Interview · moment 13 of 23
Bush's Obsessive Secrecy From a Young Age
from Dead President with Russ Baker · #125
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
Baker recounts how a young Bush was harshly disciplined for indiscretion during his naval intelligence days, arguing this trauma explains his lifelong obsessive secrecy and his pattern of never being at the center of any historical photo.
- 43:56Why the Bush family pushed so hard to get into politics and the Oval Office across generations
- 44:23Reagan could not stand George H.W. Bush, yet made him vice president
- 45:09The Bush family lobbied Nixon in the 1960s to make Poppy Bush—a freshman congressman with no experience—vice president
- 45:38Nixon received a massive lobbying campaign from corporate figures to install Bush as VP, but refused
- 46:13Prescott Bush discovered to be involved in creating Richard Nixon in the 1940s to defeat Jerry Voorhees, a Democratic congressman threatening Wall Street
- 47:02The Los Angeles Times created Richard Nixon's political career through positive press coverage while Prescott Bush was doing business with the paper's owners
- 47:27In 1968, the Bush family pushed Nixon to take Bush as VP again, but Nixon chose Spiro Agnew instead as assassination insurance
- 48:01Nixon selected Agnew as VP knowing about his corruption, laziness, and stupidity—calculating protection against assassination
Prescott BushRichard NixonSpiro AgnewDon RicklesLos Angeles TimesGeorge H. W. BushJerry VoorheesRonald ReaganCIA