Faced with a hostile Congress brim- ming with the “Watergate babies” of 1974, Ford used his veto pen an astounding 66 times. As if raging inflation, a deepening recession, and the lingering smell of the Nixon administration weren’t enough, President Ford survived two assassination attempts in 1975. His occasional stumbles provided material for TV comedians, though few, if any, Presidents have been as athletic as Ford-who turned down pro- fessional football contracts from both the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers infavor of law school. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan contested with Ford for the 1976 GOP nomination. An increasingly sure- footed Ford defeated Reagan and then ran neck and neck-despite the pendant Nixon albatross-with Jimmy Carter in the general election. He lost, narrowly and Jerry Ford was not a household name the then-Vice President. Ford knew that graciously, and retired to California. (In when he assumed the presidency. He’d he would shortly be President. He was an odd twist of fate, Gerald Ford was con- been a Congressman for 25 years, and Vice calm, not arrogant, and believed he sidered as Reagan’s running mate in 1980, President less than a year. But the more could do the job. I remember the change though the deal fell through.) America saw of him, the more it liked. in mood in Washington when he became Presidential reputations rise and fall: I knew him for many years before he President. It was instant, overnight. witness Richard Nixon and John F. led this nation. He was his own man, As President, Ford faced a nation ob- Kennedy Perhaps, in this new age ofpresi- with great self-confidence, and could sessed with Watergate. His reply was the dential mendacity, it is time to revise the work with people on both sides of the “full, free, and absolute” September 8, reputation of Gerald R. Ford. From a dis- aisle. Ford meant what he said and said 1974 pardon for all federal crimes Nixon tance of 25 years, his virtues seem worthier what he meant. Today, when politics is “committed or may have committed or by the day coarse and ugly, we should remember taken part in” from 1969-74. Ford knew -the editors him as a man who had opponents but that the pardon would be controversial, never enemies. and he took a lot of piling on. I thought As August 1974 began, I was chair- it was right then, and I think history man of the Republican National Com- now agrees. He was willing to do the TLE IN MANNER, mittee. It was a traumatic, almost unreal courageous thing-even though it time. I remember a Cabinet meeting the probably cost him the presidency ON6 IN DEED final week of Richard Nixon’s presi- against Jimmy Carter. By George Bush dency. Nixon came into the room and On January 15, 1975, Ford said, “The started talking about the economy. We State of the Union is not good.” It was President of the United States is wanted to talk about the Watergate scan- dramatically better by the time he left of- America’s moral, not just political, leader. dal, but he wouldn’t. Until near the end, fice. In particular, he helped the econ- Presidents must do right to achieve good. he was in denial. omy by slowing spending and taxes and Gerald Ford knew that, and decency Nixon often talked down to people. vetoing scores of bills. was his core. I can think of no one who a In Cabinet meetings, he would criticize Ford was a unifier, not a divider. Lib- quarter-century ago could have done a “Ivy League bastards.” We’d roll our eyes erals dubbed Ford rightist. Conserva- better job. He believed that honesty was but forgive Nixon because he worked so tives thought him insufficiently partisan. government’s polar star. It lit his view hard, knew what he wanted to achieve, He didn’t care. He intended to govern as that “Here the people rule,” “Ours is a and had a superb foreign policy. I liked President of all the people. country of laws, not men,” and “Honesty him. I wanted him to succeed. His forte was honor, not rhetoric, is the best policy.” I have never heard one That’s why it was so tragic that Nixon showing how civility could light even a. story of Ford telling another person an lied about Watergate, and paid the price. the dark cave of politics. I often com- 2 untruth. And amid the nightmare of Wa- I felt broken-hearted for the man. That pare Gerald Ford to Dwight Eisen- tergate that was most welcome. last week of his presidency, I went to see hower, more President than politician. LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED THEAMERICAN ENTERPRISE 57 PRESIDENTFORD INHERITED A SICK, INFLATIONARY ECONOMY, He would have liked the plaque that he felt honor bound to do everything he topped Ike’s desk: “Gentle in manner, AN ENERGY CRISIS, THE STILL could to defend the beleaguered Nixon strong in deed.” presidency while still maintaining his UNRESOLVED MESS IN own well-deserved reputation for in- George Bush was America’s forty-first tegrity. He had barely settled in as Veep President. VIETNAM, A POLARIZED when he had to assume the presidency it- self after another resignation-in-disgrace. POPULATION, A HOSTILE MEDIA, President Ford inherited a sick, infla- NORMALCY COMES TO BEDLAM tionary economy, an energy crisis, the By Arum Bakshian, Jr. AND A DEMOCRATICMAJORITY stilllunresolved mess in Vietnam, a po- larized population, a hostile media, and he first thing I noticed about the IN BOTH HOUSES a Democratic majority in both houses of T Ford takeover of the White House the Congress that smelled blood and was was the pipes. OF THE CONGRESS taking no prisoners. Jerry Ford was a pipe smoker. So, On top of all that, Jerry Ford was the Washington being Washington-and THAT SMELLED BLOOD AND WAS first President in our history to take of- people being sheep-as soon as he as- fice without any transition time. Every sumed the presidency one noticed an in- TAKING NO PRISONERS. other President has been tempered by creasing number of nervous staff the Darwinian political process of, if not holdovers in the corridors of the White primaries, caucuses, and conventions, at House and the Old Executive Office man to Treasury Secretary Bill Simon least national elections in which they Building puffing away on newly bought and-the last laugh always being the have run for either the presidency or vice pipes. Not that it did much good; within heartiest-was called back to the Ford presidency. Thus, by the time they days, many of the upper and upper-mid- White House in its last months to restore reached the White House they already dle tier Nixon staffers were gone, or on some semblance of order in the commu- had battle-tested staffs. Experience and their way out. nications operation. attrition had already stripped away There were, however, a few comic ex- I was one of the few to be spared in many cronies and incompetents. Jerry ceptions. One of Jerry Ford’s first actions this massacre of the semi-innocents. A Ford had no shake-down cruise. He had on becoming President was to appoint a member of the presidential speechwrit- to start cold. It is a tribute to his personal new press secretary, his old friend and ing staff since 1972, I had helped draft a character and judgment that, with all the veteran Michigan reporter Jerry Ter- few speeches for Jerry Ford when he cards stacked against him, he did as well Horst. And one of Jerry TerHorst’s first came aboard as Vice President following as he did. There was something so obvi- actions as White House Press Secretary the resignation of Spiro Agnew. Ford and ously solid, honest, and manly about was to announce that John McLaugh- his senior staffers seem to have liked my him that even those who were his politi- lin-of later “McLaughlin Group” TV work; at any rate, I was the only member cal foes could not ignore it. fame-was no longer a member of the of the Nixon speechwriting team who Not all of history’s indispensable men White House speechwriting staff. Father was invited to stay on indefinitely. For and women are star turns. Some of them John (he was still a Jesuit priest at the me, “indefinitely” proved to be until au- simply prove to be the right person in the time) trusted in the Lord, ignored the tumn 1975 when, as a self-taught college right place at a dangerous time. They may announcement, and hunkered down in drop-out, I couldn’t resist the irony of never make it to Mount Rushmore, but his office. Before TerHorst could cut off accepting a proffered resident fellowship they help preserve the principles and the McLaughlin’s electricity and running at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. After heritage of those who did. President Ford water, God or history intervened. Ter- more than three years at the White was such a man. Sitting with him in the Horst himself abruptly resigned as press House, I left without regrets-either for Oval Office, going over a speech draft or secretary to protest President Ford’s par- my time spent there, or for my decision discussing an upcoming event, you in- don of Nixon while John McLaughlin to leave. stinctively knew that you were in the lingered on for weeks. Not everyone As an occasional writer of history and company of a man who understood his shared John’s survival skills.