The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity

Woody Allen once said, "I took a speed-reading course where you run your finger down the middle of the page and was able to read War and Peace in 20 minutes. It's about Russia."Because I review a lot of books, colleagues ask me if I'm a speed reader. I'm not. I read with pen in hand and am slowed down even further by reading memorable stuff out loud to my long-suffering wife/listener.But speed reading would have helped as I tackled this 641-page book. While the notes and index are over 100 pages, it still left 527 pages of serious reading. But a speed reader would have missed the juicy morsels, laugh-out-loud humor and the incredible connect-the-dots leadership lessons of recent U.S. presidents. (And my wife would have missed my constant interruptions.)Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff, editors at Time, have delivered what they call "the first history of the private relationships among modern American presidents--their backroom deals, rescue missions, secret alliances, and enduring rivalries." And let me add: the interplay and conflicts between their unique leadership and management styles. Even my colleagues outside of the U.S. will enjoy this book.This presidential behind-the-scenes read-a-thon starts with "Truman and Hoover: The Return of the Exile" and ends with "Obama and His Club: The Learning Curve." (I read that chapter first--and I was hooked.) In between, there are 24 chapters with memorable match-ups like "Careful Courtship, Bitter Breakup," "The Hazing," "Blood Brothers," "Two Scorpions in a Bottle" (Johnson and Nixon), "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" and "The Rascal and the Rebel."This book is a leadership case study on multiple levels. CEOs in transition (retirement, termination or promotion) will especially appreciate this revealing inside look at the new guy/old guy relationships in the Oval Office. The book will trigger all your emotions (as it did for each president): mad, glad and sad. Here's a taste:--George H.W. Bush, commenting on Bill Clinton's general lack of discipline and long campaign speeches, "A good leader sets priorities--he doesn't just list."--"The most precious commodity of the United States of America is neither the gold bullion in Fort Knox nor the launch codes in its ballistic missiles. It is the time of the commander in chief: there is only so much of it, and how it is spent shapes pretty much everything else."--On Gerald Ford: "Worse, perhaps, even though he had inherited the title, the job was not yet his."--Lyndon B. Johnson: "He moved Eisenhower's portrait to a more prominent position, so that it would be visible in the background of pictures of Johnson greeting various White House guests."--Henry Kissinger on Egypt's president: "Sadat handled four American presidents with consummate psychological skill. He treated Nixon as a great statesman, Ford as a living manifestation of good will, Carter as a missionary almost too decent for the world and Reagan as the benevolent leader of a popular revolution subtly appealing to each man's conception of himself and gaining the confidence of each."--Nixon: "The best politics is poetry, not prose. Jesse Jackson is a poet. Mario Cuomo is a poet and [Michael] Dukakis is a word processor."--Nixon: "It is necessary to struggle, to be embattled, to be knocked down and to have to get up. Renewal. Americans are crazy about renewal."--On George H.W. Bush upon losing the election to Bill Clinton: "...at five the next morning [Bush] got out his list of several hundred people he needed to thank and reached for the phone. He got off sixteen hours later."--Bush 41 (writing to his sons about Nixon): [per the authors, Bush's letter is] "as good a psychological profile of Nixon as any that exists. Nixon was a great leader, he told his boys, and a first-rate intellect but also a third-rate person." Bush added, "He surrounded himself on his personal staff with people unwilling to question the unlovely instincts we all have--and that he has in spades."--"History doesn't repeat itself, Mark Twain said, but it rhymes."--Bush 41 offered new perks to the Club, sending National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft to personally visit every former president (Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan). "Scowcroft asked what, now that Bush was president, they might want in the way of regular briefings and other logistical favors. This was self-protection on Bush's part: he knew that his predecessors could be excellent allies on all sorts of issues; and regular briefings in advance of big decisions could keep them sounding supportive when reporters called."After Clinton's election victory, he called on an aging Reagan at his Club office in Los Angeles. The Gipper had two pieces of advice for the young president-elect: 1) Go to Camp David and relax as many weekends as possible, and 2) Learn how to salute! "And so the 81-year-old Reagan proceeded to give the 46-year-old Clinton a private tutorial. The two men stood there in Reagan's L.A. office, 34 floors above Beverly Hills, perfecting their salutes."Once in office, Clinton called another Club member, Nixon, to ask how he had structured his daily White House schedule--seeking guidance on how best to use his limited time.And just like in real life (with incoming and outgoing CEOs), the relationships covered the continuum from angry to loving. The unusual friendship between Bush 41 and Clinton, as they teamed up to address the tsunami and Katrina crises, was outside-the-textbook stunning. So much so that at a 2011 Kennedy Center event honoring George H.W. Bush, 27 members of the Bush family assembled for a family portrait and Neil Bush called for Bill Clinton to join the family photo! He did.This book will be on my Top-10 list for 2012.

'This pair of authors knows how to write history that both informs and entertains, as displayed in their book "The Presidents Club."This is not a book about major historical events involving 20th Century American presidents (though some do form the backdrop for various tales). The book gives a fascinating portrait of presidents in retirement and how they interacted with subsequent occupants of the Oval Office and other presidential retirees.It is a book of very interesting anecdotes and a catalogue of the huge egos that are pretty much a requirement for someone to rise to the office. Truman is magnanimous in inviting Herbert Hoover, the Democrat's favorite whipping boy at the time and someone party members did not want to see rehabilitated, back into service to both find a way to avoid European starvation after WWII and reorganize the Executive Branch. This started the President's Club. Their dance at the beginning of this episode over who would invite/ask who to meet and under what circumstances reveals two wary politicians in the arena. They ended up becoming fast friends.The office, the authors point out, has a way of becoming larger and more important than the present occupant or their policies to those who have sat in the White House. Thus, our ex-presidents largely are ready to help current occupants, or at least the institution, in matters large and small. By and large, they wish for the president to succeed in a general sense and the influence of the Executive Branch to remain decisive in our system of government. Only Jimmy Carter consistently fails to adhere to the unwritten rules of the club. His continual willingness to subvert foreign policy initiatives and walk his own line when talking to foreign leaders presents the only consistently discordant line in a tale of men who come to revere the office and generally see their role in retirement as, if not supporting the current inhabitant, at least supporting the institution and the power of the office.Some of the presidents don't like each other. JFK called Eisenhower "that old ass****" and Eisenhower didn't think much of JFK either. But he willingly came to Camp David in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco to both give advice and be photographed with Kennedy so the world would know there was no division between the former president and current occupant. Clinton thought Bush 43 would hate him because he beat his father for reelection. However, working together and time have yielded a very friendly relationship between both Bushes and Bill Clinton -- so much so that 43 refers to Clinton as his brother because of the fondness 41 and Clinton feel for each other.For presidential or history junkies, this book is a treasure trove. Nixon and Johnson both colluded and conspired against each other around the 1968 election as both attempted to beat Humphrey (in the election in Nixon's case and into submission to his Vietnam policies in Johnson's). These were two men cut out of the same cloth and they both realized that about the other. Reagan taught a new President Clinton how to correctly salute his military guards so the young president wouldn't be embarrassed with an effort any veteran would recognize as deficient. Clinton frequently called Nixon for advice and counsel on foreign affairs and considered him an expert on the matter. Ford gave helpful advice during Clinton's impeachment scandal having handled the matter with his own predecessor during his presidency and being fearful of the cost to the nation of a president removed. Bush 43 and Obama summoned predecessors to deal with humanitarian crisis and the club answered the call. Touchingly, sometimes a departing president asks an incoming one for a small policy favor. Bush 41 asked Clinton to keep his Points of Light initiative and Clinton asked Bush 43 to keep his Americorps program. Both survive.The authors do a great job of interweaving dialogue, background and the political environment into each of these sketches portraying presidential interaction. They were able to interview some of the surviving presidents for the book and aides to many who have passed. Their narrative strikes the right balance of facts without being turgid and dialogue without being breezy. Their assessment and conclusions and "lessons learned" strike in the main the right balance and don't seem too ideological (though I thought they did seem to portray Eisenhower as more of a cold fish and grouch than I've seen in other places).A good read that will entertain and provide insightful personality sketches of this century's Presidents.

This is an interesting and well reasearched account of the relationships between each president since Truman with their predecessors right through to Obama and his relationships with Clinton and Bush.In telling the story of these relationships this book covers pretty much all of the major points of US history since WII in a very readable way. I thouroughly enjoyed this book and learned a great deal - some of which - for example the warm relationships between Bill Clinton and both Bush father and son surprised me a liitle.Interesting and informative - a very humane account of the pressures of very high office and what it is like to move on from the summit of power

This book wonderfully describes the relationships between the sitting and the former - never really retired - presidents. It is interesting to see that the most fruitful relationships do occur when they both are at the opposite of the political spectrum.The most striking example is the alliance forged after the end of the second world war between Hoover and Truman. The help and the restless travels that Hoover did averted another tragedy in Europe for bringing food and restoring the economies to a functioning state.Eisenhower and JFK relationship remains also essential since they very much despised each other at begin of their encounter but finally manage to form an almost workable relationship . Eisenhower was proved to be a definitive help and a loyal ally during the Cuban crisis when he advised JFK to pursue and announce the quarantine of Cuba.The example of Jimmy Carter in this book is also striking, the very fact that he criticizes publicly Clinton's foreign policy decisions labelled him as "black sheep" of the club.The relationships between Senior Bush and Clinton are also worth to read, notably in the role they both play following the contentious election in 2000 between Al Gore and Junior Bush.Reagan and Nixon remains a fascinating relationship . It is Reagan whom restated Nixon by seeking his advice during the most dangerous years of the Cold War.The open question remains with whom 44 will be friend with when his term finishes in 2016 ??

Really interesting look at US history from the perspective of former presidents helping sitting incumbents I'm not a huge history fan/buff - but this book was gripping and well written.

This is a fascinating insight into the US Presidents from Hoover to Obama and their campaigns for the 'top job and the politics involved. It is interesting to see how devious some were and how helpful others could be to the new President. It is an very exclusive Club and I would certainly recommend this to anyone interested in American Presidents and politics

Excellent read, albeit I was quite taken aback by the tremendous insecurities of the leaders of the free world !!