BUSH, GEORGE H.W. (1924-2018). Forty-first president of the United States and father of George W. Bush, the forty-third U.S. president. TLS. (“George Bush”). 1p. Small 4to. Washington, D.C., October 1, 1991. On blind-embossed, mint green, White House stationery. To Senator DANIEL PATRICK “PAT” MOYNIHAN (1927-2003).

“Thank you for your letter of September 16 recommending that I propose repeal of the hateful ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution in my address to this year’s United Nations General Assembly.

As you know, we came to the same conclusion, and my General Assembly speech did call for its repeal. I am glad you were able to be there for the announcement.

We will be actively seeking a decisive vote overturning this resolution; as ever, I look forward to receiving your counsel...”

After serving in the U.S. Navy, Bush, the son of a Connecticut Senator, entered the oil business, and became a millionaire by age 40. He was also a successful politician, representing Texas in the House of Representatives from 1967-1971. President Nixon appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and, under President Ford, he served in a diplomatic position with China. He was the Director of the CIA for one year before he joined Ronald Reagan’s presidential ticket, serving two terms as vice president. In 1988, he ran for the country’s highest office and defeated his Democratic rival, Michael Dukakis. The Bush administration witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the invasion of Panama, the Gulf War, and the signing of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Bush ran for reelection in 1992 but was defeated by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.

Moynihan served the Kennedy and Johnson administrations as assistant secretary of labor until 1965. Following a failed bid for election to the New York City Council, Moynihan became director of the Harvard–MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies. Despite being a Democrat, President Richard Nixon selected him to be his counselor on urban affairs, and in 1973, he was appointed U.S. ambassador to India, the world’s largest democracy, to smooth over the countries’ sometimes uneasy relationship. Moynihan served as President Ford’s ambassador to the United Nations, speaking out against the 1975 U.N. resolution declaring Zionism a form of racism. While representing New York in the Senate, a position he held from 1977 to 2001, Moynihan continued his support of Israel and opposition to U.N. Resolution 3379. In his September 23, 1991 speech before the General Assembly (referred to in our letter), Bush called for the resolution’s repeal, which Moynihan described “as fine an address as any American statesman will ever give,” in his October 6, 1991 article in The Washington Post entitled “Resolution Is Traced To Soviets, Zionism Declaration Was The Big Red Lie,” published just five days after President Bush wrote our letter Moynihan. Israel had stipulated that the resolution be repealed before it would participate in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991, sponsored by the United States and Russia. The passage of Resolution 46/86 accomplished this aim and Israeli-Palestinian talks were held in Spain beginning on October 30, 1991.

“President George H.W. Bush… was a good friend from the Nixon years whom Moynihan wanted to support in any way he could. Moynihan had stayed with Bush in Beijing on the way back to the United States from India and – as Pat noted in his journal – Barbara Bush even did his laundry,” (Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary, ed. Weisman). Because of their close relationship, “Moynihan was emotionally and intellectually caught up in the fate of President George H.W. Bush, a political leader with whom he was friends but with whom he disagreed on his approach to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990,” (ibid.).

Never folded and in near mint condition.