(3 of 4)
Many members of the class of '68 were figuring how to avoid Viet Nam. His fraternity brother and later business partner, Roland Betts, says that George faced a special pressure: "He felt that in order not to derail his father's political career he had to be in military service of some kind." A 53-week program in the Texas Air National Guard qualified him in F-102 interceptors. Lieut. Bush signed up for a program that rotated Guard pilots to Viet Nam, but he wasn't called. Instead he held short-term jobs, including a stint at Pull for Youth, a Houston program serving ghetto youngsters. "I wasn't interested in taking root," he says. "I was having fun." Once, with Marvin as company, he decided to take a few of the Pull for Youth kids on a plane ride. One of them became abusive and refused to be hushed. So George used a simple pilot's trick: he momentarily stalled the engine, scaring his passengers into white- knuckled silence.
In his late 20s, still single, he decided to attend Harvard Business School. The curriculum appealed to him far more than Cambridge's liberal atmosphere. Watergate was nearing its climax, and Bush pere was in a defensive crouch as Republican national chairman. The son sympathized from afar, then decided to take his M.B.A. back to Midland, to learn the oil business as a "landman," one who researches mineral and land records.
Initially this meant a two-room apartment off an alley and a lot of generosity from old pals. During this period he reinforced a reputation for frugality. At Midland's annual golf tournament, one of the gag trophies is the George Bush Dress Award, shaggy plaid trousers bestowed on the competitor sporting the worst attire. Its eponym still buys bargain threads at a factory outlet. Despite his recent affluence, he continues to describe himself as "all name and no money." Thrift is a virtue for someone trying to build his own business without capital. Bush became known as a shrewd dealmaker who could attract investors without incurring debt. As the energy business flourished in the late '70s, he built a small, solvent outfit of his own. He also married Laura Welch, a librarian, just three months after they met. She explains the courtship's brevity by saying, "We were both 30, and had had a lot of single years. We were glad to find each other."
With an open congressional seat beckoning, George decided to try politics in 1978. He won the Republican primary over a more experienced rival. But in the general election Bush faced a Democrat as conservative as he and one who had spent his entire life in the district. Bush's Ivy League education became a cultural liability. He lost by 6 points. By the mid-1980s the oil industry's downward cycle had made capital increasingly difficult to come by for smaller operators. So he agreed to merge his outfit with Harken Energy.
As Big Bush's presidential efforts accelerated in early 1987, George and the second oldest son Jeb had doubts about Lee Atwater as campaign manager. To % allay those concerns, Atwater invited one of the brothers to join the campaign organization full-time. So George, Laura and their twin daughters moved to Washington for the duration. After a dozen years of independence, he was back in his father's orbit being called Junior.