Inside the President's Team: Family, Service, and the Gerald Ford Presidency

Except for his wife Betty, no one was closer to Gerald Ford during his presidency than Bob Barrett. Bob carried the "nuclear football"--the American nuclear codes--and could not let Ford out of his sight. This nerve-wracking job led to a deep friendship with the First Family and gave Bob an unparalleled view of Ford's historic and unusual presidency. In his memoir, Inside the President's Team, Bob takes readers into the White House and the Ford home to show the administration and the couple as few others could see them.

Bob gives new insights into why Ford decided to pardon Nixon and how he responded to criticism of it; how Ford chose his own vice president (and another for his run in 1976); and what he did with potentially difficult members of the former administration, such as Al Haig and the now-infamous Michael Flynn. Bob provides a front-row view of Ford's meeting with Leonid Brezhnev in Russia during their famous summit on arms control, and he shows how abandoning our ally South Vietnam put a greater strain on Ford than deciding whether to pardon his predecessor.

Bob reveals what happened during the two assassination attempts and reveals the flawed inner workings of the 1976 campaign. Meanwhile, he became so close to the family that he took part in Betty Ford's intervention and recalls scenes that show Ford to be, as Bob describes him, "the most decent, honorable, trustworthy person I ever met."

Ford's legacy as a reconciler and a healer of a deeply divided America during a time of strife comes alive in Inside the President's Team, and it is a celebration of the impact of living a life of service.