John F. Kennedy in Team of Five, by Kate Brower

On Principles & Values: Called on Nixon and Eisenhower for advice in crises

Contrast that with John F. Kennedy, who called on all 3 of his living predecessors to ask for their help during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A year and a half earlier, after the Bay of Pigs disaster, Kennedy had reached out to the man he'd just defeated, Richard Nixon, and to his Republican predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower. He knew he could not afford to be too proud to ask for help. "No one knows how rough this job is until after he has been in it a few months," Kennedy confessed to Eisenhower.