The President: A Minute-by-Minute Account of a Week in the Life of Gerald Ford

by John Hersey

The President has given me permission to take a kind of voyage with him—to watch him closely through a working week….I will be with him, most of the time, hour in and hour out…. At 8:33 on a rainy Monday in March, 1975, John Hersey sits down on a straight cane-backed chair in the Oval Office to begin soaking up impressions of what happens—in post-Watergate Washington—at the center of American power. Through five and a half days, he will stay close to the President, observing him as he consults with his own staff, with members of Congress, with his Cabinet, with Rockefeller; watching him on the exercise bike, at the barber’s, greeting Miss absorbing his confidences as he talks after dinner, in the private quarters of the White House, about his childhood and about his college years when it was difficult to make ends meet. Following the President, Hersey observes in detail all the important moments—as well as the incidental ones—that show what Gerald Ford is like on the job. In this extraordinary book he builds a brilliant and revealing portrait, letting the reader see Ford’s strengths and limitations. And so perceptively does Hersey draw significance from his observations that the insights seem to explode like time bombs. I have seen all week that it is not easy for Gerald Ford…to make what he refers to, in the language of umpires, as “a tough call.” Yet once he has made such a decision, he does not agonize…he becomes convinced of its rightness and is stubborn in its defense…. In reading The President , each of us emerges knowing more than ever before, not only about this imperturbable “iron” man, the first President we did not elect, but also about how the Presidency really operates. In John Hersey’s report we come to understand—the man, and the things that persuade him. And we come to sense… how good it would be if in some way he could speak—good listener that he is—one-to-one with ordinary men and women, his constituents, from whom he has somehow drifted so far away.

153 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

John Richard Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer, earliest practiced the "new journalism," which fuses storytelling devices of the novel with nonfiction reportage. A 36-member panel under the aegis of journalism department of New York University adjudged account of Hersey of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, as the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Jane Elfring · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book is especially timely given the current political climate in our country. Ford came into office after the tumultuous Nixon years and sought to restore trust in the institution.

Hersey was given extraordinary access to the Oval Office for one week of the Ford presidency. He was present from the time that Ford arrived at the Oval Office around 7:30 am each day (one day he was there at 5:30 to observe Ford's morning exercise routine) to his return to the residence, normally at 7:30 but sometimes later if he had to attend an evening function.

The portrait of Ford shows a focused man working hard with his staff to deal with national and international issues. Hersey shows the president's daily schedule in minute detail. He also shares observations about the man and how he deals with those around him. The overall portrait is of a kind man who was part of the Republican party's conservative wing in the 1980s.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

"He's alive but unconscious, sort of like Gerald Ford!". Wait, was it Ford or Martin Van Buren who started the French and Indian War? No matter. Did you know the man behind the hilarious WIN Buttons campaign really, really loved cottage cheese? Or, that he failed to get a joke made by one of his staffers because he didn't know who Judge Crater was? You do now. Master novelist John Hersey (A BELL FOR ADANO, THE WAR LOVER) and chronicler of American grotesques (HIROSHIMA, THE ALGIERS MOTEL INCIDENT) got to watch ole Jerry "human valium" Ford live in the White House dawn to dusk. Recommended for those folks who wonder how we ever made it through the Seventies, and fans of DAZED AND CONFUSED.

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok but not great

Interesting read with an abrupt ending. I enjoyed the book but not was enlightening as I had hoped because of the author still being an outsider in the White House.

[Read1000books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique format (small time segments) and very enjoyable. Newspaperman John Hersey was given access to President Gerald Ford for one week (March 10-15, 1975; Mon.-Sat.), with permission to sit in on meetings in the Oval Office (except high-level ones), presidential greetings to visitors, and even into the family residence. And even though it was just for a short time, a good portrait of Ford emerges, as well as of the presidential schedule itself. Perhaps needless to say. the poor man is very busy; so many appointments one day, he only had ten minutes to eat lunch (why he liked a scoop of cottage cheese drenched with A-1 sauce is beyond me. To each his own.). One visitor to his office after another all day long from 8 am to 7 pm (one wonders how Bill Clinton had time for all those shenanigans, but I digress). An oblique reference to a possible CIA tie to the Kennedy assassinations, semi-regular short prayer meetings in the Oval Office, Ford's WW2 service in the Navy (almost swept off the deck of his aircraft carrier during a typhoon in the Pacific), and an offer to play pro football with the Detroit Lions were just some of the intriguing details. Despite the author being no friend of conservatism (he finally admits this on page 141), he was generally fair. One feature that I found very handy, and referred to often, was an appendix at the back listing three dozen or so of Ford's administration and their title/function in the government. This book motivates me to look for a further Ford biography.
And now a few good quotes:
Ford: "The consumer has a right to know what the exact impact, both pros and cons, will be of decisions which his Government is making". [apparently this "right" has long since gone out the window; but again I digress]
Ford: "We ought to get better titles for things. The Democrats come up with titles like Model Cities and we come up with the Ocean Dumping Act".
Ford: "Eating and sleeping are a waste of time".
Ford: "I'd rather be a plodder and get someplace than have charisma and not make it".
And one final humorous bit: Miss America and her entourage got a 6-minute photo op with the President, while the Maid of Cotton for 1975 (the young lady was from Sikeston, Missouri) and her group got 11 minutes. Afterwards, a question from a reporter to Ford's press secretary: "How much cotton do they grow in Missouri"? Reply from press secretary: "They grow cotton queens in Missouri. They grow cotton somewhere else".