Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life

Chapter 25 - Epilogue

446 Chapter 25 Epilogue There was a time when Washington governed reasonably well; when the two political parties competed but cooperated; when those elected to direct the affairs of the United States recognized the national interest and placed first priority on acting to fulfill it. Among their accomplishments were the GI Bill, the Marshall Plan, the Interstate Highway System , NASA, and the laws that guarantee civil rights and voting rights to all U.S. citizens. In times of national need,we relied on a long train of the meritorious—­ Arthur Vandenberg, Sam Rayburn, Everett Dirksen, Richard Russell, John Stennis, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Wilbur Mills, John Byrnes, George Mahon, Jacob Javits, Mark Hatfield, Abraham Ribicoff, Howard Baker, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Fritz Hollings, Warren Rudman , among others. There is no finer example of the tradition of public men acting positively and instinctively in the public interest than the act that made Gerald R. Ford President of the United States. Two Democratic statesmen—­ Speaker Carl Albert and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield—­ recognized in October of 1973 that a crisis without precedent required a man of integrity, character, temperament, and experience who would restore legitimacy to the Presidency. That man was the leader of the opposing party in the House of Representatives. Albert and Mansfield imposed their choice on the beleaguered Nixon. Not surprisingly , Jerry Ford’s Congressional colleagues, those who knew him best, confirmed his merit and his trustworthiness by a landslide of a bipartisan endorsement. Epilogue 447 Ford took over as President on August 9, 1974, as a result of events and circumstances that the United States had not before, or since, experienced . Three critical problems confronted him. He inherited a nation betrayed by Richard Nixon; deceived by a President who had corrupted the highest office in the land by covering up a crime of his own hand. In Watergate, Nixon—­ by defying Congress and the courts—­ had provoked the most dangerous Constitutional crisis since the Civil War. Second, Ford inherited a house divided over the Vietnam War. Half of the United States was rebelling in anger against a long, and to many, a senseless conflict in distant Asia that had cost more than 50,000 American lives and billions of dollars—­ a war that seemed to be lost. The other half of Americans regarded their opponents as defeatists, sunshine patriots; they resolved to win the war at whatever cost. Third, Ford inherited an economy mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s—­ inflation was rising; industry was closing its doors; millions were losing their jobs. America was not at its best. For more than a decade violence had replaced reason. The assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. had stained national honor. A young generation rebelled against authority; many regarded their government as the enemy. Race riots plagued the South. Illegal drugs addled the well-­ to-­ do as well as the poor. Mobs invaded public spaces; one gathered outside the White House gates yelling that President Nixon be sent to prison. Rumors swept Washington that Nixon would circle the White House with tanks to forestall a coup. Doubt and fear enveloped the nation’s capital. Rage, malevolence, turbulence—­ this was Nixon’s legacy to the nation and his successor. Jerry Ford was President for only 2 years, 5 months, and 11 days—­ 895 days in all—­ but in that time he changed America. His first priority was to calm the capital and the country, to restore legitimacy to the Presidency , to heal a wounded nation. This he accomplished. Primarily he did so by being the man he was—­ honest and trustworthy, the very opposite of his predecessor. With openness and confidence, with a firm and steady hand, Ford restored to the Oval Office the integrity all Americans expect of their President—­ a quality that had for too long been missing. With Ford, everyone—­ in the United States, and abroad—­ could believe the word of the President again. In a profound sense, Ford redeemed 448 gerald r. ford the nation’s anguished soul. This intangible—­ returning America’s trust in the Presidency, and faith in the future—­ was Ford’s greatest single accomplishment . Ford is most often remembered for his pardon of Nixon. No decision he made provoked such opposition or invoked such condemnation as his bold but Constitutional action to block the prosecution of Nixon. At the...