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In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

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jet57 said:
Not likely. I don't think you were around then: the feelings of anger and treachery that were around was really thick and the hearings just went on and on: it was like the Paris Peace Talks over Vietnam.
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I was born in 57 so yes I was around. True the anger towards Nixon was widespread. Does not change my opinion
 
JANFU said:
I was born in 57 so yes I was around. True the anger towards Nixon was widespread. Does not change my opinion
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I don't see how you could be right about that.
 
antiquity said:
As compared to other, not mentioning any names, his wrongs were small fry.
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Thank you, you helped me make up my mind on the poll. Ford's pardon of Nixon was stupid.
 
radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
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Why don't you just ask the real question - If Ford can pardon Nixon then should Obama pardon Hillary?
 
jet57 said:
Right, but Ford became very unpopular after that move, so Carter won.
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The battle in the primaries with Reagan caused significant damage to Ford
 
Ford's intentions toward the country were definitely good, but they backfired.

There was definitely widespread anger over Nixon's crimes, and they should have seen due process. Instead, the legacy left by Ford's pardon allowed Reagan, Clinton, and the Bushes to act much more criminally than they otherwise would have.
 
radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
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as the wife always says, better to forgive and forget then to never love again
 
radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
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The nation was in a very vulnerable position and Ford chose to spare us from a trial of Nixon. He felt that the harm such a spectacle would do was far worse than the fallout from the pardon. I don't think that there's any way Nixon could have ever gotten a fair trial, given the massive negative coverage of Watergate, so the trial would deteriorated into a circus of fighting over jurors (finding a jurors that didn't have a bias would have been a nightmare). In hindsight, it's easy to say that justice should have been done, but the reality is that it would have been horrible for the country, since it would have set up things so that a trial would have never happened after a massive fight over and the furor that would have created would have been horrible for the country. Ford knew that and it was why he basically took the punishment (lost an easy win for POTUS and took the heat for pardoning Nixon) due Nixon. I think Gerald Ford may have been one of the most honorable politicians we've ever had in national office.
 
faithful_servant said:
The nation was in a very vulnerable position and Ford chose to spare us from a trial of Nixon. He felt that the harm such a spectacle would do was far worse than the fallout from the pardon. I don't think that there's any way Nixon could have ever gotten a fair trial, given the massive negative coverage of Watergate, so the trial would deteriorated into a circus of fighting over jurors (finding a jurors that didn't have a bias would have been a nightmare). In hindsight, it's easy to say that justice should have been done, but the reality is that it would have been horrible for the country, since it would have set up things so that a trial would have never happened after a massive fight over and the furor that would have created would have been horrible for the country. Ford knew that and it was why he basically took the punishment (lost an easy win for POTUS and took the heat for pardoning Nixon) due Nixon. I think Gerald Ford may have been one of the most honorable politicians we've ever had in national office.
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There are no jurors at an impeachment trial. It takes place exclusively within the Senate.
 
JANFU said:
The battle in the primaries with Reagan caused significant damage to Ford
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Ford had already been significantly damaged by Watergate and his being essentially drafted as vice president after Agnew quit in shame and was sentenced.

I can see why Ford thought a pardon would be the right thing to for the country; he was mason, and THAT part of him I'm sure guided his decision making: "what's best for the country"... That sort of a brave move on his part is what ushered Reagan into a second look. But the country was tired of the Republican thing and wanted something different; so we got it.
 
Moderate Right said:
Why don't you just ask the real question - If Ford can pardon Nixon then should Obama pardon Hillary?
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How is Obama going to pardon Hillary - for nothing?
 
radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
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I have mixed feelings on it as there is a danger for political partisanship to create a very bad result but everyone should be subject to the law. I lean more towards no pardons because it's important to hold those at the top accountable. Since I'm mixed on it I chose other.
 
jet57 said:
How is Obama going to pardon Hillary - for nothing?
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Same way Ford did with Nixon.

Gerald R. Ford: Proclamation 4311?Granting Pardon to Richard Nixon
Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.
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radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
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There was ONE time when I was called on the carpet for showing a bias in a radio news broadcast....it was the day Richard Millhouse Nixon resigned as president of the United States.

After all this time, I agree with the pardon. Nixon's suspected crimes were so vast and so horrendous it would have taken years and millions to bring him to justice; his major crime was being stupid and getting caught or for what politicians had been doing for years, decades.

I had, however, thought, all things Watergate would have changed the mien of American politicians. instead all it did is make them more careful criminals.

\
 
radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
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I believe it was a good thing. I am emphatically not a proponent of 'justice though the heavens may fall' mentality.
 
reinoe said:
Nixon did not confess to any wrongdoing. In fact, Nixon was not even officially charged with anything. If it were up to me, the pardon would be meaningless since a pardon can only forgive a convicted crime, not a speculated charges or during a pending trial.
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I think it basically stopped an impending impeachment.
 
Abbazorkzog said:
Nixon clearly electioneered against McGovern.

Abusing his political power to illegally probe the DNC? Not only is that a disgusting-level of corruption and tyranny, its just plain rude.

Nixon was a bad, bad man.
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Hyperbole much?
 
American said:
I think it basically stopped an impending impeachment.
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Nixon's resignation stopped an impending impeachment. The pardon just nixed any potential criminal charges.
 
radcen said:
In hindsight, was Ford's Nixon pardon a good thing or a bad thing?

The question applies to both short-term effects and long-term-effects. I'm paraphrasing, but Ford (and many others) always insisted the country need to just move on, while others decried a lack of justice.

We've had 40-ish years to see the effects, if any, so we should have a pretty good idea by now. What say you?

Please note that this thread is not about the effects on Ford, and it probably costing him re-election. This thread is about the effects on the country and society as a whole.
Click to expand...

I think it was a good thing. Nixon did wrong, but his crime was so minor compared to what politicians get away with these days, it is difficult to think of it as dangerous to the national security or welfare. At the same time, it was just that he was forced to resign because no person given the public trust should be allowed to betray that trust without consequence.

But to impeach him after the resignation? We were in the process of trying to wind down the Vietnam war that officially took more than 58k American lives. Many more if you count the suicides and deaths from other causes involving the Vietnam war. More than $1.3 million total lives were officially lost. Historians believe the total was probably many more than that.

Nixon announced the intent in 1969, but it ground on until Ford gave the order for the final (and shameful) evacuation of Saigon effectively ending our involvement in the war in 1975 followed by wholesale slaughter of Vietnamese allies left behind. But hostilities did effectively cease not long after. The economy was in terrible shape--Ford didn't help that much, but with the war and recession and the cold war on his hands, he had much larger issues that he and Congress and the press needed to be focused on.

As is the case now, impeachment proceedings would have been a serious distraction and would have only prolonged the national anger and discontent.
 
Just wanted to inform everybody that if they are ever in western Michigan ad have an interest in this subject, a visit to the Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids will be extremely rewarding. I have been there several times and always learn something new. They have a great exhibit on the pardon - and they even came close to converting me .... close ... but no cigar.

While it pales next to the Kennedy in Massachusetts - it is a great place to visit and I have never talked to anybody who did not think it wassail worth the time.
 
jet57 said:
How is Obama going to pardon Hillary - for nothing?
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Let me get this straight then. The left is upset with Russia for hacking and releasing those hacks to influence the election but Hillary has done nothing. OK. Got it.
 
haymarket said:
Just wanted to inform everybody that if they are ever in western Michigan ad have an interest in this subject, a visit to the Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids will be extremely rewarding. I have been there several times and always learn something new. They have a great exhibit on the pardon - and they even came close to converting me .... close ... but no cigar.

While it pales next to the Kennedy in Massachusetts - it is a great place to visit and I have never talked to anybody who did not think it wassail worth the time.
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My in-laws live near Grand Rapids and we go through there often. I'd like to visit the museum someday.
 
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