Documents / Official release
This file from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library holds press releases and statements that House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford issued between January and April 1966. Most cover Vietnam policy, the war on poverty, inflation, foreign aid, the federal budget and changes in his press staff. An April 21, 1966 statement says the Air Force told Ford it would contract a university with no close Air Force ties to have scientists study unexplained UFO sightings and make the report public. According to Ford, his call for congressional hearings led to this study.
“Hill”1 page
CONGRESSMAN GERALD R. FORD HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER FOR LMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS RELEASE APRIL 1, 1966 STATEMENT BY HOUSE MINORITY LEADER GERALD R. FORD, R-MICHIGAN I am shocked and outraged by the charge reportedly made last night by a John Birch Society official in Arkansas that President Johnson was under Communist influence in civil rights matters. The President and I have had our political differences, as you well know. But if anybody says Lyndon B. Johnson was under Communist influence on this issue,they will have to say the same of all of us who have championed human decency and equal justice in this country. The author of these remarks in Arkansas, according to the UPI, also smeared the late President Kennedy with the same foul brush just as another John Birch official has smeared former President Eisenhower. I believe in a good hard political fight and intend to make one this year for a Republican Congress that will keep a close eye on President Johnson for the rest of his term. But I think partisanship should stop far short of the cesspool. # 1! I!
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 55 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.