[Vision2020] Ford Helped U.S. Recover from Watergate

[Tom Hansen]

>From the American Forces Press Service -

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Ford Helped U.S. Recover from Watergate
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2006 - Americans will remember former President Gerald
R. Ford as a man with the courage to heal a nation. 

Ford, who died at his California home last night at age 93, assumed the
presidency at a grim time in American history. 

In the midst of a distinguished career in the House of Representatives, the
Michigan Republican was President Richard M. Nixon's choice to succeed Spiro
T. Agnew as vice president. Agnew resigned in disgrace on Oct. 10, 1973,
after pleading no contest to corruption charges, and Nixon himself was
facing impeachment. 

Nixon's difficulty started with a break-in at the Democratic National
Headquarters in the Watergate building here during the 1972 presidential
campaign and evolved into a cover-up that involved many figures in the
administration up to the president. 

By August 1974, the prevailing mood in the country had turned against Nixon.
Nixon had been re-elected in a landslide in November 1972, but revelations
about the Watergate cover-up kept surfacing. A Senate select committee led
by Sens. Sam Ervin and Howard Baker investigated, and Americans began
realizing how far the corruption had crept into the administration. In July
1974, Congress voted to begin impeachment proceedings against the president.
Nixon weighed what lay ahead for him, and on Aug. 9, 1974, became the first
president of the United States to resign from office. 

The resignation was effective at noon. At 12:05 p.m., Gerald Ford began the
healing process in a speech to America and the world. "My fellow Americans,
our long national nightmare is over," Ford said. "Our Constitution works;
our great republic is a government of laws, and not of men. Here, the people
rule." 

A year before becoming president, Ford was not even in line for the job. He
was the House minority leader, and his fondest wish was for the Republicans
to gain control of the legislative body so he could become speaker of the
House. After Agnew's resignation, Nixon nominated Ford for the vice
presidency. The Senate confirmed Ford, and he took that office on Dec. 6,
1973. 

Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Neb. His
parents divorced, and his mother took him to Grand Rapids, Mich., to live
with her parents. In 1916, she married Gerald R. Ford, and Leslie King
became Gerald R. Ford Jr. 

Ford excelled in school and in sports. He became an Eagle Scout in 1927 and
was an all-state football player. He attended the University of Michigan,
where he studied political science and economics and starred on the football
team. When he finished college, the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions
approached Ford to play for them, but he opted to become a boxing coach at
Yale University in New Haven, Conn., where he received his law degree in
1941. 

During World War II, Ford joined the Naval Reserve and was commissioned as
an ensign. At first, he was a physical fitness instructor at a pre-flight
school at Chapel Hill, N.C., but in 1943, he reported to the aircraft
carrier USS Monterrey and participated in operations in the Pacific Theater.
He ended the war as a lieutenant commander and returned to Grand Rapids. 

The future president joined a local law firm, and in 1948, challenged the
isolationist Republican legislator. He won by a wide margin and took office
on Jan. 3, 1949. At the height of the election campaign, Ford married
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren, known as "Betty." 

Ford built a reputation in the House of Representatives as an effective
legislator. He rose in the ranks and served as the ranking member on the
House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee. In 1964, President
Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Ford as one of the members of the Warren
Commission looking into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in
1963. 

In 1965, Ford ran for and was elected as minority leader in the House. He
held that position until he became vice president. 

During his term as president, Ford faced many challenges. The Soviet Union
was still a power, and Ford continued Nixon's policy of working to thaw
relations with the Soviet Union. The Ford administration began negotiations
of strategic arms limits and negotiated the Helsinki agreements on human
rights. 

In the Middle East, the Ford administration launched "shuttle diplomacy" in
an effort to carve out a peace. 

In Asia, the war in Vietnam continued as Ford took office. North Vietnamese
regulars took the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon in April 1975, and the
war was effectively over. But on May 12, Khmer Rouge forces seized the U.S.
merchant ship Mayaguez miles off the Cambodian coast. Ford ordered U.S.
forces to retake the ship and free the 39 crewmembers. U.S. forces freed the
vessel and the crewmen, but 41 Americans died in the operation. 

Ford's most controversial position was one taken a month after taking
office. He believed that prosecuting Nixon would keep the United States
mired in the Watergate scandal. He granted Nixon a pardon before the filing
of any criminal charges against him. Many said the decision was the result
of a deal, but Ford always maintained it simply was the right thing to do. 

In 1976, Ford faced down a challenge from Ronald Reagan and received the
Republican nomination for president. At the beginning of the campaign, he
was far behind the Democratic candidate, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.
Ford campaigned well and closed the gap, but lost one of the closest
presidential elections in history. 

Ford retired to California and was much in demand as a speaker and lecturer.
In August 1999, then-President Bill Clinton awarded Ford the Medal of
Freedom - the country's highest civilian award. Clinton, a Democrat, did it
in recognition of Ford's role in guiding the United States through the
turbulent post-Watergate era. 

Upon learning of Ford's death last night, President Bush issued a written
statement praising the former chief executive. "With his quiet integrity,
common sense, and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and
restore public confidence in the presidency," Bush's statement said. In a
televised statement this morning, Bush called Ford "a true gentleman who
reflected the best of America's character." 

In 1979, Ford published his autobiography, titled "A Time to Heal." 

U.S. flags will fly at half-staff for 30 days in Ford's honor. The former
president is survived by his wife and four children. An announcement on
funeral arrangements is expected later today.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.