How to Hide the President’s Condition

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a major stroke. The president, a widower, was kept in solitude by his second wife and a tight ring of advisers. For months, senior executive branch and legislative officials could not see the president. The White House claimed the president would shortly return to full health, and that he suffered only from “nervous exhaustion.” His wife managed the flow of information to him, sharing certain memos and concealing others.

We spoke to John Milton Cooper Jr., a historian who has been called "the world's greatest authority on Woodrow Wilson." Cooper is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Woodrow Wilson: A Biography was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:21) How did Wilson's stroke come about?

(6:54) The stroke and its immediate coverup

(14:08) Psychological changes in President Wilson

(18:43) The media coverup

(20:31) Wilson and Congress

(23:53) Edith Wilson's role

(32:04) The Vice President and constitutional questions

(37:52) Wilson's advisers

(41:38) The Democratic Party