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Q: Countries visited by George W. Bush in his lifetime, prior to becoming President ( Answered 4 out of 5 stars,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Countries visited by George W. Bush in his lifetime, prior to becoming President
Category: Relationships and Society > Politics
Asked by: jimboh-ga
List Price: $15.00
Posted: 10 Nov 2004 07:55 PST
Expires: 10 Dec 2004 07:55 PST
Question ID: 427087
I'm looking for a comprehensive list of all of the countries George W.
Bush visited prior to becoming President, and the dates and length of
stay in each country--trips he might have taken as a child, or young
adult, up until he became President.

Or, if he had never been out of the country prior to becoming
President, some sort of confirmation of this fact.

Thanks.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Countries visited by George W. Bush in his lifetime, prior to becoming President
Answered By: pinkfreud-ga on 10 Nov 2004 10:07 PST
Rated:4 out of 5 stars
 
George W. Bush has never been much of a traveler. Before he assumed
the Presidency, his only major forays abroad were to Mexico, Israel,
and China. He made brief visits to a scattering of other countries.

"Bush's foreign travels have been limited to three visits to Mexico,
two trips to Israel, a three-day Thanksgiving visit in Rome with one
of his daughters in 1998 and a six-week excursion to China with his
parents in 1975 when his father was the U.S. envoy to Beijing."

http://quest.cjonline.com/stories/121600/gen_1216007443.shtml

A quote from CNN's Walter Rodgers:

"George W. Bush had only visited Mexico, Israel and China before
becoming president, and that was never an issue."

CNN Student News: Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/17/ip.00.html

"Critics often describe Bush as 'incurious' about the world, but that
word hardly does justice to what feels almost like a principled
provincialism. Here was someone who by age 13 was mingling in the
country-club set of Houston, who then went on to Andover, Yale and
Harvard Business School -- and did so in the age of cut-rate
international air fares -- and yet he rarely traveled abroad. Bush was
in his mid-20's when his father became ambassador to the United
Nations, and still he stayed home. He must have had to resist actively
his parents' blandishments. He visited China in 1975, when his father
was U.S. liaison; Gambia, at President Bush's behest, in 1990; and the
Middle East in 1998, when he had begun thinking about his own run for
the presidency. (He also traveled to Europe several times in the 90's
with the Young Presidents' Organization, a group for corporate
executives.)

People close to Bush dismiss his past as irrelevant; he has, they say,
both the experience and the character to direct the affairs of the
free world. Condoleezza Rice argues that as governor of Texas, Bush
gained a familiarity with foreign affairs from his dealings with
Mexico. 'He has on-the-ground experience there,' she says, 'which I
would say is much more valuable than if he had been attending seminars
at the Council on Foreign Relations for the last five years.' Rice
also turns the insularity argument on its head, arguing that the
president-elect 'comes at this as an American with very, very American
values.' These arguments seem reassuring mostly to Bush's own allies.
Many Europeans, for example, see the president-elect as an
all-American boob."

[from James Traub, "The Bush Years: W.'s World," New York Times
Magazine, 14 January 2001]

Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/traub.htm

According to Bush staffers, George W. Bush had visited these countries
before becoming President:

Bermuda
Canada
China
Egypt
England
France
Gambia
Israel
Italy
Mexico
Scotland

"George was not exactly what you would call well-traveled. Campaign
staffers claimed that he had taken 'more than a dozen' trips outside
the U.S...

Bush made a month-long excursion to China while his father was
stationed there, which the New York Times summed up as 'trying to date
Chinese women (unsuccessfully) during a visit to Beijing in 1975.' He
had visited Israel and Egypt with the National Governors Association,
and also the African country of Gambia. Later on in the campaign, Bush
staffers claimed that he has also visited England, Scotland, and
Italy, as well as vacationed in France and Bermuda. This was not very
impressive to the people of Europe, who have to cross international
borders just to take their kids to Legoland."

Rotten.com: George W. Bush
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/george-w-bush/

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "george w bush" president "trips outside the us"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22george+w+bush%22+president+%22trips+outside+the+us%22

Google Web Search: "george w bush" "before becoming president" "outside the us"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22george+w+bush%22+%22before+becoming+president%22+%22outside+the+us%22

I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear, please request
clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you
rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud
jimboh-ga rated this answer:4 out of 5 stars
Just what I was looking for, and what I figured.  Would be nice to
know how many days/weeks each trip was.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Countries visited by George W. Bush in his lifetime, prior to becoming Presi
From: larre-ga on 10 Nov 2004 14:04 PST
 
This article also describes prior-to-election-2000 travel by George W.
Bush, from an EU perspective:

http://www.eubusiness.com/imported/2001/06/49338/

I have not been able to locate independent reports or verify travel to
England, Scotland or Japan.

---l
Subject: Re: Countries visited by George W. Bush in his lifetime, prior to becoming President
From: mongolia-ga on 23 Nov 2004 04:51 PST
 
If George W. had been more successful with his dating expoits while in
China in 1975 then we may have ended up with the interesting
possibility that the current First Lady was an ex-Red Guard!!
Some people would complain about George w's taste in partners in this 
possible scenario but it may be a bit less boring than Laura.
Mongolia

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