Part 48 (1/2)

30.

On his first trip abroad as President, Ford visited Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. His meetings, including this official luncheon with General Secretary Brezhnev and Foreign Minister Gromyko, were held in a former mental health sanitarium.

31.

Two a.s.sa.s.sination attempts in September 1975 added to President Ford's challenges. After the attempt by radical Squeaky Fromme, my longtime secretary, Lee Goodell, took down the President's recollections on our return flight to Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

32.

During the second a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, the bullet from Sarah Jane Moore's pistol pa.s.sed between the President's head and mine, before hitting the wall of the St. Francis Hotel.

33.

My mother, Jeannette, with Joyce, Nick, Marcy, and Valerie at my first swearing-in ceremony as secretary of defense. This is a favorite photograph of the special people in my life.

34.

Nick, then eight years old, was taken aback by the nineteen-gun salute at the ceremony, but tried hard not to show it.

35.

General-turned-statesman Yitzhak Rabin (left center) succeeded Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1974 to become the first Israeli-born leader of the Jewish state. He impressed me with his patriotism, which was tempered by a realistic understanding of the challenges of the Middle East. Tragically, he was a.s.sa.s.sinated in 1995.

36.

In March 1976, President Ford awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal to my colleagues from NATO (left to right), Belgian Amba.s.sador Andre de Staerke and French Amba.s.sador Francois de Rose, as well as my successor as U.S. amba.s.sador, the noted diplomat David Bruce.

37.

The President's loss to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election was tough, but the Fords continued to approach life with optimism, confidence, and good humor. It was a privilege to serve in his administration and to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 1977.

38.

It seems that most of what I have done in life has resulted from working closely with bright, energetic, broadly experienced people. As I entered the business world with precious little background, I benefited from the talents of Jim Denny (left) and John Robson (right). I had known John in high school and Jim in college, but it had never occurred to me that we might wind up working together at G. D. Searle in the 1970s and 1980s. It was my great good fortune that we did.