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WASHINGTON - It was inevitable that upon the death of President Gerald R. Ford, his pardon of Richard Nixon, the man who had put him in the line of presidential succession, would be reexamined.

Many retrospectives of that decision, widely unpopular at the time, now argue that Ford did the right thing in wiping the slate clean for the man who had named him to be his vice president in late 1973 after the resignation in disgrace of Spiro Agnew.

Ford said at the time he had granted the pardon to "write an end" to the crippling Watergate saga that was impinging on his own conduct of the presidency, and to insure "domestic tranquility." He flatly denied any deal - Nixon's resignation on a promise of a pardon - and so testified before a congressional committee.

But a story the other day in the Washington Post by Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward, based on a 2005 interview with Ford, reported a strong personal friendship between Nixon and Ford, with an implied hint that it was a factor in Ford's decision.

While that may have been true on Ford's part, there is persuasive evidence that the duplicitous Nixon did not fully share the comradeship with the man he finally, reluctantly, chose to be his second vice president.

The White House tapes that later revealed Nixon's role in the Watergate cover-up are replete with declarations of his preference for former Democratic Gov. John Connally of Texas, not Ford, to replace Agnew.

Nixon long connived in 1971 on how to get Agnew to resign as vice president or not stand for reelection in 1972, and to nominate Connally, who for a time was Nixon's secretary of treasury and a convert to the Republican Party.

According to Nixon's chief of staff at the time, Gen. Alexander Haig, as late as three weeks before Agnew's resignation Nixon was determined to fight for Connally's appointment, which would have faced stiff congressional opposition in both parties. Haig said Nixon told him: "We've crossed that bridge. We cannot back off. If Connally is willing to go, we'll go.... What's the option? Ford?"

But when numerous Republican members of Congress directly opposed Connally and told Nixon that Ford, at the time the party's leader in the House, would be easily confirmed, Nixon accepted Ford as his new vice president.

Nixon remained so high on Connally, however, that he had discussions with him about forming a third party of moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats, with Connally as its presidential nominee in 1976 and Nixon as the kingmaker and power behind Connally. But Nixon's own Watergate woes intervened.

Though Nixon remained cordial with Ford as his vice president, as he had been with Agnew while plotting to replace him, he looked at Ford for a time as an insurance policy against his own impeachment. That is, he reasoned it wouldn't happen as long as Ford was next in the line of succession.

In May, 1974, Newsweek reported that Nixon, sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office, had told visiting Gov. Nelson Rockefeller: "Can you imagine Jerry Ford sitting in this chair?" The New York governor, whom Ford as president later named as his vice president, denied Nixon had said it. But to many insiders who knew Nixon, the remark had the ring of believability to it.

Ford, for his part, never allowed himself any disparaging remarks about Nixon and, in fact, clung to a stated belief in his innocence of the Watergate crimes until the eve of Nixon's resignation. Even then, he remained silent as he awaited his own elevation to the Oval Office.

When Nixon informed Ford that he would nominate him for vice president, Ford pointedly told him he had promised his wife, Betty, that he would retire from politics in 1976 and therefore didn't expect he'd be nominated for president then.

Nixon replied, Ford wrote later, "Well, that's good, because John Connally is my choice for 1976," to which Ford answered: "That's no problem as far as I'm concerned." Obviously, Ford changed his mind, and in any event, by that time Nixon's support would not have done Connally much good. ---

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