We write these words as funeral services continue for the 41st president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush. There have been days of touching tributes to a man who was a patriot and public servant to the core, a man who was a decorated naval pilot during World War II, who served as a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations and to China, director of the CIA and vice-president. Many have commented that he was perhaps the most qualified U.S. president ever elected.
Ukrainian Americans will remember George H.W. Bush as someone who reached out to our community on numerous occasions. In 1974, when he headed the Republican National Committee, he spoke during a luncheon at the Ukrainian National Association’s 28th Convention. In 1982, at the UNA’s 30th Convention, as vice-president he delivered a major foreign policy address on U.S.-Soviet relations. Mentioning by name Yuriy Shukhevych, Ivan Svitlychny, Mykola and Raisa Rudenko, and Petro Grigorenko as examples of human rights activists persecuted by the Soviets, he said “Ukrainians have been singled out for especially harsh treatment by the Soviet government. The estimates are that up to half of all Soviet political prisoners may be Ukrainians. The repression has worsened in recent years. …” He assured his listeners that “you have not been forgotten” – “We are a nation of immigrants, descended from those who sought a better world. …Their spirit lives on. Their dreams live on. The quest for freedom lives on.” And he ended his speech with the words “Shche ne vmerla Ukraina.”
To be sure, many of our readers will also remember President Bush’s 1991 visit to Ukraine, when he cautioned against “suicidal nationalism” in a speech to the Verkhovna Rada. Delivered on August 1, just three weeks before the Rada proclaimed Ukraine’s independence, and a day after President Bush met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow, the address was dubbed by opinion writer William Safire as the “Chicken Kiev” speech. Reaction from our community in the U.S. was strongly negative. In Ukraine, opinions were more nuanced, with many pointing out the positive aspects: the U.S. president had put Ukraine on the map, the president had said Ukraine was free to decide its own future, and he made it clear that the U.S. supported Ukraine’s struggle for democracy. (We encourage readers to re-read the historic speech in order to appreciate its complete message to Ukraine and its people.)
When Verkhovna Rada Chairman Leonid Kravchuk visited the United States that September, he was greeted warmly by President Bush. Mr. Kravchuk told the president that the U.S. must accept the independence of the republics because a central government in the Soviet Union no longer existed. On November 27, just four days before Ukraine’s historic referendum on independence, President Bush met with Ukrainian American community leaders and assured them the U.S. would recognize Ukraine’s independence after the December 1 referendum. On Christmas Day 1991, the U.S. recognized the independence of Ukraine; on January 23, 1992, official diplomatic relations were established.
In 2004, “Bush 41” visited Kyiv and addressed students of Kyiv State University. He referred to his 1991 speech, stating that he had always supported those “who pushed the frontiers of freedom” and pointing out that his words were widely misinterpreted. “I encouraged them not to do something stupid. My speech here – if you look at it, if you read it – I said to restrain from doing anything that would cause them to react when things were going the right way,” he said. President Bush explained that, indeed, because the Ukrainian leadership of the time acted carefully and with restraint, Ukraine moved smoothly towards sovereignty and independence without what could have been a bloody encounter with Moscow. “Your leaders acted in the national interest and not in self-interest,” he underscored.
He also encouraged the Kyiv students to pursue public service, volunteerism and charitable work. Mr. Bush alluded to the “thousand points of light program” he had espoused during his presidency in 1988-1992 and told the Ukrainian students that volunteerism offers rewards far richer than financial benefit. Mr. Bush’s life reflected that conviction. Indeed, when President Barack Obama awarded Mr. Bush the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, he said of the honoree: “His life is a testament that public service is a noble calling.”
As we remember the well-lived life of George H.W. Bush, we extend our condolences, and we pray that he may rest in peace and that God may grant us that “kinder, gentler” nation envisioned by our 41st president.