Hindsight
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
|
 Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 3:51 am Post subject: What a REAL man looks like, pt: |
 |
|
| Quote: |
J.F. terHorst, Ford Press Secretary, Dies at 87
By BRUCE WEBER
J. F. terHorst, a reporter who in August 1974 was appointed White House press secretary by an old friend, President Gerald R. Ford, but who resigned less than a month later when Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon in connection with the Watergate scandal, died Wednesday in Asheville, N.C. He was 87.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son, Peter.
Mr. terHorst�s resignation was � and still is � considered a rare act of conscience by a high-ranking public official, and the circumstances in which it occurred were extraordinary.
He was a veteran newsman, the Washington bureau chief of The Detroit News and a respected member of the White House press corps when he was named press secretary by Ford. He had known Ford since he covered his first Congressional race in 1948 for The Grand Rapids Press, and at the time he was writing his biography.
For four weeks reporters credited Mr. terHorst (pronounced terHORST) � and the new president and his staff � with restoring openness and honesty to the White House after having dealt with a Nixon administration that they had often felt was deliberately misleading them.
The Watergate affair � the break-in at the offices of the Democratic opposition by a White House team of burglars and the Nixon administration�s attempts to cover up that crime � had its roots in this culture of suspicion and secretiveness that was fostered by the Nixon White House, and it was still being investigated by an independent prosecutor when Ford took office.
Indeed, a number of top administration officials, including Attorney General John N. Mitchell; the White House chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman; and Nixon�s top domestic policy adviser, John D. Ehrlichman; went to prison for Watergate-related crimes.
In early September, however, Ford announced that he was pardoning Nixon, saying that to pursue criminal charges against the former president would be detrimental to the interests of the country.
Mr. terHorst felt not only that the decision was wrong � the president should not be held to a different standard of justice than people of a lesser station, he said � but also that he had been kept in the dark about it, which he said had undermined his credibility.
�I cannot in good conscience support your decision to pardon former President Nixon even before he has been charged with the commission of any crime,� Mr. terHorst wrote to Ford in his resignation letter on Sept. 8, 1974. �As your spokesman, I do not know how I could credibly defend that action in the absence of a like decision to grant absolute pardon to the young men who evaded Vietnam military service as a matter of conscience and the absence of pardons for former aides and associates of Mr. Nixon who have been charged with crimes � and imprisoned � stemming from the same Watergate situation.� |
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/us/02terhorst.html?hpw
Death holds no fear for such a man.
And this was a true man. |
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
