[48] In 1953 he co-founded the Zapata Petroleum Corporation, an oil company that drilled in the Permian Basin in Texas.[citation needed] In 1954, he was named president of the Zapata Offshore Company, a subsidiary which specialized in offshore drilling.[49] Shortly after the subsidiary became independent in 1959, Bush moved the company and his family from Midland to Houston.[50] There, he befriended James Baker, a prominent attorney who later became an important political ally.[51] Bush remained involved with Zapata until the mid-1960s, when he sold his stock in the company for approximately $1 million.[52]
In 1988, The Nation published an article alleging that Bush worked as an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the 1960s; Bush denied this claim.[53]

Early political career (1963–1971)
Entry into politics
Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower with Bush
By the early 1960s, Bush was widely regarded as an appealing political candidate, and some leading Democrats attempted to convince Bush to become a Democrat. He declined to leave the Republican Party, later citing his belief that the national Democratic Party favored "big, centralized government". 