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Historian William Seale has described presidential protection as a learning process, with presidents and their families and the Secret Service sometimes straining to adjust to one another. Although from the beginning guards were posted at the White House gates and front doors and the White House grounds were patrolled by a day guard and a night watchmen, it was not
Richard Nixon served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. Hugh Sidey met with him in his home in Woodcliff, New Jersey in 1993 for lunch and conversation and remembers he talked for a long time that day. Nixon seemed to remember every sound, sight and corner of the White House.
Jimmy Carter served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Hugh Sidey conducted the following interview with him in the mid-1990s and explains former Presidents are in some ways more harried than the sitting president. Sidey's interview with President Carter had to be over the phone because of his global itinerary.
Ronald Reagan served two terms as president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Hugh Sidey interviewed the former president in Los Angeles shortly after he left office, and observes that despite the tragedy of the early onset of Alzheimer's Disease, the text of the interview contains the old Reagan sparkle and humor and the reverence for the White House and
