Jared Cohen > Quotes

“the 21st Century is really a terrible time to be a control freak.”
― Jared Cohen

“If anybody really wanted to shoot the president of the United States,” Kennedy told his aide Kenneth O’Donnell on the morning of November 22, “it was not a very difficult job—all one had to do was get a high building someday with a telescopic rifle, and there was nothing anybody could do to defend against such an attempt.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“Negroes have shown less capacity for government than any other race of people,” he said in an 1867 address. “No independent government of any form has ever been successful in their hands. On the contrary, wherever they have been left to their own devices, they have shown a constant tendency to relapse into barbarism.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“as a general proposition, until very recently, vice presidents have always been excluded because it is unsettling to have someone around you whose happiest moment will be when you drop dead.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“I didn't want any surprises; I churlishly thought if I revealed my Judaism at McDonald's, I would somehow be protected by the friendly American forces of crispy chicken sandwiches and supersized French fries.”
― Jared Cohen, Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East

“Not every former president uses their position for good. Franklin Pierce, a Northerner who favored popular sovereignty—the idea that democracy allowed citizens, and not the federal government, to decide if the territory in which they lived would allow slavery—tried to rally the living ex-presidents in 1861 to resolve the Civil War. But his efforts were torpedoed by Martin Van Buren, and Pierce became a vocal critic of Lincoln, a sympathizer for the South, and a correspondent of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Worse still, Pierce’s predecessor, the Virginian John Tyler, defected from the Union and won a seat in the Confederate House of Representatives. He died a traitor in January 1862, and President Lincoln denied his predecessor a state funeral. Instead, Tyler was honored in”
― Jared Cohen, Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House

“My interest in behavioral psychology is part of what drove me to write this book, and appreciating the scholarly foundation that defines the field helped shape this book’s thesis.”
― Jared Cohen, Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House

“the “Truman Doctrine,” setting the precedent that it would be “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“After briefly acknowledging the tragedy of his predecessor’s passing, he called for an increase in the size of the Navy, avoidance of public debt during peacetime, stabilization of the currency, and greater scrutiny over abuse of public offices.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“Democratic republics only work when the leaders don’t cling to power after their citizens have decided to place power in other hands.”
― Jared Cohen, Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House

“. Harry Truman had no middle name, just an initial “S,” which was a reference to his two grandfathers, Solomon Young and Anderson Shipp Truman.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“Everything FDR did was deliberate, particularly in politics. The leaders admired him, but they didn’t trust him. They viewed him as “warm-hearted in everything but politics and there he was cold-blooded”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“Not every former president uses their position for good. Franklin Pierce, a Northerner who favored popular sovereignty—the idea that democracy allowed citizens, and not the federal government, to decide if the territory in which they lived would allow slavery—tried to rally the living ex-presidents in 1861 to resolve the Civil War. But his efforts were torpedoed by Martin Van Buren, and Pierce became a vocal critic of Lincoln, a sympathizer for the South, and a correspondent of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Worse still, Pierce’s predecessor, the Virginian John Tyler, defected from the Union and won a seat in the Confederate House of Representatives. He died a traitor in January 1862, and President Lincoln denied his predecessor a state funeral. Instead, Tyler was honored in Richmond, the Confederate capital.”
― Jared Cohen, Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House

“My personal pride must not be allowed to stand in the way of my duty to the country. If I am only half efficient, I should turn the office over to the vice president. If it is going to take much time for me to recover my health and strength, the country cannot afford to wait for me.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“In September 1919, Woodrow Wilson suffered a series of debilitating strokes that should have led to his resignation. For over a month, the president was so sick that he received no visitors and his wife, Edith Galt, and physician, Dr. Cary Grayson, essentially took over the affairs of state.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“With heightened tensions at home and abroad, he had a weak track record on both fronts. Soaring rhetoric was one thing, but when it came to policy, he had floundered. From the Bay of Pigs fiasco to his window dressing on civil rights, his presidency lacked any significant accomplishment.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“Stimson flew to Potsdam the next day to see me,” Truman remembered, “and brought with him the full details of the test. I received him at once and called in Secretary of State Byrnes, Admiral Leahy, General George Marshall, General Henry Arnold, and Admiral Ernest King.” It was too early to understand the implications and as Truman recalled, “we were not ready to make use of this weapon against the Japanese.” In his memoirs, Truman wrote that the plan was to stay the course “with the existing military plans for the invasion of the Japanese home islands.”102 Truman’s diary reveals a different and more telling narrative. His mind appears to have already been made up shortly after confirmation of the Alamogordo test, which is not surprising given he had a full understanding of what an invasion would entail. “We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world,” he confided to his diary in a July 26 entry. “This weapon is to be used against Japan between now and August 10th. I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children.”103 That same entry reveals not just the intent, but also the thinking behind the target. “Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital [Kyoto] or the new [Tokyo] . . . The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives.”104 Truman was face-to-face with Stalin, aware that he possessed the deadliest weapon the world had ever seen.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

“Unlike Lyndon Johnson, who would later be swayed by the influence of Kennedy’s advisors on Vietnam, Truman developed an independent view.”
― Jared Cohen, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America