ABSTRACT
The assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in March 1981 served as a powerful reminder of the fragility of the elected president. The Constitution provided no pathway for handling temporary presidential disability. In 1967 the Congress and the states finally established a mechanism. It seemed to many that the attack on Reagan was an ideal time to invoke it. Under the Constitution, the president is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. He is therefore responsible for the supreme command and direction of these forces once war is declared. The great divergence of opinions led to the failure of the House hearings. Nevertheless, the embryo of the 25th Amendment emerged in the form of the Eisenhower administration's first proposal. The legislators, political leaders, and scholars who shaped it in the fifties and sixties were responding not only to Eisenhower's illnesses but also to John Kennedy's assassination and their knowledge of the crippled presidencies of James A. Garfield and Woodrow Wilson.
