In honor of President's Day in the United States, here is a look at the Queen's interactions with the 12 American presidents who have served during her reign from Truman to Obama.
Harry S. Truman
1945-1953
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| Princess Elizabeth in the motorcade with President Truman |
The Queen met President Harry S Truman in 1951 when she was
Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. She and the Duke of Edinburgh had
been on a Canadian tour and made a stop in Washington – their first visit to
the States – before returning home to Britain. Truman was besotted by
Elizabeth, and after greeting her and Philip at the airport, he remarked to the
press, “When I was a little boy, I read about a fairy princess, and there she
is!” Elizabeth was taken by the President’s natural manner, and in her response,
proclaimed that “free men everywhere look towards the United States with
affection and with warmth.” In retirement, Truman praised the Queen for her
first televised Christmas broadcast for its references to “unthinking people”
who prefer throwing away all traditions, and this was what Truman called a
“lovely statement.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953-1961
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| President Dwight Eisenhower |
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Queen’s second U.S. president,
but the first one she met as a reigning monarch. She had gotten to know him as
an army general through her parents while he was the Supreme Allied Commander
in Europe during World War II. Now in 1957, she was his guest during a six day
tour of the United States, which was designed to help repair the “Special
Relationship” between America and Britain, which had been damaged by the 1956
Suez Crisis. During this tour, the Queen and Prince Philip stayed in the White
House, attended a college football “match” between the University of Maryland
and the University of North Carolina, spontaneously visited a supermarket, and
marked the 350th anniversary of the first permanent British
settlement in America, Jamestown.
They were greeted by large cheering crowds
wherever they went, including New York City, where over a million people turned
out to see them and the President drive up Manhattan Island from Battery Park
to the Waldorf-Astoria. At the end of the tour, British Prime Minister Harold
MacMillan wrote in his diary that the Queen had “buried George III for good and
all.”
Later, Elizabeth II (as Queen of Canada) and President
Eisenhower traveled aboard the royal yacht Britannia along the St. Lawrence
Seaway to inaugurate it in 1959, and Eisenhower paid a visit to the Queen at
Balmoral, which he described as “perfect in every respect.”
John F. Kennedy
1961-1963
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| The Queen and Prince Philip with the Kennedy's at Buckingham Palace |
President John F. Kennedy
had been in office for four months when he met the Queen at the end of a
European tour, which included a highly-successful visit to France and an
American-Soviet conference in Vienna, where he had been given a rough time by
Nikita Khrushchev.
Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip hosted President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy for a
dinner at Buckingham Palace – the first for an American president since Woodrow
Wilson had been entertained by George V in 1918. It was a private occasion, but
nonetheless displayed the royal treatment for the President and the First Lady. The Queen was noted for responding to Mrs. Kennedy's complaint about the pressures of visiting Canada by saying, "One gets crafty after a while and learns how to save oneself."
This would be only
visit between the Queen and President Kennedy before his assassination in 1963.
In the following year, she dedicated the Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede in the
presence of his family.
Lyndon B. Johnson
1963-1969
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| President Johnson never got to meet the Queen, but Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon did pay a visit to the White House in 1965. |
Kennedy’s
successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, was the only American president to not meet
Elizabeth II in the course of her reign. His only chance to do so was during
the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in January 1965, but he was suffering
from a bronchial condition and his physicians advised against the trip – even
though Johnson had secured special concessions such as permission to remaining
seated while others were standing and getting private audience with the Queen
apart from the other dignitaries. Later that year, LBJ would receive a visit in
the United States from the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret and her husband,
Antony Armstrong-Jones, Earl of Snowdon.
Richard M. Nixon
1969-1974
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| The Nixon's with Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Edward Heath |
Richard M. Nixon
became President in 1969, and in that year the Queen hosted an informal lunch
for the new leader of the free world. In the fall of 1970, she joined Nixon and
Prime Minister Edward Heath for lunch at the summer residence for British prime
ministers at Chequers, England. However, the President’s real connection with
the royal family came about during the previous summer, when Prince Charles and
Princess Anne visited Washington for what amounted to a two-day state visit
(during which he attempted to set up a relationship between Charles and Nixon’s
elder daughter, Tricia).
Gerald R. Ford
1974-1977
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| The Queen and President Ford share a dance in celebration of America's Bicentennial |
In 1974, President
Nixon resigned in disgrace as a result of the Watergate Scandal, and was
succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, who set about attempting to heal a nation that had
been fraught by the scandal and the conflict in Vietnam. Part of this healing
manifested itself in the Bicentennial celebrations of American independence in
1976, and the Queen and Prince Philip actively took part in them during a six
day visit in July.
Among the
highlights of the tour was a white-tie Bicentennial dinner that was held in
their honor by President Ford and First Lady Betty Ford in a large tent within
the Rose Garden on the grounds of the White House. Public television
broadcasted the event, which was attended by 224 guests and lasted until almost
1:00AM. The Queen and the President toasted each other and shared a dance to
Frank Sinatra’s “The Lady is a Tramp.” The royal couple and the Fords took part
in other Bicentennial events, and towards the end of the tour, Elizabeth and
Philip entertained the Fords aboard the royal yacht Britannia.
When it was
over, the Queen reflected, “Who would have thought 200 years ago that a
descendant of King George III could have taken part in these celebrations?”
Jimmy Carter
1977-1981
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| Jimmy Carter is likely remembered in royal circles for his faux pas against the Queen Mother |
President Jimmy
Carter met the Queen once during his time in office, and that was while he was
in the UK for a round of economic and foreign policy meetings. A black-tie
dinner was held at Buckingham Palace for NATO leaders, where Carter met
Elizabeth II and other members of her family. This dinner is remembered in part
for Carter’s protocol faux pas when he kissed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
on her mouth. She later commented that she had taken a step backwards, but not
enough to avoid it.
Ronald Reagan
1981-1989
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| When it came to horses, the Queen and President Reagan were like old friends |
Carter’s successor,
Ronald Reagan, had a more memorable and personal relationship with Elizabeth
II. He and his wife Nancy were invited to Windsor Castle as personal guests in
1982, and the President was the first American head of state to stay there.
Later, the Queen and Prince Philip were guests of the Reagan’s at their ranch
in California.
The common thread of these visits were horses, for the Queen and
the President were both keen on them, and they are remembered for riding
side-by-side on horseback like old friends. Indeed, was during this period that
relations between America and Britain were as close as at any time since World
War II, thanks in part to the conservative ideological match between Reagan and
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
During the Falklands War between the UK and
Argentina, Reagan’s government had supplied intelligence to the British and
imposed economic sanctions on the Argentinians, and in the end, Britain won.
The
Queen would eventually bestow an honorary knighthood on Reagan.
George H.W. Bush
1989-1993
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| Bush 41 and the Queen attending the 1991 state dinner with their spouses |
By the time of
Queen’s next state visit to the United States, George H.W. Bush was in the
White House. It was 1991, and the President had recently and successfully
prosecuted the First Gulf War against Iraq, in which there had been British and
Commonwealth participation, so the visit was in part a way of thanking the
Queen and her realms for their help.
Unfortunately, a faux pas occurred at the
welcoming ceremony on the White House South Lawn: the podium was made to
accommodate President Bush, but not the Queen, whose hat was the only thing
that appeared behind the podium as she spoke, leading to references to the "talking hat." Later, she became the first
British monarch to address Congress and the President treated her to an
American baseball game, where he gave her some info on the rules of the game.
Bill Clinton
1993-2001
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| President Clinton was the Queen's first "Baby Boomer" American leader |
Bill Clinton was
the Queen’s tenth U.S. president, and they met other for an extended period
during the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1994. On
the night before the commemorations, President Clinton and First Lady Hillary
Clinton were invited to spend the night aboard the royal yacht Britannia.
During the dinner, the two families got on well, and Clinton observed that the
Queen was very knowledgeable about public issues and asked probing questions
without revealing too much insight on her personal opinions. He concluded that
she could have been a politician or diplomat in her own right were it not for
the circumstances of her birth.
George W. Bush
2001-2009
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| President and Laura Bush with the Queen and Prince Philip greeting people from the White House balcony in 2007 |
President George W.
Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were guests of the Queen’s during a state visit
to London in 2003. At the time, the Iraq War was only a few months old, and this
visit was done as part of diplomatic efforts to strengthen American ties to
Britain, its staunchest ally in the conflict under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Despite the protests against the war, the visit was largely successful, and
Bush 43 and his wife were warmly welcomed by the Queen, who had already known
them from the time that his father was president.
Four years later,
the Elizabeth II and Prince Philip made a return state visit to America, during
which they marked the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement
in Virginia. Later, they traveled to Washington to meet with President and Mrs.
Bush. This time, the podium at the South Lawn welcoming ceremony was positioned
correctly for the Queen, but a faux pas occurred anyway when the President remarked
that she had helped celebrate our country’s bicentennial in 1776, before
quickly correcting himself to say 1976. Realizing his mistake, he winked at the
Queen and commented that she had given him a look that only a mother could
give.
Barack Obama
2009-Present
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| The Obama's meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2009 |
2008 brought about election
of America’s first African-American president, Barack Obama and in 2009, he
met the Queen for the first time while in office at the G20 Summit. During a
reception, the Queen and First Lady Michelle Obama were seen gently embracing
each other for a moment, which caused somewhat of a stir in royal circles and
in the press. But it does appear that
Queen and the Obama’s have a friendly relationship, which actually began when
the President was the junior Senator from Illinois.
Two years later, the
Obama’s were back in London for a state visit at the invitation of the Queen.
She pulled out items from the Royal Collection relevant to America in general
and the President in particular: a hand-written note from George III which
lamented the loss of America (but also speculated on future trade and
diplomatic relationships), letters from President Abraham Lincoln and letters
from Queen Victoria in which she expressed sympathy for American slaves, records
of the visit of the then Prince of Wales (future Edward VII) to Obama’s
home-town of Chicago in 1860, and a handwritten letter from the Queen Mother to
then Princess Elizabeth recording the historic visit between George VI and
President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 on the eve of World War II.
The Obama’s returned the
favor by presenting the Queen with a book of photographs of her parents visit,
and they also met the recently-married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
At the state dinner,
the President proposed a toast to the Queen but the orchestra struck up God
Save the Queen as he was speaking, though this was a minor faux pas that failed
to mar the fact that this visit was a success.
Sources:
Marr, Andrew. The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. New York: St. Martin's Press. 2012. Print (Pages 3 and 4).
Smith, Sally Bedell. Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. New York: Random House. 2012. Print (Pages 58-59, 122, 132-136, 138, 140, 155-157, 177-178, 243-245, 276-278, 310-314, 356-359, 380-81, and 456-57).
