Doug Wead: The Good and Bad of Being a President's Child

[Doug Wead is author of"All the President's Children."]

Shortly after his father won the presidential election in 1988, I sat with George W. Bush in his office on 14th Street in Washington, D.C.

I was an advisor to the incoming administration, and he was talking about who was going to work in the White House and who would work on the Inaugural Committee. In the middle of this conversation, he sighed and asked rhetorically,"What's gonna happen to me?"

"Do you want me to do a memo on what happens to presidential children?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. And so began a study that would last 15 years.

Children of presidents have led armies, written bestselling books, run universities, served in the Cabinet. Eight went to Congress, seven have been ambassadors and now two have become presidents. But they have also suffered higher-than-average rates of divorce, alcoholism, suicide and premature death. I interviewed 19 of the 27 living children and they all agreed: The disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

There is practically a curse on namesakes. John Adams II, William Henry Harrison Jr. and Andrew Johnson Jr. all died as young alcoholics. Others died from apparent accidents, including Andrew Jackson Jr., shot while hunting. Calvin Coolidge Jr. died after developing a blister on the White House tennis courts. He was 16 years old.

I was 11 years into my study when John F. Kennedy Jr. disappeared over the Atlantic. Chills went down my spine. His early death is more than a coincidence of history, I thought.

There is enormous stress on these young people. From the time they are little children, people come up and ask,"When are you going to run for president?" Most people believe that the trauma for these kids is the limelight, the pressures of living in the fishbowl. Actually, most of them told me the White House was the best part of the deal....