Bush family. - American dynasty: aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of deceit in the house of Bush

PENGUIN BOOKS

AMERICAN DYNASTY

Brilliant and important it is Phillipss training as a historian and the context he provides that makes his book so fresh and damning None of the other recent critical, liberal books about George W. Bush has this sort of sweep or impact readers will wonder how President Bush, or any mans family, could stand this depth of exposure

William ORourke, Chicago Sun Times

Where American Dynasty is particularly compelling and genuinely frightening is in its exploration of the power the Religious Right holds over the President quite simply one of the most scarifying pieces of journalism in recent years what makes Phillips so interesting is the fact that he is no ordinary Bush whacker with a grudge

Irish Independent

A powerful study he writes as a Republican who worries about a near royal family that has maintained close relationships with the military-industrial complex and national security GQ

Tracing the family lineage through four generations, Phillips paints a portrait that can only be deeply disturbing to anyone concerned about how power is now gained and maintained Washington Post

No author has plumbed the history of the Bush family in such detail well-researched and compelling. The President had better worry because its portrait of the House of Bush is devastating youll never think about the Bushes in quite the same way again

Douglas Harbrecht, Business Week

His discussion of the rise of the religious Right, the Southern Baptist Convention and George W.s conversion to the born-again bloc of the American electorate is revealingRaymond Seitz, The Times

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Phillips has been a political and economic commentator on the American scene for more than three decades. A former strategist in Richard Nixons White House, his groundbreaking book The Emerging Republican Majority was the first to pinpoint a massive shift in American voting patterns a shift of which the Bushes have been the unscrupulous beneficiaries. He is currently a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio, and also writes for Harpers Magazine and Time. His other books include The Politics of Rich and Poor and Wealth and Democracy. He lives in Connecticut.

AMERICAN
DYNASTY

Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

KEVINPHILLIPS

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin (USA) 2004

First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane 2004

Published in Penguin Books 2004

Copyright Kevin Phillips, 2004

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-194131-8

To the memory of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose words in his 1961 farewell address once again demand attention and respect:

This conjunction of an immense Military Establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influenceeconomic, political, even spiritualis felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the Federal Government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.

In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

January 17, 1961

T his book has changed a lotin length, indignation, and its hitherto unpublished informationsince I began writing it in December 2002. My original ambition was to identify and explain the Bush-related transformation of the U.S. presidency into an increasingly dynastic office, a change with profound consequences for the American Republic, given the factors of family bias, domestic special interests, and foreign grudges that the Bushes, father and son, brought into the White House.

Unfortunately, in examining two Bush presidencies and the familys four-generation pursuit of national prominence and powerand in doing so through a lens that highlighted elite associations, dynastic ambitions, and recurring financial and business practicesI found a greater basis for dismay and disillusionment than I had imagined. The result is an unusual and unflattering portrait of a great family (great in power, not morality) that has built a base over the course of the twentieth century in the back corridors of the new military-industrial complex and in close association with the growing intelligence and national security establishments. In doing so, the Bushes hasve threaded their way through damning political, banking, and armanents scandals and, since the 1980s, controversies like the October Surprise, Iran-Contra, and Iraqgate imbroglios, which in another climate or a different time might have led to impeachment.

I am not talking about ordinary lack of business ethics or financial corruption. During the late twentieth century, several other presidents and their families displayed these shortcomings, and the public has become understandably blas. Four generations of building toward dynasty, however, has infused the Bush familys hunger for power and practices of crony capitalism with a moral arrogance and backstage disregard of the democratic and republican traditions of the U.S. government. As we will see, four generations of involvement with clandestine arms deals and European and Middle Eastern rogue banks will do that.

American Dynasty is on the one hand a book about economics, history, and politics in the era that covers the two Bush presidencies. But it is also a portrait of four Bush (and Walker) generationstheir ambitions, financial practices, scandals, and wars. It brings into focus many circumstances and relationships that have not previously been examined together and seriously discussed, for reasons that are both unusual and unfortunate. During the late 1970s and 1980s, the Bush clan in a sense flew under the radar of critical biography and investigation. The first two published biographies of George H. W. Bush