One Heartbeat Away: Presidential Disability and Succession

When Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeded John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President of the United States, it was the eighth time in our history that a President died in office and was succeeded by his Vice President. Further, when Senator Bayh introduced Senate Joint Resolution 139 in December 1963, the nation had at various times been without a Vice President for a total of more than 36 years since April 1789, when Washington was inaugurated in New York City. On November 22, 1963, the junior Senator from Indiana, like most Americans, was stunned by the tragedy of President Kennedy's assassination. As the nation mourned, urgent questions were raised concerning the future stability of the country. What if the Vice President also had been felled by an assassin's bullet? What if the President had been critically or permanently disabled-- Would our highest office, our people, our nation survive? One Heartbeat Away is the intimate story of what Senator Bayh did to help protect the nation from the disastrous effects of such possibilities. As President Johnson points out in his Foreword, the author had the nerve, the confidence, the drive, and the perseverance to attempt what many senior legislators thought impossible. Since William Henry Harrison died on April 4. 1841, all efforts to safeguard the legitimacy of the Presidential office in case of death or disability had been frustrated. This hook is not only the story of Senator Bash's successful efforts, but also it is a day-by-day account of how our democracy works. The urgency, the excitement, and the awesome responsibility of high office quicken the narrative from the assassination of President Kennedy to the passage and final ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in February 1967.