The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
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On February 12: Bailey, Deardourff & Eyre, memo to Gerald R. Ford, March 12, 1980; in unopened collection at the Gerald Ford Library used by permission from Mary C. Lukens.
That day: Ford, interview.
“If I were a drinking man”: DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone, 92.
the hardest decision of his life: Ibid., 91.
“The clincher will come”: Richard Wirthlin memo to Ronald Reagan, March 28, 1980, quoted in Drew, Portrait of an Election, 355.
Ford declined: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 471.
“He thought George Bush was a wimp”: Nofziger, interview.
“I’ve never been much for sitting”: Gerald Ford convention speech, Detroit, July 1980.
The line played to thunderous applause: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 473.
“He appreciates forthrightness”: Ed Magnuson, “Inside the Gerry Ford Drama,” Time, July 28, 1980.
Paul Laxalt: “The G.O.P. Gets Its Act Together,” Time, July 28, 1980.
At a lunch with Newsweek’s editors: Elizabeth Drew, Richard M. Nixon (New York: Times Books, 2007), 214.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing: Magnuson, “Inside the Gerry Ford Drama.”
“Kissinger carries a lot of baggage”: Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 719.
“this is really two presidents”: Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 215.
The media frenzy to get the scoop: Drew, Richard M. Nixon, 211.
“I feel we are friends now”: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan, 475.
In its review of the convention: “The G.O.P. Gets Its Act Together,” Time.
“Anybody who wanted to see the president”: Nofziger, interview.
“That’s what . . . I was aiming at”: Gerald R. Ford, interview by James M. Cannon, April 30, 1990, transcript, James M. Cannon Research Interviews, Oral Histories, Gerald R. Ford Library.
“It was ludicrous”: Spencer, interview.
Chapter 16: “Why Don’t We Make It Just Dick, Jimmy and Jerry?”
White House advanceman: Hugh Sidey, “Flight of Three Presidents,” Time, October 26, 1981.
White House aides: Mark K. Updegrove, “Flying Coach to Cairo,” American Heritage Magazine 57, no. 4 (August/September 2006), 131.
They arrived at Andrews Air Force Base: Ibid.
Each man had left Washington: Haynes Johnson, “‘Oil and Water’ Mix on Air Force One,” Washington Post, October 10, 1981.
“Dick, Jimmy, and Jerry”: Updegrove, “Flying Coach to Cairo.”
The applause mounted: Howell Raines, “Sadat’s Successor Invited by Reagan to Visit U.S. in ’82,” New York Times, October 9, 1981.
“Rosalynn came also”: Barbara Bush, Barbara Bush: A Memoir (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1994), 173.
It was, Reagan noted: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 43.
“Ordinarily, I would wish you”: Ibid.
Total elapsed time: Lee Lescaze, “The Tragedy Brings 4 Presidents Together,” Washington Post, October 9, 1981.
“I kind of like that house”: Sidey, “Flight of Three Presidents.”
“This is,” said Haig dryly, “quite a planeload”: “Alexander Haig Takes Charge in Cairo,” Telegraph, October 10, 1981.
“You know, that just goes to show”: Thomas M. DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007), 158.
There were some morbid jokes: “‘Act of Infamy,’” Newsweek, October 19, 1981.
The sweaters came out: Sidey, “Flight of Three Presidents.”
Carter even sent a radar plane: “‘Act of Infamy,’” Newsweek.
“The only time I had that bad a day”: R. Gregory Nokes, “U.S. Moves Swiftly to Bolster Arabs,” Associated Press, October 13, 1981.
“He treated Nixon as a great statesman”: Henry A. Kissinger, “Sadat: A Man with a Passion for Peace,” Time, October 19, 1981.
“Ever the conspirator”: Sidey, “Flight of Three Presidents.”
They paid courtesy calls: Nokes, “U.S. Moves Swiftly to Bolster Arabs.”
Ford in particular: Updegrove, “Flying Coach to Cairo.”
Then a twenty-one-gun salute began: “‘Act of Infamy,’” Newsweek.
“the former presidents’ comments troubled some”: Haynes Johnson, “Ford, Carter United on Mideast,” Washington Post, October 12, 1981.
A transcript was produced: Sidey, “Flight of Three Presidents.”
Columnist Mary McGrory: Mary McGrory, “As Former Presidents Show the Flag, Bush Helps Mind the Store,” Washington Post, October 13, 1981.
Their wives even teamed up: Ibid.
Reagan and Nixon: The Exile Returns
“Decent” but “shallow”: Richard M. Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Bob Haldeman, 620–008 (meeting tape), November 17, 1971, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/620–008.
“Good God”: White House tapes, Richard M. Nixon Library.
Chapter 17: “I Am Yours to Command”
This campaign was a twofer: Walter Isaacson, “New Team in Town,” Nation, Time, November 24, 1980.
Nixon was never a Shultz fan: Bob Woodward, Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 101.
“‘I am yours to command’”: Richard M. Nixon letter to Ronald Reagan, November 17, 1980, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“I can’t thank you enough”: Ronald Reagan letter to Richard M. Nixon, November 22, 1980, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“Some charged me with being too tough”: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, November 1, 1982, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“After Christmas you might consider”: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, December 12, 1986, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“Do whatever the doctor advises”: Richard M. Nixon to Ronald Reagan, December 19, 1986, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“these thoughts are not for the record or for history”: Richard M. Nixon letter to Ronald Reagan, February 25, 1983, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
“Anyone who reaches the top”: Richard M. Nixon, “Meeting the Russians at the Summit,” New York Times, September 1, 1985.
“He may live long enough”: Richard M. Nixon, “Reagan and Gorbachev: Superpower Summitry,” Foreign Affairs 64, no. 1 (Fall 1985).
“If we can’t come to a reduction agreement”: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 365.
Nixon and Reagan spoke: “Nixon Arrives in Soviet,” New York Times, July 13, 1986.
“the conversation had a greater impact on him”: Richard M. Nixon letter to Ronald Reagan, July 1985, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
Careful White House advance work: James Mann, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (New York: Viking, 2009), 4.
First, on Sunday, April 26: Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger, “To Withdraw the Missiles We Must Add Conditions,” Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1987; Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger, “An Arms Agreement—On Two Conditions,” Washington Post, April 26, 1987.
(Safire’s call): William Safire, “The Kissnix Factor,” New York Times, April 27, 1987.
“Nuclear weapons aren’t going to be abolished”: “An Intervi
ew with Richard Nixon,” Time, May 4, 1987.
Nixon preferred the nearby Lincoln Sitting Room: Nancy Reagan, My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan (New York: Random House, 1989), 258; and Ron Reagan, “My Father, the President,” Parade, January 16, 2011.
“Reagan looks far older, more tired, and less vigorous”: Richard M. Nixon, “Memorandum RE: Meeting with President Reagan at the White House,” April 18, 1987, Richard M. Nixon Library.
As always, he had some campaign suggestions: Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, 634.
In a private memo: Marvin L. Kalb, The Nixon Memo: Political Respectability, Russia, and the Press (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 55.
But when Bush battled back: Robert B. Semple Jr., “The Editorial Notebook: Nixon Re-Re-Redux,” New York Times, April 15, 1988.
“Americans are crazy about renewal”: Roger Rosenblatt, “Richard Nixon: The Dark Comedian,” Time, April 25, 1988.
As for the national mood: Richard M. Nixon, interview, transcript, Meet the Press, NBC, April 11, 1988.
“Bush can pick anyone”: Helen Thomas, “Nixon on Bush, Jackson, Dukakis—and Gorbachev,” UPI, April 15, 1988.
And finally, Nixon urged Bush: Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency (New York: Warner Books, 1989), 371.
Bush took this all on board: But on one front, Bush flatly ignored Nixon. The old warhorse urged Bush to hold a broad and public search for a vice presidential nominee, in part to signal to a variety of party factions that he took them and their views seriously. In the end, Bush went another way, running a selection process so secretive and idiosyncratic that when he made his final choice and tapped Indiana senator Dan Quayle to be his number two, most of his own campaign aides were caught off guard. But as Nixon had predicted on television, even that choice did not hurt him.
“You have given George a great sendoff”: Richard M. Nixon letter to Ronald Reagan, August 16, 1988, Presidential Papers: Richard Nixon Post-presidential Correspondence with Ronald Reagan, Richard M. Nixon Library.
White House advance teams: Lee May, “Impassioned Goodbye: ‘Stand by Me,’ Reagan Urges State’s Voters,” Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1988.
“Tomorrow, when the mountains greet the dawn”: Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at a Republican Campaign Rally in San Diego, California,” November 7, 1988, Public Papers of President Ronald W. Reagan, Ronald Reagan Library.
Chapter 18: “I’m Convinced . . . He Feels I’m Soft”
“We got whipped and whipped soundly”: letter from George Bush to Richard M. Nixon, November 10, 1964, in George Bush, All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (New York: Scribner, 1999), 89.
An unlikely but potent coalition: Herbert S. Parmet, George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee (New York: Scribner, 1997), 135.
“Though we finished out of the money”: George Bush, “Rewriting History,” Talk of the Town, New Yorker, October 5, 1992; and Parmet, George Bush, 135.
The club verdict was unanimous: George Bush with Victor Gold, Looking Forward (New York: Doubleday, 1987), 101.
“‘mysterious’ was not one of them”: Author interview with George H. W. Bush, October 7, 2011.
“gentlemen running a gentleman’s race”: Author interview with Richard Whalen, March 4, 2011.
“I guess there are too many Democrats”: Parmet, George Bush, 145.
He got off sixteen hours later: Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House (New York: Random House, 1992), 596.
He often simply refused: Barbara Bush, Barbara Bush: A Memoir (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1994), 105.
“He surrounded himself”: George Bush, All the Best, George Bush, 179.
“George, you got the best from Yale”: Ibid., 182.
On August 7, Bush sent Nixon: Ibid., 193.
“Caring for no one”: Ibid., 194.
“The conversation was very brief”: Ibid., 197.
Scowcroft asked what: Brent Scowcroft, interview by author, February 9, 2009.
Only Ford accepted Bush’s offer: The story of Ford’s secure phone was first reported in Thomas M. DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007). Ford’s feelings about it—and Scowcroft’s offer to install them elsewhere—were detailed in subsequent reporting by the authors.
“I still think we ought to put it”: George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Knopf, distributed by Random House, 1998), 157.
“Gorbachev is Wall Street”: David Remnick, “Gorbachev’s the One, Nixon Says,” Washington Post, April 4, 1991.
“It’s time for Bush to understand that”: Dimitri K. Simes, After the Collapse: Russia Seeks Its Place as a Great Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 15.
“Since that does not appear to be in the cards”: Richard M. Nixon to Dimitri K. Simes, April 16, 1991, courtesy of Simes.
“While TIME’s essays are usually for those”: Richard M. Nixon to Dimitri K. Simes, April 5, 1991, courtesy of Simes.
“he needs us far more”: Richard M. Nixon, “A Superpower at the Abyss,” Time, April 22, 1991.
So, in many ways: Lance Morrow, “The Russian Revolution,” Time, September 2, 1991.
But more than these specific concerns: Monica Crowley, Nixon Off the Record (New York: Random House, 1996), 45–50.
The two men talked: Ibid., 49.
“This was the first time in a long time”: Ibid., 67.
“If he ignored him”: Ibid., 56.
When those efforts yielded: The story of the invitation is reported in Marvin L. Kalb’s The Nixon Memo: Political Respectability, Russia, and the Press (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
“The memos left New Jersey”: Ibid., 75.
Thomas Friedman’s analysis story: Thomas Friedman, “Nixon’s Save Russia Memo: Bush Feels the Sting,” New York Times, March 11, 1992.
“If democracy fails there”: Leslie H. Gelb, “Foreign Affairs: Nixon’s Tricky Crusade,” New York Times, March 13, 1992.
“I don’t have a blank check”: Norman Kempster, “Briefing Book: U.S. Candidates’ Stands on Foreign Issues: All of President Bush’s major challengers want a sterner line on China. Democrats say he is too tough on Israel. Free trade is a bit of a free-for-all,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1992.
“We had bent over backwards”: Scowcroft, interview.
He was, he said: Kalb, The Nixon Memo, 108.
Nixon promised Bush: Crowley, Nixon Off the Record, 80.
“I got the impression”: Pat Buchanan, interview by author, January 21, 2011.
“And Pat Buchanan is far from dull”: “Nixon’s Advice for Buchanan,” New York Times, March 22, 1992.
“I told Buchanan to get out”: Crowley, Nixon Off the Record, 82.
Bush and Carter: The Missionary Goes Rogue
“I feel that my role”: Jimmy Carter, interview by Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News, September 21, 2010.
Chapter 19: “I Am a Better Ex-President Than I Was a President”
“Carter’s spooky silences in meetings”: Hugh Sidey, “Accessing the Presidency,” Time, August 18, 1980.
“I had a life expectancy of 25 years”: Monitor breakfast transcript, November 3, 2005.
“I want to provide a place”: Eleanor Clift, “A Man with a Mission,” Newsweek, October 3, 1994.
“I can’t deny”: Monitor breakfast transcript, November 3, 2005.
At one point Carter grew so tired: Douglas Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House (New York: Viking, 1998), 41.
The letter went on to thank Carter: Ibid., 122.
Peter Bourne, who worked for Carter: Peter G. Bourne, Jimmy Carter: A Comprehensive Biography from Plains to Post-Presidency (New York: Scribner, 1997), 496.
Carter quickly sensed: Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency, 269.
As
Carter’s delegation departed: Ibid., 285.
Within a few months: One spoil from that invasion would end its days at Camp David: a life-size photograph of Bush with five bullet holes in its head, liberated from Noriega’s private pistol range.
And so, once again: The details of Carter’s legwork before the election are outlined in Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency, 297–99.
“I can tell you from my own experience”: Ibid., 306.
“Your greatest accomplishment”: Bourne, Jimmy Carter, 494.
By early 1990: Burton I. Kaufman, The Presidency of James Earl Carter, Jr. (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1993), 213.
“But if you don’t clearly spell out”: Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency, 270.
“Since armed intervention”: Ibid., 339.
Rather than alerting Bush in advance: Ibid.
“What I violently disagreed with”: Douglas Brinkley, “Jimmy Carter’s Modest Quest for Global Peace: The Missionary Man,” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 6 (November/December 1995).
“sent exactly the same letter to President Bush”: Author interview with Jimmy Carter, December 2, 2011.
“Also, most Americans will welcome”: Brinkley, The Unfinished Presidency, 341.
There would be no more teaming up: Ibid., 345.
Chapter 20: “The Guy Knows How the Game Is Played”
“Finish with a smile”: Diary of George Herbert Walker Bush, November 4, 1992, quoted in George Bush, All The Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (New York: Lisa Drew/Scribner, 1999), 572; see also James A. Baker III and Steve Fiffer, Work Hard, Study—and Keep Out of Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006), 332–33.
Bush also told Clinton: Diary of George Herbert Walker Bush, January 20, 1993, quoted in George Bush, All The Best, 583.
“I will do nothing to complicate your work”: Ibid., 567.
“The guy’s got a big ego”: Monica Crowley, Nixon Off the Record (New York: Random House, 1996), 131.