ANN ARBOR—The Gerald R. Ford Foundation, in conjunction with the Gerald R. Ford Library and the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, will sponsor a major conference April 7 at the U-M. Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, President Ford will host the program examining how America’s involvement in Indochina changed this country, its institutions of government, the making of foreign policy, and popular and media attitudes toward the political process.

Tickets to the full day’s program, in the Michigan League Ballroom, are complimentary but must be reserved in advance. To reserve tickets, call the Ford Library at (734) 741-2218.

At 9 a.m. President Ford will welcome the audience and share his own reflections on the tumultuous events of
The second panel, beginning at 11 a.m., is “The Presidency.” Among the panel members will be Lou Cannon, Reagan biographer and prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post; Morley Safer of “60 Minutes” will be joined by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News; former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy; and Ford biographer and former Newsweek correspondent James Cannon, among others.

Closing remarks will be made by David Gergen, U.S. News and World Report editor at large, who served as an adviser to Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.

In addition, the Ford Library will use this occasion to release thousands of pages of newly declassified documents resulting from the special review of more than 35,000 pages of documentation relating to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Most of the materials are from the Ford White House offices of National Security advisers Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft or from the files of the National Security Council staff. New rules on declassification and assistance and advice provided by the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, and the National Security Agency made the release possible.

A facsimile of the original and last memo to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon is available from News and Information Services.

Further information about the presidency of Gerald R. Ford and the Ford Library is available at http://www.ford.utexas.edu/

Gerald R. Ford FoundationLou CannonMorley SaferDavid GergenHenry Kissingerhttp://www.ford.utexas.edu/