Experienced man to take the helm

Press, 1 April 1981, Page 24

Experienced man to take the helm

Vice-President George Bush, who will take over the task of President while Mr Reagan is- unable to carry out the job, has a wide range of foreign and domestic experience. Aged 57, he has already appeared to he taking on a mote major role in the Administration than many previous Vice-Presidents. Only last week he was named as Mr

From NZPA, Washington

Reagans crisis manager for both foreign and domestic, affairs. He. was also put in charge of efforts to review the many federal regulations, a task of special importance to the conservative Administration. Mr Bush, who campaigned hard against Mr Reagan for the Republican nomination for President, won attention as head of the’ Central Intelli-

gence-Agency in 1976-77 under President Ford. He was credited with rallying . the agency at a time when it was reeling from disclosures of misuse of power. He had already gained considerable experience both at home and abroad as a Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971-72 and envoy to China in 1974-75. He also 'served as national chairman of the Republican Party during one of the party's most

troubled times — the period of the Watergate scandal which engulfed Mr Richard Nixon. During his campaign for the presidential nomination. Mr Bush strongly attacked Mr Reagan, describing some of his proposals as “economic voodoo.” But since being selected by 1 Mr Reagan as his number two ‘ during the Republican national convention last year, Mr Bush has become a staunch defender of the President’s policies, including heavy cuts in/

government spending and taxes.

The son of a United States Senator, Mr Bush graduated from Yale University and would have been welcomed in the New York financial world. But instead he moved to Texax, made a fortune in the oil industry and became a power in the state’s Republican Party. He was twice elected to Congress as' a Representative .but failed in a bid for the Senate. ’