So imagine for example the elections of 2008, 2004, 2000 or 1990s with candidates of the geriatric age group as serious contenders. Could presidents that did have served in WW2 as soldiers been elected post 2000 or WW1 veterans until the 1970s ? Even a Civil War Veteran Post WW1 wouldn't be out of question. Might it be still possible that a Vietnam veteran with combat experience gets elected ? What's your thought ?
To gauge the “last chance” to be a President of the United States at an advanced age, we have to look at what we do objectively know. A few years ago, I created a WordFile about U.S. Presidents which can provide some facts. I think we can only reasonably be certain of these “objective” facts up until the year 1941, so Vietnam veterans would have to remain spectulation at this point in time. These men actually became President. However, we can use their experience as a reference point for other men who were alive at the time who could conceivably have become a President late in life. We can look at 3 pivotal years in our country's history with some degree of certainty.
(1) In 1866, the first year after the American Civil War ended, the U.S. President was Andrew JOHNSON(age 58). There were 11 future Presidents alive that year. Seven of the 11 were Civil War veterans(in red). Their ages in 1866 are in parentheses after their names :
Grant(44), Hayes(44), Garfield(35), Arthur(37), Cleveland(29), Benjamin Harrison(33), McKinley(23), T. Roosevelt(8), Taft(9), Wilson(10), Harding(1 year old).
NOTES: The youngest veteran of this 1866 group was McKinley who was assassinated and died in 1901 when he was 58. Had he lived he would have been 71 at the start of World War I in 1914.
The last of the Veteran Presidents of the 1866 group to die was Grover Cleveland in 1908 at the age of 71, six years before the start of World War I.
POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS: A younger veteran than these actual future Presidents who was, say age 17, in 1865 or perhaps even a drummer boy who was, say age 12, in 1865 would have been 66 years old and 61 years old respectively, in 1914 when World War I began. The U.S. Presidential election would take place in 1916, two years later so their respective ages would be 68 and 63. Too old ? Theodore Roosevelt was said to be considering another Presidential run in 1920 when he would have been 61. I don’t think many Americans would have considered him too old to run at that age so possibly the 17-year-old veteran and the drummer boy in 1865 could have also ran in 1916 if they were perceived as active as Roosevelt was. (Roosevelt died in 1919 at the age of 60).
(2) In 1918, the U.S.President was Woodrow WILSON(age 62). There were 11 future Presidents alive that year. Only 2 of the 11 were World War I veterans (in red). However Hoover served in Europe during World War I overseeing food and aid to occupied Belgium and northern France. Their ages in 1918 are in parentheses after their names: Harding(53), Coolidge(46), Hoover(44), Franklin Delano Roosevelt(36),
Truman(34), Eisenhower(28), Kennedy(1 year old), Johnson(10), Nixon(5), Ford(5), Reagan(7)
NOTES: Herbert Hoover died in 1964 at the age of 90. Eisenhower died in 1969 at the age of 78. Truman died in 1972 at the age of 88.
POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS: A World War I veteran who was much younger than either Truman or Eisenhower, say 18 years old in 1918, and had political ambitions would be 72 years old at the time of the 1972 Presidential election. Too old ? Just a few years later, much comment was made about Reagan being possibly too old to be President because he would turn 70 years old just a few weeks after his 1981 inauguration.
(3) In 1941, the U.S. President was Franklin Delano ROOSEVELT(age 59). There were 9 future Presidents alive that year. All 9 were veterans, 2 in World War I and 7 serving during World War II. Their ages in 1941 are in parentheses after their names. Truman(47), Eisenhower(51), Kennedy(24), Johnson(33), Nixon(28), Ford(28), Carter(17), Reagan(30), George H.Bush(17)
NOTES: Of the longest-lived of this group of World War II veterans, Nixon died in 1994 at the age of 81. Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 93. Ford died in 2006 at the age of 93. George H. Bush died in 2018 at the age of 94. The youngest of this group is Carter who is still alive at this time, but in hospice, at the age of 98.
POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS: Suppose a World War II veteran who was 17 or 18 years in 1945, the last year of World War II, had political ambitions. He would have been born in 1927 or 1928. Such a man would have been 72 or 73 years in the Presidential election year of 2000. Too old ? Despite Reagan serving at an advanced age in the 1980s, when a 73-year-old World War II veteran named Robert Dole ran against 50-year-old, non-veteran, incumbent President Clinton in 1996, the contrast with his comparatively youthful opponent was probably too much and Dole lost. Would a similarly aged candidate in 2000 fare any better than Dole did 4 years earlier ?
