[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 190 (Monday, December 3, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H9759-H9760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INFORMING CONGRESS OF THE DEATH OF GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, THE 41ST 
   PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES--MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
                             UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER laid before the House the following message from the 
President of the United States; which was read:

To the Congress of the United States:
  By this Message, I officially inform you of the death of George 
Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first President of the United States.
  President George H.W. Bush led a life that exemplified what is truly 
great about America. As with so many of his generation, the Greatest 
Generation, President Bush worked selflessly throughout his long life 
to bring about a world of justice and lasting peace. With his passing, 
we mark one of the last pages of a defining chapter in American 
history.
  Much of George H.W. Bush's life was shaped by global conflict. He 
began his adult life by volunteering for combat in the Pacific Theater 
of World War Two. Through his heroic efforts as an aviator in the 
United States Navy, the youngest in United States history at the time, 
President Bush flew 58 combat missions, helping to win a hard-fought 
but fragile peace. Shortly after the war, the Nation found itself 
confronted with new challenges, including a protracted Cold War and the 
threat of nuclear annihilation by the Soviet Union. Propelled by his 
sense of duty to his Nation, George H.W. Bush re-entered public 
service, first as a Member

[[Page H9760]]

of Congress, and then as Ambassador to the United Nations, Chief of the 
United States Liaison Office in China, Director of Central 
Intelligence, Vice President, and President of the United States.
  Resolute through war, President Bush was magnanimous in peace. As the 
Communist threat subsided, he stood down America's nuclear bombers from 
the alert posture they had maintained for so long and gently encouraged 
the development of democracy and free markets in the crumbling Soviet 
Union. Through these and other gestures of goodwill, President Bush 
helped to bring the Cold War to a victorious end and to transition the 
country into a period of sustained peace and prosperity.
  During one of his many combat missions as a young man, then-
Lieutenant Bush was forced to parachute from his airplane into the 
ocean below. Many years later, in celebration of a life of 
accomplishments in both war and peace, President Bush jumped from 
another aircraft--this time a helicopter--and parachuted safely onto 
the grounds of his home in Maine. Fearless, courageous, adventurous, 
and unyielding, through the highs and lows of the twentieth century and 
into the next millennium, President Bush served his Nation, creating an 
example that will inspire generations for decades to come.
                                                     Donald J. Trump.  
The White House, December 3, 2018.

                          ____________________