CATEGORY:DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT
-------------------------------


By Wallace J.A
Inside Grenada correspondent
Wednesday December 27,2006


THE 38th PRESIDENT of the United States of America, the Republican Gerald R. Ford, died at his home in Rancho Mirage on Boxing Day at the age of 93. He was the longest living US President, followed by Ronald W. Reagan, who also died at age 93.

President Ford was the only person to hold the offices of Vice-president and President of the United States without being elected. When Vice-president Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to a charge of income tax evasion and resigned on December 06, 1973, President Richard Nixon selected Ford to become his Vice President. Almost one year afterwards, President Nixon himself had to resign from the office of the President, under a cloud of shame and controversy, after the famous Watergate scandal. Shortly after assuming the presidency, Ford pardoned Nixon for any “crimes he committed or may have committed.” Some political commentators believed that Nixon’s pardon may have contributed towards Ford’s loss of the Presidency in the elections of 1976.

He presided over domestic and international affairs at a time when America’s credibility and that of the office of President had received a serious battering. He ordered the evacuation of the last remaining personnel from Vietnam and succeeded in signing a treaty with Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, on limiting the number of U.S. and Soviet nuclear delivery systems at a summit in Vladivostok, Russia. He succeeded in restoring America’s damaged international image and brought back public trust and confidence in the office of the President.

In 1976, Ford and his vice-presidential running mate, Bob Dole, lost the elections to the Democrats headed by Jimmy Carter. Ford left office when Jimmy Carter was officially sworn in as President of the United States in 1977.

The United States and the Caribbean region have always enjoyed an excellent relationship, which can be traced back to the period of slavery during the 17th century when Britain owned colonies in North America as well as in the Caribbean. This relationship, built primarily upon economic corporation, continued even after the US severed political links with Britain in 1776. This relationship grew stronger during the period of ‘ideological conflict’ known as the ‘Cold War.’ America saw the region as a crucial front in trying to stem the flow of Soviet Socialism in the region. The Caribbean, therefore, would have received tremendous benefits (in one form or another) during the Ford Presidency and there would still be many persons in Grenada and the rest of the region who would remember President Gerald Ford during those crucial years.

Grenadian Connection wishes to extend its deepest condolences to the American people on the loss of a great and distinguished President.