Ill-advised: Presidential Health and Public Trust

In ""Ill Advised - Presidential Health and Public Trust"" the historian Robert H. Ferrell presents powerful evidence of frightening medical cover-ups in the White House. Ferwell traces often shocking incidents - from Grover Cleveland's secret surgery for cancer to the questionable reporting of details on the health of both Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Malpractice, missing public records and politically motivated cover-ups have hidden sometimes severe presidential illnesses from the American people for more than a century. A massive stroke in 1919 crippled Woodrow Wilson both mentally and physically. But it was the ensuing cover-up that paralysed both foreign and domestic affairs, as the incompetent leader continued to serve. Certain that an ailing Franklin D. Roosevelt would never survive a fourth term, White House insiders worked frantically behind Roosevelt's back to orchestrate the nomination of their own choice for the vice-presidential candidate. Roosevelt's health never became a public issue, and Harry S. Truman became the 33rd president of the United States just two months after the election, having been handpicked by a handful of politically motivated White House insiders. At the heart of ""Ill Advised"" is important new documentation of the serious physical conditional of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously untapped evidence, including exclusive interviews with Eisenhower's cardiologist, Brigadier General Thomas W. Mattingly, Ferrell uncovers convincing evidence of Eisenhower's ill health, which probably should have kept him from ever running for the presidency. Ferrell discusses possible cover-ups in the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions about George Bush's arrhythmic heart and the possibility of Dan Quayle as a sudden, accidental president of the United States. As the 1992 election campaign heats up, some commentators are already watching for Bush's health to become a political issue. ""In a time of great crisis,"" writes Ferrwell, ""a president hid his illness from the American people."" For every citizen concerned with the accountability of government, ""Ill Advised: Presidential Health and Public Trust"" offers a crucial look at a frightening phenomenon that threatens to repeat itself.

About the Author :

Robert H. Ferrell is Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division and Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Divison Commander in World War I, both available from the University of Missouri Press. Ferrell resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Documents the many concealments, half-truths and outright lies perpetrated by presidents and their doctors."--U.S. News and World Report

"In this fascinating account of the mismanagement of presidents' health problems since the days of Grover Cleveland, Robert Ferrell reminds us that being important carries no guarantee about receiving good health care. He details medical treatment of presidents that has ranged from the marginally adequate to the scandalously incompetent. Compounding the problem Ferrell describes is the deliberate concealment of presidential illness by presidents and their handlers over the years."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Well organized and solidly documented, the book is written in more or less journalistic fashion; the narrative is absorbing, while the recounting of the episodes of illness is generally accurate and authoritative."--Journal of American History