A State at a Time: Michigan - Day 7, part 2

Woodchip Campground
Sunday, 7 July 2019

After a break for a little lunch and to check on the kids, I went to the Pres. Ford Museum. Unlike other modern presidents, his library and museum are split in 2 places, with the presidential library in Ann Arbor.

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

I noticed in a video there that Ford was left-handed, and learned later that we've had 8 total, with Garfield the only one before the 20th century. The list also includes: Hoover, Truman, Reagan, Bush (1st), Clinton, and Obama (5 Republican and 3 Democrat). I found this information about this topic.

Establishing left-handedness in people who lived prior to the 20th century is difficult because, back then, left-handedness was considered a disability and children were forced out of the habit, so there may have been others. While just 10% of the population is left-handed, six of the last 12 presidents have been, and many of the losing presidential candidates were left-handed, too. Some scientists believe that left-handed people are capable of “a wider scope of thinking,” a theory that explains the high percentage of Nobel Prize winners, writers and painters who are left-handed. Why most people are right-handed is unknown, but some evolutionary biologists and brain scientists believe that handedness is related to lateralization of the human brain, though neuroscience still being a young field of study, definite conclusions have not been reached. www.govtech.com

(I'm adding that in honor of my left-handed brother.)

Ford was born in 1913 as Leslie Lynch King, Jr. His father was abusive and, when the child was 2 weeks old, his mother fled with him to Nebraska for a time. She divorced his father that same year and never got any communication from him, let alone child support. In 1917 she married Gerald Ford, and her son became known as Junior Ford. And he grew up in Grand Rapids as Gerald Ford, Jr., with his 3 step-brothers.

In some ways, he was a perfect kid, learning the solid Midwestern values of honesty and decency and loyalty from his parents. As an illustration of his dad's decency, during the '30s he avoided laying people off their jobs by reducing everyone's salary, including his.

Ford (Jr.) was an Eagle Scout; he was captain of the high school football team; he worked in a restaurant while in high school; he made straight As. But he was hot-headed and often got angry. To teach him differently, his mom made him read the Bible, memorize Kipling's poem If ("If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you ..."), and had him look in the mirror when he was angry so he could see how ridiculous he looked. One of those apparently worked.

He graduated with honors from the University of Michigan with a degree in economics. He received offers from professional football teams, but instead graduated from Yale Law School in 1941.

He joined the Navy soon after and was stationed on the USS Monterey, a light aircraft carrier sent to the Pacific theater. In 1942 they were part of Adm. Halsey's fleet when Typhoon Cobra hit; receiving bad information, Halsey inadvertently sailed the fleet directly into the center of the storm. Aircraft on the Monterey broke loose from their moorings and crashed into each other, splitting fuel tanks which shortly started a fire, threatening the munitions store. (Can you imagine fighting a fire in the middle of a typhoon?) During the melee, Ford was very nearly swept overboard by the rocking of the ship; he was saved when the toe of his shoe caught on the capstan, giving him enough time to gain purchase.

After the war, he went into private law practice and developed an interest in politics. In 1948, he married Betty a month before he was elected to Congress - Betty said she hadn't worried about being prepared to be a political wife because she didn't expect him to win: "At that time, only old men went to Congress."

He continued to be reelected from then until Nixon nominated him as vice president in 1973. His ambition was to become Speaker of the House. When he was up for confirmation as vice president, made this observation. →

While he was serving in the House, he made a name for himself as someone who was likable, who was willing to work with everyone, who had integrity. With his education in economics, he was relied on for budget issues. Over time he learned about foreign affairs and other government matters. In fact, he could hardly have had a better training ground for sudden assumption of the presidency.

Oddly (at least to me), he and Nixon were friends - odd because they had very different views on integrity. But that friendship, as well as the high regard members of Congress held of him, likely led to Nixon choosing him when VP Spiro Agnew resigned for bribery allegations less than a year after their reelection - the 25th Amendment required Congressional confirmation, which Ford easily won.

By that time, the Watergate scandal was heating up; at first, Ford was loyal to Nixon, believing him when he said he didn't know about it. But gradually it became clear to him that he needed to prepare to become president. In August '74, Nixon resigned and Ford became the only person (to this day) who became both vice president and president without having been elected by the Electoral College.

The circumstances were considered the most extraordinary Constitutional crisis since the Civil War. (I still clearly remember worrying that our system would crumble with the turmoil generated by Nixon's unprecedented resignation. I've always been grateful to Ford for restoring equilibrium to the country.)

At his swearing-in, Ford said, "Our long national nightmare is over." And he certainly tried to make it so.

Because the Pentagon Papers told us that presidents had been lying to us, and because it was quite clear Nixon's lies went much further, Ford quickly dedicated his administration to transparency and decency. He held regular press conferences that he himself attended and allowed almost unfettered access by the press; having become cynical, many in the press abused this openness by criticizing and ridiculing him (e.g. he wasn't clumsy as they claimed: he was possibly our most athletic president).

Almost as soon as he was sworn in, Ford went to Chicago to the VFW's 75th annual convention and announced he was pardoning the draft dodgers. He told Betty on the way there that at least he wasn't worried about being interrupted with applause. The VFW members were furious, but Ford said America needed recovery, not revenge; that hate had to be drained and the healing begun.

Less than a month later, he stunned the nation by announcing his pardon of Nixon. He said even his closest friends asked why he didn't wait for the various legal proceedings to play out, and he pointed out that the nation was facing runaway inflation (12% and rising), high unemployment, looming recession, violent race riots, anti-war demonstrations, and unsettled foreign situations. He said he "had to spend 100% of my time on the problems of 230 million Americans [and] the only way to do it was to get Mr. Nixon's problems off my desk in the Oval Office." He knew Watergate proceedings could drag on for years and make it impossible for the country to put it behind them. He knew it would be unpopular, but he felt it was essential for the good of the country.

Over time, people have come to his way of thinking and, in 2001, he was presented with the Kennedy Foundation's Profile in Courage award. In presenting the award, Sen. Ted Kennedy said:

At a time of national turmoil, America was fortunate that it was Gerald Ford who took the helm of the storm-tossed ship of state. Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the Nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision—one that historians now say cost him his office—and he pardoned Richard Nixon. I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us.

And Henry Kissinger said that Ford "saved the country. In fact, he saved it in such a matter-of-fact way that he isn't given credit for it."

Among the issues Ford dealt with were the crisis in Cypress (Turkey retaliated against Greece for engineering a coup on Cypress, a situation that threatened NATO), the economic issues (he got 12% inflation down to 4.8% and began reducing unemployment), a national energy crisis from the Arab oil embargo, relations with Russia (nobody expected him to win the SALT II treaty from Russia, but he did), New York City on the brink of bankruptcy and asking for federal help (Ford refused until they started making efforts of their own), revelations the CIA had illegally spied on Americans at Nixon's request (he appointed well-respected George HW Bush as new CIA head), and 2 assassination attempts (Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore, both in September '75). As if that list weren't enough, there was the ending of the Vietnam War.

You can see why he wanted Nixon out of his hair.

In other business, the Apollo-Soyuz joint space mission happened during this time - the first docking of foreign space ships in history. In December '74 he became the first (and only) president since Lincoln to testify before Congress (on the subject of Nixon's pardon). The building of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline was started. And instead of playing "Hail to the Chief," the Marine Band was instructed to play the Michigan fight song, which begins "Hail to the Victors." (Why not - he'd already broken plenty of traditions.)

Meanwhile, Betty was causing ripples of her own. She infuriated some in the Republican party when she campaigned hard for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. She said, "Being ladylike does not require silence." (Remember those times?) When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, at the time a taboo subject, she went public, encouraging women to get breast exams. Many told her later she'd saved their lives.

She didn't try to hide the fact that she'd been previously divorced, or that she'd gone to a psychiatrist. She lobbied for nationwide abortion rights.

She'd been taking painkillers for years because of a pinched nerve; when combined with social drinking, she developed a noticeable substance abuse problem. Not long after the Fords left the White House, her family and friends staged an intervention (before there were such things) and convinced her to get help. Four years later, she founded the Betty Ford Clinic and took an active role in its success. (Mary Tyler Moore credited Betty's support for eventual recovery from her own substance abuse problem.)

Gerald Ford once said, "There are two kinds of education you get in this world, one you get from others and another you give yourself." Words to live by.

At his funeral, Pres. Bush (1st) said he'd "restored the honor and integrity of the Oval Office of the White House."

There are statues outside the museum.