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This file contains interview concerning his early friendship with Gerald Ford, their entry into law partnership in 1941, and Ford's 1948 campaign for Congress. Included are comments on Jack Stiles work as campaign chairman.
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Buchen, Philip W. - Interview, 1/18/80 (Covers only the years 1938-1948)
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Buchen, Philip W. - Interview, 1/18/80 (Covers only the years 1938-1948)
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This file contains interview concerning his early friendship with Gerald Ford, their entry into law partnership in 1941, and Ford's 1948 campaign for Congress. Included are comments on Jack Stiles work as campaign chairman.
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Grand Rapids Oral Histories Collection
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Scanned from Grand Rapids Oral History Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (Box 1)
EMCHINES AND Iffi RECORDS
Gerald R. Ford Library
1000 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2114
1985
PHILIP BUCHEN
Oral history interview concerning his early friendship
with Gerald Ford, their 1941 entry into law partnership,
the development of Ford's interest in politics, and
Ford's 1948 congressional campaign.
A Presidential Library Administered by the National Archives and Records Administration
RECEIVED NOV 10 1980
INTERVIEW WITH
Philip W. Buchen
BY
Dr. Thomas F. Soapes
Oral Historian
on
January 18, 1980
for
GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE
GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY
Legal Agreement Pertaining to the Oral History Interview of Philip W.
Buchen.
In accordance with the provisions of Chapter 21 of Title 44, United
States Code, and subject to the terms and conditions hereinafter set
forth, I, Philip W. Buchen of Washington, D.C. do hereby give, donate and
convey to the United States of America all my rights, title, and
interest in the tape recording and transcript of a personal
interview conducted on January 18, 1980 at Washington, D.C.
and prepared for deposit in the Gerald R. Ford Library. This
assignment is subject to the following terms and conditions:
(1) The transcript shall be available for use by researchers
as soon as it has been deposited in the Gerald R. Ford Library.
(2) The tape recording shall be available to those researchers
who have access to the transcript.
(3) I hereby assign to the United States Government all
copyright I may have in the interview transcript and tape.
(4) Copies of the transcript and the tape recording may be
provided by the Library to researchers on request.
(5) Copies of the transcript and tape recording may be
deposited in or loaned to institutions other than the Gerald R.
Ford Library.
Theley Donor Buchen
May 15, 1980
Date
atting James Archivist of the United
States
may 22, 1980
Date
This interview is being conducted with Mr. Philip Buchen in his
office in Washington, D.C. on January 18, 1980. The interviewer
is Dr. Thomas Soapes. Present for the interview are Mr. Buchen
and Dr. Soapes.
SOAPES:
Your first contact with Gerald Ford came in the
mid 1930s, didn't it?
BUCHEN:
Yes. He was attending Yale Law School on a part-
time basis, while he was coaching football, and I had entered the
University of Michigan the fall of the year in which he graduated.
But since his home was in Grand Rapids, it was customary for him
to drive through Ann Arbor whenever he came home from New Haven,
and I was in the fraternity to which he had belonged, and he used
to stop there. And I first got to know him as he came through Ann
Arbor on his way back from Yale to go to Grand Rapids. And then
it was customary for the members of that fraternity to gather for
New Year's Eve and New Year's day in Grand Rapids, wherever people
lived, and usually he stayed on in Grand Rapids through New Year
and we used to see each other then.
SOAPES:
Did you begin then to become very close friends
this early?
BUCHEN:
We got to be closer friends one summer when Jerry Ford
took some courses at the University of Michigan Law School because
Yale did not have a summer program in their law school. So he got
credit at Yale Law School for some courses at the University of
Michigan. And that summer we both stayed at the fraternity house
while we were attending law school. So there we began to see each
other every day, whereas the other, earlier, meetings were on a
rather casual basis. And then the summer of 1940, before either
of us had graduated from law school, I was in New York City
clerking at a Wall Street law firm, and Ford stayed in New York
to help work at the national headquarters of the [Wendell] Willkie
campaign, And very often in the evenings we used to get together.
And it was on that occasion when we were both planning our futures,
he said that he intended to go back to Grand Rapids after he grad-
uated from law school to open a practice because he thought it would
be better for him to go back to the community where he was known.
And I suspect, although I'm not quite clear in my memory, that one
of his motivations must have been that if he was going to go into
politics it would be better to go back to a city where he was well-
known and lived most of his life and that was part of the motivation.
Although since he was trying to induce me to join him in law practice
there, I suspect that he didn't tell me outright that that was just
preparatory to his getting into politics or I might not have been
interested in joining him in the law practice.
SOAPES:
What were the initial impressions that you had of
Jerry Ford?
BUCHEN:
Of course, at the University of Michigan he was a
well-known figure. Even after he left people knew who he was - -
his name had been tied with recent Michigan football activities.
-2-
And so he was just generally well-known and, of course, was a very
attractive figure, an athlete who was good looking - - who didn't
look like a tough guy but who was obviously a superb athlete and a
well-built man. And he was just generally well-liked and had lots
of friends that were still in school because they had been under-
classmen while he was a senior and they all knew him - - so he had
generally a lot of recognition there. And that's how I personally
came to know of him. Also, knowing I was going to the University of
Michigan, even while I was in the last years of high school I would
follow the Michigan football team, which for the midwest was, of
course, a superb team, although in the years Ford was there it had
not had very successful seasons.
SOAPES:
What about personality traits?
BUCHEN:
He was very gregarious; liked a good time; was in
no sense a proud figure as some stars do become even in college;
seemed to relate well to people; had a fairly hard role because,
even in college, he had to work his way through, so I think that
prevented him from ever becoming a temperamental or haughty person
because he was used to working in humble surroundings, working in
kitchens and washing dishes and that sort of thing. So I guess
just generally, to use the expression, he was a good fellow whom
everybody liked. I think that describes Jerry Ford in those days.
SOAPES:
What did he do to pass away the idle moments,
hobbies or - -
-3-
BUCHEN:
Well, he is sort of a kinetic individual; I think
he has to be active. And he was always engaging in a variety of
sports. He loved to ski; loved to play tennis; loved to swim; was
not one to sit around very much. I don't think he ever spent a
good deal of time reading. Of course, he did his studies when he
had to, but he was a very active individual and had a good deal of
vigor, was the kind of person that liked to get up early in the
morning and get going and seemed to thrive on less sleep and rest
than most people need.
SOAPES:
He wasn't the type of person you'd expect to find in
the library, but you would find him out on an intramural field.
BUCHEN:
Right, passing a football or throwing a baseball or
something.
SOAPES:
Having been In a fraternity, was he known to engage
in some of the pranks that some fraternities are well-known for?
BUCHEN:
Oh, I doubt that. Of course by that time fraternities
had sort of tamed down. I don't know whether it was because of the
depression at that time but students were more serious generally,
because many of them were there at what was then considerable expense
or burden, having to make it on their own or live on modest allowances
from their families. So fraternities had ceased at that time to do
some of the antics and escapades that were known or were reputed in
the twenties.
SOAPES:
Did his close friends tend to mirror his interests,
-4-
or did he tend to attract opposities?
BUCHEN:
His two closest friends were not athletes, Eddie
Landware and Jack Beckwith, who were both fraternity brothers and,
I guess, had only one thing in common, they both came from fairly
wealthy families, and they were very close friends of Ford's right
through college and long afterwards - - they'd see each other very
frequently.
SOAPES:
Did this fact that they were from wealthy families
tend to be an attraction for Ford?
BUCHEN:
Well, I think it must have been. Not that he was
associating with them because they had wealth but because they were
also attractive people, and I suspect that it was kind of reassuring
to know that you could come from a relatively humble background and
easily make friends with the wealthy.
SOAPES:
Now as you got to know him then in New York, he was
involved with the Willkie campaign. I think he had gotten that
position through Frank McKay?
BUCHEN:
Right. Yes, the story goes that his father had asked
Frank McKay to see if he could help Jerry get a position. And I
remember his father telling me that Frank McKay after Jerry's
father had called him to make this request, very shortly afterwards
sent one of the salesmen of a publication he owned and solicited an
advertisement from Jerry Ford, Sr's. company. So that was the way
McKay was operating. He had many, many business interest and
-5-
advanced his business interests through his political connections
and through the political favors he did. So this was one evidence
of it.
SOAPES:
How well did you know Ford's parents?
BUCHEN:
Later I got to know them quite well when I joined
Jerry in Grand Rapids to open our law office, of course. Before
we settled down, I'd go up weekends and stay at his home. And in
the summers - - they had a cottage on Lake Michigan - - I'd join
the family there and when they had family events I would be invited,
along with my wife at that time. And so I got to know them and
became very fond of them, and they took me in almost as one of
the family.
SOAPES:
What personality traits do you remember about them?
BUCHEN:
Well, Jerry's gregariousness and his attractive
features and his way with people, I think that he got from his
mother, who was a very sociable woman and loved people, loved to
be with people, was a great conversationalist and always was in-
terested in people - - took a great interest in all of Jerry's
friends, girls and boys - - and I'm sure gave him his warm out-
going qualities.
His father, who was not his natural father of course, was a man he
admired greatly because he was a man of high principles, rather
stern looking but really not stern acting. And he felt a great
responsibility to bring up not only Jerry but his natural sons
-6-
in a highly principled way, but he, I think, was not as gregarious
or as socially at ease as either the mother or Jerry was.
SOAPES:
What did you notice about the relationship between
Jerry Ford Junior and Senior and as well as his mother? Was there
a good parent-son relationship?
BUCHEN:
Oh, yes. Oh, yes, indeed. In fact I got the im-
pression that the father was very concerned never to make Jerry
feel that he was different from his brothers in any sense - - of
course he even kept hidden from him until it came out by accident
that he was not born of the father with whom he was living. And
so I think because of the determination of Jerry Ford, Sr. to see
that this stepson of his identified solely with him and never felt
discriminated against or different from the other brothers, maybe
there was even a little spoiling of Jerry and a little more attention
paid to him and a little more care taken with his upbringing than
in the case of the other boys.
SOAPES:
What about his relationships with his half-brothers?
BUCHEN:
Of course, there was some age gap there - - I'm trying
to think - - there must be six or seven or eight years, and so I
think generally there was a sense of looking up always to their
bigger brother. Of course, that would have been in the period
when I didn't know the family, because by the time I got to know
the Fords, the other boys had all reached college age or near
college age and they were not around as much. They didn't go
-7-
around in the same crowd because of the differences in ages, so
I never did really see them as a group except maybe on some family
occasion when everybody would come for dinner or something. But
I'm sure there was always great admiration from the younger boys
to the older boy and certainly no sign that Jerry didn't feel close
to the boys, but I think because of the difference of the ages they
never really shared many experiences together except when they were
all in the company of their parents.
SOAPES:
During that summer of 1940 in New York when you
would get together in the evening, what things did he talk about
concerning the Willkie campaign that seemed to interest him or
excite him the most?
BUCHEN:
I really have no recollection of that. I think at
that time there was a great concern about the upcoming war, the
threatened war, and I think that was what concerned us more, really.
And the question was whether Willkie was the man to keep us out of
war or Roosevelt would get us in war, that sort of thing. As you
know, the students who were educated after World War I had gone
through an experience of learning that made them very anti-war,
with the feeling that war never solved anything, and there was
certainly a well-inbred passivism, more of a practical passivism
rather than an idealistic one. And of course the America First
Committee was something that Jerry Ford had gotten into. Appar-
ently it was a fairly active group on the Yale campus. I don't
-8-
recall that it became much of a factor at the University of
Michigan campus. I don't remember when that was formed, but
it certainly must have been operating prior to the summer of
'40 on the Yale campus, and that I think was of greater concern
almost - - I mean our minds were diverted to that and away from
domestic politics except as the election might bear on whether
we got into the war or not.
SOAPES:
Did he have very strong feelings that we should
stay out of the European conflict?
BUCHEN:
Oh yes, as we all did. The transformation that came
over this country after Pearl Harbor - - it was just a change over
night, of course, as all else was forgotten because of a feeling
of outrage at what had happened to our country. But prior to then
it was very difficult to rouse the interest of younger people in
going to war for any reason.
SOAPES:
And his point of view followed that same pattern.
After Pearl Harbor he then was - -
BUCHEN:
Oh yes, yes, shocked like all of us, it shocked
him of course.
SOAPES:
You mentioned earlier that probably he had in the
back of his mind that going back to Grand Rapids was the chance to
set up a political career. Had he talked at all about his interest
in politics for himself?
BUCHEN:
I don't think so. People have asked me that question
-9-
before, and I don't think he was that definite. I think he always
felt that he wanted to be involved in politics but maybe only as sort
of a McKay figure rather than as an elected official. Those were the
days when you could do an awful lot in politics without running for
office yourself. And I think his idea of actually leaving the law
practice and getting into politics probably came as the result of
some of the reflecting he did during the war when he was serving.
Also, as a result of the fact that there suddenly popped up what
seemed to be a real opportunity for a young person to knock out an
old-time congressman whose ideas by that time were anathema to Ford
and to most of us who had seen how important it was, because of
having gotten involved so late in the war, that our concern for
how the world was getting along beyond our shores should be a
constant thing. We had to be alert to and get involved with the
idea that we wouldn't have to go through this war again by making
our presence felt, our influence felt, to stop the train of events
that could lead to another war.
SOAPES:
When you were around the Ford family, was politics,
public issues, a topic of frequent conversation?
BUCHEN:
Yes, because Jerry Ford, Sr., of course, was very much
involved in the local political scene, not, again, as an elected
officer, but as one who worked for the party and got concerned with
municipal elections. And that's how the "Home Front" started be-
cause the community was generally getting quite resentful at the
-10
political hold and monopoly that Frank McKay had. His methods were
being more and more exposed as corruption became a matter of state-
wide concern, because he was indicted and tried, I think, on a
couple occasions for fraud in connection with state bond issues
and some other things. And the stories were beginning to build
how he took a rake-off on all the liquor sales through state liquor
stores and that sort of thing. And so there was just a general
feeling that the community had to do something about that man and
the hold he had on the community as well as on the state.
SOAPES:
Was the Ford family's interest in politics a highly
partisan interest or was it more an issue-oriented interest?
BUCHEN:
Well, like most civic politics, the issues are not
very sharply drawn. It's more - - do you run a reasonably honest
government or don't you. And I think that simply said it. The
elections in the municipal offices were supposedly on a non-
partisan basis - - people were not identified by party on the
voting ballots.
SOAPES:
So their interest was in a good government, a clean-
up-the-machine type of politics.
BUCHEN:
Right.
SOAPES:
What about Ford's friends in New York, other than
yourself that you were around - - the girl friend that was well-
known - -
BUCHEN:
Phyllis Brown, yes. Well, I can't recall whether
-11-
she was in New York that summer or not. I don't think she was there
regularly because he wouldn't have had so much time to just go off
and meet me all by himself. So I think she must have been away
from New York but did come occasionally for a weekend or so and
he would see her. And then I remember she came to visit him at
the cottage, visit the Ford family at the cottage, which must have
been in the summer of '41. I don't know where she might have been
that summer, but she certainly didn't seem to be there regularly.
SOAPES:
What do you remember about her personality traits?
BUCHEN:
Well, of course, she was such a glamour girl and was
one who was so striking that on first impression, you thought, well,
here is a very beautiful girl. Yet she had a good personality as
well; it wasn't just looks. I just think she had a lot of spark,
a lot of life, and was always laughing, joking, and was thoroughly
attractive.
SOAPES:
Then when was it that you went back to Grand Rapids
and started the firm with Ford?
BUCHEN:
Well, we both completed our credits in mid-year - -
he at Yale and I at Michigan - - but since we were starting our own
firm we couldn't begin practice until we had both taken the bar exams
and gotten the results. The bar exams are only given twice a year - -
March and September or something. Anyhow, we took them together in
March, and then we had to wait until June or July for the results.
And in the meantime I worked as a researcher at the University of
-12-
Michigan Law School just to earn some money, and I think Ford did
nothing for those several months. Then when we finally got the bar
exam results I moved to Grand Rapids. In the meantime I had been
driving up there and we selected space for the office, made arrange-
ments to get some furniture and that sort of thing.
SOAPES:
How would you describe Grand Rapids in that period?
BUCHEN:
Well, it was a very pleasant place, ideal size for a
city because it was not so large that it had metropolitan problems
or the metropolitan disadvantages of getting in and out or in and
around. And yet it was large enough to have a diversity of people
and to provide really all the services and shops and a fairly good
array of cultural events. And it was an attractive community; it
was well laid out with beautiful trees and some lakes right in the
city. Many of the Grand Rapids high school graduates went to the
University of Michigan so that I had a lot of friends there from
school and Ford had, of course, acquired many friends, not only
those that went with him to the University of Michigan but those
that he had known as a high school student. And from a lawyer's
standpoint, would-be lawyer, it was an attractive place. The
quality of the bar was generally good; the judges were generally
good. In law school it was always talked about as a wonderful
place to práctice law, a wonderful place to live if you didn't
want to go to New York or Chicago or Cleveland where some of us
had intended to go, as I had intended to go to New York. And it
-13-
was large enough or important enough because it was sort of
the trading center for all of the western part of the state;
and there was a federal court located there for the western side
of Michigan, so that it was generally a place that drew business,
not only from the immediate community but from the rest of the
area, from that half of the state.
SOAPES:
When you think of an athlete you think of someone
who has a strong competitive spirit. Was there a strong competi-
tive spirit in Ford not only on the ahtletic field but then when
he got into a business situation?
BUCHEN:
I think less so than in a case of most athletes. He
seemed to be less determined to compete vigorously, or to get an
advantage over the opposition. I think in that sense he had a much
more balanced attitude than others did, and I think that's why he
always ran his campaigns in a very tempered fashion in terms of how
he hit at his opponents. I never saw him make any move that gave
him an unfair advantage over another person. So I think he was
generally well-balanced in that way, whether it was the Boy Scout
in him or the Episcopalian or, I suspect more than anything, his
mother's and his father's influences. They were such grand people
that I think they would have been annoyed if he had become a bully
with his brothers or would be the spoiled sport or get very peeved
or resentful if he lost a contest. So I think he had a rather well-
tempered attitude toward competition.
-14-
SOAPES:
I'm sure the firm started out very slowly - -
BUCHEN:
Oh, indeed.
SOAPES:
In his autobiography he talks about your initial
clients - -
BUCHEN:
Yes, one who wanted us to abstract a title, and I
think the Fords had a part-time maid who wanted a divorce and we
tried to help her get a divorce. And we had, oh, just a variety of
little matters that people brought in to us. As partners in our own
firm, we never got any significant matters or clients because the
larger, well-established firms, of course, had that business pretty
well cornered.
SOAPES:
So by the time that it came for him to go off to the
war, your firm was still a struggling, small law firm.
BUCHEN:
Yes. I think, if I remember correctly, I guess our
net income averaged about one hundred dollars a piece per month for
the time that we were together.
SOAPES:
And in that time you could survive in Grand Rapids?
BUCHEN:
Oh, yes. That's all they were paying me in New York.
To live and work in New York I was paid twenty-five dollars a week.
[Laughter]
SOAPES:
Now try to do that for a day you don't get very far.
Then after Ford went into the Navy you went into the law firm with
Julius Amberg?
BUCHEN:
I didn't go immediately. What happened after Ford
-15-
left, there was a rapid exodus of younger lawyers going into the
service so that some of the older established firms were loosing
their key help. And I got matters referred to me by them where
they'd handle the matter but they said: We've got a problem here;
we'd like some research done. And I worked for them and they'd
share their fee with me on some agreed-upon basis. And then there
was a justice of the Supreme Court from Grand Rapids, justice of
the Michigan Supreme Court. He lost his research clerk and he came
to me and said, "You help me out and I'll bring the briefs and
records home on week ends; you go up to the library and give me
memos on this and that and I'll put you on my payroll for the
period until I can find someone to work with me in Lansing." And
that lasted I guess, for almost a year because I still had a hope
that the war might not last or that I could keep our little office
going until Jerry Ford got back. Then one of the firms that had
asked me to do some of this work was Julius Amberg's firm, although
by that time he had left to become Assistant Secretary of War and
he was not in the office. But they were loosing some of their other
men to the service and they finally approached me and said, "Why
don't you come join us?" And I said I will if I have assurances
that when Ford gets out he can join. Of course I wrote or talked
with him by telephone and discussed it with him and had his blessings
before I made that move.
SOAPES:
Did you keep up a regular correspondence with him?
-16-
BUCHEN:
Not particularly. He's not much of a letter writer
as I recall. I think I kept his family advised and I talked with
them. It wasn't a case where I'd write him frequently about what
was happening at the office. I may have written several letters
at the beginning, telling him what I was doing, how matters were
proceeding in the office, but that soon ended. When he actually
got on the high seas and he got so preoccupied with what he was
doing, he didn't really care much what was happening so far as
the law practice in Grand Rapids was concerned.
SOAPES:
Then he came back from the Navy, discharged I
think in '46.
BUCHEN:
I thought it might have been in the fall of '45.
[Ed. note: Discharged February 23, 1946.]
SOAPES:
And then he came into the law firm with you?
BUCHEN:
Yes, by that time Julius Amberg was back and,
of course, was delighted to have him.
SOAPES:
And did he begin then to immediately start looking
at the local political situation?
BUCHEN:
Well, I think that this "Home Front" thing that had
started really before he left had kept going to a degree - - it
may not have been called that any more - - but the group that had
started that would meet and get involved in local politics. And
then his father, I think, during the war had become county chairman
of the Republican Committee and everybody was eager to welcome back
-17-
people from the war and get them active in ringing door bells, doing
things that you have to do in a political campaign, and he got involved
immediately. And then he also, I remember, got involved in various
charitable things, like the Community Chest drive and all that. He
liked to get out and do those things. So he immediately got back
into community life. I think it was such a great relief to get
through with the war and he wanted to get back in the home community.
SOAPES:
When did he start showing an interest in being a
candidate for office?
BUCHEN:
Well, let's see - - there would have been an election
in '46 when [Bartel] Jonkman got re-elected for the last time. And
I'm sure that Jerry and I didn't do any work to get Jonkman elected.
There was no reason to: he was a shoo-in. But it must have been
after that election in '46 when Jonkman was making local headlines
because of his opposition to any move on the part of Congress to
get us involved in restoring Europe and maintaining a certain
degree of preparedness and that sort of thing. So I suspect it
was a combination of that fact and that he had probably gotten
to see Jonkman when Jonkman was a candidate in 1946. I'm not
sure whether Jonkman was the congressman before the war or not.
He succeeded a man named [Carl] Mapes. He was a well-respected
man, but I think he died in office. I can't remember when.
SOAPES:
I can't recall the dates either.
BUCHEN:
But Jonkman certainly wasn't well-known to Ford or
-18-
me at all. But somehow Ford must have gotten to see him during
that '46 campaign and probably was less than impressed with him
as I was. He wasn't a very impressive man and Ford - - although
he never said so - - probably thought, how does this fellow get
elected to Congress? And I think that was how the idea just
gradually dawned on him. John Martin, whom you might want to
interview, lives in Washington, was probably closer to Ford on
the matter of politics at that time than I was. And John Martin
was very much committed to getting into politics, getting into
an elective office. But, as Jerry said afterwards, John decided
he'd go the state route, getting elected first to the state House
of Representatives and then the state Senate and ultimately become
one of the second or third officers under the governor. And then
after that he tried for the Senate and lost - - U. S. Senate. And
so I think that John Martin must have had many conversations with
Jerry that may in themselves have led Jerry to decide to run for
office as well. John was as well-known and from the very beginning
I think probably he encouraged Jerry to do it - - if not by actual
words, at least by example.
SOAPES:
Also coming into his life at this time is Betty
Warren. And you had known her before then, hadn't you?
BUCHEN:
Yes. She, I think had lived in Grand Rapids most
of her life. And I got to know her during the war because her
then husband was in sort of a group with which I used to meet for
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lunch regularly downtown. He worked downtown. And we'd meet
socially in the evenings at parties, although I never really
got to know her well - - she wasn't an intimate friend of ours.
And I don't think Jerry ever knew her very well because he was
just enough older, different class in school - - not until after
he got back and was the most eligible bachelor in town, and she
was alone. He tells the story well.
SOAPES:
That's an interesting point about being the most
eligible bachelor in town. Was that something that was generally
known about him at the time that, "Ford's back in town".
BUCHEN:
Oh, I think SO. I think he's attractive to women.
There certainly were a lot of other bachelors, but not many his
age. I mean most men had gotten married by that time.
SOAPES:
We're moving towards the campaign in '48, and he
began to put together an organization. I think you were the one
who suggested Jack Stiles.
BUCHEN:
Yes. Jack and I were close friends because we had
been in college together and had traveled through Europe together
as students. Jack was a very interesting fellow - - he had a great
ambition to be a writer. His father was in business. After he got
back from the service, he devoted a year or more I guess to writing
a book that never saw the publishing daylight, and he was just sort
of not doing anything. Jerry says in his book that I urged him to
run for Congress. I did, although it wasn't a case of saying, "Jerry
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have you ever thought of running for Congress? Why don't you do it".
It was a case where he had developed the idea of doing it himself, I'm
sure, or maybe with the influence of John Martin more than me. But I
certainly said, "You should". And he said, "How do I organize the
campaign?" And I said, "Well, Jack Stiles isn't doing anything and
you're going to have to have kind of an innovative type of campaign.
All the experienced politicans probably, one, don't think you have a
chance and two, are henchmen of Jonkman or of McKay, and Jonkman was
one of McKay's proteges. So I said, "You're going to have to go out
and get someone new who may not have had the experience but who has
at least the independence and, in this case, the imagination to go
about attacking a fairly well-entrenched figure." So he talked to
Jack and I guess they arranged what pay he would work for. And it
turned out to be a great combination because the effort really
fooled the pundits of the community. I remember Julius Amberg,
who was, of course, a Democrat, was very enthusiastic about Ford's
running. Because of his experience in Washington he was death on
Jonkman, and he knew the only one who could ever get elected to
Congress at that time from Grand Rapids was a Republican. So he
very much supported Jerry, but he kept reporting that he had seen
so and so, who knew all about the prospects. In fact, he even
talked to Frank McKay and Frank McKay said, "Ah, Ford hasn't a
chance." And that was before the days of polling, so, you know
you just had to go by your hunches as to who was ahead as far as
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public opinion was concerned.
SOAPES:
I asked you earlier about Ford's competitive drive.
Now as he actually got into the campaign, did this competitive drive
tend to come up a little stronger than normal?
BUCHEN:
Well, he was determined to make an all-out effort
because everybody likes to succeed in what he's doing, but I don't
think he was ever a nasty competitor or that he would have been
totally crushed if he'd lost. You know, President Carter talks
about the terrible trauma that went over him when he lost his
first election. But that wouldn't have happened to Ford, I'm sure.
He made fun of it really; he wasn't grim about it, and as a result,
he did innovative things like going out in the morning and milking
a COW and all that. I think he enjoyed it because he likes people
and this was a great way to get to see more people.
SOAPES:
Were you around his family enough to see how they
were reacting to the fact that their son was campaigning for
Congress?
BUCHEN:
Probably not very much at that time because I think
I had sort of grown away from the family. Without Jerry there
during the war, while we were perfectly good friends, I ceased
to go to their home with any frequency as I had done before. So
I didn't really observe how the family felt, except I'm sure that
his father was just absolutely delighted, knowing his interest in
politics, and his mother would have been very supportive and
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delighted with it. It was not a case of where the family might
say, "What's our son doing trying to run for public office when
he won't make any money and interrupt a career?" They felt it
was just a perfect future for their son.
SOAPES:
What was Ford's reaction to victory?
BUCHEN:
Oh, again you know you wish you could remember the
night when the election returns came in, but that's gone. I'm sure
it was just great elation, maybe even mixed with a certain degree
of surprise.
SOAPES:
Of course after the primary - - the tough one - - then
the general election - -
BUCHEN:
At that time it was a foregone conclusion - - no one
even remembers his opponent, I don't think.
SOAPES:
The transition then from being the candidate to the
Congressman-elect - - he's got to make the move to Washington. How
did he react to moving away from Grand Rapids?
BUCHEN:
Oh, I don't think that that bothered him. I mean
after all he had been living in New Haven for six or seven years.
He's really very much a cosmopolitan person; he's not provincial
in any sense of the word. So, no, I think this was just a nice,
exciting adventure to come down here. And in those days you didn't
really feel you were pulling up your roots, you know. After all
you were the representative from Grand Rapids, and I think every-
body expected the congressional sessions would become much shorter
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as they had been in earlier, untroubled years. I guess if you look
back on the twenties, the sessions ran two, three, or four months
and that was all, and so I think he didn't realize how much time
he would be away, and he certainly didn't realize the problems that
would ensue once he had children when you almost had to keep your
home in one place or the other. And, of course, because of the
distance to Grand Rapids, it had to be here for the children. You
couldn't be pulling them in and out of schools and that sort of
thing as you would do if you tried to maintain a really permanent
residence in Grand Rapids and only come here for the particular
days of Congress. So, when he left, I'm sure they just took a
little apartment here, and they bought a duplex in Grand Rapids
which, I think they regarded as being their main residence and
this only an incidental one, but experience proved otherwise. This
one in Washington became the main one and that in Grand Rapids
became only incidental.
SOAPES:
Did he ask you to join him in Washington?
BUCHEN:
No. He had found John Milanowski of course. I'm
not sure how he found John; I can't remember that.
SOAPES:
I'm going to see him next week.
BUCHEN:
Oh, you'll find out. I don't know whether John had
gotten active in his campaign -- that may be, although he must have
been only in a volunteer capacity. I don't think he was paid as
John Stiles was. Maybe John was very effective in organizing the
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Polish element for Jerry, because the one Democratic pocket in the
community was among the Polish community. And I suppose it was
important for Jerry to win the nomination that he got the votes of
Democrats.
SOAPES:
Was it an open primary?
BUCHEN:
Yes.
SOAPES:
And he did make an appeal across party lines?
BUCHEN:
Oh, indeed. And John may have been effective in
that, but Ford can confirm that. John, with his Polish name, was
what he needed. John had been a Republican and could have been
influential in delivering some of the Polish vote that otherwise
would not have voted in the Republican primary. No, Ford never
asked me partly because he knew my legal career had jumped several
notches ahead of where his was because of the delay in his return.
And I guess, at that time at least, you hired people who were really
subordinates to you in the office and probably didn't hire high-
powered staffers the way congressmen do now. So he probably
wouldn't have asked me because maybe he thought it wasn't a fit
job for me at that point in my career.
SOAPES:
Did he try to keep his fences mended very early in
his career, to keep in touch with the local people? I know he
makes a comment in his memoirs that he made a choice about spending
time on the floor or specializing in constituent service and that
he choose to spend a little more time on the floor than a lot of
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people did. Do you remember what type of contacts with the
district that he had in his first few years on Congress?
BUCHEN:
Well, it certainly wasn't as intense as it became
later I believe, I suppose partly because there was a long tradition
of always sending the same man back. I guess Mapes had been there
for thirty years in Congress, and Jonkman, if it hadn't been for
Ford, would have probably continued on until he died. So there
wasn't a necessity for that deep commitment to constituent services.
I think you're right that he probably traveled less to Grand Rapids
than he did later on. And when he did come there, usually for the
summer holidays, he'd bring his family. I've forgotten when the
first child was born but I think fairly early after Jerry got to
Washington - - certainly in the first term. And, of course, that
I'm sure kept him here more - - the first child always makes you
stay home. And so the combination of the first child and the fact
that there was no compulsion or necessity to spend a good deal of
time in Grand Rapids I think was the reason that he didn't return
frequently. And I don't really recall seeing him very often in
the early terms, except as he came back for the summer holidays.
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