wrong. he comes to power in the beginning of 1989. ronald reagan had gotten mikel gorbachev to sign a nuclear arms treaty, interrange missiles, had done things to begin to end the cold war. the berlin wall was still up. eastern europe was locked in the soviet orbit, and it fell to george bush to coax goto bring to completion. saddam hussein invades kuwait. george bush knew what this meant in the first test of the cold war world, a un member has been invaded and the george bush goes saying i know you're anxious about the after math of vietnam, which is a tragedy and a failure, but it's worthwhile to send americans around the globe to defend a country you may not have heard of and then conducts a six-week successful war.