NPC in History: The Club legacy of George H.W. Bush

President George H.W. Bush was no stranger to the National Press Club. As chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973, he made his first appearance at the Club podium in a debate with Robert Strauss, his Democratic counterpart, as Bush put the best face possible on the Nixon administration as the Watergate scandal escalated.

“No question there has been a growing concern about Watergate but no question, too, that Watergate has not obscured the positive record of this administration," Bush said. "There is a new Gallup poll showing the president’s popularity virtually unaltered by Watergate.”

Bush was back in 1979 during his first run for the presidency. He painted a dark picture of America’s future after President Jimmy Carter's time in office.

“It is not inconceivable, for example, that sometime in the ‘80s, the U.S. could be in a precarious economic state, heavily dependent on foreign oil, and then a crisis could erupt in one of the important nations in the Middle East," Bush said. "At that point, assuming present trends go unchecked, the Soviets, who will have an energy shortfall in the ‘80s, could move in quickly and present us with an impossible choice – either we yield a critical source of oil to their control, or we risk nuclear catastrophe.”

As vice president under President Ronald Reagan, Bush was back three more times, first in 1981 to talk about defense initiatives and to pay tribute to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who had just been assassinated: “The cause of peace in the Middle East has lost a champion," he said.

In 1983, he spoke about the scourge of narcotics. Noting that millions of Americans will spend about $100 billion on illicit narcotics that year, he warned that the drug trade had become “the most deadly and dangerous criminal activity known.”

Two years later, he was back to report on a recent trip to Europe where he explained the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative (known popularly as Star Wars) to allied leaders. He said he also worked to prevent a trade war with Western Europe.

He warned European leaders “that in 20 years of public life, I’ve never seen such a mood in Congress favoring protection. Americans are through being passive about unfair trade.” But, he said, “for us to raise broad barriers to trade with Europe would make as much sense as for Virginia to raise barriers to trade with Maryland.”

Bush’s last appearance at the Club podium came in January 1988 at the beginning of his successful run for president.

“We are a nation that was founded for liberty and human rights – for the freedom to speak and worship, each in our own way,” he said. “This is our heritage, one that we must never abandon for the expediency of the moment … If we in the United States are not strong enough, not courageous enough to stand up for human rights, who will?”

Bush did not come to the Club when he was president. He entertained a group of Club leaders in the Oval Office when they presented him with his honorary membership card. After he was president, he made a couple of cameo appearances but never a formal speech. The last time may have been 2004 when he was photographed with Club President Sheila Cherry at the front desk.

This is another in a series provided by Club Historian Gil Klein. Dig down anywhere in the Club’s 110-year history, and you will find some kind of significant event in the history of the world, the nation, Washington, journalism and the Club itself. Many of these events were caught in illustrations that tell the stories.