Testimonios (Continuación)

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Gerarld R. Ford kept his distance from political controversy after leaving office, but he retained a special interest in the workings of his alma mater. In 1999, the 86-year-old former varsity football star decided to make a public stand in support of affirmative action at the University of Michigan.

He wrote an Op-Ed article on this page titled “Inclusive America, Under Attack.” A pair of pending lawsuits, Mr. Ford wrote, would prohibit Michigan and other universities “from even considering race as one of many factors weighed by admission counselors.” Such a move would condemn “future college students to suffer the cultural and social impoverishment that afflicted my generation.”…  Seguir leyendo »

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El día 31 de diciembre del 1936, en plena guerra civil, un día frío y luminoso, alrededor de la hora ritual española de las cinco de la tarde, Miguel de Unamuno murió en Salamanca, «de mal de España», como diagnosticaría Ortega y Gasset. Los médicos dirían que había muerto de una congestión cerebral, producida por las emanaciones de anhídrido carbónico del brasero doméstico. Su muerte sólo fue presenciada por un joven falangista, Bartolomé Aragón, que, recién venido del frente bélico, había ido a visitarlo, admirativo y fiel. Cuando Unamuno, después de su última irritación dialéctica y de su última frase para la historia y para su biografía, con su ciego voluntarismo suicida a flor de piel: «¡Dios no puede volverle la espalda a España!…  Seguir leyendo »

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Los tesoros de la infancia, en mi época, se reducían en general a residuos de la guerra. Había un lugar legendario, allá donde la pequeña ciudad provinciana perdía su nombre, que sin estar prohibido tenía para los niños algo de territorio vedado. Nunca nos jactábamos de haber estado por allí y si nos preguntaban mentíamos y hablábamos de cualquier otro lugar cercano. Eran unos descampados junto a la cárcel. Por entonces todas las ciudades estaban llenas de descampados, unos territorios que ejercían un atractivo especial para jugar; auténticos parques, improvisados y salvajes. Sería más exacto afirmar que se trataba de restos, ruinas, desechos de algo que hubo allí y fue derribado por los bombardeos, pero aún estábamos con el aura del juego, mucho antes de que descubriéramos el drama.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Gerald R. Ford was a decent and honorable man. Under his steady hand, the nation began the process of recovering from the terrible trauma of Watergate -- the lies, distortions, coverups, misuses of federal agencies to exact political revenge, illegal wiretapping, burglaries. . . . The list went on and on -- all in the midst of the deeply divisive Vietnam War. Did Ford make the right decision in pardoning his predecessor? The answer to that question is more nuanced than either the howls of outrage that greeted the pardon three decades ago or the general acceptance with which it is viewed now.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The standard tribute to Gerald R. Ford is that he served the nation best simply by stepping into the presidency for the disgraced and banished Richard M. Nixon.

But to those who served with the man from Michigan, his achievements did not begin or end with his being available to help "heal our land" from the wounds of the Nixon presidency, as his successor, Jimmy Carter, said on the day he took over from Ford.

The alumni of the Ford administration -- a notable group -- insist that though he had never particularly aimed for the presidency, the "accidental president" developed a considerable mastery of the job and was on his way to building a legacy when the voters sent him into early retirement.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Gerald R. Ford was a professional politician who tempered the practice of his trade's deceits with innate decency. That was demonstrated to me on April 1, 1971, in an incident unique in my half-century as a Washington reporter.

I had been tipped that House Republican leader Ford was carrying out a confidential mission at President Richard Nixon's request: to ask Republican members of Congress how they would react to presidential clemency or even a pardon for Lt. William Calley, sentenced a day earlier for the murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians. I called Ford to ask whether Nixon had met with him to pursue that endeavor.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Those who believe that a kindly Providence keeps a watchful eye on America's welfare can cite the fact of Gerald Ford. On Aug. 9, 1974, at a moment when the nation was putting aside an unhappy, tormented president, and was aching for serenity in high places, to the center of national life strode an abnormality -- a happy, normal man as president.

Watergate and a presidential resignation were only two of the nation's problems that August. The mid-'70s were years when everyday things could no longer be counted on -- inflation was undermining the currency as a store of value, and lines at gasoline pumps testified to the power of foreigners to get between Americans and their best friends, their automobiles.…  Seguir leyendo »

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One reason Gerald R. Ford was a good president was because he never wanted to be president.

After 25 years as a congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich., he told his wife, Betty, that he was going to run for one more term in the House and then retire to spend more time with her and their children. Then, suddenly, he was appointed vice president (after Spiro Agnew's resignation) and succeeded to the presidency (after Richard Nixon's resignation).

Unlike politicians who carefully calculate for decades how their every word and deed will sound and look when they eventually run for the White House, Ford moved into the Oval Office without having his persona distorted by lust for the presidency.…  Seguir leyendo »

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See pictures from the life of Gerald Ford

A word likely to be prominent in many obituaries of Gerald Ford is “accidental”. This is because he is the only man to have served in the Oval Office without ever having been directly elected either as president or vice-president. But this accidental sense was reinforced by the events of his time in office and his bumbling style. The same obituaries will also conclude that his main achievement was restoring the credibility of the White House after the Watergate debacle.

I take issue with this conventional wisdom. Ford was not an “accidental” president if that label implies his rise was random.…  Seguir leyendo »

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For Americans under a certain age, Gerald Ford is best remembered for his contribution to Bartlett’s — “Our long national nightmare is over” — or, more likely, for the comedian Chevy Chase’s stumbling, bumbling impersonations of him on “Saturday Night Live.” But there’s a different label we can attach to this former president, one that has been overlooked for 62 years: war hero.

In 1944, Lt. j.g. Jerry Ford — a lawyer from Grand Rapids, Mich., blond and broad-shouldered, with the lantern jaw of a young Johnny Weissmuller — was a 31-year-old gunnery officer on the aircraft carrier Monterey. The Monterey was a member of Adm.…  Seguir leyendo »

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America got its first real impression of Gerald Ford on the steamy August morning 33 years ago when he took office as president, and most people instantly liked what they saw. Mr. Ford stood in the driveway of his suburban split-level house, hours before assuming a post he never sought and hoped to avoid having to fill. One of the questions he took was about Harry Truman’s comment when he had the office abruptly thrust upon him. Mr. Truman said he felt that the moon, the stars and the planets had fallen on him.

“I think that’s an apt description,” Mr.…  Seguir leyendo »

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I took this photograph of President Gerald Ford in the White House Cabinet Room on May 14, 1975, as he met with his National Security Council about the Mayagüez crisis. The cargo ship Mayagüez had been captured by Khmer Rouge rebels, and it was up to the president to try to get the American crew released safely.

After diplomacy failed, Mr. Ford, who had been president for nine months, waved off one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s recommendations, which involved a B-52 strike on Phnom Penh, and instead ordered a strong but limited military action that ultimately secured the crew’s freedom.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The last time I saw James Brown play live, he brought his showband to the decorous concrete spaces of the Barbican — not exactly as rootsy a setting as his erstwhile spiritual home, the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The weight of years, moreover, had taken its toll on the mercurial footwork, which meant that Brown — then in his late sixties — spent a fair amount of the show anonymously mooching around on a keyboard at the back of the stage.

At one point he even invited a magician to while away a few more minutes. As exotic handkerchiefs flew in all directions, I wondered if it was going to turn into one of those embarrassing affairs in which an ageing performer insists on one tour too many.…  Seguir leyendo »

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If you are a fan of Central European literature on the lines of Joseph Roth, Stefan Zweig or Arthur Schnitzler, then Professor Jakob Allerhand was exactly the person you'd have wanted to meet in Vienna, mainly because he seemed to come from an age now consigned to novels such as theirs.

It is not that the professor, who died a few weeks ago in his cavernous Ringstrasse apartment, was in the same league as these luminaries. He was more like one of the personalities they wrote about: erudite on any number of subjects, prolific in more than a dozen languages and ever ironic in his humor.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Halk, Watan, Turkmenbashi: "People, State, Father of all Turkmen." Around Turkmenistan, where President Saparmurat Niyazov died yesterday, these words adorn nearly every public space. Niyazov called himself "Turkmenbashi" and so did "his" people. Today, there is only the People and the State, and no Turkmenbashi.

During the time he ruled, he built a cult of personality. But many Turkmen citizens secretly nursed hopes of what they would do after he died.

I worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkmenistan from 2003 to 2005. When I was living there, I sometimes had dinner with a laborer, Muhammed, and his family.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Loyola. Loyola, sin más, porque ella sola llenaba un nombre. Un nombre que se ha desbordado en lágrimas; en pesar por su pérdida. En marea de respeto espontáneo. Un auténtico fenómeno social. Un nombre que, con su muerte, han hecho suyo tantos españoles, tantos europeos, como referente de valores.

Desde la compleja complicidad que entretejió nuestras vidas, estos días me ha venido reiteradamente a la memoria una anécdota que hoy cobra un significado simbólico. Mi recuerdo se ancla en una tarde en que, como tantas veces, hacíamos los deberes después del colegio compartiendo mesa, y yo protestaba ante la letanía de un «rosa, rosa, rosam, rosae, rosae, rosa» que Loyola se esforzaba en memorizar, en voz alta y a zancadas por la habitación.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Although the official statement yesterday on Turkmenistan's president spoke of his "divine foresight," not even this dictator could foresee his own death or what will happen to his country afterward.

Saparmurad Niyazov, who died unexpectedly yesterday after a heart attack, was a tyrant par excellence. He presided over a closed and repressive regime as uncontested master of the Turkmen people. Those who dared challenge his absolute power were arrested and tortured, then sentenced to long prison terms. Any sign of dissent was fiercely suppressed.

Among his more recent victims were two journalists who worked for foreign news outlets and one human rights activist.…  Seguir leyendo »

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En un artículo reciente (The dutch are leading a popular rebellion, FT, 26 de noviembre de 2006), Wolfgang Munchau señala cómo la sociedad europea se resiste a los cambios que parece necesario abordar si nuestras economías han de sobrevivir en el mundo que viene: un partido que propone un programa de reformas que uno estimaría razonable -dice- tiene casi garantizado perder las elecciones, no porque el votante sea un ingrato, sino porque prefiere malo conocido a bueno por conocer: si bien no está muy satisfecho con lo que tiene, como no escucha de sus políticos "una visión coherente y transparente de prosperidad y seguridad económica para el siglo XXI", se niega a aceptar cualquier cambio: como decimos vulgarmente, no lo ve claro.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Al cumplirse el 20º aniversario de la muerte de José Antonio Maravall, la mente se puebla de recuerdos personales. Tal vez el más ilustrativo de su personalidad fuera aquel episodio del año 1961 en que el bedel del Instituto de Estudios Políticos vino a interrumpir la reunión del seminario de Historia de las Ideas que él codirigía con Luis Díez del Corral. Avisaba de que en media hora iban a reunirse allí mismo miembros del Consejo Nacional del Movimiento, cuya sede era el viejo palacio del Senado. Maravall se levantó casi de un salto del sofá, colocado justo bajo el enorme cuadro de la conversión de Recaredo, y marchó decidido hacia la puerta.…  Seguir leyendo »

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En la noche del 19 al 20 de diciembre de hace veinte años fallecía a los 75 años don José Antonio Maravall, uno de los grandes historiadores de la segunda mitad del siglo XX que, junto con su gran amigo y mi querido maestro don Luis Díez del Corral y el muy recordado y entrañable don Luis García de Valdeavellano, formaron un departamento de historia irrepetible y pionero desde los años sesenta en la historia de la historiografía española. Los tres fueron académicos de la Historia y maestros de varias generaciones de historiadores; para sus discípulos fue un privilegio estar cerca de ellos, tanto por su talento y su rigor como por su humanidad y generosidad, cualidades que los tres compartían con sus diferentes estilos y su personalidad insustituible.…  Seguir leyendo »