Books

Pardon granted

Biographer Douglas Brinkley seems determined to fill his portrait of Gerald R. Ford with bouquets. No brickbats allowed.

By MARK WEISENMILLER
Published April 1, 2007

Douglas Brinkley is an uber-speedy writer of history and political books, seeming to publish them with the ease with which most people inhale and exhale. Brinkley's most recent book, about former President Gerald R. Ford, who died in December, is not so much a hagiography as a valentine.

On the first page, Brinkley writes, "His decency was palpable. Following the traumas of the Vietnam War and Watergate, he was a tonic to the consciousness of his times, a Middle American at ease with himself and the enduring values of our Constitution."

The 38th president of the United States began life as Leslie Lynch King Jr. Ford's mother divorced her husband; when she married Gerald Rudolph Ford in 1917, the 4-year-old took the name of his stepfather.

Young Jerry grew up in Grand Rapids, Mich., and there Brinkley begins to chronicle the fact that much of Gerald Ford's life was mundane. His grades in school were average, his diction unremarkable, his personality dull.

Where Ford was most prominent was the football field. His success led to a scholarship to the University of Michigan and, indirectly, Yale Law School. His talents and personality seemed to blossom; Brinkley notes that Ford "got his highest mark at Yale in the legal ethics course."

The author devotes fewer than 10 paragraphs to Ford's military career during World War II (which is a pity, for his time in the Navy was quite eventful), a chapter to Ford's service in the House of Representatives, and a chapter - the one that makes this book distinctive - to Ford's unique relationship with Richard Nixon.

Ford and Nixon shared an unquestioned devotion and respect, notable because Nixon wasn't known for such a connection to many people.

Since this biography is one of a number of publications in the American Presidents Series, in which a writer profiles a single president, much of the book is devoted to Ford's 27 months as the occupant of the Oval Office.

When Spiro Agnew, Nixon's vice president, resigned in October 1973 in the face of bribery and tax evasion charges, Nixon nominated Ford to replace him. Confirmed by Congress, Ford became vice president on Dec. 6, 1973.

Less than a year later, when Nixon resigned, Ford became an unelected president. His first important act was to issue a pardon to Nixon for any criminal acts during his time as president.

Brinkley writes, "The pardon was, simply put, bad politics. . . . Americans of every political stripe denounced the move with a vehemence that proved just how agonizing the Watergate crisis had been for the country - a new Gallup poll showed Ford's approval rating having instantly sunk from 71 to 50 percent." Ford's pardon of Nixon was a major reason he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Brinkley's homage doesn't give enough prominent paragraphs to some of the other political topics of Ford's career: his service on the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy; his travels throughout the country to generate support for the Nixon administration during Watergate; his failure to create a successful strategy for the GOP in the 1974 congressional elections, in which it lost 53 seats.

What may make all of this unpalatable is that these were political flubs from a generally likable man. Unfortunately, Ford was also unimaginative - which Brinkley gives scant attention to - and it is political vision that separates politicians from heroic leaders.

Mark Weisenmiller is a Florida reporter for Inter Press Service and a contributor to the Economist.

The book

Gerald R. Ford

By Douglas Brinkley

Times Books/Henry Holt and Co., 224 pages, $20

[Last modified March 29, 2007, 13:10:40]