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Overview
With unrestricted access to Gerald Ford's papers, James Cannon chronicles Ford's rise and Nixon's ruin with unprecedented depth, objectivity, and clarity. Here is the last word on Ford's ascent to the White House and on the Watergate scandal. As he fell from power, Richard Nixon caused the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War, and an obscure, stolid Middle American named Gerald Ford emerged to struggle with a foundering Federal government and a nation losing faith in that government. Time and Chance reveals how Nixon, by his own hand, ended his public career, and how and why powerful men in Congress replaced him with Ford, a man they could trust. Time and Chance also uncovers the early life of Ford, the thirty-eighth President. Born to wealth, rejected by his brutal father, reduced to poverty but saved by a courageous mother, the young Ford created a new identity and strove to reach his dreams. Through determination and good luck, he succeeded. Coming of age, he loved a captivating woman, lost her to his own ambition, loved another captivating woman, and almost lost her as well. To begin his political career, Ford confronted a corrupt political boss, beat the odds, and won. Quietly, doggedly, he worked his way up in the House of Representatives, winning loyal friends among Washington's most powerful, including Richard Nixon. He failed in his plot to become House Speaker, but won a greater prize - which he had never sought - the Presidency. Once he was in the White House, Ford prevented the trial of Nixon and saved him from prison. Was there a deal between Nixon and Ford? Why did Ford pardon Nixon? Time and Chance offers the first categorical answers to these questions. It also recounts two quintessentially American sagas, opposite yet intertwined, with trenchant insight and unstinting grace.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Through an able retelling of the story of Watergate and Ford's ascension to the presidency, the author makes an arguable case for the integrity and accomplishments of the 38th president. Cannon, a former Newsweek editor who served as Ford's domestic policy adviser, writes in a brisk, episodic style, weaving together numerous interviews and documents, including excerpts from Ford's private papers. Cannon's sketch of Ford's youth in Grand Rapids, Mich. (``America at its best''), is deft, as is his account of Ford's political ascent, noting his subject's ability to cultivate people who could help him. In the background during the lengthy treatment of Watergate, Ford reappears when Cannon delves into how congressional leaders forced Nixon to choose their well-respected colleague to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew. About the reasoning behind Ford's pardon of Nixon, Cannon writes, ``Ford simply believed it was the right thing to do.'' For Cannon, Ford's lack of showmanship was really a lack of pretense and one of the virtues that he believes made the Ford presidency as solid as the man himself. Photos. (Jan.)Library Journal
With the well-honed instincts of a former Newsweek editor and political adviser to President Ford and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Cannon has produced a meticulously researched and beautifully crafted account of the political and personal style of Gerald R. Ford. Making heavy use of Ford's own papers and interviewing an impressive list of Ford intimates and administration personnel, Cannon provides a justifiably positive record of the life and times of the nation's first ``instant President.'' Early chapters examine his difficult childhood prior to his mother's marriage to Gerald R. Ford, whose name he later adopted. While aficionados of political biography will enjoy the chapters detailing the young Representative Ford's climb up the House ladder, the real contribution of this work comes in the second half when Cannon details the agony of the new vice-president Ford, given the job on Spiro Agnew's political demise, as he watched his old friend and political colleague Richard Nixon destroy his presidency. Riveting and insight-filled, this book is highly recommended for all collections.-- Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. JosephBooknews
A solid, articulate biography that illuminates many Nixon-Watergate shadows (including the pardon which cost Ford's chance to be elected to a full term). Ford emerges as decent, strong, and poor at self-aggrandizement. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Margaret Flanagan
Though Cannon pays cursory attention to Ford's traumatic youth and his steady rise through the governmental ranks by dint of his own ambition and strength of character, the bulk of Cannon's detailed research is devoted to the critical years between 1968 and 1976. The author necessarily parallels Ford's meteoric rise with Richard Nixon's decline, chronicling the Watergate scandal and examining the facts surrounding Ford's controversial decision to grant Nixon a full pardon. While Cannon obviously admires Ford, he takes pains to present a balanced portrait.Book Details
Published
January 1, 1994
Publisher
New York : HarperCollins, c1994.
Pages
320
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780060165390