President Richard M. Nixon
Richard Nixon’s presidency begins, in most people’s minds, with an ending: a man in a dark suit stepping onto a helicopter on an August morning in 1974, giving a stiff, awkward double V-sign, and…
Podcasts · In this section
Postwar and Cold War
This group covers postwar and Cold War presidencies, including containment, civil rights, domestic reform, and the global reach of American power.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson
On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, aboard Air Force One on the tarmac in Dallas, a heavyset man in a dark suit raised his right hand while his left rested on a small…
President John F. Kennedy
On a bright November morning in 1963, the motorcade moved slowly through downtown Dallas. The sky was clear, the air crisp, and the crowds thick along the sidewalks. People leaned out of office windows,…
President Dwight Eisenhower
On a raw January morning in 1953, as a cold wind cut across the National Mall, a former five-star general stood on the podium of the Capitol, hand on a Bible, about to become…
President Ronald Reagan
On a cold January afternoon in 1981, as the temperature hovered below freezing and a sharp winter wind cut across the National Mall, millions of Americans watched a moment that felt like the breaking…
President Jimmy Carter
On a warm January afternoon in 1977, as the inaugural procession wound slowly along Pennsylvania Avenue, a new president broke with decades of tradition. Instead of riding in the armored limousine provided for him,…
President Gerald Ford
On an August morning in 1974, as the aftershocks of Watergate still rattled Washington, a tall, athletic man with sandy hair and a steady, almost boyish face walked up the center aisle of the…
President Harry S. Truman
On an April evening in 1945, a clerk from the White House hurried up the marble stairs of the Capitol and down a dim corridor toward the office of the vice president. Inside, Harry…