Investigating the President: Gerald Ford Pardons Richard Nixon
Perhaps the most controversial act of any recent sitting president took place on September 8, 1974, when President Gerald Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave his predecessor, President Richard M. Nixon, a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes that Nixon may have committed against the United States while President. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must."
The Nixon pardon was, and continues to be highly controversial. It probably cost Ford the 1976 election. Critics were up in arms over the move and many claimed that a "corrupt bargain" had been struck. They claimed Ford's pardon was given in exchange for Nixon's resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency.
According to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, it was Nixon's Chief of Staff Alexander Haig who proposed a pardon deal to Ford. In his book Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate, Woodward wrote that Haig entered Ford's office on August 1, 1974 while Ford was still Vice President and Nixon had yet to resign. Haig told Ford that there were three pardon options: (1) Nixon could pardon himself and resign; (2) Nixon could pardon his aides involved in Watergate and then resign; or (3) Nixon could agree to leave in return for an agreement that the new president would pardon him. After listing these options, Haig handed Ford various papers; one of these papers included a discussion of the president's legal authority to pardon, and another sheet was a draft pardon form that only needed Ford's signature and Nixon's name to make it legal.
Woodward described the setting between Haig and Ford as follows:
"Even if Haig offered no direct words on his views, the message was almost certainly sent. An emotional man, Haig was incapable of concealing his feelings; those who worked closely with him rarely found him ambiguous."
Ford decided to pardon Nixon for other reasons. It is speculated that it was done primarily the friendship he and Nixon shared. Many historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the election in 1976, an observation with which Ford concurred. In an editorial at the time, The New York Times stated that the Nixon pardon was "a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act" that in a stroke had destroyed the new president's "credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence.
Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald terHorst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before Congress on October 17, 1974 to give sworn testimony, the only time a sitting president has done so, about the pardon. He did so on his own initiative. Ford went to Capitol Hill to explain himself to the House Judiciary Committee, which was dominated by Democrats at the time. Many members of the Committee were appalled by the pardon. As historian Richard Norton Smith put it, "This is where 25 years on Capitol Hill played dividends. He was comfortable going into that lion’s den.”
In the testimony before Congress Ford never wavered in his conviction that he’d done the right thing. Although Nixon was not prosecuted criminally for his actions during Watergate, Ford believed he hadn’t gotten away with a thing. In his 1979 autobiography, Ford wrote:
"Although I respected the tenet that no man should be above the law, public policy demanded that I put Nixon -- and Watergate -- behind us as quickly as possible. Being forced to resign the Presidency and live with that humiliation the rest of his life was a severe punishment in itself, the equivalent to serving a jail term."
After Ford left the White House in 1977, it was said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt.
In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon. In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon of Nixon, but later stated that history had proved Ford to have made the correct decision.
Even one of Ford's biggest critics later reconsidered the wisdom of Ford's decision. When he first learned of Ford's decision to pardon Nixon, Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein told his partner Bob Woodward, "That son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch!" But in 2014, Bernstein said "It turns out it really was a courageous and necessary act. Gerald Ford, I think partly by being a member of Congress before he was vice president, understood how necessary it was for the system no longer to be so enmeshed in Watergate in such a way that it would go on for another couple of years."
Below is a YouTube video of Ford's testimony before Congress:
The Nixon pardon was, and continues to be highly controversial. It probably cost Ford the 1976 election. Critics were up in arms over the move and many claimed that a "corrupt bargain" had been struck. They claimed Ford's pardon was given in exchange for Nixon's resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency.
According to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, it was Nixon's Chief of Staff Alexander Haig who proposed a pardon deal to Ford. In his book Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate, Woodward wrote that Haig entered Ford's office on August 1, 1974 while Ford was still Vice President and Nixon had yet to resign. Haig told Ford that there were three pardon options: (1) Nixon could pardon himself and resign; (2) Nixon could pardon his aides involved in Watergate and then resign; or (3) Nixon could agree to leave in return for an agreement that the new president would pardon him. After listing these options, Haig handed Ford various papers; one of these papers included a discussion of the president's legal authority to pardon, and another sheet was a draft pardon form that only needed Ford's signature and Nixon's name to make it legal.
Woodward described the setting between Haig and Ford as follows:
"Even if Haig offered no direct words on his views, the message was almost certainly sent. An emotional man, Haig was incapable of concealing his feelings; those who worked closely with him rarely found him ambiguous."
Ford decided to pardon Nixon for other reasons. It is speculated that it was done primarily the friendship he and Nixon shared. Many historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the election in 1976, an observation with which Ford concurred. In an editorial at the time, The New York Times stated that the Nixon pardon was "a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act" that in a stroke had destroyed the new president's "credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence.
Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald terHorst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before Congress on October 17, 1974 to give sworn testimony, the only time a sitting president has done so, about the pardon. He did so on his own initiative. Ford went to Capitol Hill to explain himself to the House Judiciary Committee, which was dominated by Democrats at the time. Many members of the Committee were appalled by the pardon. As historian Richard Norton Smith put it, "This is where 25 years on Capitol Hill played dividends. He was comfortable going into that lion’s den.”
In the testimony before Congress Ford never wavered in his conviction that he’d done the right thing. Although Nixon was not prosecuted criminally for his actions during Watergate, Ford believed he hadn’t gotten away with a thing. In his 1979 autobiography, Ford wrote:
"Although I respected the tenet that no man should be above the law, public policy demanded that I put Nixon -- and Watergate -- behind us as quickly as possible. Being forced to resign the Presidency and live with that humiliation the rest of his life was a severe punishment in itself, the equivalent to serving a jail term."
After Ford left the White House in 1977, it was said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt.
In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon. In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon of Nixon, but later stated that history had proved Ford to have made the correct decision.
Even one of Ford's biggest critics later reconsidered the wisdom of Ford's decision. When he first learned of Ford's decision to pardon Nixon, Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein told his partner Bob Woodward, "That son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch!" But in 2014, Bernstein said "It turns out it really was a courageous and necessary act. Gerald Ford, I think partly by being a member of Congress before he was vice president, understood how necessary it was for the system no longer to be so enmeshed in Watergate in such a way that it would go on for another couple of years."
Below is a YouTube video of Ford's testimony before Congress: