President Barack Obama had his audience in tears on Thursday when he surprised his Vice President and “brother” Joe Biden by awarding him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, something his three most recent successors reserved for Pope John Paul II, President Ronald Reagan and General Colin Powell. Obama described Biden as “the best Vice President America’s ever had” and said that selecting Biden as his running mate was “the best possible choice, not just for me but for the American people.” In an interview that aired the same day, Biden told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell of their special relationship—”I don’t like him, I love him,” he said—and recalled that the President had even offered him personal financial help as his family dealt with the illness and subsequent death of Beau Biden. It’s no secret that the Obama-Biden friendship (and the ones between the First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Jill Biden and the Obamas’ daughters and Biden’s granddaughters) is a rare one, though they are certainly not the only President and Vice President to share a bond that goes beyond professional obligation. See the Obama-Biden friendship in photos A look back at the history of those friendships illustrates just how hard they are to pull off.