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This Day (An America 250 History Show)

Ike's Heart Attack (1955) w/ Will Hitchcock

This Day (An America 250 History Show)

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.51K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s October 22nd. On this day in 1955, President Eisenhower was recovering from a serious heart attack the month before.

Jody and Niki are joined by William Hitchcock of UVA to discuss the incident and how a president’s inner circle handles the press and questions of succession when the Commander In Chief is sick.

Will Hitchcock’s new podcast is called “Democracy In Danger.”

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

0:07.6

My name is Jody Avergan.

0:12.3

This day, October 23rd, 1955, President Eisenhower stands up for the first time after a heart

0:18.4

attack a month prior.

0:19.7

You see what we did there, our listeners?

0:21.2

We actually missed the day of Eisenhower's heart attack,

0:23.7

so we're finding a hook for it,

0:25.3

which is this day when he's on the mend.

0:27.5

But look, this is the story, not just of Eisenhower's heart attack,

0:31.6

which we'll talk about, but how a staff around a

0:34.0

president reacts to a moment when a president takes ill and has a serious health

0:38.0

crisis how they share information with the press and so forth and obviously

0:41.6

something that we are thinking about in the

0:43.6

wake of Donald Trump having the coronavirus in the way that that was handled

0:46.4

with the public and the press. So here to discuss as always is Nicole Hemmer

0:50.8

of Columbia. Hello Mickey. Hello Jody. And back with us is

0:54.3

Will Hitchcock Professor of History at the University of Virginia. His

0:58.3

podcast is Democracy in Danger and he wrote a book about Eisenhower. What a

1:02.0

coincidence that you'll hear.

1:03.6

It's called The Age of Eisenhower, America, and the World in the 1950s.

1:07.0

Will, thanks for coming back.

1:08.6

Great to be with you again.

...

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