Transcript: Chapter 19

Narrator: Americans celebrated a war that put an end to the national self-doubt that had lingered since the Vietnam War. But George Bush was not elated. Intelligence reports predicted the Iraqi military would overthrow Saddam. That had not happened.

George H. W. Bush (archival): To be very honest with you, I haven't yet felt this wonderfully euphoric feeling that many of the American people feel. And I'm beginning to. I feel much better about it today than I did yesterday. But I think it's that I want to see an end. You mentioned World War II; there was a definitive end to that conflict. And now we have Saddam Hussein still there, the man that wreaked this havoc upon his neighbors. We have our prisoners still held. We have people unaccounted for.

Narrator: The days of "phone calls to foreign leaders, trying to keep things moving forward, managing a massive project," were over, Bush wrote in his diary. "I don't know whether it's the anticlimax or that I'm too tired to enjoy anything, but I just seem to be losing my perspective.

Brent Scowcroft: Would have been great to have a formal surrender and all of that, and it just sort of ended. And it really didn't end, because Saddam right away, as soon as he'd put down the uprisings in the country and he started using his helicopters, and then he was a thorn from then on. So it never really was over. And that gave President Bush a sense of being unfulfilled.

Narrator: Within days after the cease-fire, Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard brutally suppressed an uprising by Iraqi Shia in the South. Then they suppressed an uprising by the Kurds in the north. During the war, Bush had encouraged such uprisings as a way to topple Saddam.

George H. W. Bush (archival): There's another way for the bloodshed to stop. And that is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein the dictator to step aside, and then comply with the United Nations Resolutions and rejoin the family of peace loving nations.

Narrator: Some felt U.S. support was implicit in Bush's statement. Bush did not.

George H. W. Bush (archival): But do I think that the United States should bear guilt because of suggesting that the Iraqi people take matters into their own hands, with the implication being given by some that the United States would be there to support them militarily? That was not true, we never implied that.

Narrator: In coming months, many questioned Bush's decision not to go to Baghdad to take out Saddam Hussein.

News reporters (archival): America has growing doubts about our victory over Iraq. Was it all worth it? Should U.S. troops march on Baghdad and finish the job we should have finished six weeks ago? If we were prepared to use force to drive Saddam from power, it would be over probably in four days, no more than four weeks.

James A. Baker, III: Some people said, "Why didn't you guys take care of Saddam when you had the chance? Why didn't you go to Baghdad?" Well, guess what. I got that question a lot when I used to go out and speak. Nobody asks me that question anymore.

Brent Scowcroft: We heard no rumbles of discontent at all. They emerged shortly after, and then for a number of years we heard, "Why didn't you finish the job?" We don't hear that anymore.

Colin Powell: In recent months, nobody's been asking me about why we didn't go to Baghdad. Pretty good idea now why Baghdad should always looked at with some reservations.

Narrator: After the Gulf War, Osama bin Laden left Saudi Arabia determined to get revenge against the United States for defiling Saudi soil. After the Gulf War, Bush had amassed all the political capital a president could have. No one knew he would not be able to use it.

Richard Norton Smith: By the spring of 1991, the Bush presidency was something of an exhausted volcano. George Herbert Walker Bush had fulfilled his historical role. He was left with the infinitely unappealing option of defining a domestic sequel to the end of the Gulf War that would unite this fractious conservative coalition. And then he was playing to his weaknesses.

Narrator: The rest of Bush's presidency would be a steady decline. In May 1991, Bush's health became a concern. He developed a shortness of breath while jogging at Camp David. He had heart arrhythmia and an overactive thyroid -- diagnosed as Graves' disease. Members of his team began to wonder if he would have the strength to endure another presidential campaign. His dealings with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev came under attack. When Bush met with the Soviet leader to sign an important arms control agreement, he was criticized for "clinging to Gorbachev" when he should have been courting Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Parliament, who was more committed to democracy and free markets. "My view," Bush said, "is you dance with who's on the dance floor." Especially if your dance partner controls more than 12,000 nuclear warheads -- aimed at you. The treaty Bush signed with Gorbachev would eliminate almost 5,000 of them.

George H. W. Bush (archival): Well, I am very pleased to announce that I will nominate Judge Clarence Thomas...

Narrator: In the summer of 1991 Bush tried to appeal to his political right, which he had largely neglected, by appointing conservative justice Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

George H. W. Bush (archival): And the fact that he is black and a minority has nothing to do with this in the sense that he is the best qualified at this time.

Narrator: This backfired amid charges of sexual harassment by a former employee, Anita Hill.

Anita Hill (archival): He talked about acts he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals.

Narrator: A sluggish economy nagged at Bush. America was losing jobs overseas.

Protesters (archival): America's wonderful, ain't it Mr. Bush? Maybe you'll be unemployed. Lay off Bush! Lay off Bush! Richard Darman: People were very worried about getting displaced from their job as 40- to 55-year-old workers, and being unable to find new jobs. People were worried about long-term care for their parents. People were worried about their own health insurance. There were a lot of things that contributed to a sense of economic insecurity.

George H. W. Bush (archival): People are hurting. And they're hurting here in New York, and they're hurting across this country, and families trying to make ends meet, proud Americans trying to keep their dignity when they lost their jobs. And I don't know any American who sees this happening who is so callous that he cannot feel or she cannot feel a tug in her heart, who doesn't want to reach out actually and hold out a hand and try to help these people.

Narrator: Bush believed there was little he could do. Jobs were going overseas and would not return. The onset of globalization helped push the unemployment rate to 7.4%. Bush was not willing to extend unemployment benefits for fear of increasing the budget deficit. When he tried to encourage consumer spending to spur the economy, the press saw him as unsympathetic to those who might not have spare cash to spend.

Marlin Fitzwater: The problem was that when you would ask him to do something symbolic, like going down to this little town near Camp David and showing concern for the economy, he saw it as not being true, as not real. And what was real to him was, he needed to buy some gifts for his grandkids. And so in his mind, that was a far more realistic thing to do. And it's just one of those things where it ended up working against him.

Narrator: When Bush flew to Japan with American automakers in an effort to create more jobs, he soldiered on despite a case of the flu. At a formal state dinner, he got sick on the prime minister. "These last two months have been the worst of my presidency," he told a friend. "And the last year has been the worst of my political career." Things would not get any better. The next month he was skewered by the New York Times for seeming out of touch at a grocers' convention. He marveled at new technology that could read the bar code of shredded label. The New York Times said he didn't know how an ordinary check-out counter worked.

John Robert Green, presidential historian: The story stuck because it fed in with what was being argued by his opponents, both on the far right and the Democrats, that Bush had lost touch with the American people.

Narrator: In October of 1991, the cascade of ill-fortune literally hit home. A Nor'easter, the perfect storm, threatened Bush's house at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport.

Willard "Spike" Heminway: He had all his memorabilia in there, and to see it in rubble, and with rocks and water and seaweed, it was terrible for everybody.

Barbara Bush: It was devastating. But life goes on. And you know, a lot of people's homes were hurt. But all the way up and down the east coast. And we had another home, the White House, temporarily, and so we could survive. A lot of people had a lot more trouble than we did.

Reporter (archive): Mr. President, did you give any thought to perhaps after two storms in thirteen years of moving to higher ground or are you determined to come back here?

George H. W. Bush (archival): (Shakes head no) We'll be here. We'll be here. It means something to us. It means something to us. It's our family's strength.