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Putnam
November 2007
On Sale: October 30, 2007
272 pages
ISBN: 0399154507
EAN: 9780399154508
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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.
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