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his friends in Congress for financial assistance. To his close friend House Speaker Sam Rayburn he bluntly confessed to needing assistance “to keep ahead of the hounds.” In the summer of 1958, Rayburn, working with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, finally got a presidential pension bill through Congress. House Majority Leader John McCormack said an outgoing president should not be expected to “engage in any business or occupation which would demean the office he once held.” Dwight Eisenhower, perhaps mindful of his own impending retirement, signed the Former Presidents Act into law on August 25. “The world’s richest nation has finally made sure that never again will an ex-president have to live off the charity of relatives,” began the UPI report on the new law, which entitled ex-presidents to “a monetary allowance” of twenty-five thousand dollars, as well as fifty thousand dollars for office expenses and unlimited franking privileges. (Since it is not a contributory pension, the “allowance” is taxed as if it were a salary.)

At long last, Harry Truman was financially secure.

Herbert Hoover, of course, didn’t need the money. He hadn’t even taken a salary as president. But he accepted the pension anyway, to spare his friend Harry any embarrassment.

On November 22, 1963, Truman was having lunch at the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City when he was told that President Kennedy had been shot. In the car on his way home he heard on the radio that Kennedy had died.

Harry flew to Washington to attend Kennedy’s funeral. Eisenhower was there too, and the two old adversaries ended up sharing the same limousine to the graveside service at Arlington National Cemetery. Margaret Truman Daniel and Mamie Eisenhower rode with them. (Bess wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed home.) They discussed whether Kennedy’s assassination was the work of a conspiracy or a lone gunman. They agreed it was most likely the latter.

After the service, Margaret invited the Eisenhowers to join her and her father for lunch at the Blair House, where they were staying. Ike and Mamie accepted the invitation. Sandwiches were served, along with coffee and, perhaps, something stronger. For an hour, Harry and Ike chatted amiably, reminiscing about old battles, political and otherwise.

“I thought it would never end,” recalled Admiral Robert Dennison, a White House aide who was also there, “but it was really heartwarming … you’d think there had never been any differences between them…. It was really wonderful.”

When it was time for the Eisenhowers to go, Harry and Margaret walked them to their car. The two former presidents chatted some more. Then they shook hands, “a long, lingering, silent handshake,” according to one account. Margaret kissed Ike on the cheek. Mamie kissed Harry.

Harry and Ike had made peace, though they would never see each other again.

In 1965, in the wake of the assassination, Congress passed a law authorizing the Secret Service to protect former presidents and their wives. This did not please the Trumans. When an agent showed up at their house and told Harry that he no longer had a need for Mike Westwood, the Independence cop who’d been his part-time bodyguard for twelve years, Harry told the agent, “Well, I no longer have a need for you, so get out of here.” Bess was equally opposed to the return of the Secret Service. “Mother reacted as if they had just told her she was going to have to spend four more years in the White House,” Margaret wrote. “She refused to allow the Secret Service men on the property.” Harry read the new law carefully and discovered a provision allowing him and Bess to refuse the protection. On September 21, he wrote the Secret Service requesting that their detail be “discontinued.” (Ironically, less than three weeks earlier, he had received a letter threatening to have him “rubbed out” to avenge Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)

Then one night, the phone in the hall rang. Bess answered.

“Bess,” purred a familiar voice, “this is Lyndon.” Perhaps the president mentioned Harry and Bess’s road trip in 1953, and how worried the