Ford helped heal US after Watergate Bush

CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec 27 (Reuters) Former President Gerald Ford helped heal the United States after the Watergate scandal and brought ''a calm and steady hand'' to the White House, President George W Bush said today.

''For a nation that needed healing and an office that needed a calm and steady hand, Gerald Ford came along when we needed him most,'' Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford.

Ford took over as US president in 1974 after Richard Nixon's resignation in a scandal that began with the burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic Party's campaign headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. He later pardoned Nixon.

Ailing and mostly out of the public eye for the past few years, Ford died yesterday. He was 93.

REUTERS PB RK1855