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31 Days: Gerald Ford, the Nixon Pardon and a Government in Crisis
In 31 Days , acclaimed historian Barry Werth takes readers inside the White House during the tumultuous days of August 1974, following Richard Nixon's resignation and the swearing-in of America's "accidental president," Gerald Ford. The Watergate scandal had torn the country apart. In a dramatic, day-by-day account of the new administration’s inner workings, Werth shows how Ford, caught between political expedience, the country’s demands for justice, and his own moral compass, struggled valiantly to restore the nation’s tarnished faith in its leadership. With deft and refreshing analysis Werth illuminates how this unprecedented political upheaval produced new fissures and battle lines, as well as new opportunities for political advancement for ambitious young men such as Donald Rumsfeld, who had been Nixon’s ambassador to NATO, and Dick Cheney, already coolly efficient as Rumsfeld’s former deputy. A superbly crafted presidential history with all of the twists and turns of a thriller, 31 Days sheds new light on the key players and political dilemmas that reverberate in today’s headlines.
416 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 2006
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February 15, 2015
For one moment in time it seemed that President Gerald Ford had it all. He was calm, he was caring, he was steadfast and most importantly he WASN'T Richard Nixon! For 31 days in the summer of 1974 it seemed he was truly invincible. Then he did something which most historians myself included still scratch their heads over and wonder why: he pardoned former President Nixon before he was even brought to trial for crimes he had supposedly committed during the height of the Watergate scandal.
I was born in the death throes of the Nixon/Ford era and of course being an infant as I was then I remember absolutely nothing of Gerald Ford in the White House. Though it seems that President Ford is really remembered for just that: nothing. All people seem to know today of Ford is his general oafishness (thank you Chevy Chase) and the fact that two people tried to assassinate him and they both were women!
In essence this is a very good book detailing just how the presidency is run on a daily basis. I think frankly that every President of the United States should have a book written about their administration where it would detail a certain time period. Whether it be a month or week or two to three days but I think that's what is needed in America for people to know not only just who their leaders are but why they make the decisions they do. This book is a perfect example of that idea delving into the aftermath of one of the greatest constitutional crises in our nations history. However one thing this book will not show you or tell you is the reason why Ford pardoned Nixon. I guess the author wanted to leave it up to the reader to make that decision on their own. So if you wanted the reason why the pardon was granted you need to look elsewhere but if you like to know just exactly what went on for the first month of the Ford administration and the haggling behind the granting of the pardon then look no further because you've found it.
Published in 2006.
I was born in the death throes of the Nixon/Ford era and of course being an infant as I was then I remember absolutely nothing of Gerald Ford in the White House. Though it seems that President Ford is really remembered for just that: nothing. All people seem to know today of Ford is his general oafishness (thank you Chevy Chase) and the fact that two people tried to assassinate him and they both were women!
In essence this is a very good book detailing just how the presidency is run on a daily basis. I think frankly that every President of the United States should have a book written about their administration where it would detail a certain time period. Whether it be a month or week or two to three days but I think that's what is needed in America for people to know not only just who their leaders are but why they make the decisions they do. This book is a perfect example of that idea delving into the aftermath of one of the greatest constitutional crises in our nations history. However one thing this book will not show you or tell you is the reason why Ford pardoned Nixon. I guess the author wanted to leave it up to the reader to make that decision on their own. So if you wanted the reason why the pardon was granted you need to look elsewhere but if you like to know just exactly what went on for the first month of the Ford administration and the haggling behind the granting of the pardon then look no further because you've found it.
Published in 2006.
May 1, 2010
When it was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was bad.
He did an especially good job when talking about Ford's history, his behind-the-scenes struggles those first days, and when mentioning now-big names, like Cheney, HW Bush, and Rumsfeld. The epilogue was very good too in discussing the implications of those 31 days for the next 31 years.
He did not do a good job when he talked about foreign policy. It was dry and often made you wanting more domestic, post-Watergate stuff instead of foreign affairs, though I concede that they are indeed relevant.
Overall, a good book. Gives you a lot of insight into Ford and his decision. I think it was a nuetral, sympathetic view.
He did an especially good job when talking about Ford's history, his behind-the-scenes struggles those first days, and when mentioning now-big names, like Cheney, HW Bush, and Rumsfeld. The epilogue was very good too in discussing the implications of those 31 days for the next 31 years.
He did not do a good job when he talked about foreign policy. It was dry and often made you wanting more domestic, post-Watergate stuff instead of foreign affairs, though I concede that they are indeed relevant.
Overall, a good book. Gives you a lot of insight into Ford and his decision. I think it was a nuetral, sympathetic view.
November 4, 2020
Barry Werth's 31 Days covers the first month of Gerald Ford's presidency and the difficulties he endured with the fallout from Watergate. It reads like a sequel to The Final Days, with the ghosts of Watergate haunting every page and severely limiting Ford's freedom of action. Werth's portrait of Ford is generally sympathetic, showing that he'd been dealt a bad hand which left him little room to maneuver. Nixon holdovers like the odious Alexander Haig press him to pardon Nixon while battling with Ford's staff and cabinet; his own party, after a brief honeymoon period, threatens to mutiny if he fails to act; press leaks expose the infighting and render his public support shaky, with Ford feeling pressed to take an action he wasn't entirely comfortable with. Worse, bombshells from Watergate (legal battles over Nixon's tapes, the lingering impeachment investigation, the shocking revelation that Nixon's staff feared a coup during his last days in office) continue detonating around Ford, weakening not only his own administration but eroding any remaining trust in American government. For all this, Werth doesn't excuse or defend the pardon, noting the baleful precedent it sent for presidential behavior. If there's a lesson to be drawn from this book, it's that the end of our "long national nightmare" was less a sudden awakening than a waking dream that left the country traumatized.
October 14, 2007
A phrase I never thought I'd say, or hear: "a gripping book about the Ford presidency". 31 Days examines the time between Ford's inauguration and his pardon. The value of the book, beyond the subject directly at hand, lies in its detailed examination of the daily activities of Ford and his top White House officials. This led to a realistic portrait of power relationships in Ford's administration (particularly, the power struggle between Nixon loyalists and Ford's people). If Ford's White House was anything like any other, this book disabused me of the notion of a unitary Executive (President Bush's legal theories notwithstanding) and taught me to view Presidential politics as a struggle for influence between ambitious and politically talented White House functionaries.
July 29, 2018
Barry Werth writes in a workman like style as he describes Ford's first month in office. The most interesting part is negotiations with Nixon regarding the pardon. A nice snap-shot of that time period.
April 30, 2022
Interesting
Read
October 21, 2007http://nhw.livejournal.com/725046.html[return][return]This account takes us from 9 August 1974, the day the Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign from office, to 8 September, the day that his successor, Gerald Ford, issued "a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."[return][return]The book has two real plot strands, first, Ford's decision to issue the pardon and the subsequent negotiations over details with Nixon, and second, the scrabbling for office in the Ford White House, especially the decision to nominate Nelson Rockefeller as Vice-President rather than the other obvious candidate, George Bush the elder (or the last-minute dark horse alternative, Donald Rumsfeld - Ronald Reagan also fancied himself in the running, but Ford couldn't even remember how to spell his name).[return][return]The first is, of course, the key to the failure of Ford's presidency. Werth paints a convincing psychological and political picture of why Ford decided to do it so soon, against the advice of almost everyone he asked: the shock of realising, after his first press conference, that the issue of his predecessor's fate was going to drown out attention to his own programme for government until it was settled, combined with his experience as a youth of concluding his relations with his absent biological father. There is no clear record that anyone said to Ford that the move would expend all his political capital and kill his moral authority stone dead; but it is abundantly clear that Ford felt he couldn't live with himself until the decision was made, and would not have been swayed even if the argument had been put to him in those terms.[return][return]The second was a contributory factor to Ford's inability to pull things round in time. Like John Adams and Lyndon B Johnson, he did not change enough of the cabinet, despite open treachery from his Secretary of Defense literally as he was being sworn in. His press secretary, one of his oldest friends, was out of the loop about the planned pardon for Nixon, and in consequence stole the headlines by resigning the same day. Having promised George Bush senior something decent in compensation for not getting the Vice-Presidency, all he could come up with was the post of Ambassador to China (this after Bush, as the US representative at the UN, had fought tooth and nail against the de-recognition of Taiwan). Al Haig was clearly a menace. The picture that comes across is of a very nice guy who simply lacked the killer instinct.[return][return](Having said that, of course, he still came pretty close to re-election in 1976 - less than 2% behind in the popular vote, and closer than that in Ohio and Wisconsin which would have been enough to beat Carter).[return][return]Much else happening in this period as well, and given my own interests I would have liked more on the Cyprus crisis, which of course was in full swing that summer (including - a detail I had forgotten if I ever knew it - the assassination of the US Ambassador by a Greek Cypriot gunman in Nicosia), but I guess the fact that it appears mainly as background colour tells me most of what I would want to know. (In any case the Kissinger Archives have much more detail.)[return][return]There are lots of other charming details; the description of Jerry and Betty Ford dancing with the king and Queen of Jordan at the end of their first week; the account of the impact of events on Betty's life is compassionate. [return][return]I can't give the book full marks, unfortunately. I would have liked a judgement from the author, not just from quoted commentators, about the morality of some of the things that were done and decisions made - in particular the disposition of Nixon's state papers, which at one point were piled so high on the third floor of the Old Executive Office Building that the Secret Service worried it might cave in. [return][return]The other missing element for me was that, while we learn a great deal about Ford's own background, and a decent amount on the other older characters, Nixon, Rockefeller, Bush, Haig, we find out very little about the the new generation empowered by Nixon's fall and Ford's brief ascendancy - Rumsfeld, Richard Cheney, Richard Perle, etc. They appear pretty much out of nowhere in the narrative, and the book therefore fails to really deliver on its promise to explain how the crisis "Gave Us The [American] Government We Have Today".
July 27, 2025
Captivating look into the transition from Nixon to Ford and what this country endured.
December 18, 2022
Extremely detailed, good for anyone interested in American political history and the aftermath of Watergate, additional focus on politicians who later become more prominent such as George H W Bush and Dick Cheney
June 16, 2008
The book provides an interesting snap shot of the events surrounding the transition of Nixon to Ford. The book especially creates a sympathetic view of Ford. It also attempts to present an even handed view of Nixon, wisely choosing not to delve too much into what he did or did not do or know, but rather how he handled the aftermath. The author also has a highly readable, conversational style with a great deal of description(ala Bob Woodward), which may not satisfy historians and political scientists or other seeking in depth analysis.
A few quibbles:
--The main problem with the book I have is the subtitle "The Government We Have Today"...This appears to refer to the rise of the Necons, especially Cheney and Rumsfield. However, they are more ancillary characters (Rummy is in Brussels for most of the events in the book) until the last chapter/afterword. The author does raise interesting points in the afterword, especially about how Cheney and Rummy attempted to derail the SALT talks, and the author draws the obvious parallel with Iraq. However, this feels very tacked on and somewhat rushed. A more thorough examination of those who were in the Ford administration and who are in power now, could be very interesting, but it is not this book.
--Also, there were some questions, I wish the author would have explained more--Why did Haig continue to have so much influence despite his apparent backstabbing/plotting (shipping docs to Nixon, informing Nixon's people that Ford would grant a pardon before negotiations began)?
Why did Ford feel the need to do it so quickly? --The author clearly implies that if Ford had waited, it may not have had such a negative impact on his Presidency, but little is explained other than that his own personal view that it was the right thing to do.
(I understand that they go beyond the 31 Days, but the final section seemed a little too rushed with just a quick overview of the later lives of the key players (kind of like the epilogue of Animal House).
A few quibbles:
--The main problem with the book I have is the subtitle "The Government We Have Today"...This appears to refer to the rise of the Necons, especially Cheney and Rumsfield. However, they are more ancillary characters (Rummy is in Brussels for most of the events in the book) until the last chapter/afterword. The author does raise interesting points in the afterword, especially about how Cheney and Rummy attempted to derail the SALT talks, and the author draws the obvious parallel with Iraq. However, this feels very tacked on and somewhat rushed. A more thorough examination of those who were in the Ford administration and who are in power now, could be very interesting, but it is not this book.
--Also, there were some questions, I wish the author would have explained more--Why did Haig continue to have so much influence despite his apparent backstabbing/plotting (shipping docs to Nixon, informing Nixon's people that Ford would grant a pardon before negotiations began)?
Why did Ford feel the need to do it so quickly? --The author clearly implies that if Ford had waited, it may not have had such a negative impact on his Presidency, but little is explained other than that his own personal view that it was the right thing to do.
(I understand that they go beyond the 31 Days, but the final section seemed a little too rushed with just a quick overview of the later lives of the key players (kind of like the epilogue of Animal House).
June 1, 2010
3.5 stars. This book is never more interesting than when it gets into the Nixon pardon. I got the impression that the book Werth actually wanted to write was about that pardon; he could have cut 30 or so pages, reconfigured the rest, and gotten it. As it is, a perfectly acceptable book.
(Side note: the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan prominently displays several interesting letters Ford received for and against the Nixon pardon. These, along with actual Watergate break-in tools, a White House recorder, and sections of the Berlin Wall, make the trip fairly interesting. It's hard to get a whole museum out of his brief presidency.)
(Side note: the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan prominently displays several interesting letters Ford received for and against the Nixon pardon. These, along with actual Watergate break-in tools, a White House recorder, and sections of the Berlin Wall, make the trip fairly interesting. It's hard to get a whole museum out of his brief presidency.)
September 1, 2013
Basically the author assembles a narrative of the first month of the Ford administration from public documents, publications and memoirs. It's peppered with little gems if you are really interested in Republican politics in the 1970s, and also with wince inducing passages where the prose gets a little wacky. I picture the editor as an alcoholic in the grim final days of his second marriage, blearily opening to random pages and commenting on them, but not more than twenty three or twenty four spread over the full manuscript, in order to create the impression he worked on the project. Bad luck Mr. Werth - you'll get better next time no doubt.
May 24, 2012
As it turns out, a chronicle of the days between Nixon's resignation and his pardon isn't quite as interesting as it is important. Some narrative flourishes, a nuanced portrait of Ford, and young(er) appearances by George HW Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Alan Greenspan help prop up the proceedings. If you're looking for by-the-numbers reportage of Republicans being Republicans in the 70's, you could do worse than 31 Days.
November 13, 2007
I became interetsed in Ford after his public viewing at the Capitol building last January. He is/was an interesting guy that was in a no-win situation. It is also interesting to read about the retreads when they were young and less scary.
May 29, 2008
The 31 days between Nixon's resignation and pardon. If I had any doubts about the negative influences that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had/have on our country, this book quickly dispelled them. Dick Cheney scares the daylights out of me.
June 16, 2008
A fascinating look at the historic month following the resignation of Richard Nixon. In addition to Gerald Ford, also featured are Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Fords story also overlaps with the Watergate scandal. A must read for all voters - especially those under 60.
March 25, 2016
Good read for me as a now adult versus being a teenager during this important period. It was history in action that I was just tuned out of at the time. Lots of well-known people obviously. It was also a good quasi-biography of Gerald Ford during the very short time period.
July 2, 2013
A thoroughly surprising and enjoyable read about a political history I was not born to experience. It paints Ford's radical decency and belief in the office of the President was Nixon's naked self interest and cowardice.
November 19, 2007
Provides more in the way of biographical background on the Cheney-era GOP than insight on how and why it functions today, but more engrossing than I expected it to be.
July 22, 2013
These are the 31 days that saved the Presidency. Ford had to do it then to start the healing and get the country out of Watergate. He ended the long national nightmare.
April 20, 2014
This is another book in my Richard Nixon- John Kennedy Collection. Whew!
January 23, 2023
This book is an interesting and exciting day by day account of Gerald Ford's first 31 days in office, up to the Nixon pardon which apparently torpedoed a presidency that was off to a promising start. It's a shame, Ford seemed like a good guy, the rare case of someone who really didn't want to be president but was swept in as an acceptable replacement for Nixon's VP and Nixon's resignation. The only person to sit in the Oval office without winning any election.
He seemed smart, friendly and capable but facing down the possibility of years of Watergate tearing the country apart, and the possibility of seeing a disgraced, sick, depressed, possibility suicidal former president in jail he chose to take the hit and end it.
The optics of pardoning Nixon while Nixon's staff went to jail for following his orders was an especially toxic tension I hadn't considered. There was also Ford's amnesty program for draft dodgers which didn't strike me as especially harsh, but asking those folks to swear loyalty and do civil service to expunge their records while pardoning Nixon was also bad.
This book also reinforced how gross Nixon is to me. Ford might've had a chance to survive if Nixon had taken some responsibility for Watergate along with his pardon, but he didn't. Nixon also negotiated real hard to get control of his tapes, which made the pardon deal look even worse. Ford just wanted to help the guy and the country and Nixon ended up dragging him into the muck.
He seemed smart, friendly and capable but facing down the possibility of years of Watergate tearing the country apart, and the possibility of seeing a disgraced, sick, depressed, possibility suicidal former president in jail he chose to take the hit and end it.
The optics of pardoning Nixon while Nixon's staff went to jail for following his orders was an especially toxic tension I hadn't considered. There was also Ford's amnesty program for draft dodgers which didn't strike me as especially harsh, but asking those folks to swear loyalty and do civil service to expunge their records while pardoning Nixon was also bad.
This book also reinforced how gross Nixon is to me. Ford might've had a chance to survive if Nixon had taken some responsibility for Watergate along with his pardon, but he didn't. Nixon also negotiated real hard to get control of his tapes, which made the pardon deal look even worse. Ford just wanted to help the guy and the country and Nixon ended up dragging him into the muck.
November 24, 2017
Fantastic book! Never read a book about Watergate before so this was a good appetizer as it describes the first month of the Ford presidency. I now have a much better appreciation for the challenges Ford faced do to his unique ascendancy to the highest office in the land. How he faced the press, Nixon’s pardon, Nixon’s files/papers, inflation, Vietnam deserter amnesty and troubles in the Middle East gave me a better understanding of the times. The book also described countless individuals whom would go on to key positions in the government (Bush, Reagan, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Scalia, Haig, etc). Key excerpts below:
-Ford… an unelected president from a minority party choosing an unelected vice president requiring the approval of the opposition. (OUCH!!)
-Nixon’s files were a millstone hung around his fledgling presidency; he desperately wanted to cut himself free.
-Reference funding for South Vietnam… One third of the request was slated either for new fighter planes, even though the South couldn’t maintain the ones it already had, or else for overhead….. (sounds familiar to Afghanistan).
-President Ford made a fast start. Nearly everyone is impressed. But it’s a cross-country, long-distance event.
-Ford… an unelected president from a minority party choosing an unelected vice president requiring the approval of the opposition. (OUCH!!)
-Nixon’s files were a millstone hung around his fledgling presidency; he desperately wanted to cut himself free.
-Reference funding for South Vietnam… One third of the request was slated either for new fighter planes, even though the South couldn’t maintain the ones it already had, or else for overhead….. (sounds familiar to Afghanistan).
-President Ford made a fast start. Nearly everyone is impressed. But it’s a cross-country, long-distance event.
June 14, 2023
The first 31 days of Gerald Ford’s presidency. The book recounts, the tremendous disruption caused by the Watergate scandal, and the resignation of President Nixon. It gives a behind-the-scenes day by day description of how decisions were made. Particularly interesting in the light of the fact that, as of my reading former President Trump is facing his own legal troubles, is the process behind the decision to pardon Nixon before he was even in court. I learned much about Gerald Ford through this book, and have some respect for his leader, ship and integrity. As a result of the authors account. I was also struck by his naivety and inability to deal with his own personal anxieties I do believe the authors premise that those few months in the transition between than Nixon and Ford presidencies are vital for understanding the way our government works today. It is often forgotten that Ford followed. Not one field president but two, as President Johnson also left under a cloud. The machinations of Alexander,Haig and Donald Rumsfeld were also very informative.
December 2, 2020
Two things are confirmed in reading this book. Alexander Haig was indeed a plotter and a snake, and Gerald Ford got what he deserved when he lost his attempt at re-election after quickly pardoning Richard Nixon. The author reminds us that after his quick pardon, Nixon returned to a life of seclusion and comfort, and went on to write 11 books in his attempt to rebuild his image.
The principle aides below him who carried out the Watergate break in and other dirty deeds, went to prison. How is that fair?
There are many interesting side stories here about the early careers of Washington insiders who came back to haunt us like Richard Perle, Justice Bork, Justice Alito, Dick Chaney and his sidekick Rumsfeld.
Scary stuff.
The principle aides below him who carried out the Watergate break in and other dirty deeds, went to prison. How is that fair?
There are many interesting side stories here about the early careers of Washington insiders who came back to haunt us like Richard Perle, Justice Bork, Justice Alito, Dick Chaney and his sidekick Rumsfeld.
Scary stuff.
July 14, 2018
It's an interesting tick-tock book on Ford's decision to pardon Nixon, but the books seems padded in part. The epliogue felt gratuitous.
Ford's reasons for pardoning Nixon are made clear, although they are still debatable.
On a personal note, I wondered how this news escaped my attention at the time. I was eight years old and my family and I were big Watergate nerds. The announcement was fairly early on a Sunday morning West Coast time (8-9 am). We were likely getting ready to go to church. And later in the day, Evel Knievel was going to rocket across the Snake River Canyon. And that was a big deal for me for some reason.
Ford's reasons for pardoning Nixon are made clear, although they are still debatable.
On a personal note, I wondered how this news escaped my attention at the time. I was eight years old and my family and I were big Watergate nerds. The announcement was fairly early on a Sunday morning West Coast time (8-9 am). We were likely getting ready to go to church. And later in the day, Evel Knievel was going to rocket across the Snake River Canyon. And that was a big deal for me for some reason.
May 25, 2017
Some mistakes took me out of it...
It's a good read, but it lost me early when the author mentioned Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President, and added the acronym 'CREEP'. It was actually the 'CRP.'
The author also mentioned a quote by Henry Kissinger, about Nixon's potential if only 'someone loved him.' Kissinger has stated that he didn't actually say that.
Mr. Werth got my money anyway, and I enjoyed most of it. I appreciate his effort to write about that strange period of history.
It's a good read, but it lost me early when the author mentioned Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President, and added the acronym 'CREEP'. It was actually the 'CRP.'
The author also mentioned a quote by Henry Kissinger, about Nixon's potential if only 'someone loved him.' Kissinger has stated that he didn't actually say that.
Mr. Werth got my money anyway, and I enjoyed most of it. I appreciate his effort to write about that strange period of history.
September 12, 2023
Excellent historical book
Loved reading this book and the untenable position Ford was in. The grace and morality he executed shows great personal conviction and strength. Although the timing of decisions may have failed in the short term and for Ford personally, the wisdom of time shows he was mostly right. He faced almost insurmountable challenges in his first months as President, maybe more than any other President other than Truman. Worth the read to for each to decide for themself.
Loved reading this book and the untenable position Ford was in. The grace and morality he executed shows great personal conviction and strength. Although the timing of decisions may have failed in the short term and for Ford personally, the wisdom of time shows he was mostly right. He faced almost insurmountable challenges in his first months as President, maybe more than any other President other than Truman. Worth the read to for each to decide for themself.
September 15, 2017
For someone who doesn't have a comprehensive grasp of this turn of events, this was a solid recollection (if not a relatively pro-Ford view) of the events as well as a fascinating look at some of the behind-the-scenes maneuverings. I have recently been to the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich., and this was fun to read after seeing many pieces of history relating to these 31 days there.
March 27, 2022
Ford’s decision to pardon Nixon still is so wild to me. His co-conspirators & the folks who resisted the Vietnam draft weren’t granted the same. I agree with treHorst’s decision to resign but see historically how Nixon’s trial being drawn out was harming the institutions of government. Interesting to hear how it went down.
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