‘Bush had special treatment to avoid Vietnam’

US President George Bush was given special treatment to avoid being sent to war in Vietnam as a young man, was suspended from the Air National Guard because he failed to meet standards and ignored an order to take a physical.

In addition, senior military officials put pressure on one of Mr Bush’s officers to “sugar coat” his military evaluations, according to an unearthed memo.

The “special treatment” came at the time Mr Bush’s father, who later rose to become CIA director and then President, was a congressman in Texas.