A Charge to Keep

by George W. Bush and Karen Hughes

Book Overview

In this political memoir, the governor of Texas and front-runner for president in the year 2000 tells us who he is and what he stands for. The George W. Bush who leaps off these pages has his father's energy, his mother's tart and honest wit, and his own irreverence and impatience. He has prospered as George and Barbara's boy -- "How can I deny it?" -- but has walked a very fine line between loyalty and independence.

He addresses the questions...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688174418
• ISBN13: 9780688174415
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent in Every Respect

In this book, President George W. Bush describes his remarkable early life and subsequent rise to the most powerful position on earth. The book begins with Bush's idyllic early childhood in Texas, and the remarkable story of how he personally discovered his father's first oil well in the Perm Basin by devising a simplified scent technique to smell surface fossil fuel particles in the dessert. In addition to providing the Bush family with it's first oil fortune, this discovery landed the youthful Bush a Nobel prize making him the youngest recipient ever of the world's most prestigious award. Bush spent the next four years in high school at the prestigious Philips Andover Academy where he was top of his class, four-time varsity baseball and football champion and the youngest president of the local Temperance Union. In this capacity Bush spent evenings and weekends volunteering to lecture children about the perils of drinking. One night after counseling a distraught fourteen-year-old alcoholic, Bush volunteered to undergo the symptoms of alcoholism himself in order to better understand the pain and suffering around him. Bush spent the next four years at Yale University where he again excelled in all varsity sports and all of his academics. Bush triple majored in public policy, environmental studies, and economics citing these as the great problem areas of our age. Classmates and professors alike already speculated that Bush would make an amazing president. Immediately after graduating from Yale, Bush joined the navy and volunteered for active duty in Vietnam. After two years of training as a Navy Seal, Bush was deployed in the Hue and Natrang area where he built several schools and numerous roads while simultaneously crushing all Viet Kong resistance in that area. Many of Bush's missions from this time are classified, but he is credited with having rescued John McCain and several other POWs from prison and from having saved the life of future Georgia Senator and triple amputee, Max Cleeland. In 1969 Bush is believed to have undertaken a daring journey up the Mekong River to assassinate North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh. While Ho is believed to have died of natural causes, "A Charge to Keep" indicates that Bush personally slew him with a machete before calling in an air strike and then taking Ho's personal papers back to Ohio where his son could read them. Following the war, Bush attended Harvard Business School where he formulated three new macro economic models and theories of fiscal disbursement, which earned him his second Nobel Prize. Upon graduating from Harvard, Bush turned down requests from both political parties to run for President and instead determined that his father deserved to run first since he was older. In the interests of fairness, however, Bush insisted that other candidates, such as Carter and Reagan should be given a chance first. It was these self-effacing and humbling actions on the part of the nations' most brillia

Best Autobiography I've Read!

This is the best autobiography from George Bush I've ever read. It clearly shows Bush's side of his struggles with Alchoholism, Cocaine abuse and Business failure. His surprisingly fresh sense of humor neatly balances his harrowing accounts of the action and bloodshed in Vietnam that he witnessed on T.V. while safe at home in the National Gaurd where he trained to fly out-moded jets. George is a hero for our age. Who better to represent our country in it's declinig years than an illegitimate "president" with a third-graders grasp of our world. God DOES have a sense of humor.

Good for it's purpose!

This is not a monumental piece of literature, but it was not writen to change the world. The books job was to tell the people who George W. Bush is, and it accomplished this job very well! It covers his life from childhood to today. And most importaintly, is clearly states his political beliefs and convictions, so you KNOW the man well when you finish. No psychobabble, no theories, just cold, hard facts on the content of his character. By the way, conserning his "Jesus Christ" answer as his favorite philosopher in the debate...if you think that a part, even a very small part, of that answer was political positioning, you NEED to get this book! This is not a boaring preachy read, just a good man shareing his past and present self, as well as his optimistic view of the future.

Book Provides Insight Into Bush

I found this book to be very insightful. The media is limited to only a minute or two in all of its reports on the race for the White House. You can not gain a true understanding of who these men are, who are campaigning by simply turning on the television. That's where this book comes in. I enjoyed this simple text and recommend it to anyone who wants to find out more about George W. Bush - the person. He reveals what items are of most importance to him and he offers some suggestions to the problems facing America today. Whether you are already a Bush supporter or not, this book will at least educate you to what is on the mind of the Texas governor.

A Candidate to Keep

After hearing so many positive things about George W. Bush, I decided to find out if this man is for real. This book confirms that George W. Bush is a compassionate conservative, committed to helping Americans succeed. After reading this book, I feel as if I know him personally. He is passionate and fervently fights for what he believes in. I highly recommend this book for every voter in America in order to personally get to know George W. Bush.