Vice President George H.W. Bush—a decorated World War II naval aviator and former CIA director—was successfully painting Dukakis, the Governor of Massachusetts, as a soft-on-defense, inexperienced liberal.
To counter this narrative and prove he was capable of being Commander-in-Chief, Dukakis’s campaign managers orchestrated a high-profile media event. The plan was to photograph Dukakis riding inside a massive, high-tech M1 Abrams main battle tank to project an image of military decisiveness, strength, and patriotism.