The Presidency Ford's Forgotten Legacy

By Hugh Sidey

If the gulf war spectacular had been a movie, the credits could have listed Jimmy Carter as a progenitor of the Tomahawk cruise missile and Ronald Reagan as merchant prince of the huge weapons inventory that crushed the evil foe. But the fellow who may actually have had more to do with authoring the success story is never mentioned: Jerry Ford.

Jerry Ford? Correct. As might be expected, given his postpresidential flight paths, the former Commander in Chief hauled his golf clubs to the salubrious environs of Rancho Mirage, Calif., during the crisis. But Ford, like other Americans, lingered in front of the TV screen as the war unfolded. He was also watching his boys perform back in Washington. "They did a terrific job," boasted Ford.

Of the eight men in George Bush's war council, four were brought in directly or shoved along in their journey by Ford. Two others arrived at the fringes of power during Ford's brief tenure, and their talents were allowed full play in the meritocracy that Ford helped nurture.

"I think I had a knack of picking good people," said Ford last week. To start at the apex of what some are calling a "presidential culture": Ford first spotted George Bush in 1966. Ford, then House minority leader, recalls that Bush was a "bright star" running for Congress in Texas. He hurried down to campaign for him, then helped put Bush on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. As President, Ford made Bush U.S. representative to China and later named him to head the CIA.

When he was Vice President, Ford had got to know Lieut. General Brent Scowcroft, deputy head of the National Security Council. In those days Henry Kissinger was not only Secretary of State but also National Security Adviser. Ford did not like the double duty for Kissinger. He did like Scowcroft. As President, Ford in 1975 gave Scowcroft the NSC title and turned the self- effacing general into a recognized player in vital deliberations. And when Bush moved into the Oval Office, he put Scowcroft back in the job Ford had given him 13 years earlier.

When Ford shuffled his Cabinet, he named a promising but largely unknown 34- year-old as the new White House chief of staff: Dick Cheney. After Ford lost the 1976 election, Cheney decided to run for Congress in his home state of Wyoming. Ford's political instincts stirred again. "I went right out to campaign for him," he says. Cheney won and became a respected and powerful Congressman -- until Bush made him Secretary of Defense.

Ford's White House antennas had picked up good signals in 1976 about the Commerce Department's No. 2 man, James Baker. Ford tapped him to hunt delegates at the 1976 Republican Convention, then elevated him to national prominence as his campaign manager. Despite the Republican loss that year, Baker continued to rise, serving first in Reagan's Cabinet and then as Secretary of State for his friend Bush.

Colin Powell, current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Bob Gates, now Scowcroft's deputy, were not directly touched by Ford, but his special brotherhood took them in as they moved through the Reagan years. Of the six men named above, one is President, and three others -- Baker, Cheney and Powell -- are possible successors to Bush. If that does not quite constitute a presidential culture, it stands as an impressive legacy from a man we sometimes forget, Jerry Ford.