Cannon was a historian, author and former Assistant to the President of the United States for Foreign Affairs during the Gerald Ford administration.
Prior to his work with Ford, he served as an aide to both Governor of New York and Vice President, Nelson D.
Rockefeller after a career as a journalist.
After leaving the White House at the end of the Ford Administration, Cannon became Ford's official biographer, publishing Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History.