Ford explains why he pardoned Nixon

Press, 23 April 1979, Page 9

Ford explains why he pardoned Nixon

NZPA Washington The former United States President Gerald Ford says he was certain that Richard Nixon had lost touch with reality by the time the Watergate scandal forced him from the White House. In a “Reader’s Digest” magazine excerpt from his forthcoming book, “A Time Heal,” Mr Ford said Mr Nixon showed no guilt and believed that only lack of support in Congress obliged him to resign in August, 1974. “At the end I was convinced that Nixon was out of touch with reality,” said Mr Ford, who became President when Mr Nixon stepped lown. “The fact that he was linking his resignation to the

1 loss of his Congressional base shocked me then and s disturbs me still. s “If he had been more con--1 trite and asked the American 1 people for forgiveness, he „ would have received a j warmer response. Yet he couldn’t take that final , step.” Mr Ford said he was also shocked by hostile public re2 action to his pardon of Mr J Nixon for any crimes he J may have committed in con- * nection with the Watergate 1 scandal. ’ “It was one of the greatest disappointments of my " Presidency that everyone foJ 1 cussed on the individual in- * i stead of the problems the J nation faced,” Mr Ford said. *! He added that he was dis- ! pleased by Mr Nixon’s states ment accepting the pardon. :l “The final statement didn’t

admit guilt,” Mr Ford said. “I was disappointed. I was taking one hell of a risk and he didn’t seem to be responsive at all.” He said even the statement eventually issued was ■ difficult to obtain because a Nixon aide, the former White House press secretary, Ron Ziegler, kept trying to water it down. Mr Ford said his decision to grant a pardon had nothing to do with sympathy for Mr Nixon. “It was the state of the country’s health that worried me,” he said. “His resignation was an implicit admission of guilt, and he would have to carry forever the burden of knowing that his actions had disgraced him in the eyes of his countrymen.”