Books: DeFrank's "Write it when I'm gone"
Daniel J. Williams
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Arts
In early 1974, as the Watergate scandal mortally threatened the Nixon presidency, Thomas M. DeFrank, a 28-year-old journeyman reporter for Newsweek, had a portentous encounter with Vice President Gerald R. Ford.
In the course of a routine interview, Ford's typically strident support for President Nixon faltered momentarily when Ford blurted out, to the amazement of the young reporter, a shocking confession:
"Four months before it actually happened...Ford [admitted] he knew in his gut that Nixon was a goner and he would soon become America's 38th, and first unelected, president."
Immediately, as DeFrank recounts, the Vice President grabbed the stunned young reporter by the tie and exacted a promise from him not to print what he had just heard.
"Write it when I'm dead." DeFrank's loyalty to that promise, and the relationship blossoming out of it, produced several dozen interviews with Ford, including at least 30 during retirement.
"Write It When I'm Gone" is an intimate, touching and wholly worthwhile look at a man known perhaps to some as a mere unelected heir to a scandal-scarred presidency.
In presenting "the human side of an everyday guy," DeFrank reveals Ford's private thoughts regarding Watergate and the Nixon pardon, his deep bitterness at Reagan, his feelings toward his fellow former presidents, and other previously candid and, until now, private sentiments.
In the course of a routine interview, Ford's typically strident support for President Nixon faltered momentarily when Ford blurted out, to the amazement of the young reporter, a shocking confession:
"Four months before it actually happened...Ford [admitted] he knew in his gut that Nixon was a goner and he would soon become America's 38th, and first unelected, president."
Immediately, as DeFrank recounts, the Vice President grabbed the stunned young reporter by the tie and exacted a promise from him not to print what he had just heard.
"Write it when I'm dead." DeFrank's loyalty to that promise, and the relationship blossoming out of it, produced several dozen interviews with Ford, including at least 30 during retirement.
"Write It When I'm Gone" is an intimate, touching and wholly worthwhile look at a man known perhaps to some as a mere unelected heir to a scandal-scarred presidency.
In presenting "the human side of an everyday guy," DeFrank reveals Ford's private thoughts regarding Watergate and the Nixon pardon, his deep bitterness at Reagan, his feelings toward his fellow former presidents, and other previously candid and, until now, private sentiments.
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