50 years ago on August 9, Gerald Ford became the 38th president of United States after the resignation of President Richard Nixon. We covered the Watergate scandal in a previous From the Archives blog. Ford’s now famous “Our long national nightmare is over … I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it” set the tone for a successful presidency. While Americans did not initially support his pardon of President Nixon, they eventually came to agree that it had been the correct course. DetroitPBS and OneDetroit are celebrating the 50th anniversary with a seminar on the Ford presidency.

AEI had a long association with President Ford. During a reception in 1976 at the Madison Hotel, Ford gave remarks for 86 of the Institute’s academic associates. He reminisced about the help AEI had given him as a congressman, as Republican leader, and then as vice president and president. In 1977, he joined AEI as a Distinguished Fellow. He participated in seminars and conferences on university campuses under the auspices of AEI’s academic outreach program, still active today. At the time, AEI had adjuncts or associates on 68 campuses and 352 Centers for Public Policy around the country.  

Ford was the inspiration for AEI’s popular World Forum, a gathering of distinguished government officials and leaders of business and industry convened yearly by AEI to discuss global issues. Beaver Creek, CO hosted the first World Forum in 1982, which included Ford, Lord James Callaghan of Great Britain, French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt joined later. The first meeting also included chief executive officers from 50 major corporations. That meeting inspired the painting below by artist Mark Balma in 1995. This painting is displayed on the top floor at AEI’s headquarters at 1776 Massachusetts Ave. 

Ford’s involvement at AEI also included contributing to panels on important issues.  He wrote an appendix for the panel discussion of the War Powers Act.  The panel took place in 1983 and included a young Richard Cheney, who later became vice president under George W. Bush. In Ford’s appendix he commented:

“A president of the United States, under any and all circumstances, has to maximize his effort either to maintain the peace or, where there is no peace, to obtain it. I firmly believe, as a practical matter, that the War Powers Resolution with all its requirements handicaps a president in trying to achieve and maintain the peace.”

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