Memorandum from Leonard Garment to Philip Buchen Regarding a Possible Pardon for Former President Richard Nixon

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON August 28, 1974 MEMORANDUM FOR: PHILIP BUCHEN FROM: LEONARD GARMENT Is I have a difficult but urgent matter to raise with the President, and I don't know how else to do it but quickly and directly through you. In all of his Presidency, President Ford will probably face no more difficult decision than what to do about President Nixon. I know there is a feeling that with time the problem may resolve itself, that for the moment a restatement of the call for compassion is sufficient, that action can be delayed at least until it is seen whether some consensus arrangement can be worked out with the Special Prosecutor and the Leadership in the Congress. I disagree. I doubt very much that there can be an "arrangement. A Special Prosecutor must prosecute; and Jaworski's staff, the media and Sam Dash will not let him forget that. My belief is that unless the President himself takes action by announcing a pardon today, he will very likely lose control of the situation. Other factors will begin to operate. The national mood of conciliation will diminish; pressures for prosecution from different sources will Accumulate; the political costs of intervention will become, or in any event seem, prohibitive; and the whole miserable tragedy will be played out to God knows what ugly and wounding conclusion. It is an illusion to think the President can count on anyone - the courts, Congress or Jaworski--1 to share with him the burden of solving this problem. The problem is uniquely one for Presidential decision and Presidential action--taken and announced by him alone. Truman's insight about the Presidency that President Ford selected and cited is right to the point: "The buck stops here. 11 For President Ford to act on his own now would be strong and admirable, and would be so perceived once FORD