Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald Ford by Thomas M. Defrank

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Synopsis

In an extraordinary series of private interviews, conducted over sixteen years with the stipulation that they not be released until after Ford's death, the thirty-eighth president of the United States reveals a profoundly different side of himself: funny, reflective, gossipy, strikingly candid -- and the stuff of headlines.

In 1974, award-winning journalist and author Thomas DeFrank, then a young correspondent for Newsweek, was interviewing Vice President Gerald R. Ford when Ford blurted out something astonishingly indiscreet related to the White House, came around his desk, grabbed DeFrank's tie, and told the reporter he could not leave the room until he promised not to publish it. "Write it when I'm dead," he said -- and that agreement formed the basis for their relationship for the next thirty-two years.

During that time, they talked frequently, but from 1991 to shortly before Ford's death in 2006, the interviews became something else -- conversations between two men in which Ford talked in a way few presidents ever have. Here is the real Ford on his relationship with Richard Nixon (including the 1974 revelation that, in DeFrank's words, "will alter what history thinks it knows about the events that culminated in Ford's becoming president"); Ford's experiences on the Warren Commission; his complex relationships with Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter; his startling, never-before-disclosed discussions with Bill Clinton during the latter's impeachment process; his opinions about both Bush administrations, the Iraq war, and many contemporary political figures; and much more. Here also are unguarded personal musings: about key cultural events; his own life, history, and passions; his beloved wife, Betty; and the frustrations of aging.

In all, it is an unprecedented book: illuminating, entertaining, surprising, heartwarming, and, in many ways, historic.

Karl Helicher - Library Journal

Four months before President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, Vice President Ford blurted out to DeFrank, a young Newsweekreporter, that Nixon would be forced out of office. Realizing that he would lose credibility if this remark were made public, Ford grabbed the shocked reporter and made him promise not to quote him until after his (Ford's) death. So began a close personal and professional relationship. DeFrank (Washington bureau chief, New York Daily News; coauthor, with James A. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy) and Ford met 30 times from 1991 to soon before Ford's death a year ago, their talks serving as the core of this engaging account. DeFrank remembers Ford as a likable guy and down-to-earth president who actually enjoyed reporters. Ford claimed that the Nixon pardon was his greatest policy achievement, necessary to getting the nation moving again, although it likely cost him the 1976 election. Even his notable political enemies, especially Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, became Ford's personal friends. Ford retained his loyalty and fondness for his two chiefs of staff, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, despite his misgivings about the Iraq War. This book radiates the warmth between Ford and DeFrank and contains enough enlightening and gossipy stories to maintain the reader's interest. A fine selection for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ7/07.]

Biography

THOMAS M. DEFRANK is the Washington bureau chief of the New York Daily News, and was Newsweek's senior White House correspondent for a quarter-century and deputy chief of the magazine's Washington bureau for twelve years. He is also the coauthor of three books, including James A. Baker III's The Politics of Diplomacy and Ed Rollins's Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms. In 2006, he won the Gerald R. Ford Prize for distinguished reporting on the presidency.