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a cascade of greenbacks in a few states, even though Reagan was on his way
to the nomination. That was the story in Pennsylvania and Michigan. The
important thing for Bush now was to outlast the other candidates and to
build his credentials for the vice-presidency, since that was what he was
now running for.
Seeking his 'Birthright'
All the money and organization had not sufficed. After some expensive
primary failures, Bush now turned his entire attention to the quest for his
"birthright," the vice-presidency. This would be his fifth attempt to
attain that office, and once again, despite the power of Bush's network,
success was uncertain.
Inside the Reagan camp, one of Bush's greatest assets would be William
Casey, who had been closely associated with the late Prescott Bush. Casey
was to be Reagan's campaign manager for the final phase of the 1980
elections. In 1962, Prescott and Casey had co-founded a think tank called
the National Strategy Information Center in New York City, a forum where
Wall Street lawyers like Casey could join hands with politicians from
Prescott's wing of the Republican Party, financiers, and the intelligence
community. The National Strategy Information Center provided material for a
news agency called Forum World Features, a CIA proprietary that operated in
London, and which was in liaison with the British Information Research
Department, a Cold War propaganda unit set up by Christopher Mayhew of
British intelligence with the approval of Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
This Prescott Bush-William Casey think tank promoted the creation of
endowed chairs in strategic analysis, national intelligence and the like on
a number of campuses. The Georgetown Center for Strategic and International
Studies, later the home of Kissinger, Michael Ledeen and a whole stable of
ideologues of the Anglo-American empire, was in part a result of the work
of Casey and Prescott.
Casey was also a close associate of George Bush. During 1976, Ford
appointed Casey to PFIAB, where Casey was an enthusiastic supporter of the
Team B operation along with Bush and Leo Cherne. George Bush and Casey
would play decisive roles in the secret government operations of the Reagan
years.
As the Republican convention gathered in Detroit in July 1980, the problem
was to convince Reagan of the inevitability of tapping Bush as his running
mate. But Reagan did not want Bush. He had conceived an antipathy, even a
hostility, for George. What Reagan had experienced personally from Bush
during the "Nashua Telegraph" debate had left a lasting and highly
derogatory impression.
According to one account of this phase, "ever since the episode in Nashua
in February, Reagan had come to hold the preppy Yankee transplant in, as
the late Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma used to say, minimum high regard.
'Reagan is a very gracious contestant,' one of his inner circle said, 'and
he generally views his opponents with a good deal of respect. The thing he
couldn't understand was Bush's conduct at the "Nashua Telegraph" debate. It
imprinted with Reagan that Bush was a wimp. He remembered that night
clearly when we had our vice-presidential discussions. He couldn't
understand how a man could have sat there so passively. He felt it showed a
lack of courage." And now that it was time to think about a running mate,
the prospective presidential nominee gave a sympathetic ear to those who
objected to Bush for reasons that ran, one of the group said later, from
his behavior at Nashua to 'anti-Trilateralism.'|" According to this
account, conservatives seeking to stop Bush at the convention were citing
their suspicions about a "|'conspiracy' backed by Rockefeller to gain
control of the American government." / Note #1 / Note #5
Drew Lewis was a leading Bushman submarine in the Reagan camp, telling the
candidate that Bush could help him in electoral college mega-states like
Pennsylvania and Michigan where Ted Kennedy had demonstrated that Carter
was vulnerable during the primaries. Lewis badgered Reagan with the
prospect that if he waited too long, he would have to accept a politically
neutral running mate in the way that Ford took Dole in 1976, which might
end up costing him the election. According to Lewis, Reagan needed to
broaden his base, and Bush was the most palatable and practical vehicle for
doing so.
Much to his credit, Reagan resisted; "[H]e told several staff members and
advisers that he still harbored 'doubts' about Bush, based on Nashua. 'If
he can't stand up to that kind of pressure,' Reagan told one intimate, 'how
could he stand up to the pressure of being President?' To another, he said:
'I want to be very frank with you. I have strong reservations about George
Bush. I'm concerned about turning the country over to him.'|"
As the convention came closer, Reagan continued to be hounded by Bushmen [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]