Takes Oath of Office : Bush Pledges to Make U.S. a Better Nation

George Herbert Walker Bush was inaugurated as the 41st President of the United States Friday, telling his countrymen that even in a peaceful, prosperous America, “we can make it better.”

Then, hand in hand with his wife, Barbara, the new President rode--and for a time walked--at the head of his own parade, in splendid sunshine to the White House. An estimated 300,000 people responded to his joyous waves along the way.

In an inaugural speech long on inspiration and short on initiatives, Bush offered a symbolic hand of bipartisanship to the opposition Democrats and asked the nation to put aside materialism. “We are not the sums of our possessions,” he said.

“A new breeze is blowing--and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on; there is new ground to be broken and new action to be taken,” Bush declared.

Takes Over White House

Beneath partly overcast skies, in slight chill at three minutes past noon, Bush took the oath of office, retaining conservative custody of the White House inherited from Ronald Reagan.

Reagan saluted Bush from the steps of his helicopter, then flew with his wife, Nancy, to retirement in California. Like his recent predecessors, the departing President took a final, airborne pass over the White House.

As Bush took office, Reagan became the first President since another Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who held office from 1953 to 1961, to serve two full terms. He was also the first President in 60 years to turn the White House over to a successor of his own party.

“My friends, we have work to do,” Bush said in his 20-minute speech. “We have more will than wallet, but will is what we need.”

He asked Americans to help him steer the nation on a course of “high moral principle,” to battle the domestic scourges of homelessness, drug addiction and crime, and tyranny and terrorism abroad.

Bush told Democratic congressional leaders that his would be “the age of the offered hand.” To the world, he said, the hand could be “a reluctant fist . . . strong” and could “be used with great effect.”

With his oath Bush, 64, the fourth-oldest man to be sworn in as President, capped an odyssey of government service, personal setback and triumph. It took him from the privileged home of an Eastern financier and senator to aerial combat in the Pacific, from sweaty work and heady gambles in the Texas oil fields to diplomacy in China, from political defeat to presidential victory.

Moments before Bush took the rostrum on the Capitol’s West Portico, Dan Quayle, the 41-year-old former senator from Indiana, was sworn in as the new vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

With the heralding of trumpets, Bush was introduced one last time as “the vice president of the United States.” He paused for a word with his 87-year-old mother, Dorothy, and then shook hands with Reagan.

Two Bibles Used

Then, as an estimated 200,000 people looked on from the Capitol grounds, Bush, in navy pinstripe business suit, placed his left hand upon two Bibles, one used by George Washington, one by his own family, and recited his oath:

“I, George Herbert Walker Bush, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Like all his predecessors, he added: “So help me God.”

He began his address with a tribute to the departing Reagan, “who has earned a lasting place in our hearts and in our history.”

Issue Barely Touched

But Reagan left behind some major challenges for the new President, particularly the massive national debt, $2.6 trillion, and spending and trade deficits running $150 billion each per year. Bush barely touched upon those issues.

“We have a deficit to bring down,” he acknowledged. “We will make the hard choices, looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it differently, making our decisions based on honest need and prudent safety.”

“And then we will do the wisest thing of all: We will turn to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows--the goodness and courage of the American people.”

“For this is the thing,” Bush said. “This is the age of the offered hand.”

‘Lesson of Vietnam’

Bush said Republicans and Democrats have often been too mistrustful, an attitude he traced back to the Vietnam War. “The final lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can long afford to be sundered by a memory,” he said.

With that, Bush symbolically extended his hand to the Speaker of the House, Jim Wright of Texas, and to the majority leader of the Senate, George J. Mitchell of Maine.

Wright returned the gesture; Mitchell sat passively. Later the leaders met with Bush and watched as he signed papers formally nominating his Cabinet.

Former House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill, who had many memorable battles with Reagan, declared, “We’re back to normalcy in the White House. How delighted I am.”

‘Scourge Will Stop’

Bush drew his greatest applause when he spoke of the drug issue, saying, “We as a society must rise up united and express our intolerance. . . . There is much to be done and to be said, but take my word: This scourge will stop.”

Bush started with a prayer, one imploring the divinity to “write on our hearts these words: ‘Use power to help people.’ ”

“I come before you and assume the presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better,” he said.

Bush’s brief parade forays from the security of the new presidential limousine, once at the foot of Capitol Hill and again upon his arrival at the White House, recalled a similar gesture by Jimmy Carter in 1976, when the Democrat walked most of the route. For Bush, it seemed to symbolize his inaugural promise to usher in an “age of the offered hand.”

Son Dons Hat

At the White House, the Bushes took their seats in an enclosed reviewing stand to watch more than 200 marching units, including those from schools and colleges in every state, pay their salute. His adopted Texas produced an especially large contingent, and son George Bush Jr. donned a white 10-gallon hat as the University of Texas Longhorn Band strutted by.

The hours-long parade, with famous test pilot Chuck Yeager and comedian Bob Hope as grand marshals, featured 12,000 marchers, 457 horses and 70 floats, including one with a Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, a duplicate of the plane Bush flew in World War II.

Later, the Bushes would dance the night away at 11 invitation-only inaugural balls.