Revisiting the George H. W. Bush presidency

Spencer D. Bakich, a nonresident senior fellow at the Miller Center, is a professor of international studies and the director of the National Security Program at the Virginia Military Institute. He is the author of Success and Failure in Limited War: Information and Strategy in the Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and Iraq Wars (Chicago, 2014), as well as articles, book chapters, and essays on wartime diplomacy and strategy, coercive diplomacy, American grand strategy, and cybersecurity. Using transcripts from the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program, Bakich contributed chapters to 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton and 43: Inside the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Mary Kate Cary, a former Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, is the deputy chief of staff to Interim President Paul Mahoney at the University of Virginia. She is also the founder and director of Think Again at UVA. She served as a White House speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to early 1992, authoring more than 100 of his presidential addresses. She also has ghostwritten several books related to President Bush’s life and career and served as senior writer for communications for the 1988 Bush-Quayle presidential campaign. Cary formerly served as an adjunct instructor in the University of Virginia’s department of politics, teaching classes on political speechwriting, the greatest American political speeches, and the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.

Fred McClure is the chief community engagement officer at Texas A&M University. He was previously the chief executive officer for the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, McClure was the Washington, D.C., managing partner for the international law firm SNR Denton. He has also served as assistant for legislative affairs to President George H. W. Bush and as special assistant for legislative affairs to President Ronald Reagan. His previous U.S. government service includes legislative director to U.S. Senator John Tower, associate deputy U.S. attorney general, and chairman of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1995, Governor George W. Bush appointed McClure to the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, where he served as vice-chairman.

Barbara A. Perry is the J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited 17 books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Perry has conducted more than 150 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Presidential Oral History Projects; interviewed President Bill Clinton; and directed the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project's conclusion. She served as a U.S. Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate. Perry earned a BA in political science from the University of Louisville, an MA in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford University, and a PhD in government from the University of Virginia.