why did Ford Pardon Nixon

Question 1

Issues about court proceedings

Answer 1

1. The trial of a former president in a criminal court would degrade the presidency
2. The antagonism towards Nixon was so great that it would be difficult even impossible to meet SC standards for an unbiased jury
3. The indictment and trial would take a long time and the nation would continue its unhealthy and divisive obsession with watergate

Question 2

concerns for the presidency

Answer 2

If Nixon was formed guilty of criminal activities, whoever was president would have to pardon him in order to avoid setting the precedent of prosecuting a president for his policies and action, so why not sooner than later

Question 3

concerns for the country

Answer 3

1. Ford said this was the best way to end the American tragedy because the national trauma would be prolonged if Nixon went on trial. Ford thought it better to let the slow process of healing begin
2. Ford was possibly concerned for republican electoral prospects in 1976 if Nixons misdemeanours were still being pored over by the press

Question 4

concerns about Nixon

Answer 4

1. A Ford envoy to Nixon suggested that ‘Nixon was an absolute candidate for suicide, the most depressed human being I have ever met’. Nixon’s family confirmed that. Ford said in a speech announcing the pardon ‘I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough’
2. It was Christian to show mercy
3. Ford believed resignation from office was an admission of guilt - he believed in a supreme court decision that a pardon ‘carries an imputation of guilt, acceptance a confession of it’

Question 5

conspiracy

Answer 5

Many contemporaries were convinced that Nixon and Ford had made a deal, a pardon in exchange for the presidency, there was no evidence of such deal