Gerald Ford, 38th US President, Dies

The New York Times:

After a decade of division over Vietnam and two years of trauma over the Watergate scandals, Jerry Ford, as he called himself, radiated a soothing familiarity.

He might have been the nice guy down the street suddenly put in charge of the nation, and if he seemed a bit predictable, he was also safe, reliable and reassuring. He placed no intolerable intellectual or psychological burdens on a weary land, and he lived out a modest philosophy.

President Bush:

During his time in office, the American people came to know President Ford as a man of complete integrity who led our country with common sense and kind instincts.

Americans will always admire Gerald Ford’s unflinching performance of duty and the honorable conduct of his administration and the great rectitude of the man himself.

We mourn the loss of such a leader.

Elsewhere:

Two newly declassified documents from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, released to the National Security Archive, shed light on the Ford administration’s relationship with President Suharto of Indonesia during 1975. Of special importance is the record of Ford’s and Kissinger’s meeting with Suharto in early December 1975. The document shows that Suharto began the invasion [of East Timor] knowing that he had the full approval of the White House.

60,000-100,000 Timorese were killed in the first year of the invasion. Total death toll estimates run as high as 230,000.

Gerald Ford, in an embargoed interview in July 2004:

Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq.

I can understand the theory of wanting to free people…I just don’t think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security.