United States Presidents of the Twentieth Century

The Last Decades, 1945 to 1990 (part Two)

Terry O. Faulkner
22 min readJan 15, 2021

Preface

This is part two of the POTUS20C and I encourage you to read part one before delving in here. To sum up, my grandpa died way back in 1990. He spent his last few years writing about the presidents of his lifetime. Were he alive to celebrate his birthday on December 13, he’d have been 121 years old. He is the only person I can remember speaking with from the 19th century.

I came upon this one day and decided to digitize and update his writings:

I have tried my best to keep the text as authentic as possible correcting typos or formatting changes when necessary. I have added tidbits at the end of each presidential timeline for fun.

Some of the information may be out of date or incorrect but I believe he did the best he could with the materials available to him at the time. My memories of him are faint but rediscovering his writing has opened a window into his thinking. I hope these “thumbnail sketches” as he called them, offer a glimpse into the past for you too.

Grandpa in the middle with Grandma. Aunts, uncle, and dad surrounding them October 1985

Harry S. Truman, 33rd president, 1945~1953.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

He was born May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. As a child of 10, he had to wear glasses, and to avoid breaking them he rarely took part in rough games with other boys. Instead, he spent his free time reading.

Truman did not go to college. He worked for a railroad, at a bank, and on the family farm. When World War II broke out he promptly volunteered, and served in France in the artillery, attaining the rank of Captain.

After the war, he returned to Missouri and married his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace.

Truman and a friend started a clothing store, which failed. Rather than declare bankruptcy, Truman paid off all his debts in full.

For lack of a better occupation, he went into politics. At that time, Tom Prendergast was the most powerful politician in Missouri. Truman boldly sought his help and got it. He was elected county judge — a job equivalent to county commissioner. In that office he made sure, to everyone’s surprise, that county roads were built honestly.

In 1934 Truman was elected to the United States Senate, again with the help of Tom Prendergast. When World War II began, Truman was made Chairman of a committee to oversee how government funds were spent on the armed services. “Honest Harry” Truman and his committee saved the country more than a billion dollars.

When Roosevelt ran for his fourth term as president, he named Truman to be his Vice President. Then he failed to brief Truman on any of his plans or policies. Then when the stunning news of Roosevelt’s death came to him, and he was suddenly the President of the United States, he felt, as he said, that the sun, moon, and stars had collapsed on him.

Truman was equal to the challenge. He was stubborn, proud, and fiercely patriotic, and he was determined to do his best. He was called upon to make crucial decisions one after another. The atom bomb, that terrible destructive force, was now ready for use. If it were not used, the fanatical Japanese would resist almost to extinction, and vast numbers of our armed forces would be killed along with the Japanese.

Truman chose to use the atom bomb — to shock the Japanese into realizing that further resistance was folly. Their quick surrender proved the wisdom of his decision and saved countless lives.

When Stalin closed the roads to Berlin to choke the city to death, Stalin now emerged as our enemy, even more dangerous than Hitler. Truman responded with the Berlin airlift, whereby supplies of all kinds, from food to coal, were flown into Berlin under the direction of General Lucius Clay. Finally acknowledging defeat, the Communists opened the roads.

Truman’s “get tough” policy with Russia led to the sweeping Truman Doctrine of 1947 — to rehabilitate Europe in the teeth of the Kremlin.

In 1950 the United States, with the blessing of the United Nations, intervened in Korea to bring an end to the Communist invasion of South Korea, finally resulting in a stalemate.

Israel had in the meantime established a precarious existence in Palestine, and the United States recognized it 2s a legitimate nation in 1948.

Truman showed his intestinal fortitude again in 1951, when he recalled from active service the popular military hero, General Douglas MacArthur, to prevent the latter from getting us involved in a shooting war with Communist China.

In the election of 1948, Truman ran for President on his own, against the Republican candidate Thomas Dewey. The Chicago Tribune at that time was owned and dominated by Col. Robert R. McCormick, a man who hated, despised, and abominated Roosevelt, Truman, and all things Democratic.

Late in the evening of election day, before all the returns were in, McCormick had his printers set the headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman”.

For accuracy, it was about on a par with the rest of the political news in the Tribune of that era.

Did you know? Truman’s letter S doesn’t stand for anything. His parents couldn’t decide which grandfather to name him after. Also, in 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first black American to play major league baseball.

Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President, 1953–1961

10“General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander” by Marion Doss is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0.

He was born October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas.
From his early youth, he wanted to go to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but the examination he took to qualify was the same for Annapolis as it was for West Point. The examination gave him three choices — Army, Navy, or Either. He chose “either”, and when his appointment came through it was to West Point.

Ike played football for the Army until a knee injury ended his gridiron career. As a student, his grades were average.

During World War I, he was a training officer in the United States.
When World War II erupted he was asked to draw up plans for war in the Pacific. His plans impressed President Roosevelt so favorably that Ike was promoted over hundreds of other officers to lead the U.S. armies in Europe. Soon he was made Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied armies.

This job called for more than military skill. Ike had to deal with generals and politicians of other countries, and here his native tact, resourcefulness, and personal charm stood him in good stead.

The job also imposed upon him the awesome responsibility of sending the troops ashore on “D” day, which began the task of freeing Europe from Hitler’s iron grip.

After hostilities had ended, Ike retired from the Army and was appointed
President of Columbia University.

Both parties sought Ike as a presidential candidate in 1948. Ike, whose political preference was rather unclear at the time, refused to run on either ticket.

The politicos kept after him, and in 1952 he agreed to run on the Republican ticket. His immense popularity gave him a landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate.

About this time Senator McCarthy was making headlines denouncing many respected people as being tainted with Communism. Ike was slow in coming to the defense of some who were attacked, saying he didn’t want to “get in the gutter with that guy”.

The United States had a spy plane, the U-2, capable of photographing objects on the ground from a height supposed to be beyond the reach of anti-aircraft artillery. Using these planes, the United States had been spying on Russia for several years.

Just before a summit conference in Paris, one of these U-2 planes was shot down 1200 miles inside Russia, and its pilot Francis Powers was taken prisoner. At the summit conference Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian dictator denounced the United States for spying on a “friendly” nation. Embarrassed as he was Eisenhower took full responsibility.

A further embarrassment occurred during the 1962 presidential campaign. Vice President Nixon was revealed as receiving $15,000 a year from a group of California businessmen since his election to the Senate in 1950. Nixon endeavored to prove that he had not profited personally, as the money was used to pay only political expenses.

In 1958 Sherman Adams, assistant to the President came under criticism for having accepted expensive gifts, and payment of hotel bills of over $1600, by a prominent New England industrialist named Bernard Goldfine, in exchange for preferential treatment by both the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. For these and other misdeeds, Goldfine was convicted of Contempt of Congress, and Adams lost his White House position.

Eisenhower himself was criticized by some for having accepted valuable gifts for his farm at Gettysburg, Pa. In 1957, six years after leaving office, Ike deeded the farm and all it contained to the Federal Government.

Ike was a soldier, not a statesman. In his public utterances, his tongue often tripped over his teeth. Embarrassments were frequent during his years in office, like the U-2 and Goldfine affairs. But through it all, Ike’s basic honesty was clearly visible — his personal integrity was never tarnished. After his two terms as President, he retired to his farm at Gettysburg, secure in the esteem of a grateful nation.

And Camp David, as the Gettysburg farm came to be called, is still today a refuge for harried presidents to escape for a time the burdens of their official duties, and get their breath before returning to the fray.

Did you know? Eisenhower was the only president to have served in both World Wars and the first to have a pilot’s license. Also, in 1958 the first American satellite Explorer I was launched into space.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th president, 1961–1963

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

He was born May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, one of nine children of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. The elder Kennedy was a successful businessman, who amassed a huge fortune. For a time the family lived in England, while Joseph Kennedy was Ambassador at the court of St. James.

When World War II broke out, John enlisted in the Navy. During the war in the Pacific, the PT boat of which he was Commander, was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. John suffered painful back injuries, but he swam five miles to safety, towing a wounded comrade.

John’s older brother Joe, who was to have been the politician in the family, was killed in action in the war. So John took his place in politics.
He ran for Congress from Massachusetts and was elected. After serving three terms in the House of Representatives, he ran for the Senate, and again he was elected. In 1956 he was Adlai Stevenson’s running mate in their defeat by Eisenhower. But in 1960 he was named Democratic presidential candidate.

The old bugaboo of Kennedy’s religion came up again. Kennedy urged the American public to rise above narrow-minded bigotry and not deny the presidency to millions of patriotic American citizens because of their religion. 60 years would pass before another Catholic got elected to this office.

The joint debates between Nixon and Kennedy were a deciding factor in the campaign. No “official” winner was declared, but Kennedy came off as the successful debater in the opinion of most listeners.

Kennedy won the election by the narrowest of margins. Only after taking office, he learned of a CIA scheme to support an invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, to overthrow the despotic rule of Fidel Castro. With grave misgivings, he half-heartedly endorsed the operation, but on April 12, 1961, he declared that in no circumstances would American armed forces become involved.

Five days later the so-called “invasion” began. It was pitifully ineffective, and most of the Cubans involved were either killed or captured and imprisoned.

Probably encouraged by this American misadventure, the Russian dictator Nikita Khrushchev thought to capitalize on the situation in Cuba by placing nuclear missiles on Cuban soil, well within reach of American cities. In October 1962, Kennedy went to the very brink of a holocaust by forcing the Russians to remove their lethal weapons.

The next Communist threat came from Vietnam. Both Truman and Eisenhower had supplied considerable support for the South Vietnamese to resist the encroachments of Communist North Vietnam. Eisenhower
had gone so far as to send 700 American military “advisers” to assist the South Vietnamese. Kennedy increased our military involvement until, at the time of his death, there were approximately 16,000 American troops in Vietnam.

It was with the idea of repairing his political fences in Texas that Kennedy embarked on that fateful visit to Texas in 1963.

While riding in a limousine in Dallas on November 22, with his wife Jacqueline and Texas Governor Connally, Kennedy was shot and killed by a deranged man named Lee Harvey Oswald, with a mail-order rifle.

Did you know? Kennedy was the youngest president ever elected and the first to serve in the US Navy. Also, the Telstar satellite was launched in 1962 allowing US citizens to watch European television for the first time.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President, 1963–1969

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-9a2d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

He was born August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas. Lyndon Johnson’s father and grandfather had been members of the Texas Legislature.
His parents were both schoolteachers, and they taught young Lyndon to read at the age of four.

He was tall — 6 feet 2 inches — and lanky. When he finished high school he traveled around the country for a time, doing odd jobs. He soon came to realize that this kind of life would get him nowhere, so he came home and went to college.

After graduating from college he taught school for a while. But politics was in his blood. He took a job working for a man named Robert Kleberg who was running for Congress. When Kleberg was elected he took Johnson to Washington with him as his secretary.

Traveling through Texas for Kleberg, Johnson met a young lady named Claudia Taylor, whom everyone called Lady Bird. Within a few months, they were married.

When Johnson was 29 years old he ran for Congress on his own and was elected. A few years later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Johnson quickly asked for active duty in the Navy.

After World War II, Johnson was elected ta the United States Senate.
There he became famous for his powers of reconciling opposite views and was considered to be one of the best senators in history.

In 1960 Johnson was elected Vice President along with President Kennedy. When Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1962, Johnson became President.

During his first year in the Presidency, Johnson pushed many important bills through Congress. And in 1964 he was elected President in his own right.

Under Johnson’s leadership, new civil rights laws were passed. He began a “War on Poverty”, intended to improve the living conditions of people living in city slums, and other poor sections of the country. He got Congress to pass a Medicare bill, to help elderly people to pay their medical bills. He fostered legislation aimed at reducing pollution of waterways, and also reducing air pollution. With Lady Bird’s help, he sought to make highways more beautiful. All these projects were part of his plan to build the “Great Society”.

Johnson’s dilemma was the continuing war in Vietnam, which he had inherited from the Kennedy Administration. More and more of our servicemen were drawn into the conflict, but little progress could be seen. Johnson could have destroyed Hanoi, but in so doing he might have involved the United States in a war with Russia, North Vietnam’s ally. As the war dragged on, Johnson’s popularity steadily declined.

On March 31, 1968, Johnson made a television speech that surprised the country. He said that he had always hoped to lead a united nation because a nation divided against itself could not survive. But now the country was badly divided. In such times, he said, he did not believe a President should devote his time to a political campaign. Therefore, he said, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President”.

When his term expired in 1969, Johnson retired to his Texas ranch.
Four years later, on January 22, 1973, he died of a heart attack.

Did you know? The Johnson’s wedding ring was purchased at Sears for $2.50. Also, the first NFL Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles on January 15, 1967.

Richard Milhouse Nixon, 37th President, 1969–1974

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

He was born in Yorba Linda, California. While he was still a small boy, the family moved to Whittier, California. He graduated from Whittier College and then won a scholarship to Duke University, where he studied law.

He returned to California to practice law, but at the beginning of World War II, he joined the Navy.

After the war, Nixon ran for Congress on the Republican ticket and was elected. After two terms in the House, he was elected to the Senate.
In 1952 chose Nixon as his running mate, and they were elected.

During his Vice Presidency Nixon traveled to 56 different countries as an ambassador of goodwill from the United States. And when Eisenhower suffered a heart attack, Nixon served as acting President.

In 1960 Nixon ran for President against Kennedy and was defeated by a very slim margin. He returned to California and ran for Governor. Again he was defeated, After this setback, Nixon said he would never seek office again. He moved to New York and joined a law firm.

Nixon retained his interest in politics and helped several office-seeking hopefuls to get elected. They in turn helped him to get nominated for President in 1968. This time he won, defeating Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey.

As President, Nixon managed to withdraw our armed forces from Vietnam gradually, over a four-year period. Our hopes of winning this exhausting war had deteriorated to a desire to get out by any means. Public opinion was so opposed to this unwinnable war that we, in effect, left the South Vietnamese to the mercy of their Communist enemies in North Vietnam.

Nixon’s troubles began with his campaign for re-election in 1972. First, like the rumblings of an approaching storm, came the disclosure that Spiro Agnew, his Vice President, had accepted bribes. Agnew was allowed to plead “no contest”, which was tantamount to an admission of guilt. At Nixon’s request, Agnew resigned, and Nixon appointed Gerald R. Ford, a member of the House of Representatives, to the position of Vice President.

Then a group of “burglars”, working for Nixon’s re-election, broke into the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex. They were caught red-handed, and from that point on, a story of such massive corruption unfolded as had never been experienced before in our history.

Political crimes do not answer to such understandable handles as murder, arson, or rape. It would be simply impossible for me to list all the misdeeds Nixon and his staff were accused of. Suffice it to say that they were serious enough to result in prison terms for several of Nixon’s associates, including Haldeman and Ehrlichman, his White House staff, Mitchell, his Attorney General, and several others.

To avoid certain impeachment, Nixon resigned his office on August 14, 1974. Vice President Ford became President.

Did you know? Nixon was a Quaker and his mom wanted him to become a missionary. Also, in 1971, Walt Disney World opened its doors in Orlando, Florida.

Gerald R. Ford, 38th President, 1974–1977

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

He was born July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born Leslie Lynch King, after his father. Soon after his birth, his parents were divorced, and his mother married a man named Gerald Rudolph Ford. Ford adopted his infant stepson and changed the child’s name to Gerald R. Ford Junior.

The young man grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his stepfather was employed. He was big and strong, and he took part in high school sports, being on the football, basketball, and track teams. He made good grades in school and was awarded a small scholarship at the University of Michigan. He played on the Michigan football team and was the MVP his senior year.

In 1941 he received his law degree from Yale and returned to Grand Rapids to practice law. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Ford joined the Navy. Aboard the light aircraft carrier Monterey, he saw action in some of the fiercest battles of the war in the Pacific.

After the war, Ford returned to Grand Rapids and joined a large law firm.
Friendly and outgoing, he made many friends. In 1948 he ran for Congress on the Republican ticket and won an easy victory.

Well-liked and respected, Ford was re-elected time after time. He served on important committees, including the one that investigated the murder of President Kennedy. In 1965 he was elected the leader of the Republican members of the House of Representatives.

In 1973 Spiro Agnew, the Vice President was accused of taking bribes.
He resigned, and President Nixon appointed Ford to be Vice President.

When Nixon in turn was forced to resign as a result of the Watergate
scandal, on August 14, 1974, Ford became President of the United States — the first man to attain that office without being elected.

One of Ford’s first official acts was to grant a full pardon to Nixon. It was an attempt to put the sordid Watergate business behind us once for all. But it left Nixon free to enjoy his palatial California home in freedom, while a number of his associates were still in prison.

Ford had planned to retire in 1976, but enjoying the rarefied atmosphere of high office, he decided to run for President on his own. He was defeated however by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election, retiring to enjoy private life and freedom from the awesome responsibilities of high office.

Did you know? Ford was the first VP to become President because the sitting president resigned. Also, in 1976 the first Concorde supersonic passenger plane flew from Europe to the U.S.

James Earl Carter Jr., 39th President, 1976–1980

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

He was born in 1921 on a farm near the small town of Plains, Georgia, where his father had a store. His boyhood ambition was to join the Navy. He applied for admission to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and was accepted. Upon his graduation, he was assigned to the submarine service.

When Jimmy was 29 years old his father died, so he resigned from the Navy and returned home to take care of the family farm and business. His attention then turned to politics. In turn, he ran for the county school board and for the state senate and was elected both times. In 1966 he ran for Governor but was defeated. Again in 1970, he ran for Governor, and this time he was elected.

Carter was practically unknown outside of the state of Georgia when he decided to run for President in 1976. His anonymity was in his favor because by that time most of the well-known politicians were in disfavor. Even Gerald Ford, honest though he was, carried the taint of having been selected by Nixon.

The election was close, but Carter won.

Carter’s presidency was far from being a bed of roses. His crusade for human rights, both at home and abroad, angered the Soviet Union.
His attempt to eliminate nuclear weapons — about the first effort ever made in that direction — encountered opposition from many who felt we needed more such weapons to balance Russia’s formidable weaponry.

Then the Panama Canal treaty, which would eventually grant ownership of the canal to Panama, was put through Congress with Carter’s help.
Carter felt that this would gain the goodwill of Latin America, which he considered to be of greater importance than the technical control of the canal. But many people accused Carter of “giving away our canal!”

Then the OPEC countries decided to put the squeeze on our economy by raising the price of oil. And as oil prices rose, so did the price of everything else. All these things reflected unfavorably on the administration.

To make matters worse, there was a revolution in Iran, and the Shah and his family fled for their lives. While being a despot to his own people, the Shah had always enjoyed friendly relations with the United States. In his time of need, the United States offered sanctuary to the Shah and his family, bringing down on us the vengeful hatred of the Moslem (sic) fanatics who had seized power in Iran. Our embassy in Tehran was stormed, and the Americans within it were taken hostage.

Carter was determined to rescue them. He authorized a special secret force to be trained for the rescue effort, and with the cooperation of Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt made elaborate plans for the operation.

Everything went wrong. Terrible desert sandstorms immobilized a number of the helicopters, and a ghastly accident between a plane and a helicopter in the blackness of the desert night killed a number of the paratroopers engaged in the rescue effort.

Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s fanatical Moslem (sic) ruler, held the hostages for 444 days, releasing them only the day after Carter left office.

Did you know? Carter was a peanut farmer. Also, in 1979, the worst nuclear accident in US history happened at Three Mile Island power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President, 1981–1989

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

He was born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois.

He went to Eureka College, a small school near his home, from which he graduated.

After college, he got a job as a sports announcer at a local radio station.
In 1937, when he was 26 years old, he went to California to report on baseball spring training. In California, a friend got him a test at a movie studio, and he was given a contract. For a while, all he got were supporting roles.

During World War, Reagan served in the Army Air Corps, making training films in California. After the war, he went back to Hollywood.

As a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, he became involved in a dispute between his union and other unions in the movie industry.
Some of the members of other unions had attended Communist meetings, and Reagan became convinced that the Communists were trying to take over the movie industry.

At this point in his career, Reagan was employed by General Electric Company to host a series of television shows. He traveled to various G.E. plants and gave speeches to the workers and the management. He was free to talk about any subject, but his basic job was to promote the good image of the company.

Most of the people he met in management positions were successful conservative businessmen. Gradually Reagan’s politics became more aligned with business interests, and less with the working people. Originally a Democrat, he left the party and became a Republican. He made speeches for Goldwater that impressed his conservative friends.

In 1964 he was asked to run for Governor of California. At that time, many people were receiving relief from the state because they could not earn enough money to support themselves and their families. In his bid for election, Reagan promised he would reduce taxes, and remove cheaters from the welfare rolls. He was elected handily.

As Governor, Reagan did not reduce taxes as he had promised, but he did succeed in removing many people from the relief rolls.

Reagan served two terms as Governor of California. In 1968 he tried to get the Republican nomination for President. Richard Nixon was nominated instead. He tried again in 1976, but … Gerald Ford won the nomination. In 1980, however, he was successful in obtaining the nomination.

At that time the country was having severe economic problems. Rates of interest and the cost of living were going sky-high. Reagan promised to cut taxes and government expenses. But, he said, Russian military power had outstripped our own military might.

In his speeches, Reagan was so convincing, that he won the election by a wide margin over Jimmy Carter.

As President, Reagan pushed several tax cuts through Congress. These tax cuts helped the rich more than the poor, but the benefits were supposed to “trickle-down” to help the total economy. To save more money, Congress was asked to make heavy cuts in programs for the poor, the aged, and the environment. At the same time, huge amounts of money were allotted to the military. Convinced of the worldwide threat of Communism, Reagan spent millions of dollars to help El Salvador and Honduras, against rebels who threatened these governments, and to help the Contras in their efforts to overthrow the Communist government of Ortega in Nicaragua.

A new actor on the international scene emerged at this time — Mikhail Gorbachev. Overcoming the old guard of Russian arch-conservatives, he rose to the dominant position of President of the Soviets.
He held out the olive branch of “Glasnost” and “Perestroika”.

No one knew exactly how to react to this evidence of openness and friendship, after years of considering Russia the “Evil Empire”.

Reagan and Gorbachev held a “summit” meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, which was rather inconclusive, but which helped to break the ice of the Cold War. The two men, and their wives, visited the other’s country, and hopes for peace became stronger.

The end of Reagan’s second term was clouded by several unhappy events. Oliver North, a Marine colonel, was involved in the so-called “Arms for Hostages” deal, whereby the United States traded arms to Iran for a possible deal to release the hostages being held by Moslem (sic) fanatics in Lebanon. The hostages, alas, are still held captive. Then, Attorney General Meese was accused of misconduct and forced to resign. Many similar scandals occurred, of which Reagan seemed to be surprisingly ignorant.

In the meantime, the election of 1988 took place. The Democrats, divided between those who favored the Rev. Jesse Jackson and those who looked upon him as an opportunist, nominated Michael Dukakis as their candidate.

It was a poor choice. Better men were forced out of the race by the extremely high cost of campaigning, and George (HW) Bush, Reagan’s vice-president, was elected President.

Toward the very end of Reagan’s administration, it was learned that Nancy Reagan was a devout believer in Astrology, a pseudoscience that attempts to attribute powers to influence human affairs for good or evil, depending on the position and movements of stars and planets. I cannot say whether Reagan was influenced by his wife’s addiction to this nonsense in planning affairs of state, but it is well to have Nancy out of the picture. The motherly, down-to-earth Barbara Bush is such a welcome change!

Did you know? Reagan was elected at age 70 at which time he was the oldest person ever elected as President. Also, in 1982 the first permanent artificial heart was implanted in a 61-year-old man in Utah.

Conclusion

This concludes part two of this series. Now comes the tough part, section three. From 1988–2020, I will cover the remaining presidents approximating my grandpa’s temperament, voice, and style of writing as closely as possible. Stay tuned and as always, thanks for reading.

--

--

Terry O. Faulkner

As a copywriter, EFL teacher, and blogger, I write about things and people that make the world seem a little less terrible.