cover image Looking Forward

Looking Forward

Victor Gold, George H. W. Bush. Doubleday Books, $18.95 (270pp) ISBN 978-0-385-14181-9

An early salvo in the vice-president's campaign for the White House in 1988, this is a standard candidate's biography but livelier than others because Bush has held such a variety of important positions. As a young man from Connecticut and a former Navy pilot in World War II, he went to Texas and made a fortune in the oil fields. After serving in the House of Representatives and two failed attempts at the U.S. Senate, he served as U.S. representative to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee (steering the party through the Watergate scandal), envoy to China in the last years of Chairman Mao and head of the CIA. Bush writes about his seven years as vice-president, stressing his belief that the prime requisite of the number-two spot is loyalty, and concludes by emphasizing his political conservatism. Photos not seen by PW. (September 18)