The Conciliator in Chief: President Ford's Major Speeches on College Campuses

• In Event: Interrogating Sources: History of Education From Fact and Fiction

Abstract

President Ford is known best, and most heavily criticized, for his efforts to end American involvement in Vietnam, and for his decision to pardon President Nixon for Watergate. The latter decision probably cost Ford his re-election. While Ford’s efforts to heal and reunite the country are given great attention, where he made these efforts—namely, his major speeches on college campuses—is not often discussed. Ford identified as a college man, and it was on college campuses that he tried early and often to reach out to the most disaffected Americans, the young generation. The needs of the nation and of campus met precisely in the person of Gerald Ford, and so back to college went the new President.

Author

• William Charles Purdy, University of California - Los Angeles