A Ford, Not a Lincoln

Like TMcD, I've had enough Ford memories. But the one point I would like to make is Vietnam. If that is a point. Vietnam is the missing part of the Ford memories--rarely raised, rarely discussed in the discussions of Ford's legacy. Ford was president on the day that Saigon fell; he had not been president for the build up of the war, or for the Paris peace talks. So Vietnam is not Ford's war. But he was president on the day that the war ended, so to speak. An unpopular, hopeless war in Asia . . . maybe that story is too close to home for the Beltway pundits. The Nixon pardon story, with the healing aspect, is more to their liking.

I agree with the tenacious one that accountability is as important as "healing." But don't count on the current administration being held any more accountable by the chattering class. The Ford nostalgia has made me wonder, what will the posthumous retrospectives on Bush 43's presidency be in thirty years? 9/11? That he was a decisive leader on that dark day? A complete fabrication, but that doesn't seem to matter.