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Remembering President Gerald Ford
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BY: MARK TALISMAN Special to the CJN
(Washington, D.C. ) - Indulge me as I remember Gerald Ford - a kind, smart, practical public servant and all-around great guy who never realized his life's dream to become speaker of the House of Representatives, an institution he loved so much!
Instead, he became president of the United States, which he didn't relish at all and would never have dreamt of attaining.
I new Betty and Jerry Ford, a privilege for so many little and big reasons, as often happens in this town.
I was chief of staff (back in 1963 it was known as chief clerk) to Democrat Charlie Vanik of Cleveland, my hometown. Betty Vanik and Betty Ford worked on many congressional projects in the Spouses, a group they organized. Charlie and Jerry were good friends from opposite parties who were always able to agree to disagree ... agreeably.
In early 1966, I proposed to Betty Vanik that we create a group to help develop a series of television segments teaching viewers how the three branches of the federal government interacted - or didn't - and their consequent impact on US citizens.
Betty Vanik immediately applied her creative mind to making that happen. One of her first acts was to ask Betty Ford to be her co-chair, thus raising this project above partisanship. It worked. They then chose 37 spouses of Cabinet officers, Supreme Court justices and members of the House and Senate - all of whom eagerly agreed to serve.
After hundreds of 8 a.m. meetings in the Presidents' Room in the Capitol, stretching over three-plus years, we outlined 40 half-hour segments. The series, titled “Government Story” and produced by Westinghouse Television Group, was broadcast in all major TV markets throughout the country. It received every conceivable award and recognition and became part of the government curriculum in many states. Given the close and abiding contact and trust which developed from that experience, the Vaniks, Fords and I were bonded from then on, sort of family.
Meanwhile and for more than 12 years in total, I became congressman, then minority leader Gerald Ford's photographer, taking and updating the portrait he used for media and signing purposes.
Ford was such a grounded and decent man that he insisted on paying for all my costs and then some, sending me checks whenever I did a new portrait of him or made duplicates of existing ones. Ethics at this level counted, too, he told me.
In late 1971, Cong. Vanik found himself in the Soviet Union. There he faced the spectacle of Jews being crushed with education and travel taxes in an effort to stop their efforts to emigrate and free themselves from the terrible repression they faced every day.
After the congressman returned, he asked me to research ways in which our government could react responsibly and effectively to this terrible tragedy and help the Jews of the Soviet Union and its satellites.
As a result of my research, the Vanik amendment was born Š and then died, as it was the end of the congressional session.
In 1973, the collaboration between Vanik and Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D.Wash.) was born. The House of Representatives planned to have hearings under Vanik's leadership attaching the Mills, Vanik Jackson bill to the Trade Reform Act then being built.
In brief, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, appended to the 1974 Trade Act, denied normal trade relations, then called “most favored nation status,” to certain countries with non-market economies that restricted emigration rights. The Soviet Union was one of those countries.
While the amendment did little, initially, to help Soviet Jewry, by the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to comply with its protocols. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Soviet refugees (Jews, evangelical Christians and Catholics) have immigrated to the US, and more than one million Soviet Jews have immigrated to Israel. Soviet Jews, representing a fifth of all Israelis today, have markedly changed the face of the Jewish state.
By the fall of 1973, the Trade Reform Act was scheduled for full debate. With huge support from many local and national labor and Jewish groups, and the country at-large, the vote was tallied: 388-44, the highest vote for any human-rights bill in the history of the House.
At the same time, scandals were brewing in Washington, reaching a low point by June of 1972 with a break-in at The Watergate. By then, Jerry Ford was minority leader, having to face mounting pressures from the inside while also dealing with major policy considerations.
Ford became a strong ally for us on passage of Jackson Vanik, which would be vital when it came time to sign it into law. Nixon detested the proposed Jackson-Vanik amendment, and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger, pushed hard to kill it.
In October 1973, vice president Spiro Agnew resigned because of strong evidence of corruption while he was governor of Maryland. For the first time, the 25th amendment to the Constitution would be activated.
Ford headed a search team to find a replacement candidate for Agnew. Instead, Ford was chosen as the candidate. The Senate, and then the House, voted to approve Ford. In this super-charged atmosphere, he took the oath of office as vice president, all of us knowing full well that he could soon become the next president.
That hot, sultry summer of 1974, as the House Judiciary Committee hearings on Watergate unfolded, Ford was in the middle of a political maelstrom. Nixon dug in his heels, and word on the Hill was that he would not resign.
By August, it was clear Nixon was digging in further. Senator Barry Goldwater led a delegation to present an ultimatum to Nixon, and Ford was asked if he was ready to move up on Aug. 1.
Nixon finally understood the Senate was prepared to hold a trial and convict him of high crimes and misdemeanors and remove him from office. He resigned on Aug. 7 and left Washington the next day. Ford took the oath of office on Aug. 9, with the entire town breathing a sigh of relief.
In the aftermath of all this political tumult, President Ford broke the news to me that he had to hire another photographer to do his official portraits. He sent me some signed copies of his portraitby Kennedy, as if to let me down easy.
By December 1974, the Trade Reform Act was on the Senate floor with the Jackson-Vanik Amendment taking a central place in that debate.
The vote for the Trade Reform Act was 88-0. President Ford made it very clear he would sign the bill, which included the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, into law.
President Ford had his staff quickly arrange a signing ceremony to show his support. As it happened, my wife Jill was in labor at that time, soon to give birth to our daughter Jessica at Columbia Hospital for Women three blocks from the White House. I was there with her.
when Ford learned of my absence, the ceremony was delayed, a car was sent for me, and I was whisked to the White House. As soon as I came into the room, Betty came down the Grand Staircase and gave me a beautifully wrapped gift for Jessica, whom the Fords soon dubbed “the Amendments.”
When I sent the Fords recent pictures of Jessica, her husbsnd Jason and their two children, Colby and Gus. Colby and Gus, Betty responded for both with great joy and fond remembrances of our early history.
My fondest memories of our 38th president was that he was strong, plain-speaking, and always expressed what was on his mind. A good role model to follow for those who must now govern us out of great dilemmas and challenges yet to be examined or resolved.
Mark E. Talisman is president of the Project Judaica Foundation, Washington, DC.
Instead, he became president of the United States, which he didn't relish at all and would never have dreamt of attaining.
I new Betty and Jerry Ford, a privilege for so many little and big reasons, as often happens in this town.
I was chief of staff (back in 1963 it was known as chief clerk) to Democrat Charlie Vanik of Cleveland, my hometown. Betty Vanik and Betty Ford worked on many congressional projects in the Spouses, a group they organized. Charlie and Jerry were good friends from opposite parties who were always able to agree to disagree ... agreeably.
In early 1966, I proposed to Betty Vanik that we create a group to help develop a series of television segments teaching viewers how the three branches of the federal government interacted - or didn't - and their consequent impact on US citizens.
Betty Vanik immediately applied her creative mind to making that happen. One of her first acts was to ask Betty Ford to be her co-chair, thus raising this project above partisanship. It worked. They then chose 37 spouses of Cabinet officers, Supreme Court justices and members of the House and Senate - all of whom eagerly agreed to serve.
After hundreds of 8 a.m. meetings in the Presidents' Room in the Capitol, stretching over three-plus years, we outlined 40 half-hour segments. The series, titled “Government Story” and produced by Westinghouse Television Group, was broadcast in all major TV markets throughout the country. It received every conceivable award and recognition and became part of the government curriculum in many states. Given the close and abiding contact and trust which developed from that experience, the Vaniks, Fords and I were bonded from then on, sort of family.
Meanwhile and for more than 12 years in total, I became congressman, then minority leader Gerald Ford's photographer, taking and updating the portrait he used for media and signing purposes.
Ford was such a grounded and decent man that he insisted on paying for all my costs and then some, sending me checks whenever I did a new portrait of him or made duplicates of existing ones. Ethics at this level counted, too, he told me.
In late 1971, Cong. Vanik found himself in the Soviet Union. There he faced the spectacle of Jews being crushed with education and travel taxes in an effort to stop their efforts to emigrate and free themselves from the terrible repression they faced every day.
After the congressman returned, he asked me to research ways in which our government could react responsibly and effectively to this terrible tragedy and help the Jews of the Soviet Union and its satellites.
As a result of my research, the Vanik amendment was born Š and then died, as it was the end of the congressional session.
In 1973, the collaboration between Vanik and Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D.Wash.) was born. The House of Representatives planned to have hearings under Vanik's leadership attaching the Mills, Vanik Jackson bill to the Trade Reform Act then being built.
In brief, the Jackson-Vanik amendment, appended to the 1974 Trade Act, denied normal trade relations, then called “most favored nation status,” to certain countries with non-market economies that restricted emigration rights. The Soviet Union was one of those countries.
While the amendment did little, initially, to help Soviet Jewry, by the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to comply with its protocols. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Soviet refugees (Jews, evangelical Christians and Catholics) have immigrated to the US, and more than one million Soviet Jews have immigrated to Israel. Soviet Jews, representing a fifth of all Israelis today, have markedly changed the face of the Jewish state.
By the fall of 1973, the Trade Reform Act was scheduled for full debate. With huge support from many local and national labor and Jewish groups, and the country at-large, the vote was tallied: 388-44, the highest vote for any human-rights bill in the history of the House.
At the same time, scandals were brewing in Washington, reaching a low point by June of 1972 with a break-in at The Watergate. By then, Jerry Ford was minority leader, having to face mounting pressures from the inside while also dealing with major policy considerations.
Ford became a strong ally for us on passage of Jackson Vanik, which would be vital when it came time to sign it into law. Nixon detested the proposed Jackson-Vanik amendment, and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger, pushed hard to kill it.
In October 1973, vice president Spiro Agnew resigned because of strong evidence of corruption while he was governor of Maryland. For the first time, the 25th amendment to the Constitution would be activated.
Ford headed a search team to find a replacement candidate for Agnew. Instead, Ford was chosen as the candidate. The Senate, and then the House, voted to approve Ford. In this super-charged atmosphere, he took the oath of office as vice president, all of us knowing full well that he could soon become the next president.
That hot, sultry summer of 1974, as the House Judiciary Committee hearings on Watergate unfolded, Ford was in the middle of a political maelstrom. Nixon dug in his heels, and word on the Hill was that he would not resign.
By August, it was clear Nixon was digging in further. Senator Barry Goldwater led a delegation to present an ultimatum to Nixon, and Ford was asked if he was ready to move up on Aug. 1.
Nixon finally understood the Senate was prepared to hold a trial and convict him of high crimes and misdemeanors and remove him from office. He resigned on Aug. 7 and left Washington the next day. Ford took the oath of office on Aug. 9, with the entire town breathing a sigh of relief.
In the aftermath of all this political tumult, President Ford broke the news to me that he had to hire another photographer to do his official portraits. He sent me some signed copies of his portraitby Kennedy, as if to let me down easy.
By December 1974, the Trade Reform Act was on the Senate floor with the Jackson-Vanik Amendment taking a central place in that debate.
The vote for the Trade Reform Act was 88-0. President Ford made it very clear he would sign the bill, which included the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, into law.
President Ford had his staff quickly arrange a signing ceremony to show his support. As it happened, my wife Jill was in labor at that time, soon to give birth to our daughter Jessica at Columbia Hospital for Women three blocks from the White House. I was there with her.
when Ford learned of my absence, the ceremony was delayed, a car was sent for me, and I was whisked to the White House. As soon as I came into the room, Betty came down the Grand Staircase and gave me a beautifully wrapped gift for Jessica, whom the Fords soon dubbed “the Amendments.”
When I sent the Fords recent pictures of Jessica, her husbsnd Jason and their two children, Colby and Gus. Colby and Gus, Betty responded for both with great joy and fond remembrances of our early history.
My fondest memories of our 38th president was that he was strong, plain-speaking, and always expressed what was on his mind. A good role model to follow for those who must now govern us out of great dilemmas and challenges yet to be examined or resolved.
Mark E. Talisman is president of the Project Judaica Foundation, Washington, DC.
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