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Gerald Ford
Gerald R. Ford
President Ford
Political Figure
Person
Politician
Israel
Diplomat
Military
WarrenCommission
FBI
UFO
NixonPardon
RockefellerCommission
ChurchCommittee
PikeCommittee
HalloweenMassacre
IntelligenceReform
FreedomOfInformationAct
Thirty-eighth President of the United States, a member of the Warren Commission and House Minority Leader who called for a 1966 congressional inquiry into UFO sightings, who later pardoned Richard Nixon. 1913-07-14 2006-12-26 Omaha, Nebraska 2026-10-09
type with start end fn
member_of Warren Commission 1963-12 1964-09-18 2
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informant_for Federal Bureau of Investigation 1963-12-12 10
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appointed Nelson Rockefeller Chairman, Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States 1975-01-05 21
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appointed James D. Theberge Ambassador to Nicaragua (nominee) 1975-05-30 27
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appointed Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense (nominee) 1975-11-03 33
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appointed Brent Scowcroft Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs 1975-11-03 33
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appointed Dick Cheney Assistant to the President (White House staff coordinator) 1975-11-03 33
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appointed Elliot Richardson Secretary of Commerce (nominee) 1975-11-03 33
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appointed George H.W. Bush Director of Central Intelligence 1976-01-30 34

Gerald R. Ford was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He succeeded Richard Nixon, whose resignation took effect on August 9, 1974.1 Before he became President he was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Michigan, and he was one of the seven members of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.2

Warren Commission

Ford served on the commission from its first meeting in December 1963 through its final meeting on September 18, 1964. His desk diaries for 1963 and 1964 were reviewed in 1997 by T. Jeremy Gunn of the Assassination Records Review Board. Gunn wrote that most diary entries relating to the commission were brief, usually recording an executive session or the subject of a witness's testimony. A March 1964 entry concerned a commission meeting about staff counsel Norman Redlich. Ford gave some consideration to resigning after that meeting, and Allen Dulles telephoned him the next day and urged him not to resign. Gunn also wrote that a January 1964 entry appeared to record a viewing of the assassination film at the Treasury Department, and that Ford said he believed it referred to the Zapruder film. Gunn added his own speculation that Ford may have been shown a United States Secret Service copy before the original was shown to the commission.2

Ford recalled to Gunn that the principal subject of the final meeting was Senator Richard Russell's concern that the report include language saying that "the Commission had found no evidence of a conspiracy, foreign or domestic." Ford said he had since become aware of no evidence that points to a conspiracy. Gunn also asked Ford about a January 1975 Ford Library document recording statements by Henry A. Kissinger about information he had recently received from Richard Helms on Castro assassination attempts of the early 1960s. Ford did not recall the conversation and suggested speaking to Kissinger.2

At the executive session of January 22, 1964, called after Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr reported that Oswald had been an undercover FBI agent, Ford said that postal authorities might have watched activity at a particular post office box, and said that Oswald had been "playing ball" with the Communist parties and with the Trotskyites.3 When Special Agent John W. Fain testified on May 6, 1964, Ford and Dulles questioned him in detail about discrepancies in Oswald's statements; the Church Committee's Book V records that Fain did not mention Oswald's refusal to take a polygraph test at that testimony.4 At the September 18, 1964 session, a motion by Ford to print in the hearings a letter from Representative John R. Pillion of Buffalo failed for want of a second.5

In 1964 Ford changed the commission staff's description of where the bullet entered John F. Kennedy's body. The staff text placed the wound in the uppermost back. Ford's handwritten change placed the entry "at the back of his neck." The Associated Press reported that the change strengthened the commission's conclusion that a single bullet passed through Kennedy and wounded John Connally. Ford's handwritten notes were among about 40,000 pages of records kept by commission chief counsel J. Lee Rankin, and the Assassination Records Review Board made them public on July 2, 1997.6

In a telephone interview from Beaver Creek, Colorado, Ford said, "My changes had nothing to do with a conspiracy theory," and "My changes were only an attempt to be more precise." Robert D. Morningstar, a computer systems specialist in New York City who had written an internet book on the assassination, called the change "the most significant lie in the whole Warren Commission report." Morningstar argued that the change suggested a bullet had struck Kennedy in the neck, "raising the wound two or three inches."6

The published report states in its summary of the shooting that "A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine." Its chapter on the shots describes "another bullet wound" observed at the autopsy "near the base of the back of President Kennedy's neck slightly to the right of his spine."78

FBI liaison

A 1963 FBI memorandum, released long before 2008, recorded that Ford, then a congressman, volunteered to keep the bureau informed about the commission's private deliberations, on condition that the arrangement remain confidential. The bureau agreed.9 That memorandum is Cartha DeLoach's account to John P. Mohr of the bureau, dated December 12, 1963, of his first conversation with Ford, which took place in the congressman's office on the morning of December 12, one week after the commission's first meeting and three days after the FBI delivered its report on the assassination to the commission.1011 The Washington Post reported on its release in January 1978 together with more than 58,000 other pages of the bureau's assassination files.10

Max Holland quoted the memorandum: "Ford told me he was somewhat disturbed about the manner in which Chief Justice Warren was carrying on his chairmanship of the presidential commission." DeLoach continued: "Ford indicated he would keep me thoroughly advised as to the activities of the commission. He stated this would have to be on a confidential basis[;] however, he thought it should be done. He also asked if he could call me from time to time and straighten out questions in his mind concerning our investigation. I told him by all means he should do this. He reiterated that our relationship would of course, remain confidential."11 The Washington Post reported that the memorandum recorded Ford's criticism of Earl Warren, including Warren's proposal of his protege Warren Olney as chief counsel, which Ford described as an attempt to establish a "one-man commission," and that Ford relayed similar complaints by Representative Hale Boggs and by Dulles. The newspaper reported that J. Lee Rankin was named chief counsel instead, as a compromise.10

A second memorandum, dated December 17, 1963, summarized what Ford told DeLoach in the congressman's office about the commission meeting of the day before. It was first reported in 2008, when the FBI released about 500 pages of its file on Ford in response to Freedom of Information Act requests that the Associated Press and others had filed on the day of his death in December 2006. DeLoach wrote: "Two members of the commission brought up the fact that they still were not convinced that the president had been shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas Book Depository." He added: "These members failed to understand the trajectory of the slugs that killed the president. He stated he felt this point would be discussed further but, of course, would represent no problem." Ford also reported internal disputes over hiring staff and Warren's timetable for the final report. In return, DeLoach gave Ford confidential updates on the position of J. Edgar Hoover on panel disputes and discussed where leaks were coming from. With Hoover's approval, DeLoach also lent Ford a locked bureau briefcase so that he could take the FBI's confidential report on the assassination on a ski trip. DeLoach wrote that Ford had no way to take the report "in complete safety," and the memorandum bears a handwritten "OK" over Hoover's initial.9

Holland wrote that the bureau's files record only two later contacts between DeLoach and Ford in memorandum form, on July 10 and August 24, 1964, both concerning the leaking of Lee Harvey Oswald's diary to the news media; that on April 16, 1964 Ford and his wife attended a party at DeLoach's home at which Hoover was present, followed by a letter from Hoover to Ford dated April 17, 1964; and that after the January 1965 election of Ford as House minority leader the bureau placed him on its "Special Correspondents' List."11 The Associated Press reported an internal FBI memorandum of 1965 stating that "though we did experience some difficulty with all the members of the Warren Commission, Ford was of considerable help to the Bureau."9

Ford told Gunn in 1997 that DeLoach's claim that valuable information about the commission's discussions had been obtained was not true. He suggested that DeLoach had exaggerated what he obtained in order to curry favor with Hoover. Gunn wrote that he found no entries in the desk diaries recording meetings between Ford and Hoover or DeLoach. Ford recalled that DeLoach came by his office on occasion during the commission's work and asked general questions, such as whether the FBI was cooperating, and that the only meetings with Hoover he might have had were when Hoover dropped into his office while the bureau's budget was before Congress.2

The 1966 House UFO inquiry

On March 25, 1966, while House Minority Leader, Ford said that a national inquiry into unidentified flying objects would be worthwhile because the American people were becoming alarmed by the UFO stories.12 On March 28 he sent a letter to Representatives George P. Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, and L. Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services. The letter concerned sightings reported in Michigan that month. Ford wrote that J. Allen Hynek, the astrophysicist the Air Force had sent to Michigan, "dismissed all of them as the product of college-student pranks or swamp gas or an impression created by the rising crescent moon and the planet Venus." He wrote that he did not agree "that all of these reports can be or should be so easily explained away." He proposed that "either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed Services Committee of the House schedule hearings on the subject of UFO's and invite testimony from both the executive branch of the government and some of the persons who claim to have seen UFO's." The letter enclosed a column by Roscoe Drummond and six articles by Bulkley Griffin of the Griffin-Larrabee News Bureau, and it quoted telegrams from persons who said they had seen UFOs. The news release issued with the letter described the "swamp gas" explanation given by Hynek as "flippant."13

On April 3 Ford issued a statement noting that the Armed Services Committee had scheduled a closed-door hearing with the Air Force for Tuesday. He said that Representative Joseph E. Karth had headed a three-man subcommittee that held two days of closed hearings on Air Force witnesses for the Science and Astronautics Committee in 1961, and that no record of them was made. Ford said that Miller had shied away from a UFO probe, saying his committee did not have jurisdiction over the Air Force. Ford wrote that he had never said that he believed any of the reported sightings indicated "visits to earth from another planet," and that some of the objects "may well be products of experimentation by our own military."14

The Armed Services hearing took place on April 5, 1966. Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown and John P. McConnell appeared, and Hynek and Major Hector Quintanilla, the Project Blue Book officer, attended. Rivers opened the UFO portion of the session by saying, "Mr. Ford has come out, he has a pretty good size stature in the Congress," and later asked that Ford's letter and Brown's response be put into the record.15 The printed transcript reproduces the letter addressed to Rivers alone and signed "Gerald R. Ford, Member of Congress," with the Drummond column as an enclosure.16

On April 21 Ford announced that the Air Force had arranged for a study of unexplained sightings by high-caliber scientists at a university with no close ties to the Air Force. The study was to be placed under contract after July 1, and Ford reported that the Air Force assured him the report would be made public.17

Nixon pardon

On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which granted "a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974." The proclamation was issued under the pardon power in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. It recites the House Committee on the Judiciary's impeachment inquiry, which it describes as extending over more than eight months.1

On October 17, 1974 Ford appeared before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the House Committee on the Judiciary on two resolutions of inquiry about the pardon. He stated: "In that entire period no references or discussions on a possible pardon for then President Nixon occurred until August 1 and 2, 1974." Asked whether Alexander M. Haig, Jr. had discussed a pardon with Nixon or his representatives during the week of August 4 or afterward, he answered that it was "not to my knowledge."18

Freedom of Information Act veto

On October 17, 1974, the day he testified on the pardon, Ford vetoed H.R. 12471, the bill amending the Freedom of Information Act. His message to the House stated: "I remain concerned that our military or intelligence secrets and diplomatic relations could be adversely affected by this bill." He objected that courts should not be forced to make the initial classification decision, and proposed that the courts uphold a classification where there was a reasonable basis to support it. He also objected to the burden on FBI and other law enforcement files and to the ten-day and twenty-day deadlines.19 The National Security Archive reported that concerns about leaks, shared by Rumsfeld and Cheney, and legal arguments that the bill was unconstitutional, marshaled by government lawyer Antonin Scalia among others, persuaded Ford to veto it. The House overrode the veto 371 to 31 on November 20, 1974, and the Senate 65 to 27 on November 21.20

Rockefeller Commission

On January 4, 1975 Ford issued Executive Order 11828 establishing the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States and announced that it would "ascertain and evaluate any facts relating to activities conducted within the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency that give rise to questions as to whether the Agency has exceeded its statutory authority."21 The order directed the commission to ascertain and evaluate facts bearing on compliance with 50 U.S.C. 403, to determine whether existing safeguards were adequate, and to make recommendations to the President and the Director of Central Intelligence. It required the commission to furnish the Attorney General any evidence it found that might relate to offenses under federal statutes, and to present its final report within three months of the order.22 On January 5 the White House announced the chairman and members: Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, chairman, with John T. Connor, C. Douglas Dillon, Erwin N. Griswold, Ronald Reagan, Lyman L. Lemnitzer, Edgar F. Shannon and Joseph Lane Kirkland.21 The commission is known as the Rockefeller Commission 1975. Its executive director was David W. Belin, who had been a lawyer for the Warren Commission.23

The commission's report states that the President had requested a report on many of the charges from the Director of Central Intelligence and received it in late December 1974. The transmittal letter to Ford is dated June 6, 1975.23

According to the National Security Archive, which published the White House and commission files on February 29, 2016, the commission's assassination inquiry was narrowed by the White House. The archive reported that Ford's January 1975 remark to newspaper editors had revealed CIA involvement in assassination plots, and that the commission voted, over its chairman's objection, to include CIA plots against foreign leaders. It reported that Belin was the main author of the portion on CIA plotting against Fidel Castro, including ZR RIFLE. It reported that Cheney, then deputy assistant to the president, and White House Counsel Philip Buchen intervened to induce Belin to cancel a press conference on the assassination findings, citing concerns raised by Kissinger. This account rests on the archive's posting of the documents and its reading of them.24

The archive reported that the commission's final report, received by Ford on June 6, 1975, omitted an 86-page section on CIA plots against foreign leaders dated June 5, 1975, and that Cheney made numerous edits to the report. It reported that the edits replaced the commission's finding of "unlawful" activities with language about actions exceeding statutory authority, with a single exception for the CIA drug experiments, which the edit described as "illegal."24

The May 1975 submarine story

On May 25, 1975 the New York Times published a story by Seymour Hersh about American submarine intercept missions in Soviet waters. At a White House meeting on May 27, Ford, James R. Schlesinger, William Colby, Rumsfeld, Robert Ingersoll and Brent Scowcroft discussed the story. Ford said, "I was shocked when I read in the newspaper about our submarines operating off Soviet waters," and "Somehow someone must be made an example of." Schlesinger called the disclosure "a flagrant violation of the law" and suggested a search warrant for material Hersh was said to hold. Colby told the meeting that the Supreme Court's refusal to review the Victor Marchetti case was good news. Ford said that a communication to Justice ought to ask for action and for recommendations under the law ("prosecution of Hersh and the New York Times"). The memorandum records, in brackets, that "The President decided to go the FBI route," and Ford directed that Justice look into "the alternatives of getting at Hersh and the New York Times."25

A memorandum dated May 31, 1975 in the Cheney files records that Attorney General Edward Levi had instructed the criminal division and the FBI to prepare a proposal for an investigation. It states that "we should not have an FBI investigation if there is no intention to prosecute." The memorandum also states that the May 25 story was "based on papers filed with the court in the Marchetti case." The memoranda concern the May 25 story. They do not concern the March 19, 1975 articles on the Glomar Explorer.2526

Nomination of James D. Theberge

On May 30, 1975 the White House announced Ford's intention to nominate James D. Theberge, director of Latin American Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University, as Ambassador to Nicaragua, succeeding Turner B. Shelton, who was resigning from the Foreign Service.27

Church and Pike committees

On October 31, 1975 Ford wrote to Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Church Committee, asking that the committee's final report on assassination plots be kept secret on national security grounds, and wrote that publication would "result in grievous harm to the national interest and may endanger individuals." Church replied on November 4 that "in my view the national interest is better served by letting the American people know the true and complete story." The committee voted to reject Ford's request.28

On January 29, 1976 Ford wrote to Representative Otis Pike, chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, on the committee's proposed report. The letter states that representatives of the executive branch with responsibilities in the intelligence area had reviewed the proposed report and that, as Ford understood, they had communicated their views to Pike and the members. Ford wrote that he understood "there are still some issues regarding inclusion in the report of certain classified information which have not been resolved by your Committee and the various agencies of the Executive Branch concerned." He continued: "Pursuant to the agreement regarding public release of classified information, I await your submission of these unresolved issues to me so that I might determine whether or not the disclosure of the information involved would be detrimental to the national security."29

Israel and nuclear questions

Hersh wrote that the Nixon and Ford administrations maintained a warm relationship with Israel, in contrast to the later approach of the Jimmy Carter administration, and that Ford's precedent was to restrict access to high-quality KH-11 imagery, even to close allies such as Great Britain.30

Hersh also wrote that in late 1976, at the end of Ford's tenure, Kissinger casually mentioned to Hermann F. Eilts, the American ambassador to Egypt, a concern that the Israelis might go nuclear if they did not receive military equipment quickly. He wrote that this occurred in a final meeting in which Kissinger brought up the 1973 Yom Kippur War again.31

Executive Order 11905

On February 18, 1976 Ford signed Executive Order 11905, "United States Foreign Intelligence Activities." Section 5(g) of the order states: "No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination." Section 5 took effect on March 1, 1976.32

The order set the CIA's duties as "related to the foreign intelligence functions" listed in the order, and directed the Director of Central Intelligence to delegate the day-to-day operation of the Central Intelligence Agency to the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. It established a Committee on Foreign Intelligence chaired by the Director of Central Intelligence, an Operations Advisory Group to consider each special activity in support of national foreign policy objectives, and a three-member Intelligence Oversight Board of persons from outside the government.32

Halloween Massacre and the appointment of Bush

On November 3, 1975 Ford announced personnel changes at a news conference. He said he intended to nominate Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense and thanked Schlesinger for his service as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense. He said that Scowcroft would become Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs when Kissinger gave up that post to concentrate on being Secretary of State, and that Cheney was to replace Rumsfeld as Assistant to the President. Elliot Richardson, Ambassador to Great Britain, was to be nominated Secretary of Commerce. Ford also said it was his intention to nominate "Ambassador Bush" as Director of Central Intelligence. He said that in recent months the CIA "has been the focus of some controversy," and that Colby had "done an outstanding job."33

Asked why Schlesinger and Colby did not fit on the new team, Ford answered: "I think any President has to have the opportunity to put together his own team." Asked about reports that Schlesinger had been in conflict with his attitude on detente and with Kissinger's, he said: "There were no basic differences." The same day Rockefeller delivered to Ford a letter, released by the Office of the Vice President, stating: "I do not wish my name to enter into your consideration for the upcoming Republican Vice Presidential nominee." Ford said at the news conference: "The decision by Vice President Rockefeller was a decision on his own." The joint statement released by the Vice President's press office read: "The letter speaks for itself. The initiative was the Vice President's." The November 1975 changes are known as the Halloween Massacre.33

George H.W. Bush, who had been the United States representative to the People's Republic of China, was sworn in as Director of Central Intelligence on January 30, 1976.34

Footnotes

  1. Proclamation 4311, "Granting Pardon to Richard Nixon," September 8, 1974. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-4311-granting-pardon-richard-nixon ↩︎

  2. Gunn, T. Jeremy. Memorandum to file, "Gerald R. Ford 'Desk Diaries' and Interview," June 2, 1997, describing a May 28, 1997 review of Ford's 1963 and 1964 desk diaries and an interview at Rancho Mirage, California. Assassination Records Review Board files, File no. 4.05. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB/JGUNN/WP-DOCS/INTERVIE/FORD.02.PDF ↩︎

  3. Warren Commission, executive session transcript, January 22, 1964. https://aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcexec/pdf/WcEx0122.pdf ↩︎

  4. U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies, Book V, Final Report, April 23, 1976, p. 88 and note 8. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_V.pdf ↩︎

  5. Warren Commission, executive session minutes, September 18, 1964. https://aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcexec/pdf/WcEx0918.pdf ↩︎

  6. Feinsilber, Mike. "Warren Commission Report Altered," Associated Press, July 1997, as copied in an Assassination Records Review Board email of July 3, 1997. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/NARA-Oct2017/ARRB-Emails/ARRBmails03283.pdf ↩︎

  7. Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964, Chapter 1, "Summary and Conclusions," p. 3. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-1 ↩︎

  8. Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964, Chapter 3, "The Shots from the Texas School Book Depository," section "The President's Neck Wounds," pp. 87-88. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-3 ↩︎

  9. Associated Press. "Ford was the FBI's spy on the Warren Commission," August 10, 2008, quoting the FBI memorandum of December 17, 1963 from Cartha DeLoach and describing the 2008 release from Ford's FBI file. Reproduced by the Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/2008/8/10/20268447/ford-was-the-fbi-s-spy-on-the-warren-commission ↩︎

  10. Lardner, George, Jr. "Documents Show Ford Promised FBI Data, Secretly, About Warren Probe," Washington Post, January 20, 1978 (reproduced as CIA-RDP91-00901R000500110025-7, CIA Reading Room), quoting the DeLoach memorandum of the December 12, 1963 conversation. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91-00901R000500110025-7.pdf ↩︎

  11. Holland, Max. "The Ford Files," Washington Decoded, August 11, 2008, citing "Memo, DeLoach to Mohr, 12 December 1963, courtesy of the Mary Ferrell Foundation," memoranda of July 10 and August 24, 1964, and Hoover's letter to Ford of April 17, 1964. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/53424 ↩︎

  12. Ford, Gerald R. News release, March 25, 1966. Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers, Press Secretary and Speech File, Box D9, folder "Ford Press Releases - UFO, 1966," Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0054/4525586.pdf ↩︎

  13. Ford, Gerald R. Letter to Representatives George P. Miller and L. Mendel Rivers, with news release, March 28, 1966. Same file as note 9. ↩︎

  14. Ford, Gerald R. Statement, April 3, 1966. Same file as note 9. ↩︎

  15. U.S. House Committee on Armed Services. Unidentified Flying Objects: Hearing, No. 85, 89th Congress, 2d session, April 5, 1966. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1966. The opening exchange between Chairman Rivers and Secretary Brown. https://archive.org/details/ufo_1966_1 The printed cover gives April 6, 1966 as the date. ↩︎

  16. U.S. House Committee on Armed Services. Unidentified Flying Objects: Hearing, April 5, 1966, second part, Rivers's request that "Mr. Ford's letter, and the response by Secretary Brown" go into the record and the letter of March 28, 1966 as printed. https://archive.org/details/UfoHearing19662 ↩︎

  17. Ford, Gerald R. Statement, April 21, 1966. Same file as note 9. ↩︎

  18. Ford, Gerald R. Statement before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, House Committee on the Judiciary, October 17, 1974. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Philip Buchen Files, Box 34, "Nixon Pardon Hungate Subcommittee, Ford Testimony, 1974/10/17." https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0019/4520699.pdf ↩︎

  19. Ford, Gerald R. Message to the House of Representatives returning H.R. 12471 without approval, October 17, 1974. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, as posted in National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 142. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB142/101774%20Veto%20Message.pdf ↩︎

  20. National Security Archive, "Veto Battle 30 Years Ago Set Freedom of Information Norms," Electronic Briefing Book No. 142, edited by Dan Lopez, Thomas Blanton, Meredith Fuchs and Barbara Elias, November 23, 2004. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB142/ ↩︎

  21. Statement Announcing Establishment of a Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, January 4, 1975, with the White House announcement of the commission's members, January 5, 1975. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-announcing-establishment-commission-cia-activities-within-the-united-states ↩︎

  22. Executive Order 11828, "Establishing a Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States," January 4, 1975, Sections 2, 3 and 6. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11828-establishing-commission-cia-activities-within-the-united-states ↩︎

  23. Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, June 1975, transmittal letter dated June 6, 1975 and Preface, section B. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Richard B. Cheney Files, Box 7, folder "Intelligence - Rockefeller Commission Report - Final (1)." https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/LIBRARY/document/0005/1561495.pdf ↩︎

  24. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 543, "Gerald Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report in 1975; Removed Section on CIA Assassination Plots," edited by John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, February 29, 2016. Documents cited in the posting include Document 15 (Cheney's marginal edits), Document 19 (the 86-page section, June 5, 1975) and a photograph of Ford receiving the report on June 6, 1975. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2016-02-29/gerald-ford-white-house-altered-rockefeller-commission-report ↩︎

  25. Memorandum of conversation, May 27, 1975, Ford, Schlesinger, Colby, Rumsfeld, Ingersoll and Scowcroft. National Security Adviser, Memoranda of Conversations, Box 12, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0314/1553088.pdf ↩︎

  26. Memorandum, May 31, 1975, Richard B. Cheney Files, Box 6, folder "Intelligence - New York Times Articles by Seymour Hersh (2)," Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0005/7288231.pdf ↩︎

  27. "Nomination of James D. Theberge To Be Ambassador to Nicaragua," White House press release, May 30, 1975. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, White House Press Releases, Box 11. https://fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0248/whpr19750530-004.pdf ↩︎

  28. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 543, Documents 21 and 22: letter from President Gerald R. Ford to Senator Frank Church, October 31, 1975, and Church's reply of November 4, 1975. Gerald R. Ford Library, Ronald Nessen Papers, Box 299, and Ford Papers, Box 31. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2016-02-29/gerald-ford-white-house-altered-rockefeller-commission-report ↩︎

  29. Ford, Gerald R. Letter to Representative Otis G. Pike, Chairman, Select Committee on Intelligence, House of Representatives, January 29, 1976. Gerald R. Ford Library, James E. Connor Files, Intelligence Series, Box 56, folder "House Select Com. - General." National Security Archive, "White House, Letter from President Gerald Ford to Representative Otis Pike, Re Classified Information in Pike Report." https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/3763100/Document-41-White-House-Letter-from-President.pdf ↩︎

  30. Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 1. ↩︎

  31. Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17. ↩︎

  32. Executive Order 11905, "United States Foreign Intelligence Activities," February 18, 1976. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11905-united-states-foreign-intelligence-activities ↩︎

  33. The President's News Conference, November 3, 1975, including the statement announcing personnel changes in the administration and the text of Vice President Rockefeller's letter of the same date. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-60 ↩︎

  34. Remarks at the Swearing In of George Bush as Director of Central Intelligence, January 30, 1976. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-swearing-george-bush-director-central-intelligence ↩︎