George H.W. Bush biographer coming to Unity Temple

Earlier this month, a former president made headlines with comments how another former president — his own son — had been poorly served by advisers.

That was George H.W. Bush, the 41st president, speaking of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, who were defense secretary and vice president, respectively, to 43rd president George W. Bush.

The comments came from “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,” by historian Jon Meacham.

Meacham knew his book would be released into a hyper-partisan environment, and the pre-publication release of those comments created a big-time book buzz.

“My hope is that people will read the book in the spirit in which was written,” Meacham said a few days before that firestorm.

“This is about the 41st president, about George H.W. Bush. It’s not about George W. Bush and it’s not about Jeb Bush.”

Meacham had resolved to produce a book with as much personal detail as possible about a president not known for being garrulous.

“He has this image of being out of touch, buttoned-down and emotionally distant,” Meacham said. “But he was forthcoming. We are not going to have another president who fought in World War II and had the life experiences he had.”

Meacham, who received a Pulitzer Prize for his 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, enjoyed access to Bush over several years, interviewing him as well as reviewing his White House diaries.

“What you get from these diary entries is the remarkable sense that you are experiencing history as he experienced it,” Meacham said. “You feel the pressures of the Gulf War and you feel him worrying about (former Soviet Union President Mikhail) Gorbachev and bringing of the Cold War to a safe end.

“You hear it, you are there. A lot of times you have to guess what presidents are thinking, but these diaries allow you to know.”

Bush also discussed the traumatic events of September 1944, when the 20-year-old U.S. Navy torpedo bomber pilot had to abandon his aircraft after it was disabled by anti-aircraft fire. Bush and two crewmen had been charged with destroying a Japanese radio installation on the Pacific island of Chichi Jima.

Although Bush survived in a life raft before being rescued by a U.S. submarine, the two crewmen did not.

Japanese officers on Chichi Jima later were found guilty of atrocities involving captured American airmen whose numbers conceivably could have included Bush.

Bush didn’t dodge the topic, Meacham said.

“He cried on a number of occasions during our interviews, whether it was about the two crewmen who died on that mission or about the (1953) loss of his daughter (Robin) to leukemia.”

The perspective of Bush’s administration, meanwhile, looks better all the time, Meacham said.

“He was attacked for raising some taxes in 1990. Bill Clinton will tell you today how that set up the prosperity of the 1990s, which everyone now wants to have back.

“We miss a president who believed in Washington working, and who believed in the virtues of compromise, which is now almost a dirty word.”

Meacham speaks at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th St. For more information about the event, co-presented by The Star, go to rainydaybooks.com.

Young Bill Cody

When 12-year-old Sam Cody died after being crushed beneath his horse, his family resolved to leave Iowa and make a fresh start in Kansas Territory.

The Cody family arrived on their 160 acres near Fort Leavenworth in 1854, just in time for the troubles today known as Bleeding Kansas. That year, a slavery supporter stabbed Isaac, the family patriarch, after he refused to deny his free-state sentiments.

Others terrorized the Cody family, burning their crops and sometimes forcing their way into their home. When Isaac Cody died in 1857, it fell to 11-year-old Billy to care for his mother, five sisters and baby brother.

The child raised on this bitter frontier grew up to be flamboyant entrepreneur “Buffalo” Bill Cody, who brought his version of a dramatic and thrilling American West to international audiences.

In “The Boy Who Became Buffalo Bill,” Prairie Village author Andrea Warren tells that story for young readers.

“Kids will learn how difficult life was on the frontier,” Warren said. “This is a great way for kids to learn history, when they are involved in this character, a great American icon whose experiences as a child influenced how he shaped his show. There is no magic or wizards here, but real people and real life.”

Warren speaks at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza branch, 4801 Main St. For more information, go to kclibrary.org.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 4:00 AM with the headline "George H.W. Bush biographer coming to Unity Temple."