TIME & The Presidency

One of the defining characteristics of the modern American presidency has been the close scrutiny it has received from the Fourth Estate. Occupants of the White House since Franklin D. Roosevelt have been all but constantly in the eye of a camera. Some of the most memorable pieces of presidential photojournalism have appeared in the pages of TIME. Beginning in February at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo., an exhibit of photographs will be touring presidential libraries and museums. Accompanying the photographs will be observations by Hugh Sidey, longtime President watcher and columnist for TIME. Excerpts from the exhibit, "TIME and the Presidency," appear on the pages that follow.

Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945

Old-timers used to tell me that taking part in Roosevelt's New Deal was one of the greatest political experiences in history. Any good idea got a hearing. Those programs that did not work were torn up, and the young, brainy aides would start over the next day. At night, when Roosevelt gathered his band of political warriors around him, there was robust laughter and the tinkle of his martini pitcher and his long cigarette holder pointed at a rakish angle, which signaled to everybody that the U.S. was rising from its fear.

Harry S Truman 1945-1953

He insisted on a brisk walk every morning around Washington, striding out at his old soldier's pace while newsmen scrambled to keep up. He was a natty dresser, ate sparingly and never got overweight, loved a hand of poker and a good joke. He doted on his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, an aspiring concert soprano. His pleasures and his wants were simple. When his presidency was finished and he arrived back in Independence, Mo., reporters asked him on his first day home what he intended to do. "Carry the grips up to the attic:" he replied.

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961

There were days around the White House when I figured that the Eisenhower grin was worth our entire nuclear arsenal in world affairs. Some careless observers have suggested that it was a perpetual condition. Not so. There was anger, and it lurked beneath a furrowed brow. He could glower, and then often he just shifted into neutral. When he did grin, with old Army comrades or his newfound political friends, you knew more often than not that good things were on the way.

John F. Kennedy 1961-1963

Once, before Kennedy was president, I asked him if he remembered the Great Depression. I knew that his father had seen the Crash of 1929 coming and had sold his stocks and had one of the world's greatest hordes of cash during the 1930s. "I have no memory of the Depression as an event," he told me. "We had one of the great fortunes. We traveled more, we had bigger homes and more servants. I learned about the Depression by reading at Harvard." Kennedy, who had been a young Navy hero in World War II, then looked at me and said, "War was my experience. I can tell you about that."

Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969

L.B.J. relished the trappings of power too much. He boasted about Air Force One and the fleet of helicopters that served him. He had telephones installed all through the White House: on table legs, behind drapes, in secret desk drawers. He had a phone put on a l00-yd. cord so he could take calls while walking on his ranch. There were three buttons on the table near where he sat The labels read, FRESCA, ROOT BEER and COFFEE. They were linked to the White House mess for instant response.

Richard M. Nixon 1969-1974

Nixon was always a remote figure. I rarely saw him without a staff member or a big desk or a white shirt and tie between us. The real Nixon was a tortured man in so many ways, fearful of not looking right or being untidy in his habits. He was just plain uncoordinated and floppy. His smiles and frowns were sometimes not in synch with his words. I recall a treaty-signing ceremony in the Kremlin in which Nixon was momentarily the lone American participant on the stage. He seemed utterly perplexed about what to do with his feet and hands.

Gerald Ford 1974-1977

Presidents are like geologic formations, created by successive layers of living. Almost everything they think and do is rooted in some experience from earlier years. Ford was a hearty Midwestern boy who always had a job, studied hard in school played sports with even more enthusiasm, excelled in the Boy Scouts, went to war, became a lawyer and then a member of Congress from Grand Rapids, Mich. He never wandered from that heritage of discipline, honor and decency.

Jimmy Carter 1977-1981

Carter had a restless mind that absorbed almost anything that came his way. Every President has more work than he can do. Carter may have come closer than any other modern President to mastering his schedule. He got up at 5:30 am. to get at his agenda when he was at home in the White House. Except for a jog, he was on duty until dinner and often went back to the Oval Office for the night. The 20-hour day, seven-day week were not unusual for this ascetic man. When asked about his work habits, he declared, "I'm having fun."

Ronald Reagan 1981-1989

I grew up in a drought-stricken town in Iowa in the 1930s listening to "Dutch" Reagan the sportscaster on radio station WHO, Des Moines. More than 50 years later, I watched President Reagan with his newfound friend Mikhail Gorbachev, stroll through Red Square talking and laughing with the Moscow citizens lining up to see the embalmed body of Lenin, the communist godfather. It was mind boggling.

George Bush 1989-1993

The machinery in George Bush's administration ran better than any other of our time. He had an extraordinary network of friends built up all over the world from his early years in public service. He never let the lines go dead, and so he could call on them whenever he needed them. Bush's Cabinet and staff, while often disagreeing and arguing about policy, rarely if ever indulged in leaking and backbiting.

Bill Clinton 1993-

On the night the scandal broke, I watched from a few feet away in the State Dining Room as the President and his wife Hillary honored people who had helped restore the old mansion to its current grandeur. The scandal raged outside, and in a soft, golden light, Clinton sat, chin up, eyes steady, outwardly untouched beneath the portrait of Abraham Lincoln as his wife talked of their love of the White House and its legends. I wondered then (and still do) if there would ever be a reconciliation of the forces at war within this young man and, because of him, within ourselves.