She met every sitting US president but one. She stayed with another president, Harry Truman, before she was even the monarch, and met one more, Herbert Hoover, 20 years after he had left office. Queen Elizabeth II made six official trips to the US, including three state visits with all the pomp and ceremony involved. She also made a number of private visits, many of them in pursuit of her love of horse racing and the thoroughbreds of Kentucky.
She was just 25 and still a princess when she, and Prince Philip, made her first visit to the United States in 1951, staying with President Truman at Blair House while renovations to the White House were being carried out. In 1957, she and Philip returned for her first state visit and were met at the White House by President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife Mamie. He was the first serving president she met during her reign, which began in 1952.
In 2021, the Queen met Joe Biden - whom she had previously spoken to when he was a senator - bringing to 13 the total of presidents in office she met. The only sitting president she did not speak to face to face was Lyndon Johnson. In one obvious sense, the number of American presidents she met is a striking reminder of the length of her reign. (When Eisenhower was in office, his political counterpart in London was Winston Churchill.)
Supporters and admirers of the Queen say the connections she was able to make helped add personal cement to the relationship between the two countries, almost 250 years after what was a British colony fought for and secured its independence from King George III.
This story is from the September 12, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the September 12, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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