This just in from a friend. I have no sauce for this. Worth a dig from one of you astute excavators!

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Donald Rumsfeld’s biography of Gerald Ford, titled ”When the Center

Held” was published in 2018. The book clearly articulates that

President Ford was a thoroughly good man, a special American, and a

greatly underrated President. HOWEVER, there was a story in the book

that was startling.

In 1975, President Ford was left to manage the difficult ending of

the Vietnam War. As North Vietnam seized on the opportunity to test

American resolve following President Nixon’s resignation, President

Ford went to Congress to ask for a relief package to push back on the

North Vietnamese to allow American personnel and our allies to

evacuate. However, there was one US Senator who opposed any such

support. The result was the embarrassing and hurried evacuation from

the roof of the American embassy in Saigon. This senator reviled in

the embarrassment and did everything he could to leverage it

politically against Ford.

Despite the efforts of this U.S .Senator–President Ford managed to

rescue 1,500 South Vietnamese allies prior to the country’s fall. Had

President Ford not acted quickly, these people would have been

targeted and slaughtered for their support for America. Saving them

was a moral obligation.

When they arrived in America, President Ford asked Congress for a

package to assist these refugees integrate into American society. But

that troublesome US Senator showed up again and torpedoed any support

for these shell shocked refugees. Instead, President Ford had to

recruit Christian organizations to offer assistance on a voluntary

basis. As he did so, the aforementioned Senator belittled those

efforts.

What kind of person would oppose President Ford’s tireless work to

do the right and humanitarian thing? Who would want to play politics

with the well-being of innocent people who stood by America in the

tragic Vietnam War? That US Senator? Joe Biden.