Ford’s Pardon of Nixon

* Re “A Wise Ford Pardoned Nixon,” Commentary, Sept. 7:

Stanley Kutler says, “If [Richard] Nixon had won acquittal on any grounds, he would have clouded the historical understanding of Watergate. [President Gerald] Ford spared us such ambiguity.”

Ambiguity, my foot! Nixon was caught with a smoking gun, a smoking cannon, a smoking arsenal. Kutler mentions a “hint” of conspiracy regarding a deal with Ford to pardon Nixon. If Kutler would read Bob Woodward’s book, “Shadows,” he would find there was more than a “hint.”

VIC SPENCER

Northridge

* The media seem to enjoy vilifying Nixon. I saw him as a man with a full plate. He inherited persistent inflation, the war in Vietnam and the great riots: Blacks were burning the cities, women were burning their bridges and students were burning their colleges. To my way of thinking he had more to deal with than most of our recent presidents put together.

My perception of the events surrounding his final days was of a hostile media out to get him. The image was a wolf pack tearing at a pretty effective public servant. We elect these people and can vote them out. We have no such control of media people. They seem to have immense power and hang around for decades. Perhaps we need some checks and balances over the equally fallible and quite powerful media people.

BOB JORGENSON

Los Angeles