The Calm After the Storm, part two

DIRCK HALSTEAD FOR TIME
A NEW BEGINNING
Gerald R. Ford takes the oath of office

(2 of 3)

THE WHITE HOUSE

AN OLD-SHOE SENSE OF HIMSELF
The President and the Secretary in Japan

Ford and the National Interest
Ford reacted to the seemingly inexhaustible volume of challenges without either self-pity or doubt about the good faith of his political adversaries. Ford viewed his role not unlike that of a doctor ministering to a patient just recovering from a debilitating illness. He therefore resisted demands for heroic posturing and prescribed a regimen of building and conserving strength. Ford thought it essential to prove to the American people that crisis and confrontation were a last resort, not an everyday means of conducting foreign policy.

Dedicated to the proposition that his presidency should be a time of healing (as he would entitle his memoirs), Ford displayed personal goodwill to friend and foe alike. At times, I thought his apparent equanimity excessive, especially when his reluctance to impose penalties made resistance to presidential authority appear free of risk. In retrospect, I have come to appreciate Ford's self-restraint, for it gradually drained the American political system of its accumulated poison and created the conditions for the restoration of faith in American institutions. In the end, societies thrive not on the victories of factions but on their reconciliations.

This unflinching sense of the national interest enabled Ford in his 29 months in office to navigate his country through a series of crises that could have filled a two-term presidency. Other Presidents were to receive the credit for winning the cold war. But I am certain the time will come when it is recognized that the cold war could not have been won had not Gerald Ford, at a tragic point of America's history, been there to keep us from losing it.

The Pardon
No decision President Ford made was more important than Nixon's pardon. Nixon seemed nearly certain to be indicted by the special prosecutor--a painful prospect for the U.S. and for the fallen President. Such a spectacle would have been gravely damaging to America's standing in the world. And those of us who knew Nixon felt certain that he would never get through a trial or even an indictment without grave physical and psychological repercussions. Yet given the risks a pardon posed for Ford, it was a tricky subject to initiate with the new President, particularly for me as one of Nixon's close associates. I finally overcame my hesitations when, in the second week of Ford's presidency, Bryce Harlow called on me to express his own deep concern.

Harlow argued that putting Nixon on trial would further divide our country and probably compound the emotional disintegration of a President who, with all his faults, had rendered distinguished service to the country. The conversation with Harlow gave me the pretext to raise the subject with Ford. I passed on Harlow's views and endorsed them. When Ford asked a few questions about the psychological impact of a trial on Nixon, I argued that equally important was the impact on the world, where the former President was highly respected. Ford mentioned that some of his advisers thought he should wait until an indictment was actually handed down. I replied that I could not judge the domestic situation, but delay would surely complicate both the international impact and Nixon's personal despair.

Ford made no further comment. On the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 7, 1974, he telephoned to inform me of his decision to pardon Nixon the following morning. The time had come, Ford said, to lay the past to rest and, in a spirit of Christian forgiveness, to permit Nixon to live out the remainder of his days in dignity. Ford did not invite my comments. Though the decision probably cost him his own election to the presidency, I am convinced that it was a courageous and humane act that was necessary if the nation was ever to be liberated from the traumas of the previous decade.