It amazes me the difference of opinion on the same event. Here is a negative view:

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/President_Ford

Ford also faced a foreign policy crisis with the Mayaguez Incident. In May 1975, shortly after the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, Cambodians seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. Ford dispatched Marines to rescue the crew, but the marines landed on the wrong island and met unexpectedly stiff resistance just as, unknown to the US, the Mayaguez sailors were being released. In all phases of the operation, fifty service men were wounded and forty-one killed, including three men believed to have been left behind alive and subsequently executed and twenty-three Air Force personnel killed earlier while enroute to the staging area at Utapao, Thailand. It is believed that approximately sixty Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed out of a land and sea force of about 300.

And here is one that focuses on the positive (and more than a little misleading I think):

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/01/presidents.wrap/

"As commander in chief, Gerald Ford quickly dispatched U.S. forces, and they soon returned the Mayaguez and freed her crewmen," the narrator states, going on to tout Ford's leadership during the Helsinki Conference on Human Rights later in 1975.


>Who said that President Ford could not hold an umbrella and walk at the same time? :) Or was that chew gum and walk at the same time? (Yes I know it was LBJ)
>
>Another comment from LBJ about Ford was, “Ford forgot to wear his Helmet when he played football”.
>
>I like Ford as he is an honest man and attempted to do his best at a difficult time. Had he not pardoned Nixon he might have been reelected and Jimmy Carter would have been a forgotten name.
>
>
>>But in Ford's case, it wasn't used as a typical umbrella, but more of a crutch or cane to help him to not fall down.
>>
>>*G*
>>
>>
>>>Sorry, you are mistaken! This is a NOT an umbrella, but new safety equipment made to look similar to an umbrella protecting against dangers from a physical force while leaving airplanes. Rumour has it that research was started during the Ford administration. <g>
>>>
>>>rgds
>>>
>>>thomas