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Over her long life the Queen has entertained almost every president that served during her lifetime, theonly notable exception being Lyndon Johnson, who in fact never visited Europe during his time inoffice, his energies in foreign policy being almost entirely focusedon Vietnam.

Including President Truman, whom she met when she was heir to the throne, President Hoover, whom she encountered after hed retired, and now Joe Biden, shes done her bit for the special relationship with a totalof 14of these statesmen. Theonlyother person alive today who might rival that claim is Henry Kissinger.

At any rate, she has had to smoothover the difficult times and make the absolute mostof the good times. As a hereditary monarch descendantof the kings that used to rule the American colonies and major celeb above all party politics, she holds a special place in the special relationship, able tooffer a friendly hand to a president who may be annoyed and disappointed in a British prime minister, which has been a more common situation than many assume.

A toast, then, to 14 veryspecial relationships

Princess Elizabeth and Harry S Truman

Princess Elizabeth and Harry Truman

(AFP/Getty)

Sadly, by the time the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip wenton a tourof Canada her father, George VI was ill with the cancer that was soon to take his life. At just 25 she and Philip nipped down to Washington to be entertained by President and Mrs Truman.

British and US troops were then fighting together in a UN force against communist insurgents in Korea. It was the coldestof times in the Cold War, andone when the Americans were distrustfulof sharing their nuclear secrets with the British.

The Queen and Herbert Hoover

The Queen with Herbert Hoover in 1957

(Popperfoto/Getty)

The elderly Hoover had left the Whitehouse in 1933, but was around long enough to be parked next to the Queen at a dinner in her honour during her visit to see Eisenhower.

The Queen and Dwight Eisenhower

The Queen with Dwight Eisenhower, in 1957

(AFP/Getty)

Ike was an almost grandfatherly figure to the Queen and by the time they met in 1957 Anglo-American relations were in a poor state. The British had kept America in the dark about their collusion with the French and Israelis in the Suez crisis and invasionof Egypt. The Americans sold sterling until the British gave up their imperialist delusions, and remained suspiciousof Britains unreliable spies. Prime Minister Macmillan deployed the Queen to spark some goodwill.

The Queen and John F Kennedy

(PA)

Understandably enough, the Queen felt a littleovershadowed by the super glam Jackie Kennedy, but Jack had spent plentyof time in London before and during the war, when his father Joe served as US ambassador, and was at ease in the Queens company. Somethingof an Anglophile, Kennedy let the British have US nuclear weapons technology, and security cooperation was at last restored.

The Queen and Richard Nixon

The Queen and Nixon, in 1970

(PA)

There is some gossip to the effect that the president tried to pair his eldest daughter Triciaoff with Prince Charles, which would probably have made for some quite dramatic stories and conspiracy theories lateron. The Princeof Wales wasnt up for it. Nixons relations with Labours Harold Wilson were friendly enough, even though hed been a nasty figure for the British left, and Nixon was honoured to attend a cabinet meeting.

With Wilsons successor Heath, the man who took Britain into Europe, Nixon was puzzled by Heaths coldness, which was partly down to the prime ministersodd personality and partly to his faith that the UKs destiny lay across the channel rather than the Atlantic, and didnt want the French to think Britaina mere Trojan horse for American ambitions. The Wilson government had long refused to send British troops to Vietnam, which spoiled the special relationship, and Heath didnt do much to repair it.

The Queen and Gerry Ford

Meeting Gerry Ford in 1976

(PA)

Ford followed after Nixons resignation and was another prospect charmed by the Queen. Notoriously clumsy and noones ideaof an intellectual, (Lyndon Johnson remarked that Ford couldnt fart and chew gum at the same time), Ford nonetheless gracefully accompanied the Queenon the dance floor only for the band to strike up The Lady is a Tramp. The British were soon after a multimillion dollar loan from the US, but it was not forthcoming.

The Queen and Jimmy Carter

The Queen and Jimmy Carter in 1977

(PA)

Carter disliked pomp and was the most informalof presidents, so much so that he reportedly gave the Queen Mother a big smackeron the lips when he was introduced to theold girl at the palace banquet. A good friend to Britain, Carter goton well with prime minister James Callaghan, a fellow Baptist, but couldnt hit itoff with Margaret Thatcher.

The Queen and Ronald Reagan

Meeting Reagan at home in 1984

(PA)

Theonly presidential couple to host the Queen at home, Ronald and Nancy Reagan had the Queen and her consortover to the Reagan ranch in California. The attraction seems mainly to have been the horses, and Queen and president enjoyed their horseback sightseeing in Windsor Great Park. The Queen was happy to make Reagan an honourary knight in recognitionof Americas covert assistance to the UK during the Falkands War. The relationship between Reagan and Thatcher was probably the strongestof anyof the transatlantic pairings, even more than theoriginal special relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

The Queen and George HW Bush

With George Bush snr in 1991

(AFP/Getty)

Bush and John Major had the common, and unhappy, experienceof following two much more charismatic figures, Reagan and Thatcher, which may have deepened their simpatico. The Queens job was to help keep the Bush White House focusedon Britain as its principal European ally, at a time when Germanys industrial power suggested a changeof tack. Bush took her to a ball game, and her visit was memorably parodied in a Naked Gun movie.

The Queen and Bill Clinton

The Queen meets Bill Clinton in 1994

(AFP/Getty)

John Majors Conservatives made the mistakeofoffering their help to the Bush campaignof 1992, and to try and dig up any embarrassing intelligence about the Democrat candidate Clintons time as a student inOxford. They didnt find much, Clinton won the election, and his personal relations with Major were no more than correct. He did, however, rate the Queen, speculating later that shed have made a fine politicianor diplomat. When his mentee Tony Blair became prime minister, the special relationship acquired some intellectual depth third way centrist/triangulating politics and priceless practical purpose in the Irish peace process.

The Queen and George W Bush

With George W Bush in 2006

(AFP/Getty)

Few British prime ministers would be able to geton close terms with presidents as contrasting as Clinton and Dubya, but Blair did, much to the disappointmentof any in his party and the country when it led us to war in Iraq. The Queens meetings with Bush were less controversial than his summits with Blair.

The Queen and BarackObama

The Queen and Obama in 2011

(PA)

If the body language and the affectionate rhetoric were anything to go by, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh seemed very fond of the Obamas despite the president making his speech of thanks for the lavish banquet during the national anthem, which was a rare gaffe. WhenMichelle put an arm round the Queen, a breachof protocol, the Queen defused the anxietyof assorted flu kids and flaks by returning the gestureof support to the First Lady. The warmth made up forObamas lackof interestor rapport with Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

The Queen and Donald Trump

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The Palacethrew just about everything at the almost-state visitof Donald, Melania and assorted Trumps but, in the end, the trade deal that Theresa May and then Boris Johnson craved wasnt forthcoming. But the selfies were great.

The Queen and Joe Biden

When the Queen meets the 46th president, he will be her 14th president, and, at a mere 78 yearsof age, somethingof a youngster by Elizabeth IIs standardof longevity. Given that Biden and Boris Johnson arent really a match made in heaven, the tensionsover Brexit and Northern Ireland, and that Johnson has already publicly downgraded the special relationship, the Queen is well aware that she and Prince Charles will have to turnon the charm when Joe and Jill turn up to try and repair whatever damage her prime minster has inflicted.Oneof her tougher assignments.

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From the Suez crisis to the Iraq war, charting modern history through Queens meetings with US presidents - The Independent