Franklin Pierce was a heavy drinker, even in an age of heavy drinkers. Two of his children died of illness, and his third son was killed at the age of 11, when Pierce and his family were traveling by train after his election as President. The President-elect tried and failed to spare his wife the sight of their last child decapitated.

Pierce's wife retreated almost entirely from public life, and Pierce was never the same. Rumors about his alcoholism started spreading well before his election as President, and his battle with alcohol lasted until he died of liver failure in 1869.

There are no well-documented incidents where his intoxication prevented him from working, despite one persistent rumor that he was actually briefly arrested for hitting a woman while driving his carriage around Washington blind drunk.

Reading this article (part 1, part 2) might make you regret asking the question:

"If the president had his way," Kissinger growled to aides more than once, "there would be a nuclear war each week!" This may not have been an idle jest. The CIA's top Vietnam specialist, George Carver, reportedly said that in 1969, when the North Koreans shot down a US spy plane, "Nixon became incensed and ordered a tactical nuclear strike... The Joint Chiefs were alerted and asked to recommend targets, but Kissinger got on the phone to them. They agreed not to do anything until Nixon sobered up in the morning."

Ironically, considering Nixon had lost to him in the 1960 presidential election, JFK also took a cocktail of prescription medication to deal with his bad back, and (speculation based on some of the drugs he was prescribed) psychological/emotional issues.

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