Gerald Ford was the man the country needed at the time of his appointment. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, was a leader, not just a politician. He cared about the country and cared about everyone who lived here. He cared about how the world viewed our nation. And maybe because he had fought in WW II, he cared about the cooperation between nations necessary to achieve the common goal of peace and prosperity. He wanted to lift us all up and restore the country’s integrity after a difficult period of history.
Richard Nixon delivered his resignation speech on Aug. 8, 1974. He resigned after what Nixon himself called “the long and difficult period of Watergate.” Nixon broke the law. He did it to cheat his way into a second term in office. At the time of his resignation, the headline in Time magazine was, “At Last, Time for Healing the Wounds.” We all wanted to see the nation mend. And when he was sworn in as president, Gerald Ford said, “our long national nightmare is over.”