How Bush and Company Profit From War:
The Bushes and the military-industrial complex: George H. Walker and Samuel Prescott Bush were the dynasty's founding fathers during the years of and after World War I. Walker, a St. Louis financier, made his mark in corporate reorganizations and war contracts. By 1919, he was enlisted by railroad heir W. Averell Harriman to be president of Wall Street-based WA Harriman, which invested in oil, shipping, aviation and manganese, partly in Russia and Germany, during the 1920s. Sam Bush, the current president's other great-grandfather, ran an Ohio company, Buckeye Steel Castings, that produced armaments. In 1917, he went to Washington to head the small arms, ammunition and ordnance section of the federal War Industries Board. Both men were present at the emergence of what became the U.S. military-industrial complex.
Prescott Bush, the Connecticut senator and grandfather of the current president, had some German corporate ties at the outbreak of World War II, but the better yardstick of his connections was his directorships of companies involved in U.S. war production. Dresser Industries, for example, produced the incendiary bombs dropped on Tokyo and made gaseous diffusion pumps for the atomic bomb project. George H.W. Bush later worked for Dresser's oil-services businesses. Then, as CIA director, vice president and president, one of his priorities was the U.S. weapons trade and secret arms deals with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the moujahedeen in Afghanistan.
The Carlyle Group, founded in 1987 as a merchant bank focused on political influence and defense-sector investments, became famous for turning its impressive portfolio of national-security-related companies---United Defense, BDM, Vinnell, U.S. Investigations Services, Composite Structures, EG&G, Federal Data Corporation, Lear Siegler, and Vought Aircraft ---into winners for Carlyle's operation or profitable resale. This was achieved through the acumen and rainmaking of high-powered former officeholders in its employ, people ranging from G.H.W. Bush, former Sec.of State James Baker, former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci down to dozens of lesser cabinet, subcabinet, and senior regulatory agency officials.
Thirty to 40 percent yearly gains were common, but from the early days of the second Bush administration, so were conflict-of-interest charges. Carlyle's preoccupation was with companies that could profit from its Washington connections. One newpaper called Carlyle "the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the President's father.
Text from American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips
The Bushes and the military-industrial complex: George H. Walker and Samuel Prescott Bush were the dynasty's founding fathers during the years of and after World War I. Walker, a St. Louis financier, made his mark in corporate reorganizations and war contracts. By 1919, he was enlisted by railroad heir W. Averell Harriman to be president of Wall Street-based WA Harriman, which invested in oil, shipping, aviation and manganese, partly in Russia and Germany, during the 1920s. Sam Bush, the current president's other great-grandfather, ran an Ohio company, Buckeye Steel Castings, that produced armaments. In 1917, he went to Washington to head the small arms, ammunition and ordnance section of the federal War Industries Board. Both men were present at the emergence of what became the U.S. military-industrial complex.
Prescott Bush, the Connecticut senator and grandfather of the current president, had some German corporate ties at the outbreak of World War II, but the better yardstick of his connections was his directorships of companies involved in U.S. war production. Dresser Industries, for example, produced the incendiary bombs dropped on Tokyo and made gaseous diffusion pumps for the atomic bomb project. George H.W. Bush later worked for Dresser's oil-services businesses. Then, as CIA director, vice president and president, one of his priorities was the U.S. weapons trade and secret arms deals with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the moujahedeen in Afghanistan.
The Carlyle Group, founded in 1987 as a merchant bank focused on political influence and defense-sector investments, became famous for turning its impressive portfolio of national-security-related companies---United Defense, BDM, Vinnell, U.S. Investigations Services, Composite Structures, EG&G, Federal Data Corporation, Lear Siegler, and Vought Aircraft ---into winners for Carlyle's operation or profitable resale. This was achieved through the acumen and rainmaking of high-powered former officeholders in its employ, people ranging from G.H.W. Bush, former Sec.of State James Baker, former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci down to dozens of lesser cabinet, subcabinet, and senior regulatory agency officials.
Thirty to 40 percent yearly gains were common, but from the early days of the second Bush administration, so were conflict-of-interest charges. Carlyle's preoccupation was with companies that could profit from its Washington connections. One newpaper called Carlyle "the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the President's father.
Text from American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips
posted by Gary at 7:20 PM
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