President Franklin D. Roosevelt, center, held informal talks with Liberian President Edwin Barclay, right, at the wheel, in Monrovia, Liberia, January 26-27, 1943, during World War II. Roosevelt's wartime visit marked the first time a U.S. president had traveled to Africa. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited North Africa in 1942 as part of the allied offensive against Germany, and he would become president a decade later. (FDR Presidential Library)