Gerald Ford - 1913-2006

[industrian]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush pays tribute to Gerald Ford

US President George W Bush has paid tribute to former President Gerald Ford, who has died at the age of 93.

Speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Bush remembered President Ford as a "gentleman who reflected the best in America's character".

Mr Ford was never elected president but took office after Richard Nixon quit over the Watergate scandal in 1974.

He served for two years but lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976, a year after the US accepted defeat in the Vietnam War.

In a televised address, Mr Bush said Americans "came to know President Ford as a man of complete integrity".

Gerald Ford, he said, "came along when we needed him most".

Mr Bush said Mr Ford "stepped into the presidency without ever having sought the office" and helped restore confidence in the White House.

His words were echoed by the Vice-President Cheney, who was Gerald Ford's Chief-of-Staff.

In a statement, Mr Cheney said that President Ford gave the country the strength, wisdom and good judgement it needed as it faced its greatest constitutional crisis since the civil war.

President Ronald Reagan's widow Nancy also praised a "dear friend and close political ally".

"His accomplishments and devotion to our country are vast, and even long after he left the presidency he made it a point to speak out on issues important to us all."

Ill health

Gerald Ford lived with his wife Betty, 88, at Rancho Mirage, about 130 miles (210km) east of Los Angeles in southern California.

The former president suffered ill health this year and he was taken to hospital four times for tests and angioplasty. He suffered a stroke in 2000.

Last month he became the longest-living US president when he reached 93 years and 122 days, passing the record held by President Reagan.

A statement from Betty Ford said: "My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, has passed away at 93 years of age."

The statement did not give the cause of death.

Vietnam War

Gerald Ford - born in Omaha, Nebraska - was the only US president never to win a national election.

He was chosen as Richard Nixon's vice-president in 1973, when Spiro Agnew resigned amid corruption charges.

Mr Ford then succeeded to the top office when Nixon became embroiled in Watergate - the scandal over a break-in at the offices of the rival Democratic party in Washington in 1972.

The attempted bugging of the building was linked to officials in the Nixon White House, and the cover-up went all the way to the top.

On taking office Mr Ford declared the "national nightmare" of the Nixon scandal over but soon after he revived the debate by controversially granting his former boss a pardon for any crimes committed as president.

Analysts believe in the short term it may have cost him the 1976 election, but in the long term the decision has been seen as astute.

Mr Ford was in office as the US accepted its defeat in the Vietnam War, with the fall of Saigon in April 1975.

He said it was time to "bind up the nation's wounds".

The opposite of Nixon, Gerald Ford was praised for his openness, sunny disposition and most important, his honesty.

Wife Betty became a national figure in her own right, crusading against drug and alcohol addiction.

Following his stroke, Gerald Ford slipped further from the limelight.

However, he did join Jimmy Carter, George Bush Snr and Bill Clinton at a memorial shortly after the 11 September attacks in 2001.

He was also at Ronald Reagan's funeral in June 2004.

[Coolsvilleman]

Speaking from his ranch in Crawford.

He couldn't even be darned to make the speech from a more public place...

[jonc2006]

Originally Posted by Coolsvilleman

He couldn't even be darned to make the speech from a more public place...

he was probably out hunting with cheney when he gave it.

[shafeen]

rip gerald ford

[Player-X]

RIP Gerald Ford

[cloudsBro]

I havent seen him much on TV but i remember that Simpsons episode he featured in...RIP

[industrian]

Ford concluded Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney wrong about war in Iraq

-- Former President Gerald Ford said in an unpublished interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush had launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

In a conversation that veered between the current realities of a war in the Middle East and the old complexities of the war in Vietnam whose bitter end he presided over as president, Ford took issue with the notion of the United States entering a conflict in service of the idea of spreading democracy.

"Well, I can understand the theory of wanting to free people," Ford said, referring to Bush's assertion that the United States has a "duty to free people." But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach that from the obligation No. 1 of what's in our national interest."

He added: "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."

The Ford interview -- and a subsequent lengthy conversation in 2005 -- took place for a future book project, though he said his comments could be published at any time after his death. In the sessions, Ford fondly recalled his close working relationship with Cheney and Rumsfeld while expressing concern about the policies they pursued in more recent years.

"He was an excellent chief of staff. First class," Ford said. "But I think Cheney has become much more pugnacious" as vice president. He said he agreed with former Secretary of State Colin Powell's assertion that Cheney developed a "fever" about the threat of terrorism and Iraq. "I think that's probably true."

Describing his own preferred policy toward Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Ford said he would not have gone to war, based on the publicly available information at the time, and would have worked harder to find an alternative.

"I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly," he said, "I don't think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer."

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BBC NEWS | Americas | California bids farewell to Ford

Several days of ceremonies to honour the memory of former US President Gerald Ford, who died on Tuesday, begin in California in a few hours' time.

Accompanied by his widow Betty, Mr Ford's coffin will be taken to a parish church near his home. Public viewing will follow a private service.

The main state funeral takes place on Saturday in Washington, where Mr Ford will lie in state over the weekend.

Mr Ford, the 38th US president, served from 1974-76. He died aged 93.

The former president had suffered ill health this year and was taken to hospital four times for tests and angioplasty. He suffered a stroke in 2000.

He was unelected, taking office after Richard Nixon quit over the Watergate scandal.

President George W Bush led tributes to Mr Ford, saying he helped restore confidence in his office after Watergate.

However Mr Ford revived the debate over Watergate by controversially granting his former boss a pardon for any crimes committed as president.

Bush speech

The state funeral service for Mr Ford will be in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Saturday evening, before two days of lying in state.

President Bush, who is at his Texas ranch, will not be present.

He is expected to pay his respects once he returns to Washington on Monday.

The president will also speak at Tuesday's funeral service at the National Cathedral.

Mr Ford's coffin will then be taken to Grand Rapids, Michigan - where he spent most of his childhood and practised law - for burial on a hillside near his presidential library on Wednesday.

A makeshift shrine formed outside the Gerald Ford Museum as people lit candles and laid flowers and flags.

The Associated Press news agency says it is unlikely the ceremonies for Gerald Ford will draw the crowds of former President Ronald Reagan's funeral, when more than 200,000 people on both coasts paid their respects.