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

The bestselling authors of "The Preacher and the Presidents "return with a riveting new history of the private relationships among the last thirteen presidents, uncovering and exploring the partnerships, private deals, rescue missions, and rivalries of those few men who served as commander in chief. The Presidents Club was born at Eisenhower s inauguration when Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover first conceived the idea. Over the years that followed and to this day the presidents relied on, misunderstood, sabotaged, and formed alliances with one another that changed history. The world s most exclusive fraternity is a complicated place: its members are bound forever because they sat in the Oval Office and know its secrets, yet they are immortal rivals for history s favor. Some presidents needed their predecessors to keep their secrets; others needed them to disappear. Most just needed help getting the job done. Truman enlisted Hoover to help him save Europe; Kennedy turned to Ike on Cuba; Nixon sought Johnson s advice on getting reelected, but then tried to blackmail him; Ford and Carter couldn t stand each other until they saw what they had in common; Reagan and Clinton relied on Nixon as an off-the-books emissary to Russia; Bush put Clinton and his father to work and they became like father and son; and Obama and Clinton became quiet rivals for the same crown. Journalists and presidential historians Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy unravel the secret compacts, the shared scars, and the private cease-fires from Hoover to Obama. "The" "Presidents Club" will change the way we think about the presidency, for the club itself is an instrument of presidential power. -- Publisher description.;Examines presidential power within the context of U.S. history and the ongoing relationships presidents and ex-presidents formed with one another.;Truman and Hoover : the return of the exile. "I'm not big enough for this job" ; "Our exclusive trade union" -- Eisenhower and Truman : careful courtship, bitter breakup. :The news hounds are trying to drive a wedge between us" ; "The man is a congenital liar" -- Kennedy and his club : the hazing. "He had no idea of the complexity of the job" ; "The worse I do, the more popular I get" ; "How about coming in for a drink?" -- Johnson and Eisenhower : blood brothers. "The country is far more important than any of us" ; "I need your counsel, and I love you" -- Nixon and Reagan : the California boys. "You'll have my promise -- I'll speak no evil" -- Johnson and Nixon : two scorpions in a bottle. "This is treason" ; "I want to go; God take me" -- Nixon and Johnson : brotherhood and blackmail. "I want the break-in" -- Nixon and Ford : mercy at all costs. "I had to get the monkey off my back" -- Ford and Reagan : the family feud. "It burned the hell out of me" -- Nixon, Ford, and Carter : three men and a funeral. "Why don't we make it just Dick, Jimmy, and Jerry?" -- Reagan and Nixon : the exile returns. "I am yours to command" -- Bush and Nixon : no good deed goes unpunished. "I'm convinced -- he feels I'm soft" -- Bush and Carter : the missionary goes rogue. "I am a better ex-president than I was a president" -- Six presidents : the golden age of the club. "The guy knows how the game is played" ; "I'm sending Carter. You think it will be OK, don't you?" ; "Bill, I think you have to admit that you lied" -- Bush and Clinton : the rascal and the rebel. "He's never forgiven me for beating his father" -- Bush and Bush : father and son. "I love you more than tongue can tell" ; "Tell 41 and 42 that 43 is hungry" -- Obama and his club : the learning curve. "We want you to succeed."