Since Bush was suddenly very still

"Mister President, you ought to see," said the press Secretary of the White house, the walked in around lunch time to the Oval Office. It was the 9. November 1989 – and in Berlin, the wall had fallen. George Herbert Walker Bush sat behind his Desk, next to John Sununu, the President's chief of staff, and Brent Scowcroft, the National security Advisor stood up. Rapid steps the men in the room next door. There they saw the TV pictures of the border crossings in Berlin, where thousands of GDR-had gathered citizens. They saw how the people flocked through the open gates. And you saw how West - and East German-in-arms were, finally. "It was all very moving," says Sununu.

As chief of staff, Sununu was Bush's right Hand. The man, is the Agenda of the President for certain, the second most powerful man in the White house, as it is about the people on this Post often. In almost all of the crucial moments of Bush's presidency, he was. The fall of the wall was such a Moment, says the now 80-Year-old. "The President was not immediately clear what had happened in Berlin and what it meant. But time for Reflection was not." While Bush and his advisors stared at the TV, urging the press Secretary rush: Bush must now make a Statement, the journalists were waiting outside already. The President faced a decision: How should the United States react to the fall of the wall? "Because he was suddenly very still," says Sununu. "There is much more to the game."

"would be escaped by another President in triumph howl."John Sununu

Bush was in the beginning of 1989 after eight years as Vice President under Ronald Reagan into office. Under Reagan's leadership the United States had upgraded massively, in order to force the Soviet Union to its knees, financially, but also rhetorically. It was a course that Bush supported to the full extent. Now, with the fall of the Berlin wall, seemed to be the end of the Cold war to be suddenly very close, and America stood in front of a victory. "Another President would have broken out in triumph howls," says Sununu. "But Bush's greatest strength was always his To think." Shortly thereafter, a summit was in Malta meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev recognized. "Bush knew that he had to show caution and discipline. Anything else would have provoked Gorbachev."

Bush's discipline, Kohls appetite

Careful and disciplined: So Bush saw the public reaction to the fall of the wall as well. He spoke to the journalists that he had briefly called hand into the Oval Office, an important step towards the Opening, he will welcome. He tried to speak not of a "victory" to act too euphoric. In Washington a lot of criticism brought him. The President was too hesitant, not sensing the importance of the events, complained Democrats as well as Republicans. "Most of all, it would have been his critics, Bush would still be flown on the same day to Berlin and would have danced on the ruins of the wall," says Sununu.

The summit Malta was, shortly afterwards, to success At a joint press conference, Bush and Gorbachev declared the Cold war had ended. But what was for Europe and for the divided Germany, was far from clear. It would come to the reunion? Under what conditions? What is the schedule? Of Malta, Bush flew directly to Brussels, where he wanted to make Chancellor Helmut Kohl on his talks with Gorbachev under. He did this at a dinner, to which Sununu took part. Kohl reiterated what I wanted to listen to Bush from him: that a United Germany would belong to the Nato Alliance.

"The food was important because it strengthened the relationship between the two men," says Sununu. The longer the evening lasted, the more relaxed is the atmosphere. Sununu is still remembered today in the appetite, the cabbage, the Dessert of the day: "He attacked again and again, in a shell, in the filled bag of wind layers, as big as Golf balls, and put one after the other in the mouth. It was pretty amazing."

John Sununu in a TV Interview about the life and political legacy of George H. W. Bush, died a year ago. Source: Youtube/WMUR-TV

To his Job as chief of staff Sununu came, because it wouldn't have made Bush without him even in the White house. In the presidential election in 1988, the then Vice-President was started as the favorite in the internal primaries of the Republicans, but after a weak Start early From threatened him. It was Sununu helped Bush in the all-important pre-election state of New Hampshire to victory over his opponent. Sununu was Governor of the state, an influential Conservative and a puppet master of the local Republican party. He showed Bush how he managed his election campaign in New Hampshire in time on the right track. And Bush rewarded him for it after his election, with the reputation in the White house.

In the U.S. capital Sununu made a lot of enemies. "Profoundly unpopular" he had been, wrote the "Washington Post" after its cancellation by the end of 1991, "arrogant and power-obsessed". Undisputed, however, was that he had heard Bush's. He sat, too, when Bush and Gorbachev in may, met in 1990 in Washington, to discuss the consequences of the fall of the Berlin wall: German reunification, the situation of the Eastern European and Baltic States, the future trade relations between the super powers. Bush was in the position of Gorbachev always aware of, says Sununu: The head of state, wanted to reform, but under pressure from the hardliners in Moscow, the rejected.

The short Phase of relaxation

In the White house was received by the Soviet head of state with all the Pomp. Gorbachev was interested very much in favour, as the US Administration worked practically, and he asked Bush whether he would send his chief of staff, to Moscow, to give a little object lesson. What seemed to be a short time before the unthinkable happened: Sununu flew to Moscow and met there anywhere on "openness and curiosity", he says. He met with Gorbachev, his Ministers and officials, and brought each essay of the US founding fathers. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to the present-day St. Petersburg, where he spent two days with the mayor. Whose chief of staff was a man by the name of Vladimir Putin – the current President of Russia.

openness and curiosity: these are not terms that would be today, the America to describe Japanese-Russian relationship. The current tensions are regrettable. "Putin and his supporters are driven by the desire for a return to the vanished Soviet Empire," says Sununu. "That makes today's relationship is so problematic." The conversion from a Communist to a liberal-capitalist System, however, is difficult. The structural problems of the Soviet Union, the corruption of the oligarchs, the great ethnic diversity: All of this has contributed to the today's Russia is not the democracy had become, and wished for the reformers in Moscow to the end of the Cold war. And also, there are many people in America.

"Putin is driven by the desire for a return to the vanished Soviet Empire": John Sununu about the Russia of today. Photo: Reuters

there was a short Phase of relaxation between Washington and Moscow at all, leads Sununu in good part to Bush and his knowledge of human nature. The President had, it was understood, like few others before him, to build other heads of government of relations, characterized by trust and sometimes even friendship – which even the most sensitive issues to address. "That was his style. Not only that, but also thanks to its diplomacy the world through a very delicate Phase."

As a criticism of the current incumbent, maintains a very different style, want to know Sununu all of this is not understood. If he speaks publicly about Donald Trump, he does so in contrast to many other Ex-officials of the Republicans is positive. Each President had his own methods, says Sununu only. And still, He was glad to have a man like Bush worked.

Created: 03.11.2019, 22:33 PM