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FORD, GERALD. (1913-2006). Thirty-eighth president of the United States. ALS. (“Jerry Ford”). 1p. 8vo. N.p., October 5, 1993. On his personal gold embossed stationery, bearing the seal of the United States. To Senator DANIEL PATRICK “PAT” MOYNIHAN (1927-2003).

Your most interesting note of Sept. 24^th brought back great recollections of your U.N. service during my Presidency. You did a fine job for my Administration. I was proud of your representation. I hope Kozyrev and you had an interesting get-together. With appreciation for your service and many kindnesses. Best regards…

In October 1973, President Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion and money laundering. Following the procedures laid out in the 25^th Amendment, Gerald Ford was nominated and confirmed by the Senate as the country’s new VP. Meanwhile, Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal, and despite compelling evidence, he continued to assert his ignorance of the affair, refusing to cooperate until he finally resigned from the nation’s highest office on August 9, 1974. Ford succeeded him, becoming the only person to ever serve as both president and vice president of the United States without being elected to either office. Ford faced the challenges of an economic recession and inflation, cold war tensions with the Soviet Union, the complicated U.S. pullout of Vietnam (resulting in the fall of non-communist South Vietnam), and mistrust of the executive office caused by Watergate. In 1976, he reluctantly ran for reelection but was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Moynihan served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson as assistant secretary of labor until 1965. Following a failed bid on the New York City Council, Moynihan became director of the Harvard–MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies.Despite being a Democrat, he was selected at the beginning of Republican Richard Nixon’s first term to be his counselor on urban affairs. In 1973, Nixon appointed Moynihan U.S. ambassador to India, the world’s largest democracy, with whom American relations had become strained. Moynihan went on to serve as ambassador to the United Nations where he was, among other things, an outspoken supporter of Israel. At the end of 1975, Moynihan attempted to resign citing a lack of support from the State Department. Ford dissuaded him from leaving his post but Moynihan felt that he was unable to speak out as he wished at the United Nations. His second resignation, offered on January 31, cited a return to his academic career as the reason for leaving his post. However, after several months of contemplation, Moynihan decided to run for the Senate, and announced his candidacy in June 1976. He was elected senator from New York and remained in office from 1977 to 2001.

From 1991 until 1996 Andrey Vladimirovich Kozyrev (b.1951), a colleague of Moynihan’s at the United Nations, was Russia’s foreign minister under Boris Yeltsin. He was one of the signatories of the Oslo Accords, an effort to mediate peace between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, signed in Washington on September 13, 1993, just a few weeks prior to our letter. Moynihan recounted the 1993 signing on the South Lawn of the White House in an article titled “Revisiting a Dangerous Place,” published in the March 18, 1996, Congressional Record. Darkly written, folded once and very fine. Scarce in ALS.    

Item #17345

Price: $2,000