tool of the Communists, in the eyes of some John Birch members." Further elucidation is
then added in a footnote: "A decade and a half later, running for President, I ran into
some of the same political types on the campaign trail. By then, they'd uncovered an
international conspiracy even more sinister than the Council on Foreign Relations-- the
Trilateral Commission, a group that President Reagan received at the White House in
1981." This, as we shall see, is a reference to Lyndon LaRouche's New Hampshire
primary campaign of 1979-80, which included the exposure of Bush's membership not
just in David Rockefeller's Trilateral, but also in Skull and Bones, about which Bush
always refuses to comment. When Ronald Reagan and other candidates took up this
issue, Bush ended up loosing the New Hampshire primary and with it his best hope of
capturing the Presidency in 1980. Bush, in short, has been aware since the early sixties
that serious attention to his oligarchical pedigree causes him to lose elections. His
response has been to seek to declare these very relevant matters off limits, and to order
dirty tricks and covert operations against those who persist in making this an issue, most
clearly in the case of LaRouche. [fn 7]
Part of the influence of the Birch Society in those days was due to the support and
financing afforded by the Hunt dynasty of Dallas. In particular, the fabulously wealthy
oilman H.L. Hunt, one of the richest men in the world, was an avid sponsor of rightwing
propaganda which he put out under the name of LIFE LINE. On at least one occasion
Hunt called Bush to Dallas for a meeting during one of the latter's Texas political
campaigns. "There's something I'd like to give you," Hunt told Bush. Bush appeared with
remarkable alacrity, and Hunt engaged him in a long conversation about many things, but
mentioned neither politics nor money. Finally, as Bush was getting ready to leave, Hunt
handed him a thick brown envelope. Bush eagerly opened the envelope in the firm
expectation that it would contain a large sum in cash. What he found instead was a thick
wad of LIFE LINE literature for his ideological reformation. [fn 8]
It was in this context that George Bush, mediocre oilman, fortified by his Wall Street and
Skull and Bones connections, but with almost no visible qualifications, and scarcely
known in Texas outside of Odessa, Midland, and Houston, decided that he had attained
senatorial caliber. In the Roman Empire, membership in the Senate was an hereditary
attribute of patrician family rank. Prescott Bush had left the Senate in early January of
- Before the year was out, George Bush would make his claim. As Senator
Yarborough later commented, it would turn out to be an act of termerity.
During the spring of 1963 Bush set about assembling an institutional base for his
campaign. The chosen vehicle would be the Republican chairmanship of Harris County,
the area around Houston, a bulwark of the Texas GOP. Bush had been participating in the
Harris County organization since 1960.
One Sunday morning Bush invited some county Republican activists to his home on
Briar Drive. Present were Roy Goodearle, a young independent oil man who, before
Barbara Bush appropriated it, was given the nickname of "the Silver Fox" in the
Washington scene. Also present were Jack Steel, Tom and Nancy Thawley, and some
others.