| Page 2 of 2 < |
Gerald R. Ford: A Healer of Wounds
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
James M. Naughton, the White House correspondent for the New York Times, decided on the spot that he had to obtain the chicken head. A gifted and serial practical joker, Naughton enlisted White House aides and Secret Service agents to track down the chicken and purchase the chicken head. (He put the $100 cost on his expense account.)
That night in Portland, Ore., in the glow of television lights at an airport news conference, two colleagues hoisted Naughton, wearing the chicken head, onto their shoulders as he rose at the rear of the assembled reporters, apparently poised to ask a question of the president of the United States. Ford laughed at the sight.
It's hard to imagine such a surreal scene unfolding today but it was part of Ford's character to encourage a kind of informal intimacy among those around him. "His presidency was notable for being humane, being real," Naughton recently recalled.
He was by nature and the habits he developed as a member of the minority in Congress a conciliator and healer of wounds. It was probably those instincts that led Ford to make the single most controversial and courageous decision of his presidency--his pardon of Nixon for any crimes the disgraced former president committed while in office.
The Nixon pardon caused a national uproar and it may have cost Ford the 1976 election. Ford was not Nixon, but the dark shadow of Nixon still hung over the country. With the pardon, Ford made sure that Nixon would never again occupy the center of the national political stage.
There was much debate at the time over what caused Ford to take such a politically risky step, but one man seemed to understand instantly. At noon on a cold January day in 1977, Jimmy Carter began his Inaugural address with these words:
"For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."
Walsh was a White House correspondent for The Post during the Ford administration.
