host: noella rodriguez? the guest: very good points. in retrospect, in the 1970's when president ford pardoned president nixon, obviously, a lot of people reacted vehemently about the decision. but looking back all of these years later, it was a decision that was designed to help the country begin the healing process and to get past this very difficult time that we have just gone through. -- had just gone through. that in and of itself was a big deal for our country. if you couple that with president ford at the time helping betty ford to cope with the diagnosis of breast cancer, one can only imagine the challenges they had to go through as a couple, let alone as president and first lady, both with what was going on in their own home and across the headlines as well. host: i read an interview with betty ford that she was opposed to the pardon before president ford pardoned richard nixon. guest: a lot of people have very strong opinions about it. that would not surprise me. i have not heard that, but it would not surprise me. in retrospe

noella rodriguez? guest: that is an important point. an important aspect of having to deal with that disease is having the support system. the desert and the key to the betty ford center and it did was he to president bush's recovery and thousands of others -- it was a key to president bush's recovery and thousands of others across the country. it is important to remember that it was not very long ago that we could not even discuss this in public. the fact and the way that we are able to do that today is a tribute to betty ford. host: noella rodriguez, joining us from harvard, talking about the role of betty ford and first ladies in general. if we appreciate your being on the "washington journal" and a reminder the beginning of 1:30 p.m. eastern time, the betty ford funeral service will be on c-span.org. if the house of representatives is now coming into session. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute,