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 WASHINGTON (AP) - Inheriting the end of the unpopular Vietnam War, former President Gerald R. Ford sought commonsense solutions to heal the nation. But Americans were cool toward his offers of amnesty to draft deserters and his pleas for millions in aid for the Vietnamese people.
As Saigon was about to fall in April 1975, Ford called the events there tragic. But he also told students at Tulane University that the fall of South Vietnam "portends neither the end of the world nor of America's leadership in the world."
Some people, he said, believe the United States has failed if it does not succeed everywhere. "I reject such polarized thinking," Ford said.
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