George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

also held stock in some large New York banks during the time that he was negotiating the
Latin American debt crisis in his capacity as Secretary of the Treasury. [fn 7]
Baker grew up in patrician surroundings. His social profile has been described as "Texprep."
Like his father, James III attended the Hill School near Philadelphia, and then went
on to Princeton, where he was a member of Ivy Club, a traditional preserve of Eastern
Anglophile Liberal Establishment oligarchs. Nancy Reagan was enchanted by Baker's
sartorial elegance and smooth savoir-faire. Nancy liked Baker far more than she ever did
Bush, and this was a key advantage for Bush-Baker during the factional struggles of the
Reagan years.
Baker & Botts maintains an "anti-nepotism" policy, so James III became a boss of
Houston's Andrews, Kurth, Campbell, & Jones law firm, a satellite of Baker & Botts.
Baker's relation to Bush extends across both law firms: in 1977, Baker & Botts partner
Blaine Kerr became president of Pennzoil, and in 1979, Baker & Botts partner B. J.
Mackin became chairman of Zapata Corporation. Baker & Botts have always represented
Zapata, and are often listed as counsel for Schlumberger, the oil services firm. James
Baker and his Andrews, Kurth partners were the Houston attorneys for First International
Bank of Houston when George Bush was chairman of the bank's executive committee.
During the 1980 campaign, Baker became the chairman of the Reagan-Bush campaign
committee, while fellow Texan Bob Strauss was chairman of the Carter-Mondale
campaign. But Baker and Strauss were at the very same time business partners in Herman
Brothers, one of America's largest beer distributors. Bush Democrat Strauss later went to
Moscow as Bush's ambassador to the USSR and later, to Russia.
In 1990, the New York Times offered a comparison of Bush and Baker, and sought to
convey the impression that Baker was the far more devious of the duo:
When you sit across from the President, it is like holding an X-ray plate up to the light. You can
see if he feels defensive or annoyed or amused. He is often distracted, toying with something on
his desk. His thoughts start and stop and start again, as though he had call-waiting in his brain.
There is a spontaneity and warmth about him.
When you sit across from Baker, it is like looking at a length of black silk. There is a stillness, as
Baker holds you locked in his gaze and Southern comfort voice, occasionally flashing a rather
wintry smile...He has a compelling presence, but he is such a fox that you feel the impulse to
check your wallet when you leave his office. [fn 8]
Another leading Bush supporter was Ray Cline. During 1979 it was Ray Cline who had
gone virtually public with a loose and informal but highly effective campaign network
mainly composed of former intelligence officers. Cline had been the CIA Station Chief in
Taiwan from 1958 to 1962. He had been Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from
1962 to 1966, and had then gone on to direct the intelligence gathering operation at the
State Department. Cline became a de facto White House official during the first Bush
Administration, and wrote the White House boiler plate entitled "National Security
Strategy of the United States" under which the Gulf war was carried out.