My life began in the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States. In an ever-lengthening line of office holders, an additional thirteen men have served the country in what has been called the most powerful job in the world. For those keeping score, the current president counts as number forty-five.
Except for reading historical accounts, I don’t recall anything of FDR’s administration but do have memories in real time of his successor Harry Truman. A twist of political fate saw Truman chosen as FDR’s running mate in place of the standing vice-president Henry Wallace. In a few months Truman was sworn in as the president. His approval to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 escapes me, but I have seen his written note giving permission to do so. Firing General Douglas MacArthur as commander of U. S. forces in the Korean War created quite a storm, but he weathered it.
“I Like Ike” rang loud and clear as a catchy slogan in 1952. As the Republican nominee, he easily defeated Adlai Stevenson that year and in 1956, too. Previously, this Supreme Allied Commander led forces in the defeat of Germany. During the war he noticed the good highway system built in Germany, and as president successfully promoted our present interstate system.
John F. Kennedy, familiarly known as JFK, entered the office with a victory over Richard Nixon. Nixon had come up against a modern technique he didn’t know about yet: the use of makeup in front of a tv camera. JFK didn’t finish his first term but was assassinated while in Dallas. I will never forget the night he appeared on television warning us about the potential of atomic war with Russia over their placement of missiles in Cuba. The Russians backed off. I associate the Peace Corps and the space program with him.
The thirty-sixth president, best known by his initials LBJ, took office after Kennedy’s assassination. Lyndon B. Johnson, an action-oriented senator, was a frustrated vice-president ignored by the Kennedy administration. Now he successfully promoted civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, increased federal role in education, and more. The Vietnam War brought him down after a strong public outcry against it.
Richard M. Nixon never lost his desire to sit in the oval office and won the presidency in his own right in 1969 and 1972. Along with his sidekick Henry Kissinger Nixon accomplished some items of importance, such as ending the war in Vietnam, opening positive relations with China, and signing the anti-ballistic missile treaty with Russia. Sadly, he is usually remembered for his responsibility in the Watergate break-in and the secret tapes that would probably have implicated him. He resigned after being told he would not survive an impeachment trial.
The faces of successive presidents become clearer the nearer we approach the present day. Gerald Ford assumed the job as Nixon’s vice president but was not re-elected. Jimmy Carter brought two enemies together at the Camp David Accords, but rising energy costs and mounting inflation cleared the way for Reagan’s election. Of note was “the Great Communicator’s” call for bringing down the Berlin Wall.
The remaining presidents, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, bring us to the present day. Each is known for some good and some not-so-good. The reader might think this list is woefully incomplete, and it is. It is simply the musings of someone who has experienced living in a country where fourteen presidents served during his lifetime. As a high school graduate in 1960, my classmates now contemplate a 60th class reunion. There is so much in the rearview.
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