Was that Studebaker shiny and new, or old and battered? Perhaps the printout is not specific on this
point; in any case, as we see, our authorities diverge.
Joe Hyams's 1991 romance of Bush at war, the Flight of the Avenger, does not include the
obligatory "red Studebaker" reference, but this is more than compensated by the most elaborate
fawning over other details of our hero's war service [fn 5]. The publication of Flight of the Avenger,
which concentrates on an heroic retelling of Bustend to puncture this myth, was timed to coincide with the Gulf crisis and Bush's war with Iraq.h's war record, and ignores all evidence that might
This is a vile tract written with the open assistance of Bush, Barabara Bush, and the White House
staff. Flight of the Avenger recalls the practice of totalitarian states according to which a war waged
by the regime should be accompanied by propaganda which depicts the regime's strong man in an
appropriately martial posture. In any case, this book deWar II; we never reach Odessa. als with Bush's life up to the end of World
Only one of the full-length accounts produced by the Bush propaganda machine about their
candidate neglects the red Studebaker story. This is Nicholas King's George Bush: A Biography, the
first book-length version of Buscampaign. Nicholas King had served as Bush's spokesman when he was US Ambassador to theh's life, produced as a result of Pete Roussel's efforts for the 1980
United Nations. King admits at the beginning of his book that he can be impugned for writing a
work of the most transparent apologetics: "In retrospect," he says in his preface, "this book may
seem open to the charge of puffery, for the view of its subject is favorable all around." [fn 6]
Indeed.
Books about Barbara Bush slavishly rehearse the same details from the same printout. Here is the
relevant excerpt from the warmly admiring Simply Barabara Bush: A Portrait of America's Candid
First Lady, written by Donnie Radcliffe and published after Bush's 1988 election victory: With
$3,000 lhis father had given him for graduation after George's car died on the highway. [fn 7] eft over after he graduated in June, 1948, he headed for Texas in the 1947 red Studebaker
Even foreign journalists attempting to inform their publics about conditions in the United States
have fallen victim to the same old Bush printout. The German author and reporter Rainer Bonhorst,
the former Washington correspondent of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, in his 1988 bookGeorge Bush: Der neue Mann im Weissen Haus, named a chapter of this Bush political biography (^)
"Im roten Studebaker nach Texas." Bonhorst writes as follows:
Dann war da noch die Sache mit dem roten Studebaker. Sie spielt--gleich nach dem
Weltkriegseinsatz-- eine zweite zentrale Rolle in der Lebensgeschichte des George Bush. Es ist dieGeschichte seiner Rebellion. Der Schritt, der aus dem steifen Neuenglaender einen laessigen
Texaner machte, aus dem reich geborenen Patriziersohn einen Selfmademann. [...] Also packten
George und Barbara Bush, 24 und 23 Jahre alt, er gerade mit dem Studium fertig, sie vorzeitigaus
ihrer Universitaet ausgeschieden und seit ein paar Monaten Mutter, ihr Baby und ihre Koffer und
luden sie auf ihr knallrotes Studebaker-Coupeetwas laut fuer den neuenglischen Geschmack," erinnerten sich die Bushs spaeter. Aber schliesslich. "Ein supermoderner, schnittiger Wagen, allerdings (^)
ging es ja ab nach Texas. [fn 8]
We see that Bonhorst is acutely aware of the symbolic importance assumed by the red Studebaker
in these hagiographic accounts of Bush's life.
What is finally the truth of the matter? There is good reason to believe that George Bush did not
first come to Odessa, Texas, in a red Studebaker. One knowledgeable source is the well-known
Texas oil man and Bush campaign contributor Oscar Wyatt of Houston. In a recent letter to the
Texas Monthly, Wyatt specifies that "when people speak of Mr. Bush's humble beginnings in the