Kissinger: 40 years ago, when Ford pardoned Nixon
NEW YORK -- Exactly 40 years ago, President Ford informed Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that, in a few hours, he intended to pardon Richard Nixon. A month earlier, Nixon had resigned in disgrace in the Watergate scandal.
At the time, Kissinger said Monday on the pardon's anniversary, he thought it was "an extremely courageous act," albeit also a controversial one. Some historians believe it cost Gerald Ford the close presidential election in 1976. Kissinger had served as secretary of State and national security adviser for Nixon, and stayed on the job when Ford took over.
"What Ford did was an act of humanity, of necessity," Kissinger said in an interview with Paste BN's Capital Download about his new book, World Order, published by Penguin Press Tuesday. "To put him on public trial would have been an humiliation unbearable for him and probably hard for the country.
"When you look at the perspective of Nixon today, I think most people agree that he performed tremendous services for this country in foreign policy, and then he made some serious mistakes," he adds. "So his ultimate position in history is affected by the mistakes, but it didn't require a trial to do this."
