Replies

Mash here to skip.

Missing from the list:

William Henry Harrison

James A. Garfield

Harry S. Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

John F. Kennedy

Lyndon B. Johnson

Richard Nixon

Gerald Ford

Ronald Reagan

George H. W. Bush

George W. Bush

I asked Grok what's something that's not obvious that these President's had in common.

Every one of these 11 presidents is tightly linked to a defining American military conflict or its immediate aftermath in a way that shaped both their personal path to the office and the public memory of their tenure.

William Henry Harrison – Tippecanoe and the War of 1812
James A. Garfield – Civil War combat leadership
Harry S. Truman – final months of World War II, decision to use the atomic bomb, and the Korean War
Dwight D. Eisenhower – Supreme Allied Commander in World War II and early Cold War architecture
John F. Kennedy – World War II service + Cuban Missile Crisis / early Vietnam
Lyndon B. Johnson – full-scale Vietnam escalation
Richard Nixon – Vietnam withdrawal and late Cold War maneuvering
Gerald Ford – final collapse in Vietnam
Ronald Reagan – late Cold War pressure that contributed to the Soviet collapse
George H. W. Bush – Gulf War and the formal end of the Cold War
George W. Bush – Afghanistan and Iraq wars

This military/conflict thread runs more consistently through this group than through many of the presidents who were placed in the higher tiers of the graphic (several of whom presided over relatively quieter periods in foreign affairs). It is not the only possible lens, but it is a substantive one that sits outside the more immediate observations about chronology, party, or simple omission from the ranking.

Freemasonry

They were not all Masons. Confirmed status among the group:

President	Masonic Status
William Henry Harrison	No evidence
James A. Garfield	Yes (Master Mason)
Harry S. Truman	Yes (very active; Grand Master of Missouri, 33°)
Dwight D. Eisenhower	No
John F. Kennedy	No
Lyndon B. Johnson	Only 1st degree (Entered Apprentice); never advanced
Richard Nixon	No
Gerald Ford	Yes (Master Mason)
Ronald Reagan	Honorary recognition only; not a member
George H. W. Bush	No (Yale Skull and Bones, not Masonry)
George W. Bush	No

Only Garfield, Truman, and Ford were full Master Masons. LBJ stopped at the first degree. The rest have no verified membership.

Scandals / Controversies

There is no overlooked scandal that hits every name on the list. What exists is a patchwork:

Extramarital affairs / personal conduct: Documented or strongly alleged for Eisenhower (Kay Summersby rumors), Kennedy (multiple), and Johnson. Much weaker or absent for the others (Harrison, Garfield, Truman, Ford, Reagan, and both Bushes have comparatively little of this in the historical record).
Abuse of power / cover-ups: Nixon (Watergate) is the clear standout. Reagan had Iran-Contra. The rest do not share a comparable institutional scandal.
Health or physical decline while in office: Harrison (died after 31 days), Garfield (assassinated after lingering), Kennedy (assassinated), and to lesser degrees Eisenhower and Reagan (assassination attempts + later health issues). Not universal.
Entry to office irregularities: Ford is unique (only president never elected as president or vice president). Harrison and Garfield had extremely short terms due to death. Again, not shared.

Shared “mistakes” or patterns

No single policy error or personal failing is common to all 11. The closest broad patterns are:

Heavy involvement in (or definition by) major wars or their aftermath — already noted in the previous analysis.
Several faced intense contemporaneous criticism that later softened or hardened depending on the political era (Truman’s approval ratings were very low when he left office; similar volatility appears with Johnson, Nixon, and both Bushes).

Strongest commonality outside the presidency: military service.

All 11 had prior U.S. military service:

President	Service Summary
William Henry Harrison	Major General (Northwest Indian War, War of 1812)
James A. Garfield	Major General (Civil War)
Harry S. Truman	Captain, Field Artillery (World War I)
Dwight D. Eisenhower	General of the Army (5-star), Supreme Allied Commander WWII
John F. Kennedy	Navy Lieutenant (PT-109, WWII)
Lyndon B. Johnson	Naval Reserve Commander (WWII, Silver Star)
Richard Nixon	Navy Commander (WWII)
Gerald Ford	Navy Lieutenant Commander (WWII, Pacific)
Ronald Reagan	Army Captain (WWII, mostly stateside/film unit)
George H. W. Bush	Navy pilot (WWII, Distinguished Flying Cross)
George W. Bush	Texas Air National Guard (First Lieutenant)

This is one of the cleaner non-presidential threads that actually covers the entire list. Military service was far more common among 19th- and 20th-century presidents overall, but it is universal in this specific group.

Other background notes (not universal)

Congressional experience: Most had it (Harrison, Garfield, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, GHW Bush), but Eisenhower, Reagan, and George W. Bush did not.
Governorships: Only Reagan and George W. Bush.
Education: Highly varied (Truman never earned a college degree; others ranged from West Point to Harvard/Yale).
Legal careers: Only a minority were practicing lawyers before politics.

No single pre-presidential profession, religion, or educational pedigree unites all 11.

Vice Presidents – anything in common?

Their vice presidents were:

John Tyler (Harrison)
Chester A. Arthur (Garfield)
Alben Barkley (Truman)
Richard Nixon (Eisenhower)
Lyndon B. Johnson (Kennedy)
Hubert Humphrey (Johnson)
Spiro Agnew → Gerald Ford (Nixon)
Nelson Rockefeller (Ford)
George H. W. Bush (Reagan)
Dan Quayle (GHW Bush)
Dick Cheney (GW Bush)

Notable patterns among the VPs (not perfect, but elevated):

A strikingly high number later became president themselves (Tyler, Arthur, Nixon, LBJ, Ford, GHW Bush).
Most had substantial prior experience in Congress or high federal office.
Several were chosen at least partly for ticket-balancing (geographic, ideological, or factional reasons) rather than pure personal closeness to the president.
No single party, ideology, or career path unites them all. They range from long-serving congressional barons (Barkley, Humphrey, Ford) to relative outsiders or appointed figures (Rockefeller, Cheney’s mix of Congress + executive roles).