Oval Office Optimism

By Hugh Sidey

Gerald Ford, for all his and the world's troubles, has not lost his hopes for humanity. Maybe that is his real Christmas message. "I have no apologies for saying a little prayer every night, the one I have said most of my life [Proverbs 3: 5-6], and I think it expresses my feeling that somehow a higher authority is going to be helpful in giving us the directions. It is just not rational or understandable for leaders or nations to permit this world to suffer nuclear catastrophe."

Ford finds something out there that a lot of people cannot see. The Oval Office is a special lens--one that may help a man perceive the truth but may also distort the view. The question is which it will do. The other day, Ford talked about this. He stuffed his pipe full of tobacco but he never got it lighted, his enthusiasm possessing him totally.

He likes and trusts the leaders he has met, both in the White House and during his travels, which have been sharply criticized. "They fully understand the potential dangers if we don't make bonafide efforts to sit down and talk and find some answers. I don't see any leader that I have met with who is a troublemaker for personal aggrandizement or for national interests. I start out with the assumption that our relations are one of trust, and I have had no instance in my period in the White House where that trust has been breached --certainly nothing of any major importance."

In the back of Ford's mind is the concern about a nuclear miscalculation. But over the past months even that specter seems to have faded a bit for the President. Ford was reminded that John Kennedy felt it was in man's nature eventually to use the weapons he created. The President reacted quickly. "I don't share that pessimism. You cannot be certain that at some point there won't be a leader who might act differently, but certainly this generation of leaders I do not think would be so foolhardy."

Even Brezhnev comes out in Jerry Ford's world as a man working in his own way for his own people and some kind of world stability. "He is well informed. He is very forceful. It is a good working relationship. [He has] spoken of a broader interest, of trying to achieve a stability for peace in the world as a whole. I believe honestly there is a realization that we should try to find a way to prevent a nuclear confrontation."

What about accusations that the Soviets have been cheating on the arms-limitation agreements? "There are, as has been said by others, certain ambiguities, but I don't believe there was any intended violation and I do not think that there have been any actual violations."

Ford is troubled by Angola. But he sees less likelihood of war in the Middle East, NATO stronger, the European allies working together much better on economic matters, Juan Carlos making impressive efforts in Spain, Portugal improved, the U.S. flag a little steadier in the Pacific.

There is little question in his mind who will win the economic competition. "Compared to other systems--Western democracies or Communist-dominated nations--our economic strength has been proven, and our resiliency is obviously stronger than others.

"Militarily," Ford continued, "our capability is second to none. I get a little frustrated sometimes with critics of what we are trying to do, but we have the power, we have to maintain it, and I think we will."

The President reached back 30 years for his model of the kind of bipartisan support he would like to see in the Congress. Referring to the critics of our continued involvement in the world, he expressed hope that "we will get back to the post-World War II era, when Senator [Tom] Connally and Senator [Arthur] Vandenberg could and did work together to construct in the Congress a bipartisan foreign policy." He continued: "The role and the responsibility of the U.S. [is] to meet our obligations not only to ourselves and our security but, on a broader basis, to get some answers to the problems of the world conflict."

Ford will be in office when this nation begins its third century, and if he has his way, he will focus his Administration on combatting American bigness--"big government, big labor, big industry, big education."

He said: "The third century ought to concentrate on expanding the freedom of individual citizens."

Not even the rising political challenge of Ronald Reagan seemed to dent Ford's hard-core optimism. He brushed it aside with the admonition to wait for Election Day. Jerry Ford, at once so simple and yet so perplexing, could almost be believed when he said, "I get a great feeling every day I get up. I can't wait to get over to the office. Some days I am more disappointed than others, but I enjoy the challenge every day."

It could have come from Dale Carnegie or Norman Vincent Peale, but there are worse ways to slide into 1976.

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