Gathering of 5 Presidents Is First in History

It was the ultimate photo opportunity.

For the first time in history, five U.S. presidents--several of whom had waged bitter campaigns against each other over the years--were gathered in one place.

Warmed by a California sun and clearly aware they were basking in the light of history, they appeared jovial and fraternal, as political rhetoric melted into buttery praise for each other.

Even the lone Democrat, Jimmy Carter--who had failed to join Presidents George Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald R. Ford at last year’s opening of the Richard M. Nixon Library in Yorba Linda--on this day seemed more a colleague than a political opponent.

“At least, all of you have met a Democratic President,” Carter joked when it was his turn to take the lectern. “I’ve never had that honor yet.”

Carter flew in from Zambia for the occasion; Bush arrived after peace talks in Madrid and a visit to his battered summer home in Maine. Despite the lengths the presidents and their wives went to to be here, public access to the men was tightly controlled.

Giant spotlights were set up even under the blazing sun to maximize the photo opportunities (and minimize under-eye shadows). Photos were taken of the five First Ladies--along with Lady Bird Johnson. Another was of the five men standing in front of the bucolic courtyard in the Reagan Presidential Library on an isolated hilltop near Simi Valley.

When a reporter called out a question to President Reagan at a photo opportunity where all five First Couples and Lady Bird Johnson were seated, Reagan leaned down to ask his wife to repeat the question.

“Nothing,” Nancy Reagan answered firmly. “You can’t answer.”

After the heat of the 90-minute ceremony, Pat Nixon seemed weak and was unable to walk to the final photo session. President Nixon sat with her, leaving blank spaces in the carefully staged group. The Nixons left before the lunch, though Pat Nixon’s condition was said not to be serious.

Here were five men who had waged war, yet spoke only of peace; who had all at one point in their lives run against Ronald Reagan, yet found something in him to praise on this, his day.

Missing was any talk of the Vietnam War, Watergate or the fact that the federal deficit under Bush is now greater than the total budget under Nixon. The most urgent issues appeared to be matters of protocol and schedule.

Nixon was hoarse, determined as ever, and even funny. What impressed him the most, he said, was not that there were five presidents on the stage, but four governors. “I never made it for governor,” he joked.

The program was delayed slightly because the five presidents and their wives dallied, chatting, while on a tour of the library, Reagan aides reported.

“It was like five fraternity brothers in there,” said Reagan Chief of Staff Fred Ryan. “Politics were put aside. There were no discussions of this policy or that policy.”

At one point in the tour, according to Charles Jelloian, operations director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, staff members stepped back to allow the presidential group to enter alone a life-size replica of the Oval Office.

“Just seeing the expressions on their faces. . . ,” said Ryan, letting his sentence drift off. “They walked in and you could tell they each had this look on their faces, remembering something.”

Although no members of the press were allowed on the tour, an official photographer and video cameraman documented parts of the session.

At one immense photo of Reagan and Ford, holding their hands high above their heads after the contentious 1976 Republican convention, the two men stopped and gazed, Ryan said. At another scene, Nixon quietly stared at a historic photo of himself with makeup staining his face during the 1960 presidential debate with John F. Kennedy.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Bush continues to communicate with all four of his living predecessors.

As for Ford, Fitzwater said, Bush probably sees him the most because they “kind of end up in the same cities.”

“He probably sees Ford the most, talks to Nixon the longest and probably talks to Reagan (the most) because he calls him a lot of times,” Fitzwater said. Carter, he said, has visited the White House twice to report on “private activities.”

Asked on the way out what the five presidents had talked about over lunch, Carter--the only President who answered a question lobbed to him from the press--answered: “Talked about good food and the beautiful place.”

Although the meeting was the first of five presidents, the five men on the podium had been together on at least one other occasion.

In 1981, Bush was still vice president when ex-Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter met with him and then-President Reagan at the White House before the three former presidents departed for the funeral of assassinated Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat. Mrs. Sadat was on the dais with the five presidents on Monday.

Carter touched upon the significance of the meeting in his speech Monday.

“We have a heterogeneous population, wider dispersed in heritage, beliefs, language, than any other on Earth,” he said. “But we have a solid, dependable, stable Constitution under which we all live.

“And what binds us together best of all is our common commitment to freedom,” Carter said.

There were several other political wrinkles.

Reagan, for his part, noted that at one time or another in his career he had run against all four of the other presidents--Carter for President, and Nixon, Ford and Bush for the Republican presidential nomination.

“Yet here we are,” Reagan said, “which just goes to show that above personal ideologies and party politics, we stand united as Americans.”

From 1862 until the inauguration of George Bush, Reagan library researchers say, there never had been more than three former presidents alive at the same time.

When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, five former presidents were alive: Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, John Tyler and James Buchanan. But because of the impending Civil War--Tyler was a member of the Confederate Congress--the presidents apparently never got together before Van Buren and Tyler died in 1862, the Reagan researchers said.

In his 10-minute speech Monday, Bush had praise for each of his predecessors.

Nixon was an “innovator at home, a peacemaker and ground-breaker abroad.”

Ford, Bush said, has a “quiet strength of character . . . and just plain innate decency.”

Carter, Bush said, is applauded for his commitment to “peace, to human rights, to helping others.”

Among the many compliments the President bestowed on Reagan, one that prompted smiles--even from the other presidents--was that the Great Communicator was “a politician who was funny on purpose.”

A Historic Meeting

The Simi Valley meeting of five U . S . presidents--George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon--is most likely a first, research by the Reagan Library indicates. No other meeting between an incumbent and four former presidents has been recorded. Here are some other presidential facts : * 1825: Records indicate that the first time an incumbent President and four former presidents were alive at the same time was during the Administration of John Quincy Adams. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe were alive when John Quincy Adams was inaugurated in 1825. There is no evidence, however, that they ever were all at the same place at the same time during his presidency.

* 1840s: The second time there were four living former presidents was during the Administration of James K. Polk (1845-1849). A few months into the Polk presidency, Andrew Jackson died. John Quincy Adams died in 1848, leaving Martin Van Buren, John Tyler and Polk as the only living former presidents when Zachary Taylor was inaugurated in 1849. No evidence exists that these presidents ever met together.

* 1857: There were five living presidents once again when James Buchanan was inaugurated in 1857. Still alive were Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, John Tyler and Martin Van Buren. Because of the turbulent times and differences in opinions, it is highly unlikely these five ever got together during the Buchanan Administration.

* 1861: A major first occurred when Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President in 1861. At the time of his inauguration in March, five former presidents were alive--Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan. Van Buren and Tyler died in 1862. Once again, the circumstances surrounding the Civil War (John Tyler was a member of the Confederate Congress) make it doubtful there was ever a group meeting.

* 1862-1989: After the deaths of Van Buren and Tyler, and during the next 127 years, there were never more than three former presidents alive at the same time.

* 1989: In January of 1989, with the inauguration of George Bush, there were once again four living former presidents. These same five had been together on Oct. 8, 1981, after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. However, Bush was vice president at the time.

SOURCE: Greg Cumming, Ronald Reagan Library