South Bend, January 1, 1989
A Good Beginning of the New Year
Not for a long time has there been such confidence in peace in the world as now. It is a hopeful, relaxed and optimistic beginning of the New Year. The New Year’s greetings between President Reagan and President Gorbachev were exchanged as a matter of course as if they had always taken place. The new easing of tensions between East and West has contributed a great deal to the improved international atmosphere. It has taken away the fear of the future.
January 11, 1989
The Farewell to the Nation
President Reagan said goodbye to the nation. His farewell address, which was broadcast on television this evening, was so moving that even the otherwise very restrained anchor of NBC had tears in his eyes. Ronald Reagan leaves office with dignity as one of the most beloved American presidents of the past 50 years, actually since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was able to serve two full terms, which had been denied to his predecessors since Eisenhower. He gave back to his country its self-confidence, while at the same time putting peace in the world on a more trustful foundation. At the end of his time in office, he is the experienced elder statesman, who, with goodness of heart and a sense of humor, won the affection of the American people.
January 20, 1989
The Age of the Offered Hand
At 12 p.m. EST, as provided by the Constitution, George Herbert Walker Bush was sworn in today as the 41st President of the United States by Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the West Front of the Capitol. Bush took the oath of office on the Bible, on which George Washington had taken the oath of office 200 years ago in 1789. In his inaugural address, he emphasized, saying: “This is the age of the offered hand.” As a conciliatory gesture, he offered his hand to Congress as well as to the world as a sign of his readiness for peace.
[George Herbert Walker Bush was born in 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts; Walker was the family name of his mother. Bush served as a young pilot in the U.S. Navy in the Second World War in the Pacific. After his plane had crashed in the area of the Bonin Islands in September 1944, he was rescued from the sea. He married Barbara Pierce in 1945; graduated from Yale with a BA degree in economics in 1948; then entrepreneur in oil companies in Texas. Bush entered politics as Congressman of the 7th District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1967-71; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 1971-73; Chief of U.S. Liaison Office in Peking, 1974-75; Director of the CIA, 1976-77. As running mate of Ronald Reagan in the presidential election of 1980, Bush won the U.S. vice presidency. He was U.S. Vice President, 1981-89, and U.S. President, 1989-93.]