Professional Clip 23: Jimmy Carter, Eulogy of Gerald Ford

Jerry Ford and I shared a lot. We both served in the U.S. Navy—he on battleships, I on submarines—as junior officers. In fact, it was my profession. And, we both enjoyed our unexpected promotion to commander-in-chief. Each of us had three sons, and then our prayers were answered and we had a daughter. And, we both married women who are good looking, smart, and extremely independent. As president, I relished his sound advice. And, he often—although I must say reluctantly—departed from the prevailing opinion of his political party to give me support on some of my most difficult challenges. For many of these, of course, he had helped to lay the foundation, including the Panama Canal treaties, nuclear armaments control with the Soviet Union, normalized diplomatic relations with China, and also the Camp David Accords. In fact, on a helicopter in flight from Camp David back to Washington, President Anwar Sadat, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and I made one telephone call: to Gerald Ford, to tell him that we had reached peace between Israel and Egypt.