The Queen’s Relationship With Each US President

Oliver O'Connell Sun, September 18, 2022

Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - Over her 70 years as monarch, Queen Elizabeth II met every sitting US president, with the notable exception of President Lyndon Johnson.

Even before she ascended to the throne, she met President Harry Truman when she was heir and also met President Herbert Hoover when she was monarch, 20 years after he had left office.

Against the backdrop of the Cold War, the economic crises, societal changes, scientific breakthroughs, and military campaigns that have shaped the bond between the US and the UK, the Queen has been a constant and friendly soft power figure that was an important part of the special relationship.

Here are some of the notable moments of her meetings with US presidents.

Harry Truman

In late 1951, while heir to the throne, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited Washington DC. The royal couple were on a tour of Canada at the time and took a side-trip to see President Truman, gifting him a candelabra, an oil painting, and an ornate mirror.

Mr Truman is said to have told the princess that he hoped “when you leave, you will like us even better than when you came”. The visit occurred as British and US troops were fighting communist insurgents in Korea at the dawn of the Cold War, just six years after the end of the Second World War.

Dwight D Eisenhower

The Queen made her first state visit to the US in 1957, attending a dinner at the White House on 20 October hosted by President Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie. Mr Eisenhower wore a British Order of Merit that was awarded to him by the Queen’s late father, King George VI, following the war.

At the time, relations between Britain and America were in a poor state following the Suez crisis in Egypt, during which the UK had kept the US in the dark about collusion with the French and Israelis.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan asked the Queen to visit Washington to generate some goodwill between the two nations.

John F Kennedy

President John Kennedy (right) and his wife Jacqueline (second left) pictured with Queen Elizabeth II (second right) and the Duke of Edinburgh (left) at Buckingham Palace (PA)

The Kennedys attended a banquet in their honour at Buckingham Palace during a tour of Europe in the first year of his presidency, meeting the Queen on 5 June 1961.

It is said that the young monarch was intimidated by the glamorous Jackie Kennedy.

After returning to Washington, President Kennedy sent the Queen a birthday message, adding at the end of his letter: “May I also at the same time say how grateful my wife and I are for the cordial hospitality offered to us by your Majesty and Prince Philip during our visit to London last Monday. We shall always cherish the memory of that delightful evening.”

Mr Kennedy’s father had been US ambassador to the UK, and as something of an anglophile, the relationship between Britain and America was restored after the upset over Suez, with the Americans agreeing to share nuclear technology as the Cold War intensified.

Following President Kennedy’s assassination, the Queen sent a letter of condolence but did not attend the funeral as she was heavily pregnant, with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh representing the royal family.

The Queen did not meet President Kennedy’s successor President Lyndon Johnson.

Richard Nixon

President Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon came to Buckingham Palace in 1969 and returned to the UK again on 3 October 1970 when the monarch hosted them at Chequers, the country home of the British prime minister, then Edward Heath.

There was gossip that Mr Nixon had tried to set up his daughter Tricia with a then-bachelor Prince of Wales. The meetings between the Queen and the president came as the US was deeply mired in the war in Vietnam and successive prime ministers had refused to send British troops in support.

Gerald Ford

Following the resignation of President Nixon in 1974, President Ford took office as preparations were underway for the 1976 bicentennial, and a royal visit to Washington was on the cards.

Mr Ford threw a gala state dinner at the White House on 7 July to mark 200 years since the American Revolution. At the dinner, the Queen danced with Mr Ford to an unfortunately-timed rendition of “The Lady is a Tramp”, in an evening that was fondly recalled by first lady Betty Ford in her memoirs.

Jimmy Carter

The Queen hosted President Carter in May 1977 on his first overseas trip at a dinner for Nato leaders at Buckingham Palace. It was also the Queen’s silver jubilee year.

Reportedly, as Mr Carter stood with the Queen and other guests, he noticed the arrival of Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, and ever the Southern gentleman, he broke away, took her by the hand, and escorted her to the assembled line of guests.

Famous for his informality, the president nevertheless ate chicken mousse off a gold plate and seemed excited by his dinner seating between the Queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, and across from Prince Charles, Prince Philip, and the queen mother.

Ronald Reagan

The Queen and President Reagan are said to have bonded over their mutual love of horseback riding when they met at Windsor Castle in June 1982, riding side by side on an eight-mile, hour long tour of the grounds. Mr Reagan was the first president to stay at the 11th-century castle.

Mr Reagan and his wife Nancy became the only presidential couple to host the Queen at their own home when they had the monarch and Prince Phillip stay at their ranch near Santa Barbara, California, in 1983. Poor weather meant there was no horse riding, but the Reagans served a lunch of regional staples, including enchiladas and tacos.

On the same trip, the royals were treated to a state dinner in San Francisco at the MH de Young Memorial Museum. The bad weather continued and during her remarks, the Queen joked: “I knew before we came that we had exported many of our traditions to the United States. But I had not realised before that weather was one of them.”

Over the president’s laughter, she added: “But, Mr President, if the climate has been cool, your welcome and that of the American people have been wonderfully warm.”

The Queen made Mr Reagan an honourary knight in recognition of America’s covert assistance to the UK during the Falklands War. Their meetings came at a time when the bond between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Mr Reagan was one of the strongest of any transatlantic parings of the special relationship, and at the height of the Cold War.

 

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