Gerald Ford Was An Underrated President
It's Tuesday, Dec. 13th, around 1:15pm Eastern time, and after a quick channel-surf through the 24-hour-cycled cable-TV news channels (Fox, CNN, etc.) I see that former President Ford has been taken to the hospital for tests. I'm hoping that it is no more significant than that, and that a 92-year-old man can be taken to the hospital for tests and there's nothing more to it than that, so, I hope that (contrary to the tone that I seemed to hear on Fox News) that he'll be OK, and I hope that we don't have another state funeal on our hands, BUT, before any such news would cloud out any rational coverage of anything more significant than "tests," I'll put my thoughts about the Ford Presidency on my blog:
Basically, Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, was a much better President than he's ever been given credit for. I know that now he's considered to be something of an afterthought, almost best-known as the answer to the trivia question "Who was the only person ever to become President without ever getting elected to either the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency?" However, history owes him MUCH more than that. While by no means a great President, his leadership at a VERY troubled time in American history was "just what the doctor ordered" for the collective political, societal, and economic troubles that the United States faced in the mid-1970s. If nothing else, maybe getting his name back into the news with his recent hospital visit will justly raise the estimation of his good name in our collective psyches in an unintended way that some other former Presidents (Nixon and Carter; Johnson and Clinton) have had to have done through the studied and deliberate PR campaigns that were engaged in by either their own efforts (in the case of the former duo) or their goons' efforts (in the case of the latter two). Maybe a closer look at the Presidency of Gerald Ford is in order at this time.
A Midwesterner all his life, Gerald Ford was born in July 1913 (somwhere in the Upper Plains, I believe). Adopted at an early age (becoming along with Herbert Hoover our only two adopted Presidents), his family moved to Michigan, where he was raised and where he would spend his entire adult life and career. He went to the University of Michigan where he played football well enough to have been offered a pro contract with some NFL team--which one isn't important since he turned them down :) (His political opponents would later remark that Ford played football "before there were helmets" when they tried to rip him on a supposed lack of smarts). Instead of playing pro football, he coached college football at Yale for a few years until he got into their law school, from which he graduated right before World War II.
Like so many others, World War II changed his whole perspective on matters. He was in the Navy, assigned I believe to be in charge of a battery of anti-aircraft guns on a destroyer? battleship? aircraft carrier? in the Pacific. (Post-World War II Presidents, from Eisenhower to Bush 41--ALL were WW II vets, and, get this--Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Bush 41 were all Navy vets, and (minus Carter, Annapolis 1946) Navy vets *of the Pacific War* at that!!! Coincidence??? Of that post-WWII crew, only Reagan and Carter never left the USA during The Big One). After the war, he decided to enter politics (prob. had decided before the war but couldn't run until it was over), and in a heavily-Republican district during the great postwar debate over the US's role in the postwar world he defeated an isolationist GOPer for a seat in the US Congress. He was re-elected to his seat ad infinitum, and while doing the stereotypical-WASP-gentleman thing (e.g. the Masons) he also rose through the GOP ranks and became House Minority Leader.
That type of good-old-fashioned Midwestern American thing also probably got him an assignment that no sane human being would really want--President Johnson appointed Rep. Gerald Ford to the Warren Commission, the official US government coverup of the Kennedy assassination. He couldn't have said no to that assignment, nor could he have influenced it for the better in any way, the fix was in and while there are other official US government undestandings of the killing of President Kennedy (e.g. the US Secret Service, which didn't need to cover it up but rather had to learn from it), the Warren Commission's yarn has become knwon as the "official" version, and Gerald Ford's membership on that Commission has led many to question his decency and honesty even to this day. Gerald Ford is the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, and while I would be surprised,one shld not be shocked if his death, whenever it occurs whether this year or not for another ten years, might finally be the event that produces some sort of official renunciation of the Warren Commission's findings.
That bump in the road aside, Gerald Ford continued his role as House Minority Leader through the 1960s and 1970s, and was probably considering retirement after what by 1972 was his 13th term in Congress. The governmental events of 1972-73, however, changed all of that. Re-elected by an overwhelming majority in 1972, President Nixon's second term was in serious trouble even before his Jan. 1973 Second Inaugural. The growing Watergate scandal overshadowed the "declarevictory and go home" 1973 Paris Peace agreement that "ended" the Vietnam War. As one Nixon aide after another came clean about what was going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and as the press gave their stories top billing (two happenings noticeably absent twenty years later during the Clinton years, for those of you who want to know why Nixon had to resign and Clinton didn't), Richard Nixon faced serious legal jeopardy as the summer of 1973 wore on. Calls for impeachment started slowly, accelerated slwoly, and were on the back burner until October of that year, when Nixon's "impeachment insurance," the Vice-Presidency of Spiro Agnew, came to an end as he resigned as part of an plea agreement concerning an income tax evasion case. (Agnew had to resign over income tax evasion but Gore could stay despite foreign involvement in campaign fundraising--go figure). Now all of the sudden with the specter of an Agnew presidency no longer cowering Representatives and Senators from impeaching Nixon, Nixon had to do something big and do it quickly. He had to pick a Vice-Presidential nominee of unquestioned integrity and one in whom the Congress and the people would have complete trust. Where was he going to turn???
Gerald Ford, the Congressman who had been considering retirement, was the person to whom Nixon turned at this significant moment. Few had any serious doubts about his integrity,and no one thought that he would participate in any sort of Watergate coverup. While no one thought of him as a great intellect, all involved considered him to meet the one and only qualification for the office of Vice-Presidency--"on any given day, is this person qualified to become the President Of The United States?" Thus, in the fall of 1973, Representative Gerald Ford, Republican of Michigan, became the Vice-President of the United States.
With now a qualified person next in line to become President, the impeachment campaign against Richard Nixon picked up steam. Making mistakes that later Presidents would learn from, like refusing to burn the Oval Office tapes, Richard Nixon's days in office grw increasingly few. (During Nixon's funeral in 1994, one of the networks had the late historian Steven Ambrose on to do commentary during the endless hours of VIP casket walk-bys that they had to show. The anchor asked Ambrose "What has Clinton learned from Nixon's Presidency?" and without hesitation Ambrose came back with "Well the Clintons shredded all the documents," at which point the anchor immediately went over to another guest and I'm not sure if Ambrose came back on that network. Whatever!!!) :) So Nixon's days were numbered, and with impeachment and removal-from-office a certainty (and no war to fight to distract national attention away from D.C. a la Kosovo 25 years later), on August 8, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency.
Sworn in at Noon the following day, Gerald R. Ford set about his job as 38th President by telling America that "our long national nightmare of Watergate and Vietnam was over." It is here, at this point, where the debt of America to Gerald Ford begins, and it is here, at this point, where I REALLY hope that his illness is not terminal, as I have something else to do right now and I will have to finish my President Ford tribute later tonight :)
Hang in there, Jerry, I didn't get to the Nixon pardon or the relationship with Reagan or any of that yet!!!! Some of your finest momemts, too!!!! :)
Basically, Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, was a much better President than he's ever been given credit for. I know that now he's considered to be something of an afterthought, almost best-known as the answer to the trivia question "Who was the only person ever to become President without ever getting elected to either the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency?" However, history owes him MUCH more than that. While by no means a great President, his leadership at a VERY troubled time in American history was "just what the doctor ordered" for the collective political, societal, and economic troubles that the United States faced in the mid-1970s. If nothing else, maybe getting his name back into the news with his recent hospital visit will justly raise the estimation of his good name in our collective psyches in an unintended way that some other former Presidents (Nixon and Carter; Johnson and Clinton) have had to have done through the studied and deliberate PR campaigns that were engaged in by either their own efforts (in the case of the former duo) or their goons' efforts (in the case of the latter two). Maybe a closer look at the Presidency of Gerald Ford is in order at this time.
A Midwesterner all his life, Gerald Ford was born in July 1913 (somwhere in the Upper Plains, I believe). Adopted at an early age (becoming along with Herbert Hoover our only two adopted Presidents), his family moved to Michigan, where he was raised and where he would spend his entire adult life and career. He went to the University of Michigan where he played football well enough to have been offered a pro contract with some NFL team--which one isn't important since he turned them down :) (His political opponents would later remark that Ford played football "before there were helmets" when they tried to rip him on a supposed lack of smarts). Instead of playing pro football, he coached college football at Yale for a few years until he got into their law school, from which he graduated right before World War II.
Like so many others, World War II changed his whole perspective on matters. He was in the Navy, assigned I believe to be in charge of a battery of anti-aircraft guns on a destroyer? battleship? aircraft carrier? in the Pacific. (Post-World War II Presidents, from Eisenhower to Bush 41--ALL were WW II vets, and, get this--Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Bush 41 were all Navy vets, and (minus Carter, Annapolis 1946) Navy vets *of the Pacific War* at that!!! Coincidence??? Of that post-WWII crew, only Reagan and Carter never left the USA during The Big One). After the war, he decided to enter politics (prob. had decided before the war but couldn't run until it was over), and in a heavily-Republican district during the great postwar debate over the US's role in the postwar world he defeated an isolationist GOPer for a seat in the US Congress. He was re-elected to his seat ad infinitum, and while doing the stereotypical-WASP-gentleman thing (e.g. the Masons) he also rose through the GOP ranks and became House Minority Leader.
That type of good-old-fashioned Midwestern American thing also probably got him an assignment that no sane human being would really want--President Johnson appointed Rep. Gerald Ford to the Warren Commission, the official US government coverup of the Kennedy assassination. He couldn't have said no to that assignment, nor could he have influenced it for the better in any way, the fix was in and while there are other official US government undestandings of the killing of President Kennedy (e.g. the US Secret Service, which didn't need to cover it up but rather had to learn from it), the Warren Commission's yarn has become knwon as the "official" version, and Gerald Ford's membership on that Commission has led many to question his decency and honesty even to this day. Gerald Ford is the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, and while I would be surprised,one shld not be shocked if his death, whenever it occurs whether this year or not for another ten years, might finally be the event that produces some sort of official renunciation of the Warren Commission's findings.
That bump in the road aside, Gerald Ford continued his role as House Minority Leader through the 1960s and 1970s, and was probably considering retirement after what by 1972 was his 13th term in Congress. The governmental events of 1972-73, however, changed all of that. Re-elected by an overwhelming majority in 1972, President Nixon's second term was in serious trouble even before his Jan. 1973 Second Inaugural. The growing Watergate scandal overshadowed the "declarevictory and go home" 1973 Paris Peace agreement that "ended" the Vietnam War. As one Nixon aide after another came clean about what was going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and as the press gave their stories top billing (two happenings noticeably absent twenty years later during the Clinton years, for those of you who want to know why Nixon had to resign and Clinton didn't), Richard Nixon faced serious legal jeopardy as the summer of 1973 wore on. Calls for impeachment started slowly, accelerated slwoly, and were on the back burner until October of that year, when Nixon's "impeachment insurance," the Vice-Presidency of Spiro Agnew, came to an end as he resigned as part of an plea agreement concerning an income tax evasion case. (Agnew had to resign over income tax evasion but Gore could stay despite foreign involvement in campaign fundraising--go figure). Now all of the sudden with the specter of an Agnew presidency no longer cowering Representatives and Senators from impeaching Nixon, Nixon had to do something big and do it quickly. He had to pick a Vice-Presidential nominee of unquestioned integrity and one in whom the Congress and the people would have complete trust. Where was he going to turn???
Gerald Ford, the Congressman who had been considering retirement, was the person to whom Nixon turned at this significant moment. Few had any serious doubts about his integrity,and no one thought that he would participate in any sort of Watergate coverup. While no one thought of him as a great intellect, all involved considered him to meet the one and only qualification for the office of Vice-Presidency--"on any given day, is this person qualified to become the President Of The United States?" Thus, in the fall of 1973, Representative Gerald Ford, Republican of Michigan, became the Vice-President of the United States.
With now a qualified person next in line to become President, the impeachment campaign against Richard Nixon picked up steam. Making mistakes that later Presidents would learn from, like refusing to burn the Oval Office tapes, Richard Nixon's days in office grw increasingly few. (During Nixon's funeral in 1994, one of the networks had the late historian Steven Ambrose on to do commentary during the endless hours of VIP casket walk-bys that they had to show. The anchor asked Ambrose "What has Clinton learned from Nixon's Presidency?" and without hesitation Ambrose came back with "Well the Clintons shredded all the documents," at which point the anchor immediately went over to another guest and I'm not sure if Ambrose came back on that network. Whatever!!!) :) So Nixon's days were numbered, and with impeachment and removal-from-office a certainty (and no war to fight to distract national attention away from D.C. a la Kosovo 25 years later), on August 8, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency.
Sworn in at Noon the following day, Gerald R. Ford set about his job as 38th President by telling America that "our long national nightmare of Watergate and Vietnam was over." It is here, at this point, where the debt of America to Gerald Ford begins, and it is here, at this point, where I REALLY hope that his illness is not terminal, as I have something else to do right now and I will have to finish my President Ford tribute later tonight :)
Hang in there, Jerry, I didn't get to the Nixon pardon or the relationship with Reagan or any of that yet!!!! Some of your finest momemts, too!!!! :)
posted by Greg Yoest at 10:14 AM
0 comments
