http://bush.tamu.edu. Individuals who wish to dedicate a day to serving others may find guidance and local opportunities at www.pointsoflight.org.</s>Former US President George H.W. Bush has died at age 94 in Houston, according to his spokesperson Jim McGrath.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.</s>DALLAS – Former President George H.W. Bush has died at the age of 94.

Family spokesman Jim McGrath says Bush died shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, about eight months after the death of his wife, Barbara Bush.

The nation’s 41st president served from 1989 to 1993, and eight years later watched his son George W. became the 43rd president.

The elder Bush saw his popularity swell with the United States’ success in the Gulf War in 1991, only to watch it evaporate in a brief but deep recession. The Republican was defeated in his bid for a second term by Democrat Bill Clinton.

Bush had also been a World War II hero, Texas congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan’s vice president.

Only one other U.S. president, John Adams, had a son who also became president.

More: John McCain is remembered as hero, fighter and wiseacre

More: Meghan McCain’s eulogy: ‘America was always great’</s>Former President George Herbert Walker Bush died Friday at the age of 94 and Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman, announced his death late yesterday. Bush had served as the 41st president from 1989 to 1993, subsequent to two terms as vice president under Ronald Reagan.

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” former President George W. Bush, his son, said in a family statement.

“George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for,” he continued. “The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41′s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”

George H.W. Bush’s extensive public service record also included stints as director of the CIA, chairman of the Republican National Committee, ambassador to the United Nations and envoy to China, as well as a two-term member of the House of Representatives for a Houston-area district. He was a decorated World War II veteran.</s>Former US President George HW Bush dies at 94

Former US President George HW Bush has died at the age of 94, a family spokesperson has announced.

Bush Senior died on Friday, about eight months after the death of his wife, Barbara Bush.

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former president George W Bush, said in a statement released on Twitter by a family spokesman.

“George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for.”

US President Donald Trump hailed his “sound judgement, common sense and unflappable leadership” in a statement posted on Twitter on Saturday.

The 41st president on the United States, Bush served from 1989 to 1993, with the successful campaign to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait his most significant accomplishment.

The one-term president lost the 1992 election to Democrat Bill Clinton, but he went on to see his son, George W, win the White House in 2001.

Another son, Jeb, made a presidential run in 2016 but dropped out in the primaries.

The son of a wealthy Republican US Senator, Bush served in the second World War and was elected to two terms in the US Congress in the 1960’s.

President Richard Nixon became Bush’s mentor, appointing him Ambassador to the United Nations in 1970.

While Nixon later resigned in disgrace, Bush, a savvy political survivor, became head of the CIA in 1976.

He served as Ronald Reagan’s vice president for eight years, before he entered the white house in 1989 after a campaign marked by negativity.

Less than a year after taking office, Bush sent troops to invade Panama and overthrow Manuel Noriega, a corrupt military ruler who had turned against the US.

The defining moment of Bush’s presidency came in August 1990, when Iraqi tanks rolled into Kuwait.

He ordered a massive military buildup, consulted with allies and worked closely with the United Nations.

American forces flooded into Saudi Arabia and established bases- a development that later future was cited by Osama Bin Laden to justify attacks against the US.

Once underway, the war did not last long as Iraqi forces fled Kuwait.

But Bush refused to order an advance towards Baghdad, opting not to topple Saddam.

In the aftermath of the war, Bush’s popularity quickly began to fade and he lost the 1992 election amid criticism of his handling of domestic affairs. – Reuters.</s>George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died Friday, his family announced. He was 94.

His death came six months after the passing of his wife of 73 years, former first lady Barbara Bush.

“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former President George W. Bush, said in a statement. “George H.

W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for.

“The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”

The 41st president was in ill health in recent years and had been hospitalized a number of time over the past several months. In May, he was hospitalized in Maine with low blood pressure and fatigue.

Bush used a motorized scooter or wheelchair since at least 2012 after being diagnosed with vascular parkinsonism, a form of Parkinson’s disease. He also sustained a severe neck injury in 2015.

After serving as vice president from 1981 to 1989 he was elected president in 1988, defeating Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, the first sitting vice president to be elevated to the presidency since Martin Van Buren in 1837. He also was the first Republican president since Herbert Hoover to lose a re-election campaign, to candidate Bill Clinton, in 1992.

His term as president saw him as a “pragmatic caretaker,” with no unified long-term theme, but he led the country during the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany; the overthrow, with the help of U.S. troops, of the Manuel Noriega regime in Panama; the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War; and the first Gulf War against Iraq in defense of Kuwait.

The Bush administration, left with the Reagan administration’s strong economy, left a relatively weak legacy in domestic affairs — Passage of the Clean Air Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act were achievements of his domestic agenda — and largely concentrated on foreign policy issues.

The success of the 1990 Gulf War was the highlight of Bush’s presidency. After Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and with fears he would continue with the invasion of the world’s largest producer of oil, neighboring Saudi Arabia, Bush mobilized an unprecedented offensive. Some 415,000 U.S. troops, and 118,000 more from coalition countries backed by the United Nations, arrived in Kuwait, as did an extraordinary amount of military supplies. After several weeks of aerial attacks, the ground operation referred to as Operation Desert Storm defeated Saddam’s army in about 100 hours.

The coalition quickly withdrew, with Bush choosing not to risk getting bogged down in a ground war in invading Iraq and attempting to topple Saddam’s regime. The decision left Iraq’s Kurdish forces, fighting the Iraqi army with expectations of coalition support, alone and victims of Saddam’s revenge.

Prior to the defense of Kuwait on Sept. 11, 1990, Bush outlined a plan in an address to Congress which included an Iraqi withdrawal, the restoration of Kuwait’s government, and “a new world order … freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice and more secure in the quest for peace.” That new world order was never achieved.

An uninspiring 1992 presidential campaign, and the presence of third-party candidate Ross Perot, doomed Bush’s attempt at a second term. After trouncing Dukakis in 1988 by 426 electoral votes to 111, Clinton defeated Bush by 370 electoral votes to 168, with Perot receiving none.

Among the issues confounding Bush during the 1992 race was an increase in taxes during his administration to deal with a soaring budget deficit; it violated his famous pledge, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” made at the 1988 Republican National Convention.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Mass., on June 12, 1924, the son of Prescott Bush, a Wall Street executive and later senator from Connecticut, 1952-63. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., he joined the Navy on his 18th birthday and as the Navy’s youngest pilot flew 58 combat missions in World War II. He was shot down over the Pacific Ocean on one mission and was rescued by a submarine. He was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action.

After returning home he married Barbara Pierce in 1945, with whom he had six children. His oldest son, George W. Bush, was the 43rd president of the United States and his third-oldest child, Jeb Bush, served as governor of Florida and ran for president in 2016. Sons Neil Bush and Marvin Bush are businessmen, and daughter Dorothy Bush Koch is an author and philanthropist. The Bushes’ first daughter, Robin, died at age 3.

He received Phi Beta Kappa honors and captained the baseball team while studying at Yale University, and began a career in the oil industry in Texas, forming Bush-Overbey Oil Development, Inc., organizing Zapata Petroleum Corp., and serving as first president of Zapata Off-Shore Co., all in Midland, Texas, in the early 1950s.

Entering politics, he served two terms in the House of Representatives and unsuccessfully ran for the Senate. The executive appointments that followed gave him the reputation of the person with “the best resume in Washington.” He was U.S ambassador to the United Nations; chairman of the Republican National Committee; chief U.S. liaison officer to the People’s Republic of China; and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. After his unsuccessful candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, he was elected vice president on the Republican ticket with Ronald Reagan, then president in 1988.

More so than most contemporary presidents, his approval ratings rocked significantly during his administration. He entered and left the presidency with about a 50 percent approval rating; it spiked to 90 percent after Operation Desert Storm, then fell to about 30 percent by the middle of 1992. Despite popularity stemming from the rout of the Iraqi army, Bush, in the 1991 presidential campaign, contended with a faltering economy, rising urban violence and deficit spending continued from the Reagan administration. Each was a factor in his loss to Clinton.

A book, 41, written by his son, George W. Bush and published in 2014, dwelled on the character of the elder Bush.

“He’s an extraordinary person, not only because of his accomplishments but because of his character. I understand how history works. It takes a long time for people to get to know him, get to know somebody and then analyze their decisions. But I wanted to be one of the first people out in the evaluation of George H.W. Bush,” the younger Bush said after its publication.

The book preceded a 2015 biography, Jon Meacham’s Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, in which Bush was critical of his son’s vice president, Dick Cheney, saying he “had his own empire there (in the White House) and marched to his own drummer. It just showed me that you cannot do it that way. The president should not have that worry.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also “served the president badly. I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything.”

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, out of based on rating</s>Updated at 12:15 a.m. ET

George H.W. Bush was the definition of establishment success: Yale graduate. Prosperous business career. Forty-first president of the United States.

But to one admittedly biased observer, the elder Bush has always been shortchanged.

"As a result of him being a one-term president, historians hadn't paid much attention to him," George W. Bush told NPR in a 2014 interview. He called his father "one of the greatest one-term presidents in the nation's history."

George Herbert Walker Bush died Friday at the age of 94.

George W. Bush released a statement, saying for himself and his siblings, "Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died."

"George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for," he said. "The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."

There were fears that after his wife, Barbara, died in April, Bush might die, too. He was admitted to the hospital with a blood infection on April 23, one day after the funeral for the former first lady, and remained there for 13 days. He also spent time in the hospital in May and June, but lived to be the first former president to reach the age of 94.

Bush was the patriarch of a political dynasty that included one son who served as president, another as a governor and a grandson who currently holds statewide office in Texas.

The senior Bush had a lifetime of public service before he became president — as a young Navy pilot in World War II, Texas congressman, CIA director and faithful vice president to Ronald Reagan.

"His loyalty to Ronald Reagan was legendary," said biographer Timothy Naftali. "He did not always agree with Ronald Reagan. And he was so secretive about those moments where he disagreed, we don't even have good documentation — at least not available yet — on when he disagreed."

Bush famously disagreed with Reagan when he ran against him in the Republican primary of 1980. Bush branded Reagan's supply-side faith that government could slash tax rates without losing revenue as "voodoo economic policy."

History would prove that assessment right. Reagan later had to reverse some of his tax cuts in the face of mounting deficits. But by the time Bush ran to succeed Reagan, he knew what it took to win the confidence of conservative Republicans.

"Read my lips," Bush pledged at the 1988 GOP convention. "No new taxes."

Bush trounced Democrat Michael Dukakis that year to win the White House. But he ultimately backtracked on his lip-reading promise. During 1990 budget negotiations with Democratic congressional leaders, Bush, like Reagan before him, agreed to a tax increase.

His press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, recalled a budget meeting where the deal was presented.

"The minute I saw it, I looked around the table and the Democrats looked like the cat who ate the canary," Fitzwater said. "They knew they had negotiated a winner."

The tax hike cut the deficit, but it cost Bush dearly with conservatives. Years later, he would receive a Profile in Courage award from John F. Kennedy's grandson, who said, "America's gain was President Bush's loss."

Bush's most notable accomplishments in the White House came in the area of foreign policy. While Reagan is often credited with winning the Cold War, it was Bush who successfully navigated the aftermath. His low-key approach avoided inflaming communist hard-liners and allowed for the peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union.

"The soft landing that occurred, which was not inevitable, is in large measure due to George H.W. Bush's diplomacy," said Naftali.

Bush, who served as U.S. envoy to China as well as a globe-trotting vice president, had a thick Rolodex and plenty of experience working the phones. His lifetime of foreign contacts also came in handy when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Bush methodically assembled an international coalition to push them back.

A five-week bombing campaign was followed by a 100-hour ground assault that routed the Iraqis from Kuwait. Some wanted allied troops to push on to Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein. But Bush said no.

"The president's decision was we are not going on to Baghdad," the late diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger recalled. "If we do, we will have violated the agreement we have with our allies, which was to bring Saddam out of Kuwait. It was not to bring Saddam down. And in addition, it will tie us into an area where we cannot be sure how soon we can withdraw."

Bush's son George W. would revisit that decision a dozen years later, with costly results.

The first Gulf War was a clear victory for U.S. forces. As commander in chief, George H.W. Bush saw his approval ratings soar to nearly 90 percent. His lock on a second term seemed so solid, many national Democrats opted to sit out the 1992 election, leaving it to the governor of a small Southern state to challenge him.

Bill Clinton had one big advantage, though: the economy, stupid. As the country sank into recession, Bush's popularity sank with it. There was no parachute or soft landing this time. He lost a three-way race in the November election, carrying just 38 percent of the vote.

More than two decades later, George W. Bush, who experienced his own roller coaster ride in the polls, wrote an affectionate portrait of his father, titled 41.

"I want people to better appreciate George Bush, as not only a great person but a very successful president," the younger Bush said.

Bush was also the linchpin of a political dynasty that now spans four generations — including a second son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who ran for the White House and lost in the 2016 Republican primaries as Donald Trump became the dominant force in a GOP that had evolved far from where it was when the 41st president was in office.

Whatever the senior Bush's political shortcomings, hindsight has cast his presidency in a kinder, gentler light.
Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush dies of Parkinsonism at the age of 94, at about 10:10 p.m. CST.