George Herbert Walker Bush was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

Bush Flew 58 combat missions for the United States Navy during World War II and was awarded three Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross. During an attack on a Japanese installation in Chichijima, Bush's aircraft was shot down by enemy fire. He was the only one of nine downed airmen to evade capture during the raid. After the war, it was discovered that the captured airmen had been beheaded, and their livers eaten by their captors.

Bush met Barbara Pierce at a Christmas dance in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1941. They married in Rye, New York, on January 6, 1945, While Bush was on leave from the navy.

At the age of 3, his daughter Robin was diagnosed with advanced leukemia. She was flown to New York City for treatment, but despite doctors' efforts, she died two months before her fourth birthday. Bush would later say, "She'd fight and cry and play and make her way just like the rest, but there was about her a certain softness ... Her peace made me feel strong, and so very important." Her death prompted the Bush family to establish a foundation for leukemia research.

Bush served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as Director of Central Intelligence, and as the 43rd vice president of the United States.

At the 1980 Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan made the last-minute decision to select Bush as his vice presidential nominee after negotiations with former president Gerald Ford regarding a Reagan-Ford ticket collapsed. Though Reagan had resented the Bush campaign's attacks during the primary campaign, he ultimately decided that Bush's popularity with moderate Republicans made him the best and safest pick.

Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis by a margin of 426 to 111 in the Electoral College and took 53.4 percent of the popular vote, becoming the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836.

"I do not like broccoli," Bush revealed in 1990, "and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid, and my mother made me eat it, and I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."

Although he apparently considered actor Clint Eastwood, who was then mayer of Carmel, California, Bush ultimately chose Dan Quayle who is best known for misspelling "potato".

In May 1989, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega annulled the results of a democratic presidential election. Bush objected to the annulment and dispatched 2,000 soldiers to the country, where they began conducting regular military exercises. After a U.S. serviceman was shot by Panamanian forces, Bush ordered the United States invasion of Panama, known as "Operation Just Cause". American forces quickly took control of the Panama Canal Zone and Panama City. Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was quickly transported to a prison in the United States where he was convicted and imprisoned on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.