VP Pence: When President Bush Left Office, He Left America and the World More Peaceful, Prosperous, and Secure

EXCERPT:

PENCE: "But as history records, during those years, he set the standard as a sound counselor and loyal adviser to an outsider who came to Washington, D.C., to shake things up — cut taxes, rebuild the military — and together, they did just that. And then in 1988, he made history again, when George Herbert Walker Bush was elected in a landslide as the 41st President of the United States of America, becoming the first sitting Vice President to win the presidency in more than 150 years of our history. He served during an uncertain time in the world, made momentous by his leadership. President Bush oversaw the fall of the Soviet Union, the crumbling of the Berlin wall, and under his leadership, America won the Cold War. He took our nation to war to repel aggression in the Persian Gulf and through his leadership as Commander-in-Chief and the brilliance of our armed forces, the United States won a decisive victory. When President George Herbert Walker Bush left office, he left America and the world more peaceful, prosperous, and secure. President Bush was a great leader who made a great difference in the life of this nation. But he was also just a good man who was devoted to his wife, his family, and his friends. I was lucky enough to meet him in 1988 when he was Vice President and I was a 29-year-old just getting started in politics. Then, as always, I was struck by his approachability. There was a kindness about the man that was evident to everyone who ever met him. All his years in public service were characterized by kindness, modesty, and patriotism. He was so modest, in fact, that he never wrote an autobiography. But he did leave a record of his life in the thousands of letters that he wrote. I am told he started writing letters to his parents when he was 18 years old, and over time his circle of correspondents grew to include family, friends, advisers, staff, business associates, former presidents, and just about anyone who would take the trouble to write to him. After a lifetime of writing letters, my son got one just not too long ago. As I told two of his sons this weekend, when our son made his first tailhook landing as a marine aviator on the USS George Herbert Walker Bush, I took the liberty of writing the ship’s namesake to ask for a small favor."