#38 Gerald R. Ford, Jr.: A Truly Good Man Serving in Really Bad Times (December 1973 to August 1974)

Feb. 19,2018

#38 Gerald R. Ford, Jr.: A Truly Good Man Serving in Really Bad Times  (December 1973 to August 1974)

"Gerald Ford" by Douglas Brinkley, 2007

My own vague memories of Gerald Ford were of a bumbling, clumsy impression by Chevy Chase or the 70's news media portrayal of him as a corrupt man who pardoned Nixon to become President.  I am very glad I read this book, because not a single one of those adjectives was true.  History has been kinder to Ford than anyone was to him during his short presidency. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office, making him so unique in our history.

Gerald Ford was actually born with the name Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913 but his mother left his biological father 14 days after he was born claiming he was extremely abusive to her.  She moved home to her parents in Michigan and remarried 2 years later to Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company.  He was a kind, hard working man and they soon called her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. While he was never formally adopted by his new father,  Ford was raised in Grand Rapids in a pretty idyllic Midwestern family. He did not learn anything of his biological father until he was 17 years old.  Ford was a solid and well liked student but not particularly brilliant. He was an eagle scout and captain of the football team - playing center and linebacker.  He was  recruited by the University of Michigan to play football- before they gave big scholarships.  So he worked his way through college in the cafeteria. After college he turned down an offer to play in the NFL for the Packers and Lions with a 200$ per game salary, choosing to go to law school instead.

Ford went to Yale to become a boxing and assistant football coach, hoping those positions would help him get into Yale law school, which it did by 1938. Once again he was a solid, middling student who excelled mainly in his ethics classes... interesting!  He also worked briefly as a model. After passing the bar, he moved back to Michigan and set his sights on politics. But when the war broke out, he enlisted in the navy. While he was first assigned a cushy job as a physical instructor, he wanted action and was trained as a gunner on the light aircraft carrier, USS Monterey, earning several medals.

After the war, Ford returned to Grand Rapids and opened a law office. He ran for the congressional 5th district and surprised everyone by winning. In fact Ford never took less than 60% of the vote in any of his elections.  Right before the election he married Betty, a fashion coordinator at a department store who had also once been a model and dancer.  She was quicker witted  and funnier than Ford and a real asset politically.  They would have four really good looking children and a solid, happy marriage.

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for 25 years, from 1949 to 1973.  Once again, he was solid but not spectacular.  Very loyal to the Republican party views on most issues, calling himself a conservative on fiscal issues, moderate on social issues and internationalist on foreign issues. .  His ultimate political goal was to be speaker of the house.  Interestingly, he made friends with both John Kennedy and Richard Nixon shortly after starting in Congress.  He served on the powerful appropriations committee, the Warren commission that investigated the Kennedy assassination and was Minority Leader.  While he was well liked by members from both parties, his toughest opposition was usually the conservative wing of his own party.

"Guess what? I am recording all of this!"

Ford's long friendship and support of Nixon stemmed from the fact that he thought Nixon was a genius on foreign issues. Ford became one of Nixon's' main weapons in Congress. Surprisingly he took up Nixon's battle against the Supreme Court by threatening to impeach two justices. Nixon's paranoia began to alienate him from most of his own party but Ford routinely defended him.  However Nixon's tricks and the fights with his own party were weighing on Ford, and he planned to retire in 1977.

When Nixon won reelection in 1972, Watergate was just beginning to break the surface and Ford refused to believe Nixon was involved.  When Agnew was forced to resign as VP after a financial scandal, Nixon wanted to pick someone who would be squeaky clean and easy to ratify by congress.  Since Ford had also been consistently loyal to Nixon,(Nixon's favorite quality) he got the job.  In his 8 months as VP, Ford mainly stumped across the country, making 500 appearances in 40 states. Possibly he was trying to stay away from Washington to avoid association with the scandals.  However, Ford's consistent defense of Nixon  made him look pretty stupid when the tapes came out. Ford met privately with Alexander Haig, Nixon's chief of staff,  shortly before Nixon resigned- a meeting that critics would claim was when Ford made a deal to pardon Nixon once he was president.  Ford and Haig both denied any such specific deal was struck but this idea still clouds his place in history today.

When Ford became president in August 1974, he kept Kissinger as secretary of state and appointed a liberal republican, Nelson Rockefeller as VP.  Then in September he shocked the nation by pardoning Nixon. The crippling attention paid to Nixon and Watergate would have made it impossible to govern but many felt betrayed by Ford with 59% of people disapproving of it.  Ford knew that by accepting a pardon, Nixon admitted his guilt and then the nation could move on.  For the rest of his life, Ford insisted it was the right move.

As president, Ford instituted the evacuation after the fall of Saigon, insisting on evacuating South Vietnamese allies as well. Nixon had sent an informal letter claiming the US would send troops if Saigon was invaded but Ford refused to be drawn back in to the war. He also instituted an amnesty program for Vietnam draft dodgers.  He did try to get financial support for the failing South Vietnamese government, but congress refused.  The economy was Ford's main problem, with 12% inflation and rising unemployment.  Ford also survived two assassination attempts, one by Squeeky Froome, a follower of Charles Manson.

When Ford ran for reelection in 1976, Reagan ran against him for the republican nomination.  So to placate the conservatives in his own party, Ford picked Dole as his running mate, even though Rockefeller had done a great job as VP.  Ford always felt bad about dumping him. Ford won the nomination but struggled to distance himself from the Nixon pardon/scandal when compared  to the religious, clean cut Jimmy Carter.

Ford spent the remainder of his years living in California, serving on many corporate boards and working with his old foe Jimmy Carter on many humanitarian issues. Ford's wife Betty also opened a rehabilitation facility after her own struggles with alcohol and painkillers.   He wrote many articles about the dangerous extreme conservatives in the republican party and also wrote a book on humor in the presidency.   Shortly before his death in 2006, Ford was also awarded the John F. Kennedy medal for courage... for pardoning Nixon and letting the nation move on, at the expense of his own reputation and career.