My Presidential Life

“Presidents know these are the people who will drag you to safety in strange hotels and foreign countries, protect your secrets, and make the trains run on time...”—Marlin Fitzwater, Press Secretary to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush

My Presidential Life: The Showdown at Putin’s Dacha and Other Misadventures on the Diplomatic Road is a whirlwind tour of a side of presidential history not found in presidential papers or biographies.

It is a wry insider’s look at iconic American presidents on the world stage and the unseen events that occurred off-camera. It’s an intimate look at events the public and historians rarely, if ever, see. My Presidential Life is an entertaining and informative account that offers front-row seats to the dynamics of world leaders and events that shaped the world as we know it today.

Among the tales told by Judd Swift include an obstreperous Lech Walesa threatening to disrupt George H.W. Bush’s mission to end Soviet control of Poland; Peru’s Shining Path guerillas setting off a car bomb outside the advance team’s hotel; an endless number of supposedly ultra-secret meeting rooms filled with electronic eavesdropping devices; an imperious Franco loyalist who did her best to sabotage a successful summit at El Pardo Palace between Ronald Reagan and the king and president of Spain; and the day Vladimir Putin had George W. Bush trapped inside the Russian president’s dacha without Secret Service protection and the man who carries the nuclear football; and many others.

Longtime Washington insider Judd Swift spent years on advance teams arranging meetings for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush that took him to all corners of the world. He was also appointed by G.W. Bush as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy. Today he is CEO of Synfuels Americas Corporation, a technology platform to promote international research and business developments to support sustainable, clean fossil fuel energy for the future. He lives in Washington, Virginia.