The death of President George H.W. Bush, coming during the troubled term of President Trump, is a moment to reflect on what it was like in more conventional times. He was elevated to office on a wave of affection for President Reagan, whom he served as vice president. Bush steered the country to victory in the final furlongs of the Cold War and to battlefield triumph over the hosts of Iraq.

Yet there was a diffidence to the 41st president that mystified many. He campaigned for president on a vow of no new taxes. “Read my lips,” he said. Yet he failed to keep that promise, a default from which his presidency may never have recovered. He drove Iraq from Kuwait but shrank from going after Saddam. Come time for re-election, some wondered whether he really wanted a second term.

Your editor was in Europe for the Wall Street Journal editorial page when Bush acceded to the presidency. Reagan’s magnificent revolution had — we, for one, have little doubt — maneuvered the Soviet camarilla into a no win position. Management of the collapse of the Soviet communist empire and the unification of Germany, though, fell to Bush, who mixed adroitness with fumbles.

Most famous was the “Chicken Kiev” speech, so dubbed by Wm. Safire of the New York Times. It was the speech in which Bush went before Ukraine’s Rada, as its parliament is known, and warned that Americans would not support “a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.” Conservatives reckoned “suicidal nationalism” was weak-kneed. In the event, it was hard to argue with the result, as the communist empire crumpled.

By then — 1991 — we were editing the Forward, which focused on the Jewish beat. Bush had gotten on the wrong foot with the Jewish community, feuding over $10 billion in loan guarantees to help Israel absorb the Jews finally able to escape the Soviet regime. Bush resolved the issue on a visit to Kennebunkport by Prime Minister Rabin. Then he invited the editors of leading Jewish newspapers to the White House.

What we remember about the meeting — apart from the President’s capacity for warmth and charm — was his mastery of evasion, which we use in the best sense of the word. Sitting across from him in the Roosevelt Room, we looked the President in the eye and asked: In the war between Syria and Israel, is the United States a neutral party? “We were not on neutrality’s side when the battle was fought,” Bush replied.

We’re notoriously slow. So we sat there thinking, “Huh? On which side was neutrality?” In any event, we came away from the meeting with a wonderful impression of 41. Plus a grasp of why one heard about Rabin, a Labor Party figure, that when he was ambassador to the United States he reckoned that the GOP would be a more reliable political partner for Israel than the Democrats.

Yet Bush had already made his biggest blunder, which was the 1990 budget. That’s when he broke his pledge of no new taxes. “Read my lips … I lied,” was the wood in the New York Post. The Wall Street Journal ran a famous editorial saying as far as it was concerned, Bush was on his own. That was probably the point at which people began to wonder whether Bush really wanted a second term.

No doubt the apex of Bush’s presidency was his speech to a joint session of Congress on our victory in the Gulf War. Bush entered the House to rapturous applause. The Speaker, Thos. Foley, a Democrat, broke with tradition to offer congratulations on behalf of the Congress and country. We watched the speech from the newsroom of the Forward. Its grizzled, wise labor columnist, Gus Tyler, leaned over to us and said, “He’s going to lose the election.”

And so it was. Of the 15 presidents who served but one term, Bush probably ranked second (after President John Adams, also a vice president who followed a towering hero). From the perspective of the Trump era, though, Bush’s temperament, comportment, and integrity look exemplary. It is hard to imagine any president who will be laid to rest with warmer feelings from both sides of our national politics.

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Image: President George H.W. Bush, second from right, meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with a group of editors of Jewish newspapers. The 41st president invited the editors in after his meeting at Kennebunkport, Maine, with Prime Minister Rabin. The future editor of the Sun, Seth Lipsky, then editor of the Forward, is at the far left.