Flags flew at half-staff across the United States on Saturday as Americans prepared for a week of solemn tributes to George HW Bush, in his home state of Texas and in the US Capitol, a day after the former president died aged 94.
Tributes poured in from world leaders in memory of the 41st US president, who guided America through the end of the Cold War and launched the international campaign to drive Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait.
Many of those same leaders are expected to attend Bush's state funeral next week, alongside President Donald Trump and his wife Melania.
Trump was notably absent from the funerals of the statesman's late wife Barbara, and of veteran fellow Republican John McCain.
Although the two Republican presidents were in many ways polar opposites -- the soft-spoken, patrician Bush reportedly once dismissed the blustering New Yorker as a "blowhard" and even voted for his rival Hillary Clinton -- Trump paid the late leader a gracious tribute, saying he had "inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service."
From there, Bush's casket will travel to Washington on board Trump's presidential aircraft -- in what the US leader called "a special tribute that he deserves very much."
The oldest surviving former US president Jimmy Carter said Bush's administration "was marked by grace, civility and social conscience."
Britain took the rare step of lowering flags in government buildings, while Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised Bush's "unwavering support" for the country's reunification."
Eight years later, in accepting his party's nomination for president in 1988, Bush pleaded for a "kinder, and gentler nation."
The crushing sanctions he imposed on Iraq, however, were blamed by Iraqis for thousands of deaths, drawing him the bitter nickname of "Mr Embargo."
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