Posted on 01/12/2007 1:45:53 PM PST by NormsRevenge
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - In 25 years of interviews with his hometown paper that could only be released upon his death, former President Ford once called Jimmy Carter a "disaster" who ranked alongside Warren Harding, and said Ronald Reagan received far too much credit for ending the Cold War.
"It makes me very irritated when Reagan's people pound their chests and say that because we had this big military buildup, the Kremlin collapsed," Ford told The Grand Rapids Press.
The best president of his lifetime, Ford said, was a more moderate Republican: Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Harry Truman "would get very high marks" for his handling of foreign crises, Ford said. He also praised Richard Nixon as a foreign policy master, despite the Watergate scandal that drove him from office.
Ford considered John F. Kennedy overrated and Bill Clinton average. He admired George H.W. Bush's handling of the Persian Gulf War and had mixed opinions of Carter, who defeated Ford in 1976.
In 1981, Ford said: "I think Jimmy Carter would be very close to Warren G. Harding. I feel very strongly that Jimmy Carter was a disaster, particularly domestically and economically. I have said more than once that he was certainly the poorest president in my lifetime."
But two years later, he praised Carter's performance on the Panama Canal treaty, China and the Middle East. And in 1998, he said Carter "will be looked on as a better president than some comments we hear today."
"He was a very decent, fine individual," Ford told the paper. "There were no major mistakes. There just weren't a lot of exciting results."
Ford's gave the interviews on the condition that his remarks be withheld until after his death.
According to the newspaper, Ford declined to rate George W. Bush, saying he did not know him well enough.
Ford said Reagan, who challenged him unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 1976, was "a great spokesman for attractive political objectives" such as a balanced budget and defeating communism, "but when it came to implementation, his record never matched his words."
Reagan was "probably the least well-informed on the details of running the government of any president I knew," Ford said. In a separate interview, he said Reagan "was just a poor manager, and you can't be president and do a good job unless you manage."
Ford contended his own negotiation of the Helsinki accords on human rights did more to win the Cold War than Reagan's military buildup. Other key factors were the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe after World War II and the establishment of NATO, he said.
"When you put peace, prosperity and human rights against poverty, a massive unsuccessful military program and a lack of human rights, communism was bound to collapse," he said. "No president, no Democrat or Republican, can claim credit for those programs. I'll tell you who deserves the credit — the American people."
In truth, so was I. But that's the power of pop culture.
correct on carter,woefully wrong on REAGAN,one of our greatest Presidents
Carter was just a boob compared to Woodrow Wilson.
I am so tired of people saying someone shouldn't comment on sitting presidents. Don't give me the namby-pamby "you-don't-disrespect-the-leader" talk because then I'll ask you how that's different from "respecting The Great Leader." (see: Kim Jong-Il propaganda and brainwashing)
Commenting on sitting presidents is something that has always been a traditon -- an unwritten rule -- of FORMER PRESIDENTS. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are the only two former presidents who have shown no class whatsoever. Of course, what should we expect, since they have never had any class anyway.
I'll agree with you on those presidents having no class, but I think once you return to being a civilian, you should have every right, regardless of your past and how many Secret Security agents you have sipping coffee outside your house, that any other person possesses.
And unwritten rules hold no credence with me as long as they are unwritten. To me that reeks of political correctness, which is a different beast than "good manners."
Oh, they have evbery right to speak out as a private citizen, but denouncing a sitting President is considered in poor taste, according to historians. Can you name any other former President who has done this? Of course not.
Who gives a lick? If I were a former president, someone concerned about the nation whose citizens elected me to run for a term (or two), and a successor of mine was fouling it up, I'd drop the formality of putting on a happy face and speak out against it.
You don't rearrange the chairs on the Titanic. You make it clear the ship is sinking and you get off the boat.
"Reagan was the first President to try and win the Cold War. The rest assumed we'd spend eternity at each others' throats (detente - is that a Fench word?). That vision saved more lives than the world's greatest manager could even count."
And yet Reagan, too, talked and signed treaties with the Soviets. Perhaps he followed Truman's dictum: "Talk quietly/ Carry a big stick!" ;-)
Apparently, neither Carter nor Clinton. You are in accord with those two great minds.
Ex-presidents usually refuse to talk publicly about how their successors are doing, for the sake of decorum. Obviously Carter and Clinton don't understand the meaning of the word "decorum".
They don't care about decorum because they hate the USA, they hate freedom, and they won't be happy till they see both destroyed and all not falling in line carted off to the death chambers. They are traitors to our country.
Ford should have gone silent to the grave. Reading this only makes me feel better about my dad, who bitched about the "corrupt bargain part two" after Nixon's pardon. He could not bring himself to vote for the man, and while I understood that decision then, I thought Ford's silence showed him to be far more of a statesman than Clinton or Carter. Now we see the truth--it turns out he's spent years grinding that axe, and was too cowardly to swing it while he was alive.
Actually, I was referring to Ford's "swipes". I may have mis-communicated. Reagan I'm not.
I agree completely.
Dear sayfer bullets,
LOL. I communicate more poorly than you. My first sentence wasn't aimed at you, it was just rhetorical. I was agreeing with YOU!
* sheesh *
Maybe we both should go back and take remedial English classes.
;-)
sitetest
No wonder he wanted to wait till he was dead for these things to be said.
If it had come out when he was alive he'd have been laughed at.
I kind of like Gate's book, where he makes a good case that through several administrations, somehow, the US presidents put together a consistant effort against the Soviet Union.
In short from a 10 year old memory: The Marshall plan was necessary to rebuild Europe. NATO was necessary to defend Europe. Kennedy's speech was necessary to keet Germany in NATO. Vietnam was necessary to block proxy wars. After the high costs paid by Viet Nam, proxy wars were not popular. Ford's Helsinki accords were exploited by Carter in his frequent speeches on Human Rights. Without that emphasis on Human Rights, the Evil Empire speech of Reagan would have made no sense.
the egg shells have been dodged but face it,Ford was a liberal republican.
Yeah....sorry Mr Ford...but we stole that canal zone fair and square (as per T.R.) and it was not up to buttwipe-peanuts to give it back....
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