Gerald Ford - in memory

Former President Gerald Ford died last night, December 26, 2006, at the age of 93, leaving behind a legacy as a healer during a time of national crisis and dissent over an unpopular war that resonated through the five presidencies that followed his brief time in the Oval Office.

When Mr. Ford issued the pardon to Mr. Nixon now widely seen as a means for letting the country move on though it help sink Mr. Ford's chance for election, he showed a prescient understanding of his role in history: "Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part," he said, referring to the Nixon family. "It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must."

In announcing the Nixon pardon, Mr. Ford said his customary policy "is to try and get all the facts and to consider the opinions of my countrymen and to take counsel with my most valued friends. But these seldom agree, and in the end, the decision is mine." And he then offered what might be considered a prescription for White House decision making: "To procrastinate, to agonize, and to wait for a more favorable turn of events that may never come or more compelling external pressures that may as well be wrong as right, is itself a decision of sorts and a weak and potentially dangerous course for a President to follow."

excerpted from The Wall Street Journal