WASHINGTON – Like many of his predecessors, Gerald Ford was dogged in life by a fair amount of mythology, much of it perpetrated by political enemies, academicians, talk-show blow-hards and know-nothing journalists.

Here’s a guide to the most glaring Ford myths:

• The Nixon Myth

Ford and Richard Nixon were political allies and had been friends since their days as charter members of the Chowder and Marching Society when they were both young House members. But they weren’t close.

Even as Ford vigorously defended the man who made him vice president against impeachment fever, he increasingly harbored serious doubts about Nixon’s truthfulness, with him and the country.

He was pained by Nixon’s emotional suffering in his final weeks as President and always considered him a friend. Yet the conceit that Ford somehow pardoned Nixon because they were the dearest of pals is ridiculous. They weren’t, and he didn’t.

• The Reagan Myth

In his later years, Ford himself helped feed the belief that he and Ronald Reagan were likewise good friends. Baloney.

Ford was furious that Reagan challenged him in the 1976 Republican primaries, falling just short of toppling a sitting President. Fifteen years later, he was still angry with Reagan. He mellowed after Reagan contracted Alzheimer’s disease, but to his dying day, Ford believed Reagan cost him the election by half-heartedly campaigning in the fall.

• The Clumsy Myth

Yes, Ford did have an unfortunate habit of bumping his head when exiting his helicopter. He tumbled down the slippery steps of Air Force One in Salzburg, Austria, in 1975, and chomped on a tamale without removing the husk during a campaign stop in San Antonio, Texas.

On the other hand, Ford was a graceful athlete pursued by several professional football teams. He was an accomplished skier, avid golfer and tennis enthusiast. He swam laps twice a day well into his 80s, and six months before his death was still fuming that his vexing doctors wouldn’t let him back in his pool.

• The Lightweight Myth

Anyone who buys into the bogus notion that Ford was an amiable dope should be required by law to read the transcript of his first presidential press conference. He was in complete command, handling complex policy issues and tricky political mine fields like a possible Nixon pardon with straightforward, down-home finesse. On the videotape, he’s even more articulate than the printed page.

Ford had such a grasp of the federal government’s intricacies, especially the appropriations process, that in 1976 he conducted his own budget briefing, a task usually reserved for experts.

Nobody should have been surprised. After all, Yale isn’t known for handing out law degrees to bozos. Just ask fellow Yale law school alums Bill and Hillary Clinton.

• The Nice Guy Myth

This one is no myth; Ford was a genuinely decent soul, uncommonly kind and generous to friends and strangers alike. But as one of his closest aides likes to recall, he was 98 percent koala bear and 2 percent grizzly, and you never knew when Ford’s Ragin’ Michigander side would surface.

Just ask the senior White House aide who made the mistake of asking Ford if he wanted to offer a staffer about to be sacked a consolation prize, like an ambassador’s post.

“Get that son-of-a-bitch in here so I can fire him,” Ford thundered, livid at the idea of mercy for a subordinate he thought had been disloyal.