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Letter Accepting the Resignation of Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, United States Representative to the United Nations.

February 02, 1976

Dear Pat:

Your letter of January 31, expressing your desire to return to the teaching profession, reached me today. I will, of course, accede to your wishes. with the deepest regret and reluctance.

In your letter you mentioned the years you have devoted to public service in the last two decades. You did not mention the enormous positive impact that those years have had.

In every task you have undertaken you have consistently elevated public discourse by puncturing pretense and by eloquently advocating the cause of reason. Nowhere has this been more evident than in your service at the United Nations, where you have asserted our position forcefully, cogently and honestly. In doing so you have not only reminded Americans that we take that institution seriously but also that we take ourselves and the principles for which we stand seriously.

For this service, which most appropriately you have rendered on the occasion of our 200th year, your fellow citizens owe you a debt that can never adequately be repaid. On their behalf Betty and I offer our profound thanks to you and Elizabeth for your service to the Nation.

With warmest personal regards,

Sincerely,

GERALD R. FORD

[The Honorable Daniel P. Moynihan, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, New York, New York 10017]

Note: Ambassador Moynihan's letter of resignation read as follows:
Dear Mr. President:

Today is the last of my leave from the University. I must return now, or must give up for good my professorship there and, in effect, give up my profession as well. The effort to persuade myself that this is a kind of personal fate that must be accepted has not succeeded. I have spent almost five of the past eight years in government, nine of the past fifteen, thirteen of the past nineteen. It is time to return to teaching and such are the conditions of my tenure that I return now or not at all.

It has been, for me, a high honor to serve as your Ambassador to India during the latter part of my stay there, and more recently as your representative at the United Nations. Indeed I was scarcely back from the former post before you asked me to take up the new one. You have been unfailing in your encouragement and support and I have with the fullest commitment sought to carry out your general policies and your specific instructions. For that opportunity I am permanently in your debt, even if I must with a heavy and still divided heart, now depart your service.
Most respectfully,
DANIEL P. MOYNIHAN

[The President, The White House]

Gerald R. Ford, Letter Accepting the Resignation of Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, United States Representative to the United Nations. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/258817

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