countless powerful women throughout history, Queen Elizabeth II was routinely underestimated.

But during her record-breaking 70-year range, she deftly managed the important strategic

relationship between the U.K. and the U.S., meeting with 13 sitting presidents, more than any other

American or foreign leader. USA Today's Susan Page traces this and more in her new book, The Queen and Her Presidents,

The Hidden Hand that Shaped History.

I spoke with her earlier today.

Susan Page, welcome back to the NewsHour.

It's so great to be here.

In this book, you make the point that Queen Elizabeth had no formal power over policy,

but you argue that she was genuinely

consequential. What did her influence look like in practice? Well, you think about, say, her first

trip to the United States as queen. It was in the aftermath of the Suez crisis. Relations between

the United States and the United King were as bad as they had been since

the start of the special relationship. And somehow through her charm and her personality,

her connection with President Eisenhower, she healed that wound. And in the aftermath,

suddenly relations kind of resumed again. It's not that she negotiated with the president.

It's that she laid the groundwork for the kind of special relationship that was so important

to Great Britain and so important to her.

You mentioned President Eisenhower.

You described her bond with him as something special.

She knew him when he was a wartime general before he was president. How did that

early relationship differ from the ones she had with presidents she met only in their

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