Gerald R. Ford, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Napoleon
The U.S. Postal Service has issued a commemorative Forever stamp honoring William F. Buckley, Jr., the conservative political commentator, columnist, novelist, and founding editor of the influential National Review. An impressive new biography of Buckley, who passed away in 2008, is in bookstores.
Buckley hosted 1,504 episodes of the long-running weekly public affairs program “Firing Line” on PBS. Gerald R. Ford made two appearances on “Firing Line.” Richard Nixon had a single appearance on the program on September 14, 1967. Buckley and Nixon discussed “The Future of the GOP.” Jimmy Carter made a pre-presidential appearance on “Firing Line” on April 23, 1973. Carter’s program topic was “Proposals for Welfare.” Ronald Reagan had five “Firing Line” appearances, three as Governor of California and two as a presidential candidate.
In his 1989 book “On the Firing Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures,” Buckley wrote that Ford made his first appearance on the program on July 8, 1968. Then-Representative Gerald R. Ford and Buckley discussed the topic: “What the Republican Party Has to Offer.” The GOP National Convention, held in Miami in August 1968, nominated Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew as its standard-bearers.
Ford made his next appearance on “Firing Line” as Vice President of the United States. Buckley and Ford discussed the topic “Problems of a Vice President” on June 28, 1974. Forty-two days later, Ford was President of the United States. “Problems of a President” would have been an interesting topic for Buckley and Ford to discuss on “Firing Line.” President Ford, perhaps, had too many political problems for another sit-down with Buckley.
“Gerald Ford – it is quickly grasped, both by interviewer and viewer – is one of those unusual creatures about whom it can be said with conviction that they appear to have nothing to hide,” Buckley wrote in “On the Firing Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures.” It was a rare moment of admiration from Buckley for Ford. “Granted that any man serving as vice president would rather be president.” Again, Buckley spoke those words on June 28, 1974.
The Nixon-Ford relationship led Buckley to draw parallels with Britain’s royal family. “Prince Charles would surely like to be King Charles, but to acknowledge human ambition in heirs presumptive is not to suggest that they would consent to reach for power in the manner of Lady Macbeth,” Buckley said. In Shakespeare’s play, Lady Macbeth goaded her husband to commit regicide so she could become Queen of Scotland. Hard to imagine Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford, Lady Macbeth-like, manipulating Richard Nixon. It is, however, an intriguing thought.
“Vice President Ford, in the summer of 1974, was acting as dutifully as the Prince of Wales when he sings ‘Long Live the Queen’,” Buckley said. Buckley questioned Ford about his loyalty to President Nixon, who was deeply involved in the Watergate scandal.
Ford, a solid supporter of the president, told Buckley: “I don’t think there is sufficient evidence to contend as an impeachable offense that the President was involved in the alleged cover-up, or in the cover-up. Now, this is what four-hundred members of the House have to decide. I don’t think there are enough that will vote for it.”
Buckley said he “attempted for a full hour to get the Vice President [Ford] to talk simply about the questions I had in mind.” He found that Ford “had clearly resolved that to do so would suggest to the public that even to entertain the hypothetical possibility that Nixon would be impeached would suggest that he favored his impeachment.” Ford “would not budge from his position.” The Vice President remained respectful of the office of the presidency. “Six weeks later, Gerald Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States,” Buckley wrote.
In 1971, Buckley’s older brother James (1923-2023) was elected to a single term to the U.S. Senate as the candidate of the Conservative Party of New York. During the contentious 1976 presidential primary between Ford and Reagan, Senator Buckley briefly considered a third-party run for the presidency. The Buckleys strongly favored Reagan. By 1976, Reagan had been a guest on “Firing Line” three times: in 1967, 1971, and 1972.
By early 1976, William F. Buckley began to use his syndicated column in favor of Reagan’s GOP presidential primary challenge. In a January 1976 column titled “Upstaging Reagan,” Buckley accused Ford of stealing GOP presidential challenger Reagan’s campaign for lower taxes.
“Parts of the President’s speech on the State of the Union were clearly drafted at once to harmonize with Ronald Reagan’s speeches in New Hampshire and, by playing a soft reassuring cello, to make Reagan’s violin sound screechier and screechier by contrast,” Buckley wrote in the column. He ended that “it will not be a mystery for very long” how Reagan would respond. Reagan responded forcefully all the way to the 1976 GOP National Convention.
After President Ford won the 1976 Republican Presidential nomination, Buckley, in a speech in Kansas City, said Americans would be freer under Ford than under a Jimmy Carter administration. He also made prescient comments about President Ford using his acceptance speech to challenge Carter to debate.
Buckley was concerned that Ford, during his acceptance speech at the convention, made a “tactical blunder” by calling on Carter to debate. He said it was “unwise” for Ford to make the debates a “key point” in the presidential campaign. History proved this correct.
“Some of the wisest men are no good at debating,” Buckley said. Why? “They require moments of reflection before speaking.”
About Carter’s election, Buckley, in “On the Firing Line,” wrote: “In 1977, Gerald Ford had been defeated by Jimmy Carter and conservative intellectuals disagreed on exactly why. Granted, Ford was never a Napoleonic political figure. But he was competent, good-natured, and conservative in inclination.”
In a column published in late August 1974, Buckley compared former President Richard Nixon to Napoleon. In the column, “The New Prisoner of San Clemente,” Buckley wrote: “The risks Richard Nixon took were for tawdry motives, and he has been punished as surely as Napoleon was punished when his empire was taken away from him.” Buckley was not alone in making the Nixon-Napoleon comparison. Then and now, it seems odd that Buckley would criticize Ford for being non-Napoleonic.
When he was sworn in as Vice President, Ford famously said: “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.” He was also not “a Nixon” or “a Napoleon.” Ford, I suspect, never aspired to be Napoleon. For Buckley to say that Ford was “never a Napoleonic political figure” is a compliment. America in 1974 did not need another “Napoleonic political figure” in the White House. America needed Gerald Ford.
William F. Buckley, Jr. was a remarkably hardworking and productive man in an era of manual typewriters, carbon paper, and landline telephones. In his day, Buckley’s columns were popular with readers. His columns will remain popular with journalists, historians, politicians, and students because they are the work of an intellectual giant.
One Buckley comment in his book “On the Firing Line” will eternally, and correctly, educate readers that Gerald R. Ford was “never a Napoleonic political figure.” Ford was, instead, an exceptional man who successfully met the challenges of his time. He was, in the finest sense, a man for all seasons.
Former U.S. diplomat, life member of the American Foreign Service Association, and worked for the President Ford Committee at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City.
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