Nice pic. Bush the elder was into’compassionate conservatism’ at that time, and was more trusting of people like Gorbachev than Reagan would have been.
Interestingly, Bush the elder stated during his reelection campaign that the fall of the Berlin wall, and the general demise of communism did not mean that we didn’t need to be vigilant anymore. It left things in some ways more unstable, and thus the period following the collapse of the USSR was a critical one to ensure the future. H.W. Bush was not a staunch conservative, but he certainly had a better understanding of what needed to be done to ensure the world moved in the best direction after the fall of the USSR than did Clinton. Elections truly do have consequences.
Marginally better. The seeds of the problems in Bosnia came out of Bush I’s lack of vigilance, and the increase in Islamic terror overall.