Reforms Seem to Give Ford Crowing Rights

Former President Gerald R. Ford, once roundly ridiculed for declaring “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,” says he is taking particular pleasure in liberalization moves there, especially in Poland.

“My mother taught me it is wrong to crow,” Ford wrote in a column on the op-ed page of today’s editions of The Washington Post. “But former presidents as well as small boys know no greater joy than being able to say: ‘I told you so!”’

Ford recalled his statement during a 1976 presidential campaign debate with Jimmy Carter, who went on to defeat him, that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration.”

“I blew it,” Ford wrote.

But, he added, “Reading the verbatim record with 20/20 hindsight in the light of recent developments in Poland and throughout Eastern Europe, I come out pretty well as a prophet.”

Thirteen years after he made the statement that angered many Americans of Eastern European descent, Ford said countries in the Soviet orbit “are writing themselves new constitutions, based on fundamental human rights and freedoms.”

The former President noted that “boasting, like lusting, is best limited to one’s heart.”

So, he added, “when my friends say, ‘You know, what you said about Poland not being dominated by the Soviet Union wasn’t so stupid after all,’ I give them a Sphinx-like smile and accept their (I guess) compliments.”