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Title: Air Force One : A History of the Presidents and Their Planes by Kenneth T. Walsh ISBN: 1-4013-0004-9 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 14 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.93 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Presidents in Private: An Engaging Look
Comment: Getting on Air Force One is like being a kid in a candy store, whether you're a new president or a seasoned journalist. And only a seasoned journalist could combine technical details, a sense of history and the gossip we're really looking for.
The theme of the book is that Air Force One is more than a plane. It's a symbol of the US and of presidential power. Most important, AF One offers presidents a chance to be alone -- and a chance to take off their suits and reveal themselves in jeans, sweats and Boxer shorts.
Some presidents come alive more than others in this account. We get a feel for Nixon, Clinton and Ford, but less for Kennedy and the present Bush. The Carter chapter surprised me: the public persona contrasts with the private man and Amy turns out to be a spoiled brat. Ford was the most decent and caring of all past presidents. And we learn that Reagan was far more disciplined than most of us realized.
We begin to realize that Bill Clinton, the first Baby Boomer president, brought a new era to the Presidency as well as the plane: he was actually comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, and his open expressions of emotion are contemporary. His predecessors seem stiff by comparison. Wisely, the author remains carefully neutral when writing about the current president.
I'd have liked to learn more about the crew who serve AF One. How are they chosen? Do they get special training? What's it like to be a flight attendant or a steward? And I'd like to hear more about some of the notable reporters, such as Barbara Walters, who gets mentioned only for her dismay at being served a spam sandwich.
And Walsh's journalistic role has a downside. I'd have liked to see a chapter with some insights that cut across individual presidents rather than straight reporting. As a reader, I found myself astonished at the ordinary qualities of the leaders of the free world. Some were not accustomed to being served. Others seemed so ill-suited to the presidency that I wondered how they got so far.
Overall, they're downhome, at least a little chauvinistic, insulated from much of the rest of the world because they're too busy with the president to develop a broad exposure. They play cards and watch light movies. Most have a roving eye: Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton are well-known but apparently Nixon liked to look, too.
Reading this book is like going to Epcot: you feel as though you're getting educated when you're really being entertained, and you can't help enjoying the experience. For an eerie contrast, read The Ship Who Sang, a classic sci fi novel by Anne McCaffrey.
Rating: 4
Summary: An Enjoyable, Light Book
Comment: This book could have been subtitled: "A History of Presidential Character as Revealed through Their Planes." Beginning with FDR and ending with the current main passenger of Air Force One, George W. Bush, Kenneth Walsh details the history and experiences of U.S. presidents who have taken to the air on the world's most famous jet, providing a fascinating angle by which to view them.
Walsh is careful to weave basic information about the presidents into the book. If you already know a good deal about the modern U.S. presidents, you will find much of this information either simplistic or repetitive. If you don't know very much about the modern presidents, however, but you want to know more about Air Force One, then you won't get lost here.
Walsh usually introduces each president with a brief history, and then shows convincingly that the planes they flew had a way of revealing the character of that president in a way that other places - the Oval Office, for example - did not. Reporters and staff, if they are fortunate enough to be allowed on board the jet, have access to a president that they do not have anywhere else. Presidents also seem to open up more when they fly Air Force One. Both of these circumstances allow a unique opportunity to see the usually powerful and distant man unfiltered.
While the historical moments that took place on Air Force One are all here (LBJ's swearing in as president just after the assassination of JFK; George W. Bush's long flight around the country after the terror attacks on 9-11, etc.), I personally found the trivial or less famous information more interesting. I had never heard, for example, that Nixon's Air Force One had to take evasive maneuvers during a trip to the Middle East after it appeared Syrian fighter jets might attack it (they were mistakenly sent up to welcome the Presidential jet). I also had no idea that secure communications on the president's hi-tech plane are often disrupted while it is in flight.
This is a light book that can be finished in an evening of reading. My only disappointment with it was the lack of basic drawings of the interior setup of Air Force One or drawings of the insides of previous presidential jets. I don't think the information is classified (since Walsh describes it in words), so it would have been interesting to see the various layouts.
Rating: 4
Summary: Easy Ride
Comment: If you are expecting a hard-hitting expose about anything presidential then this is not the book for you. The author does a very good job of detailing out the Presidents from FDR that have taken flight via Air Force One or its predecessors. The book is very interesting and does a good job at what it covers. The book does not cover in any detail much about the plane except for overall basic facts. The real focus of the book is the men who road in the planes, not the planes. I find that the only issue I had with the book is that there was not enough detail of the actual plane, what the crew goes through to get it ready, the special planning for a trip and so on. Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoyed the book as it was a light easy to read book that provided some very nice stories about the Presidents who traveled in the plane.
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Title: Air Force One by Robert F. Dorr ISBN: 0760310556 Publisher: MBI Publishing Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Air Force One: The Aircraft that Shaped the Modern Presidency by Von Hardesty, Bob Schieffer ISBN: 1559718943 Publisher: NorthWord Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency by Philip H., Ph.D Melanson, Peter F. Stevens ISBN: 0786710845 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush by Don Van Natta Jr. ISBN: 1586480081 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Nerve Center: Inside the White House Situation Room by Michael K. Bohn ISBN: 1574884387 Publisher: Brasseys, Inc. Pub. Date: 27 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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