Doing My Work For Me

I always appreciate how d at Lawyers, Guns, and Money reports on so many historical documents because it does my work for me. I am considering putting together a U.S. foreign foreign policy class for the spring, and posts like this one, quoting Gerald Ford's lauding of the disgusting Indonesian dictator Suharto, give me endless good material.

I recognize, as all of us do here from the United States, that you have
achieved a great deal for your country in the period during your Presidency. The
Indonesian people, we recognize, have developed a solid foundation to deal with
your nation's very complex challenges and the very difficult road, but in the
process of development, great progress has been made. . . .

We do attach, in the United States, a great deal of importance to our
relations with you. You have been a source of strength in Southeast Asia and in
Asia as a whole, and we respect you for this part that you have played in the
area, as well as the leadership that you have given to your own country in the
process of development in the last 5 to 10 years.

We look forward to the opportunity of working with you in the future. The
fact that we had a recent tragedy in Indochina actually should redouble, and
does, our interest in the stability of Southeast Asia.