While the main role of the vice president is as presiding officer to the U.S. president, only eight times has the vice president actually had to step in due to the untimely death of a commander in chief. Author Jared Cohen explores just how these men filled their predecessor’s shoes in his 2019 book, “Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America.”
Arguably, many vice presidents are not chosen with a view of the horizon—to someday occupy the White House and run America. More often than not, as Cohen poses, they are chosen to be a running mate for their loyalty to the presidential candidate; as a political convenience or strategy; or for their age, race, views, and so on, to project a balanced ticket to voters.
In our nation’s history, due to various circumstances primarily relating to either an assassination or a natural death, some vice presidents have been thrust unexpectedly into the role of president. These include John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.
Cohen shows us, as he explains in his foreword, how “each had to earn the respect of the men loyal to his predecessor, or find a way to discard them. They had to honor the loss while at the same time getting back to governing. All had to find the balance between continuing the policies of the man who was elected (including navigating the ambiguity left behind) and responsibly fulfilling their present duties. Each had to step out of the shadow of his processor and earn the presidency in his own right.”
Through well-researched accounts and documentation, Cohen paints a picture of each vice president-turned-president’s achievements and failures. In fact, the notes and bibliography portion at the back of the book, in a minute-font size, take up 100 of the 528 pages.
Cohen stated : “Each story [presented in its own story] also raises questions about how history might have been different had the president survived.”
Also, at the beginning of each chapter, the author includes a portrait or photograph of the elected president and the vice president who followed him.
Although Cohen makes it clear that his book does not rate each accidental president’s performance, he does convey that time has shown Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman unquestionably carved their own successful trails through history. Others, namely John Tyler and Andrew Johnson, were deemed embarrassing to their own parties and nearly criminal in general. Still others, such as Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur, are largely unknown to most Americans.
Cohen’s book comes to an end by probing the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1967 after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It essentially provides the roadmap for the vice president “in case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation.” And Cohen’s comments indirectly present his views on how well it may work if America experiences a ninth accidental president. He states in the book’s afterword, however, “Before its [25th Amendment] passage, we had more than a century of experimentation with laws and precedents to see what worked.”
