Ex-US President Gerald Ford dies

BBC

Former US President Gerald Ford has died aged 93, former First Lady Betty Ford has said.
Last month Gerald Ford had become the longest-living US president when he passed 93 years and 121 days, the record held by Ronald Reagan.

Mr Ford, the only unelected president, took office after Richard Nixon quit over Watergate in 1974. But he lost to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.

President Bush paid tribute, praising Mr Ford’s “integrity and commonsense”.

Gerald Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and lived with Betty, 88, at Rancho Mirage, about 130 miles (210km) east of Los Angeles in southern California.

The former president suffered ill health this year and he was taken to hospital four times for tests and angioplasty. He suffered a stroke in 2000.

A statement from Betty Ford said: “My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, has passed away at 93 years of age.”

The statement did not give the cause of death.

In a statement from the White House, President George W Bush said he was “greatly saddened” at the news.

“With his quiet integrity, commonsense and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the presidency,” Mr Bush said.

“Our 38th president will always have a special place in our nation’s memory.”

Vietnam War

Gerald Ford had risen from obscurity to become Richard Nixon’s vice-president in 1973, when Spiro Agnew resigned amid corruption charges.

Mr Ford then succeeded to the top office when Nixon became embroiled in Watergate.

Mr Ford declared the “national nightmare” of the Nixon scandal over but soon after he granted his former boss a pardon for any crimes committed as president.

Analysts believe in the short term it may have cost him the 1976 election, but in the long term the decision was praised.

Mr Ford was in office as the US accepted its defeat in the Vietnam War, with the fall of Saigon in April 1975.

He said it was time to “bind up the nation’s wounds”.

The opposite of Nixon, Gerald Ford was known for his openness, sunny disposition and most important, his honesty.

Wife Betty became a national figure in her own right, crusading against drug and alcohol addiction.

Following his stroke, Gerald Ford slipped further from the limelight.

However, he did join Jimmy Carter, George Bush Snr and Bill Clinton at a memorial shortly after the 11 September attacks in 2001.

He was also at the funeral of Ronald Reagan in June 2004.