The Ford File and Its Surprises

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Ford has said very little over the years about the Nixon tapes that thrust him into the presidency. But there is a part of them that still upsets him. "One of the most disappointing things about Nixon was that language he used as revealed in the tapes," recalled Ford. "I knew Dick Nixon for 25 years, and I never heard him use that kind of language, not in conversations with me. I was so shocked by it that I asked Henry Kissinger if he had ever experienced Nixon using such foul language. He hadn't either. That opened up a bad side of Dick Nixon. That was very disappointing."

Ford is resigned to history's continuing struggle to sort out the Watergate tangle, including the shadow that follows him over his pardon of Nixon. Few people who know Ford believe he is hiding a great secret about that decision, or about anything else. He is a stranger to guile. Just last week he was chuckling again over the most famous line he uttered as President: "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." It was not his line, and he almost rejected it.

"When I felt it was pretty certain Nixon was going to resign, I asked my aide Bob Hartman to write a speech for my swearing-in," said Ford. "He was a late-night operator, and he brought me a draft the morning before. I wasn't sure I wanted the 'nightmare' line in the speech. Bob blew up. He stamped toward the door and said, 'To hell with it. If that line is not in the speech, I'm quitting.' I read the speech over a few more times, and I got to like that line better. So I used it in the speech. And that is the line that everybody remembers."