What Happens When Political Leaders Get Sick?
What Happens When Political Leaders Get Sick?
For days we’ve followed the story of Hillary Clinton concealing her pneumonia. Donald Trump just released another letter attesting to his good health.
But American presidential candidates aren’t the only political leaders who face scrutiny about their health. There is also a long list of presidents and rulers who have hidden an illness from the people they were governing, including democratic politicians such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Tony Blair, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Ariel Sharon, and more.
We take a look at some of the most memorable cases and explore public perceptions about strength and weakness and physical health with Dr. Jerrold Post, professor emeritus of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University and co-author of When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King.