Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Order:	38th President
Term of Office:	August 9, 1974-January 20, 1977
Predecessor:	Richard M. Nixon
Successor:	James E. Carter
Date of Birth:	Monday, July 14, 1913
Place of Birth:	Omaha, Nebraska
First Lady:	Betty Ford
Profession:	lawyer
Political Party:	Republican
Vice President:	Nelson A. Rockefeller
Order:	40th Vice President
Term of Office:	December 6, 1973-August 9, 1974
Predecessor:	Spiro T. Agnew
Successor:	Nelson A. Rockefeller
President:	Richard M. Nixon

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born July 14, 1913) (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., renamed after adoption) was the fortieth (1973-1974) Vice President and the thirty-eighth (1974-1977) President of the United States. He remains the only President to serve without being elected to either the presidency or vice presidency. As of 2004, he is the oldest living former President, outliving one of his successors, Ronald Reagan.

Table of contents

1 Early life 2 World War II 3 House of Representatives: Minority Leader 4 Vice-President 5 Presidency 5.1 Pardons Nixon 5.2 Economy 5.3 Aftermath of Watergate 5.4 Foreign policy 5.5 Assassination attempt 6 1976 Election Bid 7 Personality 8 Later Elections 9 Honors 10 Cabinet and White House officials 11 Supreme Court appointments 12 Further Reading 13 Related articles 14 External links

Early life

Ford was born to Leslie Lynch King and Dorothy Ayer Gardner. His parents divorced two years after he was born, and his mother remarried to Gerald Ford, after whom he was renamed. Ford grew up in Michigan and played football for the University of Michigan.

World War II

In April 1942 Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve receiving a commission as an ensign. After an orientation program at Annapolis, he became a physical fitness instructor at a pre- flight school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In the spring of 1943 he began service in the light aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26). He was first assigned as athletic director and gunnery division officer, then as assistant navigator, with the Monterey which took part in most of the major operations in the South Pacific, including Truk, Saipan, and the Philippines. His closest call with death came not as a result of enemy fire, however, but during a vicious typhoon in the Philippine Sea in December 1944. He came within inches of being swept overboard while the storm raged. The ship, which was severely damaged by the storm and the resulting fire, had to be taken out of service. Ford spent the remainder of the war ashore and was discharged as a lieutenant commander in February 1946.

House of Representatives: Minority Leader

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for 24 years from 1949 - 1973, and became Minority Leader of the Republican Party in the House. During his tenure, Ford was chosen to serve on the Warren Commission, a special task force set up to investigate the causes of, and quell rumors regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Commission eventually concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in killing the President, a conclusion sometimes disparaged by conspiracy theorists as the "Lone Nut Theory". Today Ford is the only surviving member of the Commission, and continues to stand behind its conclusions.

Vice-President

After Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned during Richard Nixon's presidency, on October 10, 1973, Nixon nominated Ford to take Agnew's place, under the 25th Amendment - the first time it applied. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, 1973 and on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35.

Presidency

as Mrs. Ford looks on.]]

When Nixon then resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency, proclaiming that "our long national nightmare is over". On August 20 Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller to fill the Vice Presidency he had vacated, again under the 25th Amendment.

Pardons Nixon

One month later, Ford gave Nixon a blanket pardon for any crimes he might have committed while President or indeed anything else he might have done - a move that many historians believe cost him the election in 1976.

Economy

The economy was a great concern during the Ford administration. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public on television in October, 1974 and asked them to "whip inflation now" (WIN); as part of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons. However, most people recognized this as simply a public relations gimmick without offering any effective means of solving the underlying problem. At the time inflation was around 7%, a relatively modest number in restrospect, but still enough to discourage investment and push capital overseas and into government bonds.

The economic focus began to change as the country sank into a mild recession, and in March, 1975, Ford and Congress signed into law income tax rebates to help boost the economy.

Aftermath of Watergate

In the aftermath of Watergate, the Democrats scored major gains in both the House and the Senate in the 1974 elections. Ford and Congress battled over legislation, with Ford vetoing scores of Democrat-supported bills.

Foreign policy

'Ford also faced a foreign policy crisis with the Mayaguez Incident. In May 1975, shortly after the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, Cambodians seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. Ford dispatched Marines to rescue the crew, but the marines landed on the wrong island and met unexpectedly stiff resistance just as, unknown to the US, the Mayaguez sailors were being released. In all phases of the operation, fifty service men were wounded and forty-one killed, including three men believed to have been left behind alive and subsequently executed and twenty-three Air Force personnel killed earlier while enroute to the staging area at Utapao, Thailand. It is believed that approximately sixty Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed out of a land and sea force of about 300.

Assassination attempt

While in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson named Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme pointed a gun at Ford, but a Secret Service agent prevented any attack. Seventeen days later, another woman – Sara Jane Moore – also tried to kill Ford in San Francisco; but her shooting attempt was thwarted by a bystander, Oliver Sipple.

1976 Election Bid

It is believed that Ford's pardoning of Nixon, along with the continuing economic problems, may have cost him the election of 1976.

His campaign may also have been hampered by a strong challenge that year for the nomination in his party by Ronald Reagan. He also made a major gaffe during the campaign when he insisted Eastern Europe was not occupied by the Soviets.

Personality

Despite his athletic history, Ford gained a reputation for being clumsy when he was President. Television footage often showed him stumbling down the stairs, bumping his head on the doorway of Air Force One, or walking into other people. This stereotype was greatly popularized by a series of skits on Saturday Night Live featuring Chevy Chase who portrayed Ford as a man who was literally incapable of taking a single step without falling over or destroying something. Many of Ford's supporters have since denounced this stereotype as unfair, saying the President was no more clumsy than any normal person—except his blunders were just far more visible and popularized.

Later Elections

At the 1980 Republican National Convention, Ford was nearly nominated to return to service as Vice President under nominee Ronald Reagan. On the day a Vice President was to be nominated however, Reagan changed his mind and chose George H. W. Bush, who had rivaled him for the presidential nomination. While attending the 2000 Republican National Convention, Ford suffered a mild stroke, but has subsequently recovered.

Honors

Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1999 for his efforts to heal the nation after the Watergate scandal. The Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan was named after him in December 1999.

Cabinet and White House officials

• Secretary of State - Henry A. Kissinger
• Secretary of the Treasury - William E. Simon
• Secretary of Defense - James R. Schlesinger, then Donald H. Rumsfeld (1975)
• Attorney General - William B. Saxbe, then Edward H. Levi (1975)
• Secretary of the Interior - Rogers C. B. Morton , then Stanley K. Hathaway (1975), then Thomas S. Kleppe (1975)
• Secretary of Agriculture - Earl L. Butz, then John A. Knebel (1976)
• Secretary of Commerce - Frederick B. Dent, then Rogers C. B. Morton (1975) then Elliot L. Richardson (1975)
• Secretary of Labor - Peter J. Brennan, then John T. Dunlop (1975), then W. J. Usery, Jr (1976)
• Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare - Caspar Weinberger, then F. David Mathews (1975)
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - James T. Lynn, then Carla A. Hills (1975)
• Secretary of Transportation - Claude S. Brinegar, then William T. Coleman, Jr (1975)
• White House Chief of Staff - Donald Rumsfeld, then Dick Cheney

Supreme Court appointments

Ford appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• John Paul Stevens - 1975

Further Reading

• Cannon, James. Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. [Chapters 1-3 concern Ford's early life and election to Congress; chapters 4-7 his congressional career; chapters 8-11 Watergate; chapters 12-19 concern Ford's appointment as Vice President, his vice presidency, the move to impeach Richard Nixon, and the transition to the presidency; chapter 20 concerns the Nixon pardon; and chapter 21 is a summary of the Ford presidency.]
• Casserly, John J. The Ford White House: Diary of a Speechwriter. Boulder, CO: Colorado Associated University Press, 1977. [Memoir by a speechwriter for President Ford. It covers the period from November 1974 to January 1976.]
• Congressional Quarterly, Inc. President Ford: The Man and His Record. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1974. [Background on Ford's political career and legislative record prior to becoming President, including his statements on major issues.]
• Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Presidency. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1974-1976. [Annual volumes reviewing activities or issues.]
• Coyne, John R. Fall in and Cheer. New York: Doubleday, 1979. [Memoir. Chapter 7 concerns his service as a Ford speechwriter, August 1974-February 1975.]
• Ford, Betty. The Times of My Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. [Mrs. Ford's memoir - chapters 22- 37 concern her husband's presidency. The book emphasizes personal and family experiences rather than political events.]
• Ford, Gerald R. Selected Speeches. Arlington, VA: R.W. Beatty, 1973. [A collection of speeches Ford delivered between 1965 and 1972 concerning politics and domestic and foreign affairs.]
• Ford, Gerald R. A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. [Memoir mainly concerning his presidency.]
• The Ford Presidency: Twenty-Two Intimate Perspectives of Gerald Ford, Edited by Kenneth W. Thompson. Portraits of American Presidents, VII. Lanham, MA: University Press of America, 1988. [Interviews with Ford administration officials.]
• Gerald R. Ford: Presidential Perspectives from the National Archives. Washington, DC: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1994. [Sections written by Frank H. Mackaman, Leesa Tobin, and David Horrocks of the Ford Library. Photographs selected by Audiovisual Archivist Ken Hafeli.]
• Gerald R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate America, edited by Bernard J. Firestone and Alexej Ugrinsky. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. [Proceedings of a conference on the presidency of Gerald R. Ford that took place at Hofstra University in April 1989.]
• Greene, John Robert. The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.
• Greene, John Robert. The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.
• Hartmann, Robert T. Palace Politics: An Insider's Account of the Ford Years. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. [Memoir. Several chapters concern his work as an assistant to Congressman and Vice President Ford. Chapters 7-16 concern his work as a White House Counsellor and supervisor of the speechwriting unit.]
• Hersey, John. The President: A Minute-by-Minute Account of a Week in the Life of Gerald Ford. New York: Knopf, 1975. [A writer examines President Ford's activities during one week in March 1975. Originally appeared in the "New York Times Magazine," April 20, 1975. Reprinted in Hersey's book "Aspects of the Presidency: Truman and Ford in Office," New Haven, Ticknor and Fields, 1980.]
• Hyland, William. Mortal Rivals: Superpower Relations From Nixon to Reagan. New York: Random House, 1987. [Memoir - Information on his Ford administration work in the State Department and on the National Security Council staff appears on pp. 76-201. The focus is on Soviet-American relations, including the Vladivostok summit, Helsinki Conference, Angola, detente, and the role of Henry Kissinger.]

Related articles

• U.S. presidential election, 1976
• Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• History of the United States (1964-1980)

External links

• Ford Library and Museum
• Gerald Ford

Preceded by: Richard Nixon	President of the United States 1974-1977	Succeeded by: Jimmy Carter
Preceded by: Spiro Agnew	Vice President of the United States 1973-1974	Succeeded by: Nelson Rockefeller