Tributes to former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who died at the age of 94, poured in from around the world on Saturday as global leaders honored him for his role in helping to end the Cold War and reduce the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Bush, the 41st U.S. president who served in the office from 1989 to 1993, also routed President Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army in the 1991 Gulf War but lost his chance for a second term in the White House after breaking a no-new-taxes pledge.
"Many of my memories are linked to him," said Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, with whom Bush signed a strategic arms reduction treaty that scaled back the two countries' nuclear arsenals.
"We happened to work together in years of great changes. It was a dramatic time demanding huge responsibility from everyone," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Gorbachev as saying.
Bush, who also served for eight years as U.S. vice president during Ronald Reagan's two-term presidency and earlier as head of the CIA, died on Friday night at his home in Houston. His death was announced by his longtime spokesman Jim McGrath.
Speaking in Buenos Aires, U.S. President Donald Trump called Bush "a high-quality man."
"He was a very fine man. I met him on numerous occasions. He was just a high-quality man who truly loved his family," Trump told reporters at a G20 summit in Buenos Aires. "He was a terrific guy and he'll be missed. He led a full life, and a very exemplary life, too."
The White House said a state funeral will be held on Wednesday at the National Cathedral in Washington. Trump, who plans to attend the funeral with first lady Melania Trump, also designated Wednesday as a national day of mourning and ordered the lowering of the American flag for 30 days.
Former U.S. presidents lauded Bush. "His administration was marked by grace, civility and social conscience," Jimmy Carter, a Bush predecessor and now the oldest living former president at 94, said in a statement.
Former President Barack Obama described Bush as "a patriot and humble servant" while former President Bill Clinton, who defeated Bush in the 1992 presidential election, recalled his "great long life of service, love and friendship."
Bush, a U.S. naval aviator during World War II, was the father of former President George W. Bush, who served two terms in the White House in the 2000s, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who unsuccessfully sought the 2016 Republican nomination for president. Like his sons, he was a Republican.
After falling short of his party's presidential nomination in 1980, Bush ran for the presidency again in 1988 and defeated Massachusetts Democrat Michael Dukakis, winning 40 of the 50 U.S. states.
The Persian Gulf War – dubbed "Operation Desert Storm" – was his greatest mark on history. In a January 2011 interview marking the war's 20th anniversary, he said the mission sent a message that "the United States was willing to use force way across the world, even in that part of the world where those countries over there thought we never would intervene."
"I think it was a signature historical event," he added. "And I think it will always be."
After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Bush quickly began building an international military coalition that included other Arab states. After freeing Kuwait, he rejected suggestions that the U.S. carry the offensive to Baghdad, choosing to end the hostilities a mere 100 hours after the start of the ground offensive.
"That wasn't our objective," he said. "The good thing about it is there was so much less loss of human life than had been predicted, and indeed than we might have feared."
But the decisive military defeat did not lead to the regime's downfall, as many in the administration had hoped.
"I miscalculated," Bush acknowledged. The Iraqi leader was eventually ousted in 2003, in the war led by Bush's son that was followed by a long, bloody insurgency.
His death came seven months after that of his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, to whom he was married for 73 years. He was admitted to a Houston hospital with a blood infection that led to sepsis a day after her funeral in April.
At the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recalled visiting him in the White House. "He was the father or one of the fathers of German reunification and we will never forget that," she said.
Bush served as president during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
"His ethos of public service was the guiding thread of his life and an example to us all," said British Prime Minister Theresa May. "In navigating a peaceful end to the Cold War, he made the world a safer place for generations to come."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Bush "faithfully served his country all his life – with a gun in his hand during the war years and in high government roles in peacetime," according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Bush's body will arrive at the U.S. Capitol on Monday and lie in state through Wednesday morning. The public will be able to line up to view Bush's casket continuously from Monday evening until Wednesday morning.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Bush's "wise leadership" in a statement released Saturday, saying that the late president had "helped steer the world to a peaceful transition and the spread of democracy."
"On behalf of the people of Israel, I send heartfelt condolences to the Bush family and the American people on the passing of a great American patriot, President George H.W. Bush," Netanyahu said.
"The people of Israel will always remember his commitment to Israel's security, his important contribution to the liberation of Soviet Jewry, and his efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East," Netanyahu said.
President Reuven Rivlin said in a Twitter message that under Bush's leadership, the strategic relationship between Israel and the U.S. had evolved into the "strongest of alliances."
"The Jewish people will always remember his help in bringing the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel and his determination to ensure that the Arab world recognize our right to exist in peace and security," Rivlin said.
