Gerald Ford comes across here as an average nice guy who was thrust
into the hot seat of a banished president and who tried to heal a
demoralized nation in the aftermath of Watergate and Vietnam.
Greene (History/Cazenovia College; The Nixon and Ford
Administrations, not reviewed) mined the Ford Presidential
Library's wealth of manuscript material, as well as conducting
interviews with Ford himself and others. As a result, we gain a
greater understanding of a president burdened by a recalcitrant
Congress and bad press, facing one crisis after another: an oil
embargo, "stagflation," school integration conflicts, the
bankruptcy of New York City, CIA assassination scandals, the
invasion of Crete by Turks using NATO arms, the Mayaguez seizure,
the fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh, the ever-smoldering Middle East
powder keg, the Lebanese civil war, an unpopular policy of detente
with the Soviet Union, and attacks from the Republican right. The
author believes that Ford's honesty and candor performed a great
service to the nation, serving as a healing force in the wake of
Nixon's presidency, and proved that moral leadership is a necessity
in a president. However, Greene argues, Ford's pardon of Richard
Nixon was the defining act of his presidency; his approval rating
dropped from 71% to 50% within a week and remained foremost in
people's minds. In foreign policy, Greene states, it's a myth that
Ford blindly followed the advice of Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger, and he demonstrated his independence from Congress by
vetoing 66 bills in two and a half years. Greene concludes that
Ford's successes did not completely heal the nation or restore
trust in government, and the Nixon pardon made possible Jimmy
Carter's narrow victory in 1976. A fair, balanced account of a
troubled time and of a decent man whose efforts left the White
House in better shape than he found it. (Kirkus Reviews)
This is the first comprehensive study of one of our most popular
yet most misunderstood presidents. Reaching well beyond the image
of Ford as "healer" of a war-torn and scandal-ridden nation, John
Robert Greene extends and revises our understanding of Ford's
struggles to restore credibility to the presidency in the wake of
Watergate and Vietnam.
Few presidents had ever been asked to achieve so much in so
little time against such great adversity. Greene shows that Ford's
efforts to lead the nation were severely hampered by Nixon's
misdeeds, by America's ignominious disengagement from an unpopular
war, and by a watchdog Congress eager to put a brake on
presidential power.
Working from a wealth of recently declassified documents, Greene
reveals new evidence on Ford's roles in Watergate and challenges
the prevailing view of the infamous Mayaguez incident. He argues
persuasively that Ford made no "deal" with Nixon, but that his
pardon of Nixon was costly nonetheless, for it shadowed his entire
presidency thereafter. He also shows that the Mayaguez catastrophe
was less a simple "rescue mission" than it was an attempt to revive
sagging political fortunes by attacking Cambodia.
In addition, Greene details Ford's rise to prominence within the
Republican Party; chronicles the president's problematic relations
with his staff, the new Democratic Congress, and Ronald Reagan;
sheds new light on the selection and performance of Vice-President
Nelson Rockefeller; offers new insights into the election of 1976;
and provides the first in-depth look at Ford's Amnesty Program for
Vietnam Era Draft Evaders.
Based on interviews with Ford and more than sixty individuals
who figured prominently in his presidency and on extensive use of
the Ford Library, Greene's study illuminates Ford's valiant efforts
during some of the presidency's most troubled years.
General
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