The Nation Remembers Gerald R. Ford

(CBS/AP)  President George W. Bush hailed Gerald R. Ford for his administration's honor. Former President Jimmy Carter, to whom Ford lost the presidential election 20 years ago, called him "a man of highest integrity," and former President Bill Clinton cited his strength and humility.

"With his quiet integrity, common sense and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the presidency," President George W. Bush said in a statement to the nation from his Texas ranch Wednesday. "The American people will always admire Gerald Ford's devotion to duty, his personal character and the honorable conduct of his administration."

In the uncertain days after the Watergate scandal, those qualities were what the nation was looking for.

"Jerry Ford was, simply put, one of the most decent and capable men I ever met," former President George H.W. Bush said.

---

Read: More Reactions To Ford's Death

---

Watch: President George W. Bush

---

Watch: Former President George H.W. Bush

---

Ford, who died Tuesday at 93, was remembered for getting and keeping the country on course in shaky times.

"An outstanding statesman, he wisely chose the path of healing during a deeply divisive time in our nation's history," Carter said. "He frequently rose above politics by emphasizing the need for bipartisanship and seeking common ground on issues critical to our nation. I will always cherish the personal friendship we shared."

Though one of his most significant moves — pardoning President Richard M. Nixon for any crimes committed in office — was widely derided at the time, many have since come to see it as a gesture that healed the country as much as it hurt Ford's aspirations to be elected president in 1976.

Nixon's daughter Patricia Nixon Cox offered her "heartfelt sympathy" to the Ford family, saying: "History will honor Gerald Ford as a good man who became the respected leader of the Free World in unique times."

"My father had deep respect for Gerald Ford as an honorable and dedicated public servant," she said.

---

Read: Nixon Pardon's Effect

---

CBS News Exclusive: Ford Talks About Nixon

---

According to historian Douglas Brinkley, Ford and Nixon remained close friends during and after Ford's presidency. Nixon wrote Ford frequently with advice, including ways to defeat Reagan and Carter in 1976, Brinkley told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

"He was the last of the Nixon believers," Brinkley said.

From Europe, leaders praised Ford for his role as a statesman.

In London, the Union flag over Buckingham Palace, the residence of Queen Elizabeth II, would fly at half-staff all day Thursday.

A spokesman at the palace said that the Queen, who met Ford during a state visit to the United States in 1976 where she attended U.S. bicentennial celebrations with him, was saddened by the news of his death.

"The Queen is sending a private message of condolence to President Bush and Mrs. Ford," the palace said.

German President Horst Koehler offered his "deeply felt condolences" and described Ford as "a great American" who played an important role in advancing trans-Atlantic ties and as "one of the founding fathers of the world economic summits of the leading industrial nations."

Czech President Vaclav Klaus called Ford "an outstanding politician" whose work "was instrumental for freedom in my country and for the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe."

Former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, said their prayers were with the Ford family.

"Gerald Ford brought Americans together during a difficult chapter in our history with strength, integrity, and humility," the Clintons said. "All Americans should be grateful for his life of service.

"To his great credit, he was the same hardworking, down-to-earth person the day he left the White House as he was when he first entered Congress almost 30 years earlier."

Former first lady Nancy Reagan, whose late husband mounted a challenge to Ford in the Republican presidential primaries in 1976, praised Ford for his service to the nation during and after his time in office.

"His accomplishments and devotion to our country are vast, and even long after he left the presidency he made it a point to speak out on issues important to us all," she said.

---

Read: Gerald Ford's Career

---

Read: Ford's Poll Numbers

---

Although Ford had moved to California after leaving the White House, his ties to his native Michigan remained strong, and in his boyhood home of Grand Rapids a steady stream of people lit candles, draped flags and placed flowers Wednesday at a makeshift shrine outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum. The museum opened condolence books for visitors to sign in the vestibule.

"The country was in scandal and war and he used the opportunity to heal the country and become one of the most important people in history," Joseph B. Niewiek, 31, a used car lot owner from Grand Rapids, said as he lit a candle at the museum.

"President Ford made Michigan proud as he led our nation through one of the most challenging times in our history. Our prayers go out to his family," said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat

The New York Stock Exchange honored Ford with two minutes of silence before the start of trading Wednesday morning.

"No man could have been better suited to the task of healing our nation and restoring faith in our government," California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger.said.

Vice President Dick Cheney served as Ford's chief of staff.

"In that troubled era, America needed strength, wisdom, and good judgment, and those qualities came to us in the person of Gerald R. Ford," Cheney said in a statement. "When he left office, he had restored public trust in the presidency, and the nation once again looked to the future with confidence and faith."

[phillykatie]

Other than Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford was the only Republican my mother ever voted for. She despised Richard Nixon and was probably the only person in our overwhelmingly Republican neighborhood to vote for George McGovern. But, she always believed Jerry Ford (or is it Gerry) did the right thing in pardoning Nixon. In 1976, she made me remove the Carter literarture while delivering literature for the Democratic congressional candidate!

[boydgood]

Whatever we think of what Gerald did as president, we have to thank him for living with the results of his actions for as long as he did. In this way, he did as good a job as anybody. Does anybody remember when Truman died and took the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with him? How about Jean Paul Sartre? Some people just go away quietly--existentialist or no! When both of our Bush presidents are gone, then we won't have to think about Iraq anymore.

[nynative1340]

Ford was not a great president, but he was a great human being. As much as I hated Nixon, I've come to believe that Ford did the right thing in giving Nixon a pardon. He didn't do it because he though Nixon was innocent; he did it to save the nation from the nasty turmoil that a trial would have created, a trial that would have divided the nation, as we are divided now.

Ford stood up like a man and put his political career on the line when he pardoned Nixon. You don't find many men (or women) like that in politics today.

Ford never prepared to be president, but he was more prepared when it was unexpectedly thrust upon him than anyone we've seen in the last six years. Considering that he was up against a Democratic Congress, he did ok.

[randalds]

I liked Jerry Ford when he was our congressman back home and I was glad to see him become president. He was not a great president, but he was a great man, a great human being and he was exactly what the country need at the time. He was the only republican I ever voted for (in 1976) and probably the only one I ever will vote for. The man he was back then, pro-choice, pro-environment, pro-ERA, etc., would make him a hated man in the current republican party of neoconservatism, imperialism, hate and religious bigotry.

[jn122736]

I think, considering the speed of congressional action,.. i.e. the Clinton investigation-impeachment,... a year qualifies as immediate.

[jimandmarcus]

Ford was NOT appointed VP immediatly before Nixon resigned, it was over a year before.

[jimandmarcus]

I've been reading other comments written here. Odd, the double standards. Ford was not a good Presidentbecause he pardoned Nixon, and those same people that apllauded this were calling for Clinton's head. Nixon was treated as an outcast the rest of his life. Don't you think that was punishment enough. Meantime, Clinton is treated like a king by Libs whereever he goes. And Bush is now the only living non elrected President. This was the thinking of people praying Kerry would win Ohio, giving him the election in the SAME way Bush won in 2000. Except that Bush won with a negative of only half a million popular votes. Kerry lost by THREE MILLION, but these people think that would have been fine, though to them, Bush won illegally.
Gerald Ford was a man of integrity. As far as his part in the Warren Commision, he was not alone, and I think even the Warren Commision did not get all the imformation it needed. I have been to Dealy Plaza, and it's my belief that Oswald didn't do it, at least not alone. But blaming Jerry Ford is as ignorant as saying Bush was like Ford in being not elected.

[lucasnico]

Ford was not a good president and did the country a great disservice by pardoning Nixon. Those who think the country needed "healing," from that, are the same people who called for Clinton's resignation and impeachment. Nixon is the president who said, and I quote, "I'm allowed to lie to the American people, it's in their best interest."

[samael2014]

Although I was fairly young at the time, coming home from school and seeing the Watergate hearings on all three channels (four if you include PBS) fascinated me. The whole drama of Nixon resigning, the teary farewell, the "I am not a crook" speech, an instant new president that seemed to come out of nowhere and the pardon all seemed instead, along with public interest in this, overly melodramatic. It wasn't until a few years later when I became more interested in politics that I saw this all as one of the most significant and historic tests of our constitution and how damaging the pardon was to the whole concept of equality under the eyes of the law. Sadly, a few more years later when compared to the Iran Contra hearings, tax-payer financed abuse of our impeachment laws by Republicans against Clinton, and worse of all, the outrageous lack of constitutional and criminal oversight of our current President, Watergate seems to me like an overblown melodrama all over again in comparison. It's amazing how much more integrity has been lost in such a short time. The sad part is I'm not sure if it's more with our elected representatives, or if it's more with the American public in our tolerance of this or lack thereof. The only thing I feel absolutely sure of is the rapid deterioration of the American "free press" and it's rotting affect on our democracy since then %u2013 a time when we only had three channels on TV.

[bellal-2009]

President Ford did the right thing in pardoning Nixon. THe country was a mess and we needed healing and President Ford started that healing. He's the one who took the bullet so we could get back on track. He was a good man and a good president.