Did you know H.W. was a Republican? I just thought I'd point that out.
CIA Director George H.W. Bush listens intently at a meeting following the assassinations in Beirut of Ambassador to Lebanon Francis E. Meloy, Jr. and Economic Counselor Robert O. Waring.
...in October 1971...Ambassador George H. W. Bush, (click here) who led the U.S. delegation to the UN, diligently lobbied to preserve Taiwan's seat, but believed that Kissinger's travel schedule would undermine that purpose. As Sharon Chamberlain's transcripts of the tapes disclose, Bush requested Nixon to change Kissinger's schedule, arguing "I think this thing [Kissinger's trip]--to be candid as I've told Henry--will not be helpful at all" (see document 6), a striking contrast to Kissinger's later recollection that neither he or Bush thought that "the UN vote would be decisively affected."(1) Nixon was well aware that Taiwan enjoyed important support in the United States---"there's a lot of people that don't want to see us ... let Taiwan go down the drain"--but he could only advise Bush to "fight hard." For Nixon, however, rapprochement with Beijing had priority over Taiwan's UN status and Kissinger's schedule was left unchanged. With the PRC's widespread support among Third World delegations, Bush's efforts to save Taiwan's seats were to no avail. On 25 October 1971, while Kissinger was returning from China, the General Assembly, by the vote of a substantial majority, admitted the People's Republic of China to the UN and expelled the Republic of China....
