BOOKS: Accidental Presidents: Jared Cohen

Aug. 27—Eight American presidents have died in office. Eight sitting vice presidents have stepped into the role of president upon the death of sitting presidents.

They are referred to as "accidental presidents." Some people argue that Gerald Ford, who became president when Richard Nixon resigned, is the ninth accidental president. In his book, "Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America," historian Jared Cohen mentions Ford in the closing chapter but does not include him as an accidental president — a vice president who became president upon the death of a president.

Under Cohen's definition, the accidental presidents are John Tyler after the death of William Henry Harrison; Millard Fillmore after the death of Zachary Taylor; Andrew Johnson after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; Chester A. Arthur after the assassination-related death of James Garfield; Theodore Roosevelt after the assassination of William McKinley; Calvin Coolidge after the death of Warren G. Harding; Harry S Truman after the death of Franklin D, Rooselvelt; Lyndon B. Johnson after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Cohen presents fascinating details on each accidental president and their predecessors who died in office.

Harrison, the ninth president, was the first president to die in office, about a month after his inauguration. The Constitution had only loose guidelines in the 1840s about succession in the death of a sitting president. Vice President John Tyler assumed the office of the presidency despite some cabinet members thinking he should be an "acting president." Tyler insisted that he was not the vice president acting as president but the president.

Even though he would eventually be unpopular with both his opposing party and his own party, Tyler is acknowledged as the 10th American president and established the precedent that the vice president does indeed take the office upon the death of the sitting president.

It is a precedent that was needed three more times in the next 25 years and on four more occasions the next century after that.

The first four accidental presidents Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson and Arthur only filled the remaining term of the presidents who died. They did not win a presidential term of their own. Theodore Roosevelt became the first accidental president to win a presidential term in his own right. So did Coolidge, Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Cohen lists Theodore Roosevelt and Truman as the two greatest accidental presidents.

TR quickly made the office his own after the death of McKinley and had numerous political successes before and after he was elected to the office in his own right.

Truman inherited the remainder of World War II and oversaw the post-world war as well as handled the start of the Cold War upon taking office after the death of FDR. Cohen leans toward Truman being the greatest of the accidental presidents. While the other accidental presidencies garner a chapter each, Truman has two chapters.

The first chapter revolves around the selection of Truman as vice president for FDR's unprecedented run for a fourth presidential term. While Cohen delves into the politics of the selection, he also takes a frank look at FDR's health, positing that no one close to the president believed Roosevelt would live through a fourth term, meaning the little-known or tested Truman was an odd choice for the job.

Cohen also argues that Truman knew FDR likely wouldn't live the entire term but was irresponsibly in denial — making no effort to prepare himself for the death of FDR, which occurred about three months after FDR started his fourth term and Truman became vice president.

The second Truman chapter is much like the other chapters of the book, looking at the death of FDR and Truman's handling of the presidency.

Cohen also makes other arguments and observations, such as JFK may not have handled Vietnam any better than Lyndon Johnson, given Johnson kept Kennedy's advisors.

And one will reconsider Chester A. Arthur's presidency as being far better than most history books claim — assuming one has ever considered Arthur's presidency in the first place.

Readers of history should make a purposeful path to finding "Accidental Presidents."