Was it right for Gerald Ford to give a full pardon to Richard Nixon? The poll is, as always, public. Please also add your reasoning for your choice.
just had "honor" of being first to vote (a Yes) -I did not think much about Ford, but in last 24 hours I have realized he was just what the country needed. Also as US will be in terrible mess by 2008, (perhaps economy collapsing etc, but certainly a very divided country again.) we will need another like Ford. I like Hillary and Ibamba (or whatever that smart quasi-black's name is) but they are not Fords - will not heal the divisions. It like that old saying: - You never miss the water, 'til the well runs dry.
Further punishing Nixon would have done little good and vastly damaged the spirits of the nation. The pardon was for the best.
The nation needed to put the Nixon chapter behind us. Dwelling on the lies of Nixon and Johnson plus the VietNam nightmare was pulling the country apart at the seams. We had had too much turmoil for too long. It had to stop some where.
I don't think losing Vietnam can be blamed on Ford. Though he was in office when it occurred, the war was lost because of cowards in congress and communists like Walter Cronkite. 50,000 American lives lost because of those evil bastards. ANyway... I have never truly been bothered by what Nixon did, just sad that he ruined his career after winning the presidency by such a large margin that he didn't -need- to do bad to achieve it. Accordingly, I never had much of a problem with Ford pardoning him in that regard. Moreover, the more I have considered it since Ford's passing, the more I am beginning to concur with the sentiment that settling the Nixon issue was needed.
No. He said the country didn't need more years of inner turmoil about this, and he was probably right, but that wasn't his call. His job as president was to uphold the law and let it take its course. The national drama and division that would ensue is on Nixon, not on him.
That is true, but he was drawing down US troops, making that possible. (Not expanding them as GWB will probably be doing soon or making up more lies about Iran to justify new war, etc.) Ford could have thrown more US soldiers into a lost cause, but did not. - He wisely let the communist win sooner rather than later, and saved a lot of lives on both sides by doing so. - Which BTW is the justification for the use of the A-bomb to end WWII. - Harry T's call and I also agree with that. Ford not only reunited a very divided US, but saved thousands of US lives by his call to stop supporting a corrupt S. Vietam government. only thing I fault Ford for in the ending of the Vietnam war, was he did let the CIA load up a plane full of gold and Diem's widdow to fly both to Paris, where she bought a large villa (about 20 servants) and lived on US tax payers in high style for years (Perhaps still?) The CIA has a long tradition of taking care of its own when their program goes to Hell. - They set the Shaw of Iran up very well in Egypt after he was deposed by the exploited people to serve US interest etc. Pinochet had eight separate one million dollar accounts* set up for him in the Rigs National bank in DC. etc. (it is less than a 15 minute drive from CIA headquarters.) However, if an ex-CIA ruler gets to big to control he can wind up in US Jail. (One from centeral America, ran drugs into US at CIA request and with CIA planes to finance the Iran/contras after Congress had made that financing illegal. He was told to stop, by CIA, when the money needs of Reagan for Iran/ contras were satisfied, but found the profit from selling drugs to US kids too rewarding and continued. - The CIA went in and got him and he is still in a Florida Jail, on drug charges, I think. Sort of same happend to Saddam. He was the US's man when Carter was president. US satellites supplied the troop location of 10s of thousands of Iranian soldiers for him to kill with gas attacks during that eight year war, perhaps US even supplied the gas(?), but when he also used it to kill a few thousand Kurds, the CIA and he began to split. Note he will swing in a few days after a "trial" relating to none of these gas attacks. - Trial was about him brutally putting down a revolt that tried to kill him and the 300 or so who tried that he killed. To have a trial about the 30 to 50 thousand he killed with gas and US assistance would be too much risk for US, as even in a sham trial, the accused is allow to try to defend himself by at least speaking.) --------------------------------- *Actually they were just under a million each as at that level a one time deposit causes automatic investigations.
Nixon was the worst president we ever had. And it looks like Bush is going to take the prize of worst president ever at the rate he is going.
Bush left Nixon in his dust at least 2+ years ago in the race for this historical spot. (He is assured of victory as he is too stupid to correct his own mess, - probably no one can now.)
Yes, because it was indeed what the nation needed at the time. As Ford himself said, there were issues the nation had to face to move forward, and the shadow any proceedings against Nixon would have cast would have obscured his own efforts to address them. (Whether he did so or not is another matter) The power of the Presidency was curtailed as a result of the revelations of Nixon's abuses of that office, and the man himself was thoroughly disgraced, a punishment in a way more severe that even the jail time some of his subordinates served, since no manner of memoir he could dash off a few years hence would wipe away the blot on his name.
` You don't fuck around with Tricky Dick... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! http://www.cafepress.com/strk3
I think ultimately the worse part of the whole scandal was how brilliant of a diplomat Nixon was. His efforts towards the cold-war politics did more for America than most realize. Him and Kissinger were a brilliant team, the likes of which have not been seen ever in the presidency. Although I think him too Liberal for my tastes on social policies, I'd say the aforementioned efforts deserve him to be ranked amongst the best presidents. Though he was not a Jefferson, or Reagan, or Washington, or Teddy Roosevelt, he was most certainly in the top 10. But Sandoz, you make a good point. However, the fact that America was so beaten down by Vietnam and the drama with Nixon, I am not sure if American morale would have tolerated it. The nation's wounds could have been far more irreparable.
