President Ford At West Branch

Major funding for this program was provided by friends of Iowa Public Television. On October 18th 1989 in West Branch Iowa. Gerald Ford the thirty eighth president of the United States shared history with students from across Iowa. The visit was part of a conference on the role of former presidents in American society sponsored by the Herbert Hoover library a museum and the Gerald Ford Library Museum. Here's how these students took advantage of a rare learning opportunity. Thank you very very much. It's a very high honor and a very great privilege for me to come to West Branch and to for tests of faith in this conference which is being held here over facility. I must say I'm tremendously impressed with everything I've seen since arriving in West Branch here at the site. And I'm especially impressed with the interest that all of

you have expressed in coming here asking a question that is encouraging to me because I think it's vitally important that young people early have an interest in their government and the issues that involve our country whether domestic or foreign. I look forward to the opportunity to respond to your questions and I'll do my very best to give you the right answer. Mr. President how did drugs affect your job. How did drugs affect my job. Well back in. My two and a half years in the White House the drug problem was not a very serious one. It was beginning to become a deep concern

but it was not a major problem. The drug problem really got Excel aerated in the late 70s in the early 80s and of course doll it's a major problem. And I strongly support President Bush's drug strategy to meet the challenge and to solve the problem. And while I'm talking about that one of the four important elements of President Bush's program. Is what he calls education. It means educating young people particularly that drugs are bad bad bad. And that all of you particularly as young people ought to. Strong and stand up very tall and strong against

ever using drugs they'll ruin your health or ruin your life. They'll ruin your family. There's nothing good about drugs period. Now having said that we ought to educate young people like you to say no to drugs. We ought to educate some of our senior older people because unfortunately some people in our society who are old enough to know better are also. Drug users. And I condemn them. And I urge them to get smart enough to give up drugs so. We better do something about it because it will undermine our society if we don't. Yes you can. How did you feel about being really popular when you were in high school. Well I kind of liked it. Although my senior year I have to admit I

ran for class president as the senior and I lost so I wasn't quite as popular as your question would tend to indicate. I was captain of the football team and all that but. My political success did not start with my candidate save for the high school class president. This president why I pardoned President Nixon I'm glad you answered asked that question. That's a good question. When I became president. There was a lot of there were many serious problems on my desk. For example we had inflation of about 12 percent. We had an interest rate of about 12 percent or higher. We were on the brink of

the most serious economic recession in the post-World War Two period. We had our allies who were uncertain and our enemies who we. Thought might be aggressive. We had. A whole long long list of serious domestic and foreign policy problems. And so in the first month I was working very very hard to get. Programs to solve those problems. At the same time I was getting advice from the lawyers from the Department of Justice and my own staff on the White House what I should do with Mr. Nixon's papers. What I should do with the tapes that he took in the White House. The net result

was I was spending 25 percent of my time on the problems of one man at a time when I should have been spending 100 percent of my time on the problems of 240 million Americans. So when you put it in that context. The only way for me to get rid of the problems of one man and to concentrate all of my efforts on behalf of our economic problems our foreign policy problems was to pardon Mr. Nixon. So for the benefit. Of the country as a whole. I pardoned him. And from then on I had no obligation except. To work on how we could get interest rates down how we could get more jobs how we could solve the recession how I could negotiate with Mr Brezhnev how I could work with our allies. So if he had put it in

that context. It was absolutely the right decision and in the passing of time I'm more convinced now than I was then. It was the right thing to do. Mr. Ford What advice would you give a young lady wanting to become president of the United States. Well I hope we do have a young lady at some point become president of the United States. I can tell you how I think it will happen. Because it won't happen. In the normal course of events either the Republican or Democrat political party will nominate a man for president and a woman for vice president and the woman and man will win. So you end up with a.

President a male and a vice president a female. And in that term of office of the president the president will die. And the woman will become president. Under the law our Constitution and once that barrier is broken. From then on man better be careful because I have a hard time ever even getting a nomination in the future. But that's the way it's going to happen. And I think it will probably come sometime in the next four or eight years. Mr. Ford How do you feel the Watergate scandal affected your role as president. Well the Watergate scandal was a tragedy. It involved in the indictment of a number of people. It involved in the conviction of a number of people. It was a very sad era

in the history of the United States. I'm sure. That. A lot of the people thought that those crimes that were committed were part of my responsibility. Actually they were. Not my responsibility under any circumstance. But there did develop during that period of feeling that Washington was bad and they didn't trust anybody in Washington. And I suspect that people voted against me because of the existence of the Watergate scandal even though I have nothing whatsoever to do with it. What one event do you remember most when you were president. What event do I remember most when I was president. Well there were a

lot of very interesting exciting things that happened. One that comes to mind was the Meyer GWAS incident. Where in May of nineteen. Seventy five. The Cambodian government seized an American merchant vessel in foreign waters for international waters and it was my. Responsibility to make sure that we did not permit these pirates and they were pirates to jeopardize the freedom of the sea. So. I had to make a very tough decision to order our United States Navy and Marines and Air Force and Army to coordinate an effort to get the ship and the crew back safely which we did. Now that all

happened in a period of two and a half maybe three days. It was exciting. It was important and it was successful. He stew Freud Where did you visit when your books did you write. Well I didn't write any book while I was president. I wrote a book after I was president called a time to heal. Which was published in nineteen seventy eight. My wife Betty and I travelled while we were in the White House. We went to China 1975. I went to Japan South Korea. And the Soviet Union in 1974 ending up a trip.

To Russia. Where I met with Mr. Brezhnev and Vladivostok in one tea and 75. Mrs. Ford and I went to Helsinki Finland. We went to. Poland. We went to Rumania. We went to L.A. where we visited his Highness the pope we went to Spain. We went to Canada. I went to Mexico. I think that was the limit of places we went. We were in the White House. We later went around the world and went to many many countries. Mr. President do you think the pant. Do you think Panama needs help from the United States to

settles in your disputes. And if so how. Well. There's no question that Mr. or General Noriega is a cancer. In this hemisphere. He is a bad man and his henchmen are as bad if not worse. So Mr. General Noriega is. A challenge to decency and good government here in the western hemisphere. President Carter and myself went down and observed the pre-election activities. We interviewed the candidates we interviewed the election council. Their conclusion was that. General Noriega and his. Henchmen were going to steal the election which they in effect did. So it's in the interest of good government to get rid of. That kind of element.

Now the question is how you do it. I've a happen to believe that President Bush acted prudently when he did not take a different course of action within the last couple of weeks. That doesn't mean he won't or he shouldn't in the future because as long as General Noriega is in charge. The Panamanian people are going to suffer and I hope we can find a way to get all of the Latin American Central American countries to work together to oust him. And I hope that our government at some point will be an active participant in getting rid of it. How do you think history books will treat you in the future. How do I think history books will treat me in the future I wouldn't hesitate to

speculate on that. I hope they. Adopt what I think is the major accomplishment. When I became president we had a very badly torn apart society. People were yelling and screaming at each other riots in our cities riots on our college campuses. We had nothing but trouble with Watergate and the Vietnam War. When I became president it felt it was absolutely essential to heal the land. And that doesn't mean people wouldn't have differences but at least we understood one another lowered our voices and the whole atmosphere was better. And I trust that will be the heritage of my ministration. Mr. President do you think that we spend too much money on defense instead

of such matters as health education and research. I do not believe we spend too much money on national security. I think we may well. For very good reasons be able to spend less in the next five years because if. President Bush and Mr. Gorbachev negotiate a strategic arms reduction agreement and conventional arms reduction agreement that means that over a period of five years the United States can cut back on defense expenditures until those agreements are signed and have been implemented. We should not drastically reduce our

defense expenditures. Now wait a minute. At the same time. I happen to believe we should spend. The proper amount and it's hard to define that. For health education welfare etc.. This country has anough money if properly managed to finance our defense establishment and to pay for whatever. Would be appropriate for our domestic needs. Mr. President when you're the president you appoint a Nelson Rockefeller as vice president. But when you ran for office two years later you chose dough as your running mate. What qualities did you look for in a vice president and why did you change. Well I selected Nelson Rockefeller in the first instance as my

nominee because. I felt as a new president who came from the Washington scene I needed a partner. His vice president who had. Vast experience. At the state level as a governor of New York State for 11 or 12 years and Nelson Rockefeller. In my opinion did an excellent job as vice president. I put him in charge of the domestic council where his knowledge of. Local problems was invaluable. Now when the election came up in 1976. Nelson Rockefeller saw. A potential serious challenge to my nomination by certain elements in the Republican Party and he felt that his. Being on the ticket as vice president 1976

would have. Led to a very bitter convention fight. Between my forces and Governor Reagan. Well as a result of that of feeling he withdraw withdrew his name and did not want to be considered as vice president. Now. I accepted that decision on his part. That did not end however the challenge by Governor Reagan he continued to challenge me and we finally whipped him in the convention and won nine hundred seventy six. But there is always a question of Rockefeller. Then the nominee whether. His being there would have enhanced Maya lection or made it more difficult to get nominated.

Nobody can really be sure if you were not elected president. Well what you have done well in Japanese. At the time the 1970. Three I was the Republican leader in the House of Representatives. I had just been elected to the Congress for my 13th term. And I had been elected to be the Republican leader for the fifth time in a row. So if I hadn't been nominated for president I would have continued. In those positions for the remainder of that term. And I had discussed with Mrs. Ford. What I would do and I had committed to run for Congress one more term in 19 74. And then I was going to retire. Because obviously I had not. Achieved my

political ambition to be speaker of the house. So I was going to quit after 28 years in the Congress and go back to practice law. Course and things got on a different track so. That was pure speculation. OK we only have time for two more civil take one on each side. We'll take you right here. Mr. President do you do you think that. You're caught that being a football player in the thing to do in politics. Well I don't think playing football in high school or college had anything directly to do with my getting into politics but I learned some lessons from playing football in basketball and competing in track. I learned a lesson which was helpful in

politics that you win some and you lose some. Fate can control what happens on the football gridiron. Just like it can control what happens in the political arena and you can't if you lose a game or lose an election. You shouldn't throw up your hands and quit. You know you're you've got a game the next Saturday you've got a life to live after losing a political election. There are a lot of wonderful things to do even after losing a presidential election. In fact my wife and I are doing a lot of things now we never had time to do when I was in political office so look ahead. You can't change the past you might as well forget it. And do what you think is good for the next election or the next ballgame.

Here in your state. If you were president and there's a war well I teach you about it. Well if I was president there was a war what would I do about it. First I would maximize my efforts so that. I would. At least try very hard to prevent a war. That's why we have a strong Army Navy Air Force and Marines. That's why we have to be ready. Because if you're ready the enemy is not likely to start a war. But if you start if a war is started we as a nation have to be prepared. To win it. Like we did in World War 2 after the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We won over Hitler we won over the

warlords of Japan. I hope we never have won again. And by being strong militarily you can. Avoid it or prevent it. One more can I say yes. You just pick somebody right over here because we have to. Or is it like any president. What is that like being president. Well. It's not something. That happens to everybody every day. You have to. Work at the problems that are on your desk in the Oval Office. I used to love getting down to the office bright and early. And finding out what the problem was or the challenges work. Every day and they're different. You have to deal with the Congress.

You have to deal with economic problems or diplomatic problems. You have a lot of personnel. Challenges who you're going to appoint for this job or that job. It's not dull. And I let you know one thing I. Never understood. Some people say they didn't like to be president. I loved it. I that was not my ambition but I loved it. Because the challengers are so interesting and the rewards of getting something done are so tremendous that both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity. OK thank you very much Mr.. The two. While a.

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