WI Richard Nixon dies October 1974

Two months after resigning as President of the United States, one month after being pardoned by Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon fell ill with phlebitis. If it weren't for life-saving surgery he would have died. The question is: what if he had died, so soon after everything went down? What does this mean for his reputation, for Ford, and for the Republican Party?

I brought this up in a thread about a year back:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=242215

The consensous seemed to be that Ford would have won the 1976 election in this scenario. I wouldn't say that Ford is as strong as he would have been had Nixon died before Ford could issue the pardon, but I'd give the edge in the 1976 primaries/election to Ford here, ignoring potential butterflies. The Pardon would still be a devisive issue post Nixon's death, though rather than almost universal condemnation, I'd argue you'd probably have 3 camps of thought-some would stick to what they believe in OTL and say it was wrong to issue it, some may view it as an act of compassion to a dying Nixon and some will see it as a mute point, given that Nixon wouldn't have made it to trial ITTL anyway, had he not been pardoned.

I'm not sure how this would effect Nixon's reputation, the easy answer would be to suggest that Watergate would have been forgotten (at least partially) and Nixon would have been remembered for his accumplishments. On the other hand, he doesn't have 20 years to partially rehabilitate himself, so I'd say his reputation would be around about the same as OTL, or slightly better at the very best.