Word: forded
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Vice President Ford called. He had just left the President, he said. He wanted to waste no time in urging me to stay on and to "stand with me in these difficult times." I said he could count on me: "You know the whole world depends on you, Mr. Vice President...
...called on the President-designate at the Executive Office Building. I had known Gerald Ford for many years. I had briefed him regularly, first as Republican leader of the House, and for the past nine months as Vice President. I liked him immensely. I knew he was a good and decent man. I had no idea how he would perform as President, and almost certainly neither did he. But he seemed at ease, neither overawed nor falsely boastful. He urged me again to stay on and noted that we had always got along well. I pointed out that...
Afterward, I realized that for the first time in years after a presidential meeting I was free of tension. It was impossible to talk to Nixon without wondering what other game he might be engaged in. It was exciting but draining, even slightly menacing. With Ford, there were no hidden designs, no morbid suspicions, no complexes. I reflected again on the wisdom of providence. Gerald Ford was clearly not Nixon's first choice as successor; John Connally was. I could think of no public figure better able to lead us in national renewal than this man so quintessentially American...
Soon the helicopter disappeared on the way to Andrews Air Force Base. Ford, President-designate for another 90 minutes, turned and strode firmly toward the White House, his arm around his wife's shoulders. Ford appeared subdued yet confident...
...felt an immense relief. We had traversed a constitutional crisis without catastrophe. Yet no one had taken over the presidency in more challenging circumstances; great crises were surely ahead. And the prayer that had eluded me two nights earlier came to me as I watched Gerald Ford enter the White House: for the sake of all of us, that fate would be kind to this good man, that his heart would be stout, and that America under his leadership would find again its faith...