RE: Gerald Ford... interesting article from 2016
The Myth of Gerald Ford’s Fatal ‘Soviet Domination’ Gaffe
Yeah, I don’t accept any of those explanations for Ford’s gaffe.
I think that in the moment Ford thought it would be seen as un-American and weak to concede that the Soviet Union dominated eastern Europe and there wasn’t a darn thing he could do about it. So he said something stupid while hunting for a thought that wouldn’t sound impotent.