[ETAN-key] Joseph Nevins: A Single Standard for Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein

[John M Miller]

AntiWar.com (Redwood City, CA)
Friday, January 5, 2007

A Single Standard for Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein

by Joseph Nevins

During the same week that former U.S. president 
Gerald Ford passed away, Iraqi authorities 
executed Saddam Hussein. As one might expect, 
official Washington's reactions to the two events were radically different.

President Bush expressed sadness in the wake of 
Ford's death, calling the former president a 
"great man" while Representative Nancy Pelosi 
voiced respect for Ford's "fair and reliable 
leadership." By contrast, George Bush welcomed 
Hussein's execution, characterizing it as "an 
important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming 
a democracy," and Senator Joseph Biden, incoming 
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee, declared with satisfaction that "Iraq 
has . . . rid the world of a tyrant."

On the surface, it makes sense to judge the two 
men in such divergent ways. After all, an Iraqi 
court convicted Hussein of a crime against 
humanity for ordering the killing of 148 Shi'ite 
villagers, only one of many atrocities he oversaw 
while ruling Iraq. Gerald Ford, to the contrary, 
was never even indicted for any such crime. But 
it turns out that this distinction reflects a 
double standard for judging similar conduct. 
Ford, too, was responsible for mass murder ­ in 
East Timor ­ and basic justice and honesty 
demands that he be remembered for it.

On Dec. 6, 1975, Ford and Henry Kissinger, his 
secretary of state, were in Jakarta, Indonesia to 
meet the country's dictator, General Suharto. 
Ford was fully cognizant of Indonesia's plans to 
launch an imminent invasion of the former 
Portuguese Timor. According to declassified 
documents published by the Washington-based 
National Security Archive, Ford assured Suharto 
that with regard to East Timor, "[We] will not 
press you on the issue. We understand . . . the intentions you have."

Suharto needed Washington's green light due to a 
1958 agreement that prohibited Indonesia from 
using U.S.-origin weaponry, which made up 90% of 
Jakarta's arsenal, except for "legitimate 
national self-defense." For this reason Kissinger 
suggested that the invasion be framed as 
self-defense, thus circumventing any legal obstacles.

Kissinger then expressed understanding for 
Indonesia's "need to move quickly" and advised 
"that it would be better if it were done after we 
[he and Ford] returned [to the United States]." 
About 14 hours after their departure, Indonesian 
forces invaded neighboring East Timor.

While Indonesian forces massacred civilians 
during the first hours of the Dec. 7 invasion, 
Ford spoke at the University of Hawaii. There, he 
declared his commitment to a "Pacific doctrine of 
peace with all and hostility toward none," and 
spoke of an Asia "where people are free from the threat of foreign aggression."

Ford and his White House successors helped make 
sure that his lofty vision was not realized in 
Indonesia-ravaged East Timor. According to the 
now-independent country's truth commission 
report, released late last year, Indonesia's war 
and illegal occupation resulted in many tens of 
thousands of East Timorese deaths, widespread 
rape and sexual enslavement of women and girls, 
and, in the waning days of Jakarta's presence, 
systematic destruction of the territory's 
buildings and infrastructure. Today, East Timor 
is one of the world's poorest countries.

Over the almost 24 years of Indonesian rule, 
Democratic and Republican administrations alike 
provided invaluable diplomatic cover and billions 
of dollars' worth of weapons, military equipment 
and training, and economic aid to Jakarta. For 
such reasons the truth commission report 
characterizes U.S. assistance as "fundamental" to 
the invasion and occupation, and calls upon 
Washington to apologize and pay reparations to East Timor.

Washington's considerable share of the blame for 
East Timor's plight does not rest solely at 
Ford's feet. But it was Gerald Ford that opened 
the door to this dreadful chapter in history.

There is little doubt that Ford's authorization 
was key to Indonesia's invasion. Intelligence and 
diplomatic documents reveal that Jakarta was so 
worried about how the U.S. would react to its 
aggression that Suharto had vetoed earlier plans 
to invade. His administration had previously 
warned Indonesia against using American weaponry 
in any planned aggression. But any reservations 
that the administration may have had about the 
employment of U.S. weaponry seem to have 
disappeared by Dec. 6, 1975, with horrific 
results for the people of East Timor.

One week after the meeting in Jakarta, Ford sent 
Suharto a package of golf balls as "a personal 
gift." In the months that followed, his U.N. 
ambassador prevented the United Nations from 
taking effective steps to compel Jakarta to end 
its aggression. Later in 1976, Ford's 
administration shipped a squadron of U.S. OV-10 
"Bronco" ground-attack planes to Indonesia's 
military, ones ideal for counterinsurgency of the 
type it was waging in East Timor.

We in the United States, and people throughout 
the world, should make these events a central 
part of our collective memory of Ford's 
presidency ­ for the sake of the victims and the 
rule of law ­ just as Saddam Hussein will 
justifiably be remembered for his role in crimes against humanity.

Joseph Nevins is an assistant professor of 
geography at Vassar College, and the author of A 
Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East 
Timor (Cornell University Press, 2005).


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