Word: pardon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There are several problems with this comparison--most importantly, that the exiles were right and Nixon was wrong. So while Nixon's pardon certainly contrasts oddly with the nearly meaningless conditional amnesty extended the exiles, stressing that contrast too much can lead to obscuring issues it should clarify. Similarly, proponents of amnesty may have spent too much time defending the exiles from the American Legion's charges of cowardice--charges that are not just false but also beside the point. Even if all the exiles had deserted just because they were scared, they would still merit amnesty: if someone orders...
...take this position despite the weakness or irrelevance of some comparisons and arguments frequently advanced as reasons for amnesty. For example, when it seemed as though Congress or later Ford might pardon Richard Nixon and repatriate America's exiles in some sort of package deal, a number of commentators stressed similarities between the lawbreakers of the Vietnam and Watergate years. Both groups of people--these commentators explained--broke laws in defense of what they believed to be higher moral or national interests...
Even before the pardon, there were signs in the press that skepticism was beginning to revive. Editorial writers on both right and left began to complain about Ford's vacillation on the issue of amnesty for draft evaders. A number of columnists chided Ford for his inaction on the problem of inflation. Typical of them was the Washington Post's Tom Braden, who labeled Ford's summit conference on the economy as "public relations and nothing more...
...pardon decision was like gasoline poured on those smoldering doubts. The Baltimore Sun called the move "an affront to the principle of equal justice under law, the very foundation of our legal system." NBC News Anchor Man John Chancellor said that he thought terHorst "did exactly the right thing" in resigning over the pardon. Even the Grand Rapids Press, Ford's home-town paper, asked: "How can President Ford clear himself with the public after telling Congress, during his vice-presidential nomination hearing, that a President would have the power to pardon his predecessor, 'but the people wouldn...
...pardon decision and terHorst's resignation may have seemed so alarming only because the press had come to expect too much from a relationship that is at best a contest between natural, if friendly adversaries. If some reporters felt especially betrayed by the White House's dishonesty, it might be because they had come to believe their own over-generous assessments of the new President. Ford could still recoup some credibility by finding another good press secretary. At present, the job is being filled by terHorst's deputy, Jack Hushen, 39, a former Justice Department information officer...