Gerald Ford: Locked and Sealed Watergate with a Pardon

As much as I, at the time, loathed and despised Richard M. Nixon, I could not help but agree that Ford had to pardon him, for the sake of the nation.

However, in the past six years I have changed my mind. I believe that President Ford did what he honestly believed was in the national interest, but how could he have known where that pardon would lead; what lessons would be learned by his own Party.

Unfortunately, it seems they learned that not much would happen, even to a president caught in gross abuses of power and major decptions of the American people and Congress. Yes, the president might have to resign, but he would live out his life in peace, allowed to come and go, live where he pleased and, even, advise new presidents.

I am convinced that that pardon led to Iran/Contra. What's the worst thing that can happen, eh? What do we really have to lose? So, a few people get convicted of some crime or the other, but they will be pardoned, eventually.

Now, we have a true national nightmare that makes the Nixon years seem mild in comparison. Would we have this mess now, if Nixon had gone to prison? I can't help but wonder.

Whatever, it is now time for accountability. The kind of accountability that will make any president or vice president or any of their staff think long and hard before they lie to us and to Congress and commit crimes in our name and with our blood and treasure.

If there is no real accountability this time, we are finished as a nation.

BellSouth - NEWS:

WASHINGTON (AP) - On a September Sunday in 1974, President Gerald Ford told the nation it was time to 'shut and seal this book' of Watergate by pardoning his predecessor, Richard Nixon.

Ford's stunning announcement may also have sealed his political fate, since the nation's only president never elected to nationwide office - a Republican - lost the 1976 election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Many said the unpopular pardon was a cause of Ford's defeat.

But years later, Ford's act of conscience was viewed differently. In 2001, Ford, who died Tuesday, received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award named after the former Democratic president. He was chosen by a bipartisan committee of political and community leaders, who had the luxury of looking back at the fateful day of Sept. 8, 1974.