In 1984, Brokaw prepared a documentary to cor-
respond with the fortieth anniversary of the Allied
invasion of Normandy, France, during World War II.
(This interest would lead, in 1998, to the publication
of his first book,The Greatest Generation, a celebration
of those Americans who survived the Great Depres-
sion and fought in World War II.) In 1986, Jay
Barbree revealed the cause of theChallengerspace-
craft disaster on Brokaw’s evening news program.
During 1987, Brokaw interviewed both Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin and President
Ronald Reagan in the White House. By the end of
the decade, he had become the voice of NBC news
and a trusted source of information for millions of
people.
Impact Of the three major network news anchors
during the 1980’s (Dan Rather for CBS, Peter Jen-
nings for ABC, and Brokaw), Brokaw was probably
least affected by the increasing corporate ownership
of the networks. General Electric acquired NBC and
its parent company, RCA, in 1986. As a result, NBC
news suffered cuts and, like the other networks, saw
an increasing emphasis on profit, as the corporate
culture of the 1980’s rejected the traditional model
of networks’ news divisions as “loss leaders” (that is,
divisions that would lose money but would build
the prestige of their networks, contributing to their
brand recognition and overall value). Brokaw bene-
fited from this trend, however: He seemed less so-
phisticated and learned than Jennings, while he was
cooler and more controlled than Rather. In the con-
text of the drive to make news profitable, Brokaw’s
youthful appearance and charm appealed to the
kind of young, successful audience being sought by
advertisers in the 1980’s, auguring the future of
American network news broadcasting.
Further Reading
Alan, Jeff, with James M. Lane.Anchoring America:
The Changing Face of Network News. Chicago: Bonus
Books, 2003.
Fensch, Thomas, ed.Television News Anchors: An An-
thology of Profiles of the Major Figures and Issues in
United States Network Reporting.Woodlands, Tex.:
New Century Books, 2001.
Goldberg, Robert, and Gerald Jay Goldberg.An-
chors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather, and the Evening
News.New York: Carol, 1990.
Betty Richardson
See also Berlin Wall;Challengerdisaster; Jennings,
Peter; Journalism; Network anchors; Pauley, Jane;
Rather, Dan; Soviet Union and North America; Tele-
vision.Bush, George H. W.
Identification U.S. vice president, 1981-1989, and
president, 1989-1993
Born June 12, 1924; Milton, MassachusettsBush served as either vice president or president during
such major 1980’s political events and changes as the end
of the Cold War, the adoption of supply-side economics,
the dominance of conservatism in American politics, the in-
vestigation of the Iran-Contra affair, and the invasion of
Panama.George H. W. Bush was the second son of Prescott S.
Bush (1895-1972) and Dorothy (Walker) Bush.
Prescott S. Bush was a Wall Street banker and served
as a Republican senator from Connecticut from
1953 to 1963. Senator Bush belonged to the north-
eastern, moderate, pro-civil rights wing of the Re-
publican Party. George H. W. Bush served as a Navy
combat pilot during World War II and graduated
from Yale University. He married Barbara Pierce in
1945, and his first son, future president George W.
Bush, was born in 1946. He moved his family to
Texas in 1948 in order to enter the oil business.Political Career During the 1960’s and 1970’s Dur-
ing the 1950’s, Bush was busy developing his oil and
investment interests and raising a large family. By the
1960’s, he entered Republican politics in Texas as
the state’s politics became more conservative and
Republican candidates became more competitive.
Bush ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1964 and- In his 1964 campaign, he opposed the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 in an attempt to attract conserva-
tive white voters and dispel his image as a moderate
Yankee carpetbagger. Bush, however, was elected as
a U.S. representative for a Houston-based district in
1966 and reelected in 1968. He compiled a mostly
conservative voting record in Congress, especially by
supporting large cuts in domestic spending and for-
eign aid and a more aggressive military strategy in
the Vietnam War (1959-1975).
After Bush lost the 1970 Senate race, President
Richard M. Nixon appointed him as the United
152 Bush, George H. W. The Eighties in America