re: Why was Bush chosen as Reagan's VP?

To advance

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

Simple as that

The reality....... probably money and access to the East Coast moneyed interests. Reagan was a West Coast guy who did not run in the same circles and because Nixon had fricked up so many in the NY Boston corridor were hesitant if not suspicious of a former actor who had been running California whose main advisors tended to be Westerners. There was a lot of regional suspicion and discrimination back then. They remembered Golwater in 64 and they were not thrilled with West Coast conservatives. Nixon was different because the knew him and he was not Goldwater in any way. He served the East Coast Country Club Republican interests as did Jerry Ford.

Reagan reached out to Bush and Bush was the connector. For that Bush got a spot on the ticket.

It was a money thing but Reagan still controlled most of the appointments to the cabinet except for DOD and Treasury