Ex-president Gerald Ford, who pardoned Nixon, dies

PALM DESERT, Calif., Dec 28 (Reuters) Gerald Ford, whose brief U S presidency was defined by his controversial pardon of Richard Nixon, was honored as a man who tried to heal the nation's divisions after the Watergate scandal.

The oldest living president at 93, Ford died on Tuesday of undisclosed causes at his home in California.

Ford was the only U S president not elected to either the presidency or vice presidency. He was appointed vice president in 1973 after Nixon's original vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned to avoid prosecution on corruption charges.

Then Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign from office, on August 9, 1974, to avoid impeachment for covering up the politically motivated burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.

In his inaugural address, Ford famously vowed to Americans that ''our long national nightmare is over.'' One month later, on September 8, 1974, Ford stirred enduring controversy by granting Nixon ''a full, free and absolute pardon'' for any crime he may have committed in office.

Ford, who had served 26 years as a congressman from Michigan and was Republican leader of the U S House of Representatives at the time of his appointment as vice president, defended the pardon until his death.

Many criticized it as a misguided gesture that let Nixon off the hook. The pardon is widely seen as contributing to Ford's loss when he sought a full presidential term in 1976, losing to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

The Watergate scandal sparked a constitutional crisis which, along with the Vietnam War, shattered Americans' faith in their government and marked the climax of a bitterly divisive era encompassing racial conflict and the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

President George W Bush, speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said Ford had helped heal the nation a sentiment echoed by his father, former president George H W Bush, and by Ford's two emocratic successors, Carter and Bill Clinton.

''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 said. He ordered the American flag be displayed at half-staff at the White House and other U S government and military buildings for 30 days.

FUNERAL SERVICES After a private funeral Friday afternoon in Palm Desert, California, Ford's body will be taken to Washington on Saturday. His casket will lie at the open doors of the House of Representatives and then be taken to the Capitol Rotunda to lie in state.

A service will be held at the National Cathedral on Tuesday.

Later that day, his body will be flown to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for burial on Wednesday in a tomb overlooking the Ford presidential library and museum.

Ford's 2 1/2-year presidency was marked by two assassination attempts; the fall of Vietnam to communist forces; Cambodian seizure of a U.S. freighter that prompted him to send U.S. troops on a rescue mission; and constant fights with Congress. He also was widely parodied for a clumsiness that belied his athleticism as a college football star.

Ford, a Navy officer during World War Two, revived questions about his intellect and grasp of issues with a notorious gaffe in a televised 1976 campaign debate against Carter. He asserted in defense of his foreign policies that ''there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.'' He fell just short in his bid to overcome Carter's 30-point lead in the polls and lost one of the closest elections in U S history.

Carter later became a friend and on Wednesday described Ford as a man who rose above Washington partisanship.

''An outstanding statesman, he wisely chose the path of healing during a deeply divisive time in our nation's history,'' Carter said in a statement.

Ford had been ailing and largely out of the public eye for several years. He died at 1845 hrs IST on Tuesday at his home in Rancho Mirage, where he had retired after the presidency.

''His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country,'' his wife, Betty, said in a statement.

George H W Bush said he owed ''much of my life in politics to Jerry Ford,'' who campaigned for Bush when he ran for Congress in Texas and later named as chief U S envoy to China.

''To his great credit, he (Ford) was the same hard-working, down-to-earth person the day he left the White House as he was when he first entered Congress almost 30 years earlier,'' Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, said in a statement.

Ford, who was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14, 1913, is survived by four children and his wife of 58 years, Betty. The Betty Ford Center she helped found in 1982 is viewed as a top center for treating drug and alcohol abuse.

Reuters BDP DB0915