ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997                 TAG: 9703170120
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

CANDOR HAS BECOME STANDARD IN DISCUSSING PRESIDENT'S HEALTH

There is a history of deception and evasion in telling Americans about their president's health.

Until that pop in his knee, President Clinton was able to claim remarkably good health during his presidency, except for frequent hoarseness, allergies and a perennial fight against overweight.

Clinton, one of the nation's youngest presidents - behind only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy - has had no major illness. But after Friday's knee operation, his recovery and rehabilitation may take six months.

Five hours after the 1:20 a.m. injury, the first White House briefing included reports from Clinton's White House doctor and an orthopedic specialist who examined him.

It was not always thus. There is a history of deception and evasion in telling Americans about their president's health.

Grover Cleveland's cancer of the mouth was passed off as a toothache. The nation was kept in the dark about the stroke that incapacitated Woodrow Wilson. Franklin Roosevelt's polio-inflicted inability to use his legs was kept from the public. Warren Harding's heart attack was ``a digestive disturbance.''

The White House has been more candid in the second half of the 20th century. After initial reports that he had indigestion, Dwight Eisenhower's heart attack in 1955 was officially disclosed.

Kennedy's health, however, was - as described in a 1987 book ``Medical Coverups in the White House'' - surrounded by ``a web of fact and fiction.'' He appeared vigorous but struggled against back pain and Addison's disease, an adrenal gland deficiency.

The public knew more about Lyndon Johnson's gall bladder surgery than it cared to: The president showed off his scars for photographers. And it was well known that he had recovered from a heart attack.

The White House was so quick to disclose that Jimmy Carter had become ill while jogging at Camp David that reporters were waiting at Bethesda Naval Hospital as he arrived by helicopter.

Ronald Reagan, the oldest of presidents, suffered a would-be assassin's bullet, colon cancer and prostate surgery while in the White House. The public was kept abreast of these developments, but press secretary Larry Speakes said he met with resistance from first lady Nancy Reagan, who believed details of her husband's health were a private matter.

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