In all the talk on television today about Gerald Ford, I haven’t heard Henry Kissinger mentioned. Of course, Kissinger was his Secretary of State and he pretty much dictated Ford’s godawful foreign policies. It’s instructive to actually read some of the declassified material from Kissinger’s reign. For example, check out his attitude towards Teddy Kennedy’s effort to cut off military aid to Pinochet (.pdf). Or read about Ford and Kissinger’s approval of Indonesia’s criminal invasion of East Timor.
It natural for people to focus on Cheney and Rumsfeld since they have dominated U.S. foreign policy for the last six years, but back in Ford’s day it was Kissinger that dominated.
Of course, here’s a little tid bit about Rumsfeld from a January 2, 1977 Washington Post article by Bob Woodward: IBEX: Deadly Symbol of U.S. Arms Sales Problems; IBEX: a $500 Million Nerve-Wracker. The choicest line in the article comes from Air Force General Hassan Toufanian, who was the vice minister of war in Iran and the Shah’s point man in all weapons procurements.
“Toufanian asked what kind of man was present Secretary of Defense and then answered his own question by saying that it was his impression that he was political, forceful, shallow, immature, inexperienced in the defense matters of his job.
Gerald Ford’s greatest faults lied in his weakness on matters of foreign policy. That was most glaringly evidenced in his debate with Carter when he insisted that the Soviet Bloc didn’t really exist. And then, as now, deeply immoral and incompetent men stepped into the breach to set our policies.
