Youre watching booktv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Booktv television for serious readers. And now on booktv, former chief of staff john sununu discusses george h. W. Bushs presidency in his book, the quiet man. He recalls the 41st president s accomplishments in both foreign and domestic policy including his leadership during the collapse of the soviet union and the fall of the berlin wall and passing the americans with disabilities act. We ready to go . Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to gibsons bookstore. Its a beautiful, its a beautiful afternoon. Thank you for coming indoors to spend it with us. Today we are very pleased to welcome back to new hampshire, he was here for several times as governor, and then he went off to become george h. W. Bushs chief of staff. Please join me in welcoming for the quiet man the indispensable presidency of george h. W. Bush, governor john h. Sununu. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you. And let me thank gibsons for their hospitality. I am an old book and book sore addict bookstore addict, and i think the way youve been able to handle such breadth of scope and still keep it such an intimate facility should satisfy any book addict, and i recommend anybody whos looking for a place to browse and find some great stuff to read, this is the place to come. Id also like to thank you all for taking a little bit of time to join us today. I wrote the quiet man because i really feel that George Herbert walker bush had in his one term as extraordinary a presidency as we have had in modern times. And i wanted to get between the two covers of a book all of those great accomplishments and put it in a way that people would appreciate how unique, how special and how important that presidency was. Since youre all here buying books, i wont go through it from page 1. [laughter] but i thought what i would do today is talk to you a little bit about what i think were the highlights of his presidency all covered well and in detail in the quiet man, and talk to you a little bit about some of the things that made him a special individual. A couple of anecdotes that i think will underscore the special character of George Herbert walker bush as president. Most folks remember him as a great Foreign Policy president , and he was. But beyond that, George Herbert walker bush passed more Domestic Legislation and more significant Domestic Legislation than any president since Lyndon Johnson or franklin roosevelt. Its amazing that a lot of people almost dont realize the breadth and depth of his domestic achievements, and thats one of the reasons i felt it would be good to put all of that in one place in the quiet man. If there are three or four things id like you to take away after reading the book one of them would be the fact that he came into office after Ronald Reagan had rebuilt americas strength. Remember the phrase was peace through strength, and Ronald Reagan made the exceptional investment to rebuild our military capacity. And although a lot of folks really are in a bit of denial on it, the fact is that the soviet union took one look at the economic capacity of the United States to build up its military capacity and gorbachev coming into office understood that there was absolutely no way they could compete and that what he wanted to do was to begin to interact with the u. S. And our western allies. Reagan built it up, and bush understood the opportunity that the world had after nearly a half century postworld war with two superpowers with tremendous nuclear capability. Bush understood the opportunity was there. And in his own style began to build the western coalition that was necessary to take advantage of it and a relationship of trust and cooperation that was else necessary between the United States and the soviet union. The european allies were not as eager as george bush to move quickly. But bush, with a series of meetings first with mitterand and then with cole and then with that thatcher, was able to convince them that the nato allies should make a very significant step in terms of announcing a reduction of u. S. Troops and armor in europe. And invite by that act an equivalent reduction or even a greater reduction by the soviet union with their Occupation Forces in eastern europe. And it worked. Gorbachev welcomed the opportunity to reduce his fiscal obligations to occupation, and that began the loosening that allowed elections to take place in poland, in czechoslovakia and the freeing of ian europe. Of eastern europe. It was george bushs amazing personal talents with both our allies and our foes that created the trust that is necessary for big powers, great powers, significant powers to make the kind of policy commitments that produce good results. In a matter of about two and a half years george bush was able to lead a coalition interaction a Peaceful Coalition interaction, that produced the dissolution of the number two superpower in the World Without a single shot being fired. I personally think that his greatest mistake was making it look so easy, and i hope as you read the book you will understand exactly what i mean when i say that. Second thing george bush did in terms of International Policy was to recognize that for too long the u. S. Had been limited in its capacity to influence certain things because of our postvietnam syndrome where we as a nation had become frozen in our capacity to project the power we had. He also understood that with the collapse of the soviet union there was a period of time in the world in which mischief might want to extend itself. And as he watched Saddam Hussein occupy kuwait and try and take over what could have been in combination with his own resources 2530 of the total Petroleum Resources in the world, bush was willing to accept as leader of the United States the responsibility to lead a coalition to get Saddam Hussein out of kuwait. He drew a line in the sand. He said this aggression shall not stand. And it was not a soft line, it was not a maybe line, it was a definite line. And he then went about and built a coalition an amazing coalition considering that iraq was a nation in the middle east with decent relationships with many of its arab allies, bush built a coalition that included virtually every arab nation including syria. I remember a very memorable meeting with assad. We went to switzerland to meet with him and assad dominated the conversation for about four hours. But in the end, he agreed to join the coalition. And then bush built up, piece by piece, our capacity with a patience, our capacity to expel saddam. And everyone has to remember iraq at that time had the fifth largest army in the world. And it was all pointing to kuwait and amazed around kuwait amassed around kuwait. When bush was ready, he got the approval of the u. N. To use force to expel Saddam Hussein from kuwait, limited extension of authority or at least comforting assurance from his allies that they would be with him. And in less than 100 hours george bushs use of u. S. Power pushed Saddam Hussein out of kuwait and vanquished the fifth largest army in the world. And then he was smart enough not to get caught in the quick sand of an occupation force and took the criticism but made the firm choice not to follow hussein all the way into baghdad. A lot of criticism at that time, and now as people look back on it they recognize it was the right decision. But i said he didnt just do Foreign Policy. He did domestic policy. He took a 13year log jam on clean air changed it from command and control where bureaucrats dictate how youre supposed to reduce emissions and built a package of legislation based on Free Enterprise and incentives and flexibilities and got the, more than the emissions that people had been desiring at between onetenth and onefifth of the cost. He recognized it was time for a civil rights bill, but it had to be a good civil rights bill. He had the political courage to veto a civil rights bill that would have been a quota bill, send it back and have it rewritten so that it was a fair bill but an effective bill. He proposed and got congress to pass an americans with disabilities act. He proposed legislation to deregulate energy, and were benefiting from the deregulation of energy today. He passed legislation which provided vouchers in support for families for childcare instead of building up the bureaucracy of childcare. He proposed and passed an agricultural reform act which took some of the old subsidies and converted them to incentivesmn 6< brought the governors together to talk about k12 education and reenergize, if you will, the commitment of the states to deal with k12 effectively. He also passed the 1990, got passed the 1990 budget act for which he took great deal of criticism. I think everybody remembers he had made the read my lips promise. We got the firstyear budget passed without taxes, but now the economy was softening. Growth rate had become stagnant. The savings and loan crisis had taken its penalty on Real Estate Market and real estate in the u. S. , and the economy was really turning down. It really needed to take care of the problem of the deficit and to give the country some stability over a long period of time. It clearly needed a multiyear budget. And we went through about a year and a half negotiation and it became clear that tom foley who controlled the house as speaker with 260175 and George Mitchell who controlled the senate 5545 were not going to let george bush get a budget this time without paying the ransom for taxes. Now, you have to put a context of timing in all of this. Were now moving into august, september, october of 1990. He had just sent young men and women over to the middle east to pull them together to take on Saddam Hussein to kick him out of kuwait. And what the democrats held over his head was the specter of a real sequester on defense spending which would have handcuffed those young men and women that he had sent into harms way. And so after a lot of negotiation, we ended up with a package that was approved by all of the Republican Leaders in congress, all of the Democratic Leaders in congress and the president approved it. It did contain taxes. The tax it contained was a gasoline tax increase, a gasoline tax that had not been adjusted for inflation in over ten years. And what he got for it was three and a half times the in dollar value cuts in spending and new budgeting rules that put spending caps on Discretionary Spending and required for any additional programs pay as you go. It was that budget that produced the surpluses of the early 90s that lots of people who came after george bush like to take credit for. Surpluses after decades of deficits. In addition to that it produced the growth period in the 1990s, the boom growth period in the country that again other people like to take credit for but is a reflection of the stabilizing of the economy cutting the deficit down and the growth stimulus that was built into the budget package. So george bush achieved, i believe, not just Great Results in Foreign Policy, but Great Results as a president who cared about both the shortterm and the longterm needs of this country. Let me just give you three or four anecdotes that talk about the man a little bit and then ill open it up to questions. I usually find thats a better way to talk about what youd like to talk about than what id like to talk about. One of my favorites which i think defines george bush and in a way is a reflection of the title of this book, the quiet man, is what he did as we were moving through the changes in europe. It was november of 1989, and he and gorbachev had begun to trust each other. And george bush recognized that gorbachev, in spite of being able to make the changes that everybody was applauding in relaxing the pressure on the Eastern European countries, gorbachev had Serious Problems at home. There were hardliners there that were looking for an excuse to stop these changes that they did not agree with. They thought he was giving up the empire. And bush understood this. And i remember the scene the day the berlin wall came down. I went into a small office to give him the news with scowcroft, and we decided that the president had to Say Something to the press, and so we arrange for a little press meeting in the oval office in which tv would send a couple of representatives, radio would send not a full blown news conference. And as the press came in, they were clamoring for george bush to be cheering loudly because of the collapse of the berlin wall. And they really were, as usual obnoxious about trying to say that he didnt understand the importance of what was happening. And bush had the selfdiscipline to express in calm terms how much he believed that it was going to be good for the world that this was happening but never once did he you in such a way that crow in such a way that it would embarrass gorbachev and give the hardliners an excuse to stop the changes. Now, for any of you that have been in politics or watch politics, you know the selfkiss palin it requires discipline it requires a politician not to take credit for the collapse of the berlin wall. [laughter] the second incident is another incident it doesnt seem like a great deal, but i truly believe its one of the most significant moments in his administration and in modern American History postvietnam. We had gone through a presentation by colin powell and the military chiefs on what was required to get Saddam Hussein out of kuwait. And i dont remember the exact numbers, but it was basically 150,000 men and women a thousand tanks, couple of carrier groups, so many airplanes. And about the middle of october after wed been going through this since august, colin called him and said he had to meet with the president right away, would i arrange the appointment . Which i did. And colin came into the office, and im there with scowcroft and there wasnt the usual bantering. George bush really had a lowkey, easy style and whenever anybody came in to chat with him the first few minutes were really quite friendly and a nice exchange. But this time colin was serious from the very moment he walked in. And he started saying to the president , mr. President i just have something i have to communicate with you and you have to understand it. Weve just reviewed everything, and were going to need 250,000 men, 2 or 3,000 tanks, x number of airplanes, so many more increases in the naval groups that were going to have there. All almost double that we had heard over the last couple of months. George bush listened, and he nodded his head and he thought for a couple of minutes. And then he looked general powell in the eye and he said, colin, you can have everything you need, and if you need anything else to do it right you come see me. And that was it. Now, why do i think thats significant . George bush remembered that in vietnam the military would come and see Lyndon Johnson, and Lyndon Johnson felt they were asking for too much. And hed give them 75, 80, 90 of what they asked for but always less. And whether it was in fact or just psychological i believe george bush felt that that created an excuse for failure. And when he looked colin powell in the eye and said is, general you can have all that and if you need any more you come tell me, he was saying you have no excuse to fail, you must do this right and were not going to micromanage. The ball is in your court, go deliver. And to me, that was a milestone change in policies for the United States. And it really established the principle that if we are going to go into conflict, the best thing to do is to go into conflict with more than you think you need than less than you think you need. The third anecdote has to do with a relatively minor and i use that word not trying to denigrate the issue, but there are issues like war and peace and budgets that dominate but the issue of childcare. In the process of negotiating a budget george bush had learned the previous years talking to governors how important childcare was to the evolution of the way america was changing in time. Lots of single mothers out there needed childcare even families with two parents childcare was necessary to allow them to be a twoincomeearning family. But he also learned that there was a tendency in many places where childcare was being debated to be talking about it as building governmentrun facilities or allowing government contracts to support huge facilities or support any facilities. And the governors were saying and the family groups were saying its really important to give the money to the family and give them flexibility on where the child is taken care of and how its taken care of and even allow in some cases for Community Groups to come together in churchowned facilities for that childcare. So the president made a commitment x the commitment was in essence to provide the support through a voucher structure going to the family and to provide flexibility to the family, full flexibility to choose where it it was going to be spent and taken care of. Doesnt sound like a huge issue. Now, weve negotiated a budget for almost 20 months, and this agreement was come at between the president and Democratic Leadership in committees and the speaker of the house and the Senate Majority leader. And the agreement was that it would be put into the budget that we were that he was going t