- "Zapata Petroleum Corp.," Fortune, April, 1958.
- Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward, "Doing Well With Help From Family, Friends,"
Washington Post, August 11, 1988. - Petzinger, p. 63.
- "Love Her And Leave Her," Forbes, September 15, 1974, pp. 54-5.
- See Petzinger, pp. 64-67.
- Zapata Offshore Annual Report 1964, Microform Reading Room, Library of Congress.
- See Bush folder, Yarborough Papers, Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, University of
Texas, Austin. - See Jonathan Kwitny, "The Mexican Conne1988. ction of George Bush," Barron's, September 19,
Return to the Table of Contents
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
Chapter -IX- Bush Challenges Yarborough for the Senate
Bush's unsuccessful attempt in 1964 tmatter of fundamental interest to anyone seeking to probe the wellsprings of Bush's actual politicalo unseat Texas Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough is a (^)
thinking. In a society which knows nothing of its own recent history, the events of a quarter century
ago might be classed as remote and irrelevant. But as we review the profile of the Bush Senate
campaign of 1964, what we see coming alive is the characteristic mentality that rules the Oval
Office today. The main traits are all there: the overriding obession with the race issue, exemplifiedin Bush's bitter rejection of the civil rights bill before the Congress during those months; the
genocidal bluster in foreign affairs, with proposals for nuclear bombardment of Vietnam, an
invasion of Cuba, and a rejection of negotiations for the return of the Panama Canal; the autonomic
reflex for union-busting expressed in the rhetoric of "right to work"; the paean to free enterprise at
the expense of farmers and the disadvantaged, with all of this packaged in a slick, demagogictelevision and advertising effort.
During this Senate race, Bush assumed the coloration of a Goldwater Republican. It remains highly
significant that Bush began his public political career in the ideological guise of a southern
Republican, specifically in Texas. The Republican Party in Texas had been in total eclipse since thetime of Reconstruction, with the state GOPers complaining that they were living in a one-party
state. During the 1950's, the personal popularity of Eisenhower and the increasing visibility of ultra-
left Wall Street investment bankers in the circle of Adlai Stevenson's backers began to offer the
Texas Republicans some openings. In 1952 and 1956, Texas Democratic Governor Allan Shivers
supported Eisenhower, who carried Texas with a substantial majority both times. In 1960, Thad given its electoral votes to Kennedy, although the margin of Democratic victory was so thin asexas (^)
to constitute an embarrassment to Kennedy's running mate, Texas Senator and Democratic Majority
Leader Lyndon B. Johnson. But Nixon had carried the city of Houston and Harris County, which
turned out to be the largest metropolitan area to go for the Nixon-Lodge ticket that year. In 1960,
Texas Republicans scored their greatest success in a century by elected John Tower to the US