Hidden Illness in the White House

“As a former White House physician, I believe this probing investigation of presidential health (and the possibility for White House cover-ups of illness and incapacity), as well as the blatant disregard from the 25th Amendment’s provisions for orderly transfer of power, will furnish Washington with powerful medical dramas.“Hidden Illness in the White House clearly sets forth the danger of an incapacitated president, with the resulting chances for nuclear disaster, and will help make the health of the president as much a public issues as competence and performance in office.”-Rear Admiral William M. Lukash, M.D., former White House physician, Medical Corps, USN (Ret.) “The next President of the United States and the President’s physician should be the first ones to read Hidden Illness in the White House. The authors tell a fascinating story, alerting us to the danger to our country if we do not hereafter insist on obtaining accurate information about the health of candidates for the presidency before we vote.”-Herbert Brownell, former Attorney General of the United States

• Foreword / Birch Bayh viiPreface ixAcknowledgments xiii1. Illness and History: An Overview 12. Woodrow Wilson: Strokes, Versailles, and the Pathology of Politics 133. Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Diagnosis of an "Unexpected" Death 754. Diplomacy and Failing Health: Roosevelt and the Final Decline 1215. John F. Kennedy: "I'm the Healthiest Candidate" 1606. The Twenty-fifth Amendment and the Decisions of History 203Notes 243Index 263