Ce sujet est actuellement indiqué comme "en sommeil"—le dernier message date de plus de 90 jours. Vous pouvez le réveiller en postant une réponse.
1dwsact
I just finished Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford by Thomas M. DeFrank. This is a very good read -- so engaging that I finished it in one sitting.
DeFrank covered Gerald Ford almost daily when he was Vice President and President. Later, Ford gave him exclusive and candid interviews under the condition that such conversations would not be made public until after his death.
Ford's reactions during the run-up to Nixon's resignation are, of course, a highlight in this book. (Ford knew quite early on that Nixon was finished and that he would soon be President.) I was surprised to learn that Clinton asked Ford to testify on his behalf in Congress during the Monica Lewinsky affair. Ford would have done so had Clinton admitted that he lied under oath. When Clinton refused to do so, he lost Ford's support.
I was also surprised at the depth of Ford's animosity toward the Reagan's (Nancy as well as Ronald). But being Gerald Ford, he was able to get those emotions under control. He was not a small-minded or vindictive man.
Except for Truman who spoke through Plain Speaking by Merle Miller I think no U.S. President has left this kind of posthumous record. While a certain skepticism is in order (any human being will want to burnish his record), I think Ford did not do much of this. He is self-deprecating in many interviews and interactions with DeFrank.
The impression left by this book is that Gerald Ford, as he himself knew well, was not a great man or a great President, but he was decidedly the right man to help the nation clean itself up after Nixon.
DeFrank covered Gerald Ford almost daily when he was Vice President and President. Later, Ford gave him exclusive and candid interviews under the condition that such conversations would not be made public until after his death.
Ford's reactions during the run-up to Nixon's resignation are, of course, a highlight in this book. (Ford knew quite early on that Nixon was finished and that he would soon be President.) I was surprised to learn that Clinton asked Ford to testify on his behalf in Congress during the Monica Lewinsky affair. Ford would have done so had Clinton admitted that he lied under oath. When Clinton refused to do so, he lost Ford's support.
I was also surprised at the depth of Ford's animosity toward the Reagan's (Nancy as well as Ronald). But being Gerald Ford, he was able to get those emotions under control. He was not a small-minded or vindictive man.
Except for Truman who spoke through Plain Speaking by Merle Miller I think no U.S. President has left this kind of posthumous record. While a certain skepticism is in order (any human being will want to burnish his record), I think Ford did not do much of this. He is self-deprecating in many interviews and interactions with DeFrank.
The impression left by this book is that Gerald Ford, as he himself knew well, was not a great man or a great President, but he was decidedly the right man to help the nation clean itself up after Nixon.
