The Ford File and Its Surprises

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Twenty-five years ago last Sunday night, there were thousands of people in Lafayette Park, eager witnesses to the final act of Richard Nixon's tortured presidency. Many of them were weeping, others cheering. Dan Rather was sitting on a chair, under spotlights, in mordant tones announcing the end of a political world.

Most others on that Aug. 8, 1974, were searching the facade of the nearby Old Executive Office Building and wondering behind which of the lighted windows sat Vice President Gerald Ford, who the next day would become the most powerful man in the world, a man who last week thought back and said, "I never asked for it. I never wanted it. But I never was afraid of it."

Ford laughed when he talked about his assumption of power. He and his wife Betty had been worrying about furniture and drapes for the new Vice President's residence up on Observatory Hill. Ford knew a political fire storm was on the way. But he kept hearing whispers from others about Nixon's ambivalence: fight, don't fight, hang in, resign. "I was 90% certain that sooner or later he had to resign," recalled Ford. "I was certain the die was cast for impeachment. If Nixon had decided to fight the House and the Senate, it would have been a terrible thing for the country."

Nixon called a Cabinet meeting for that Tuesday, Aug. 6. Ford felt that the President was in fantasyland. There were demonstrators along Pennsylvania Avenue. The headlines screamed for Nixon's resignation. Nixon wanted to talk about inflation and the U.S. economy. Ford stared across the Cabinet table in wonder at this odd tableau. "The 'smoking gun' tape was out--the country was up in arms about it," recounted Ford. "Nixon was just plain out of touch, and his mind off there somewhere.

"That is when I read a statement that I could no longer defend the Administration or participate on the President's behalf," recalled Ford. "I looked over at Nixon, and he was shocked. I wasn't sure what would happen. Then the strangest thing of all took place. Instead of blowing up or criticizing me, Nixon complimented me for taking exactly the right position. I would not say he was mentally incompetent then, but he was strained emotionally."

Ford has watched with interest over these 25 years as the books, movies, plays and television programs have rolled forth about Watergate and Nixon, the good, the bad and the unspeakable. "The people who do these things are exploiting the worst part of Nixon's personality," says Ford. "It is unfair. He had many achievements." The latest piece of Nixonmania is Dick, a movie of the absurd in which two teenage girls are Deep Throat, the long-dead Nixon dog Checkers is transposed to the White House and detests his President, G. Gordon Liddy looks like a yuppie Groucho Marx, and Pat Nixon snores like a truckdriver.

Most real teenagers probably think "Tricky Dick" is a hip-hop band. Middle-agers weaned on Oliver Stone won't find Nixon nearly malevolent enough. But those of us who remember Watergate will get many twinges seeing the White House and the presidency once again the setting for wretched comedy. In the world of black humor, however, the true Watergate story was far more hilarious.