Gerald Ford

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Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born July 14 1913) was the 38th (1974–1977) President of the United States and the 40th (1973–1974) Vice President. Under Richard Nixon, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment. With Ford's succession to the presidency upon Nixon's resignation on August 9 1974, he became the first (and to date, only) person in U.S. history to fill that office without having been elected either president or vice president.

Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska; he was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. after his biological father, but his parents divorced when he was less than a year old. When his mother remarried, he was given the name of his step-father, Gerald Rudolph Ford. Ford obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, where he was a football star. He went on to obtain a law degree from Yale University before serving in the United States Navy during World War II. Returning from the war a confirmed "internationalist", Republican Ford defeated the incumbent in the party primary and was elected to the United States House of Representatives representing the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. He was elected House Minority Leader in 1963 and served in the House until 1973. When Spiro Agnew resigned, Ford was appointed Vice President of the United States at the height of the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to Nixon's resignation.

The Ford administration saw the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, the execution of the Helsinki Accords and the continuing specter of inflation and recession. Faced with an overwhelmingly Democratic majority in Congress, the administration was hampered in its ability to pass major legislation, and Ford's vetoes were frequently overridden. After Ford was criticized by many for granting a pre-emptive pardon to Nixon, Democrat Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated him in the 1976 presidential race. Along with his own Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, he is one of two people appointed Vice President rather than elected.

Early life

Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska on Monday, July 14, 1913 at 12:43 AM CST to Leslie Lynch King and Dorothy Ayer Gardner, and was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. His parents separated before he was born and divorced five months after his birth; he is the only President whose parents have been divorced. Two years later his mother married Gerald Ford, after whom he was renamed despite never being formally adopted. Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford was not aware of his adoption until shortly before turning fifteen. "My stepfather was a magnificent person," Ford stated, "and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing." [American Presidents, History: Gerald R. Ford].

Ford joined the Boy Scouts and attained that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He always regarded this as one of his proudest accomplishments even after attaining the White House.[Gerald R. Ford] - Boy Scouts of America, Report to the Nation. In subsequent years, Ford received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo from the Boy Scouts of America. He attended Grand Rapids South High School and was a star athlete, rising to become captain of his high school football team. In 1930 he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League. He also attracted the attention of college recruiters.["Healing the Nation"] Philip Kunhardt Jr., et. al. {1999). The American President, pp. 79-85

Attending the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, Ford became the center for the school's football team and helped the Wolverines to undefeated seasons in 1932 and 1933. His number 48 jersey has since been retired by the school. At Michigan Ford was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money to pay for college expenses. While at Michigan, Ford turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League following his graduation in 1935 in order to attend law school. [Gerald R. Ford Biography] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. As part of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team, Ford played against the Chicago Bears in an exhibition game at Soldier Field. J.R. Greene {1995) The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford (American Presidency Series) (Paperback), p. 2.

"I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln."

''Gerald R. Ford, December 1973[Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum]

While attending Yale Law School he joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for America First, a group determined to keep America out of World War II.[Doenecke, Justus D., (1990). In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940-1941 As Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee (Hoover Archival Documentaries)], p. 7.'' Hoover Institution Press Ford's position on American involvement in the war would soon change.

Ford graduated from law school in 1941 and was admitted to the Michigan bar shortly thereafter. Before he could commence a law practice, though, overseas developments caused a change in plans. Like others, Ford responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor and joined the military.[Lieutenant Commander Gerald Ford, USNR] - Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, July 13, 2005

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 on the light aircraft carrier USS Monterey as athletic director and gunnery division officer. Eventually promoted to assistant navigator on the Monterey, he and the ship took part in most of the major operations in the South Pacific, including Truk, Saipan, and in the Philippines. Ford's closest call with death was during a vicious typhoon in the Philippine Sea in December 1944. He spent the remainder of the war ashore and was discharged as a Lieutenant Commander in February 1946.[Gerald R. Ford Biography] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. As President, he pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, known as "Tokyo Rose", from her treason conviction for broadcasting propaganda to Allied forces during the war.[Women's History: Iva Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino] - About.com.

Marriage and family

On October 15, 1948, Ford married Betty Bloomer Warren at Grace Episcopal Church, in Grand Rapids. This was Mrs. Ford's second marriage. The Ford's had four children: Michael Ford (b. 1950), a minister; John "Jack" Ford (b. 1952), a journalist/public relations consultant; Steven Ford (b. 1956), an actor and rodeo rider[IMDb listing for Steven Ford], Internet Movie Database.; and Susan (Ford) Vance Bales (b. 1957), a photographer.

Mrs. Ford was noted for her outspokenness on topics, including pre-marital sex and the Equal Rights Amendment. This was a sharp contrast from most First Ladies, particularly her immediate predecessor, the reticent Pat Nixon. Mrs. Ford publicly battled breast cancer during her husband's presidency. After leaving office, her battles with alcoholism and addiction were discussed prominently in the media, as was the family's support in opening the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California.[Betty Ford Biography] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

House of Representatives

Following his return from the war, Ford became active in local Republican politics. Grand Rapids supporters urged him to take on Bartel J. Jonkman, the incumbent Republican congressman. Ford had changed his worldview as a result of his military service; "I came back a converted internationalist", Ford stated, "and of course our congressman at that time was an avowed, dedicated isolationist. And I thought he ought to be replaced. Nobody thought I could win. I ended up winning two to one."

During his first campaign, Ford visited farmers and promised he would work on their farms and milk the cows if elected—a promise he fulfilled. [Barn razing erases vintage landmark] - Melissa Kruse, The Grand Rapids Press, pg. D1, January 3, 2003 In 1961, the U.S. House membership voted Ford a special award as a "Congressman's Congressman" that praised his committee work on military budgets.[Gerald R. Ford (1913-)] - From Revolution to Reconstruction - an .HTML project.

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for twenty-four years, holding the Grand Rapids congressional district seat from 1949 to 1973. Appointed to the House Appropriations Committee two years after being elected, he was a prominent member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Ford described his philosophy as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy."[Gerald R. Ford Biography] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. In 1963, Republican members of the House elected him Minority Leader. During his tenure, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission, a special task force set up to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in killing the President remains controversial.

During the eight years (1965–1973) he served as Minority Leader, Ford won many friends in the House because of his fair leadership and inoffensive personality. But President Johnson disliked Ford for the congressman's frequent attacks on the administration's "Great Society" programs as being unneeded or wasteful, and for his criticism of the President's handling of the Vietnam War. As minority leader in the House, Ford appeared in a popular series of televised press conferences with famed Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen in which they proposed Republican alternatives to Johnson's policies. Many in the press jokingly called this "The Ev and Jerry Show".[Address by President Gerald R. Ford, May 23, 2001] - transcript, United States Senate In 1970, Ford led the effort to impeach William O. Douglas, an associate justice on the Supreme Court, for "moonlighting" for private clients.[Gerald Ford's Remarks on the Impeachment of Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, April 15, 1970] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

Vice Presidency, 1973–74

After Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned during Richard Nixon's presidency October 10 1973, Nixon nominated Ford to take Agnew's position on October 12; this was the first time that the Vice-Presidential vacancy provision of the 25th Amendment had been applied. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, and on December 6 the House confirmed him 387 to 35.

Ford's tenure as Vice President was little noted by the media. Instead, reporters were preoccupied by the continuing revelations about criminal acts during the 1972 Presidential elections and allegations of cover-ups within the White House. Ford said little about the Watergate scandal, although he privately expressed his personal disappointment in the President's conduct.[Gerald R. Ford Biography] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

"I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. Those who nominated and confirmed me as Vice President were my friends and are my friends. They were of both parties, elected by all the people and acting under the Constitution in their name. It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people."

''Gerald R. Ford, August 9, 1974

The Watergate investigation continued following Ford's appointment until Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig contacted Ford on August 1, 1974, and told him that "smoking gun" evidence had been found. The evidence left little doubt that President Nixon had been a part of the Watergate cover-up. Ford at the time was continuing to reside in the same home he had as a congressman and was waiting on repairs before becoming the first Vice President to move into the new Vice President's official residence at Number One Observatory Circle. However, "Al Haig [asked] to come over and see me," Ford later related, "to tell me that there would be a new tape released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, 'I'm just warning you that you've got to be prepared, that things might change dramatically and you could become President.' And I said, 'Betty [Ford, his wife], I don't think we're ever going to live in the Vice President's house.'"

Presidency, 1974–77

Accession

When Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal on August 9 1974, Ford assumed the presidency. Immediately after taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech broadcast live to the nation. Ford noted the peculiarity of his position: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers." On August 20 Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the Vice Presidency he had vacated. Rockefeller was confirmed by the House and Senate.[Rockefeller, Nelson Aldrich, (1908 - 1979)] - Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Nixon pardon

The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men. They claimed Ford's pardon was quid pro quo in exchange for Nixon's resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency. Despite this, no evidence of any collusion has ever surfaced, and Ford himself has consistently denied having ever discussed the matter with Nixon, either before or after the fact.[Gerald R. Ford] - James Cannon, Character Above All, PBS. Historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the election in 1976.

Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald terHorst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon.

Administration and Cabinet

Upon assuming office, Ford inherited the Cabinet Nixon selected during his tenure in office. Over the course of Ford's relatively brief administration, only Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Secretary of the Treasury William Simon remained. Ford appointed William Coleman as Secretary of Transportation, the second African American to serve in a presidential Cabinet (after Robert Clifton Weaver) and the first appointed in a Republican administration.[Secretary of Transportation: William T. Coleman Jr. (1975 - 1977)] - AmericanPresident.org.

Ford selected George H. W. Bush to be both Ambassador to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1975.[George Herbert Walker Bush] - profile, CNN. In 1975, Ford also selected former congressman and ambassador Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld had previously served as Ford's transition chairman and later Chief of Staff. Additionally, Ford chose a young Wyoming politician, Richard Cheney, to be his new Chief of Staff and later campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign.[Richard B. Cheney] - United States Department of Defense. Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 has been referred to by political commentators as The "Halloween Massacre."

The Ford Cabinet
OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Gerald Ford	1974–1977
Vice President	Nelson Rockefeller	1974–1977
State	Henry A. Kissinger	1974–1977
Counsellor	Robert T. Hartmann	1974–1977
Treasury	William E. Simon	1974–1977
Defense	James R. Schlesinger	1974–1975
	Donald Rumsfeld	1975–1977
Justice	William Saxbe	1974–1975
	Edward Levi	1975–1977
Interior	Rogers Morton	1974–1975
	Stanley K. Hathaway	1975
	Thomas Savig Kleppe	1975–1977
Agriculture	Earl L. Butz	1974–1976
	John A. Knebel	1976–1977
Commerce	Frederick B. Dent	1974–1975
	Rogers C. B. Morton	1975
	Elliot L. Richardson	1975–1977
Labor	Peter J. Brennan	1974–1975
	John T. Dunlop	1975–1976
	William Usery, Jr.	1976–1977
HEW	Caspar Weinberger	1974–1975
	Forrest D. Mathews	1975–1977
HUD	James T. Lynn	1974–1975
	Carla A. Hills	1975–1977
Transportation	Claude Brinegar	1974–1975
	William T. Coleman, Jr.	1975–1977

Mid-term elections

Domestic policy

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 as part of the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 to boost the economy. When New York City faced bankruptcy in 1975, Mayor Abraham Beame was unsuccessful in obtaining Ford's support for a federal bailout. The incident prompted the New York Daily News' notorious headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."[Rhetorical Bankruptcy] - Nick Lemann, The Harvard Crimson, November 8 1975

Similar to the more recent bird flu concerns, Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. Sometime in the early 1970s, an influenza strain H1N1 shifted from a form of flu that affected pigs and crossed over to humans. On February 5 1976, an Army recruit at Fort Dix mysteriously died and four fellow soldiers were hospitalized; health officials announced that swine flu was the cause. Soon after, public health officials in the Ford administration urged that every person in the United States be vaccinated.[Pandemic Pointers] - Living on Earth. Although the vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, some 24% of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was cancelled. The vaccine was blamed for twenty-five deaths; more people died from the shots than from the swine flu.[1976: Fear of a great plague] - Paul Mickle, The Trentonian.

Foreign policy

The Ford Administration saw the final withdrawal of American personnel from Vietnam in 'Operation Frequent Wind', and the subsequent fall of Saigon. On April 29 and the morning of April 30 1975, the American embassy in Saigon was evacuated amidst a chaotic scene. Some 1,373 U.S. citizens and 5,595 Vietnamese and third country nationals were evacuated by military and Air America helicopters to U.S. Navy ships off-shore.

From the prior administration, in addition to longstanding Cold War issues, Ford inherited the on-going détente with both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China—and the policy of building relationships with the two communist countries, which had been mutually antagonistic toward each other for many years.

Still in place from the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.[Strategic Arms Limitation Talks], Houghton Mifflin. The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's December 1975 visit to the communist country.[Trip to China] - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum In 1975, the Administration entered into the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union, creating the framework of the Helsinki Watch, an independent non-governmental organization created to monitor compliance that later evolved into Human Rights Watch.[About Human Rights Watch] - Human Rights Watch.

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 the American merchant ship 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 U.S., the Mayaguez sailors were being released. In the operation, fifty U.S. servicemen were wounded and forty-one killed while approximately sixty Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed.[Capture and Release of SS Mayaguez by Khmer Rouge forces in May 1975] - United States Marine Merchants.

Assassination attempts

Ford faced two assassination attempts during the course of his presidency; both over a three-week period. While in Sacramento, California on September 5 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a Colt .45-caliber handgun at Ford and pulled the trigger. Though the gun was loaded with five bullets, it was an automatic pistol and the slide had not been pulled to place a bullet in the firing chamber, making it impossible for the gun to fire. Fromme was taken into custody; she was later convicted of attempted assassination of the President and was sentenced to life in prison. ['Squeaky' up for parole] - Janet McLaren, New York Daily News.

Seventeen days later, another woman, Sara Jane Moore, also tried to kill Ford while he was visiting San Francisco, but her attempt was thwarted when bystander Oliver Sipple deflected her shot. No one was injured when Moore fired, and she was later sentenced to life in prison. Spieler, Geri [An Unlikely Assassin: Sara Jane Moore and the Plot to Kill the President] (accessed June 2, 2006)

Supreme Court appointment

1976 presidential election

Ford reluctantly agreed to run for office in 1976 but first had to counter a challenge for the Republican party nomination. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan and the party's conservative wing faulted Ford for failing to do more in South Vietnam, for signing the Helsinki Accords and for negotiating to cede the Panama Canal. Reagan launched his campaign in the autumn of 1975 and won several primaries before withdrawing from the race at the Republican Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The conservative insurgency convinced Ford to drop the more liberal Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in favor of Kansas Senator Bob Dole.[Another Loss For the Gipper] - Time Magazine, March 29, 1976

In addition to the pardon dispute and lingering anti-Republican sentiment, Ford had to counter a plethora of negative media imagery. Chevy Chase often did pratfalls on Saturday Night Live, imitating Ford who had been seen stumbling on two occasions during his term. As Chase commented, "He even mentioned in his own autobiography it had an effect over a period of time that affected the election to some degree."[VH1 News Presents: Politics: A Pop Culture History Premiering Wednesday, October 20 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT)] - PRNewswire.

Ford's campaign had an advantage from several activities held during 1976 celebrating the United States Bicentennial. The Washington, D.C. fireworks display was presided over by the President and televised nationally.[Election of 1976 (2003)] C-SPAN

Democratic nominee and former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter campaigned as an outsider and reformer; he gained support from voters dismayed by the Watergate scandal. Carter led consistently in the polls, and Ford was never able to shake voter dissatisfaction following Watergate and the Nixon pardon.

"For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."

''Jimmy Carter, January 20, 1977[Jimmy Carter, Inaugural address] - January 20 1977, transcript from Seattle University

Presidential debates were reintroduced for the first time since the 1960 election. While Ford was seen as the winner of the first debate, during the second debate he inexplicably blundered when he stated, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford Administration." Ford also said that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union."[1976 Presidential Debates] - CNN

In the end, Carter narrowly won the election, receiving 50.1% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes compared with 48.0% and 240 electoral votes for Ford. Despite the loss by only two percent of the vote, Ford had in the three months between the Republican National Convention and the election closed what at one point was a 34-point Carter lead. With the loss, Ford became the only unelected president in the history of the United States.

Had Ford won the election, he would have been disqualified by the 22nd Amendment from running in 1980, since he served more than 2 years of Nixon's term.

Post-presidential years

The pardon controversy eventually subsided, and Ford now is widely regarded as being mainly responsible for restoring the American public's faith and confidence in their political system. Ford's incorruptible character and personal decency helped restore dignity to the executive branch. Ford's successor, Jimmy Carter, opened his 1977 inaugural address by praising the outgoing President.

Ford remained relatively active in the years after his presidency and continued to make appearances at events of historical and ceremonial significance to the nation, such as Presidential inaugurals and memorial services. In 1981, he opened the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[All-Star Celebration Opening the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum] - IMDb. In 1999, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton.[Politicians Who Received the Medal of Freedom] - PoliticalGraveyard.com. In 2001, he was presented with the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon to stop the agony America was experiencing over Watergate.[President Gerald Ford and Congressman John Lewis Honored as Profiles in Courage] - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Summer 2001 In retirement Ford also devoted much time to his love of golf, often playing both privately and in public events with comedian Bob Hope, a longtime friend.

As Ford approached his ninetieth year he began to experience significant health problems. He suffered two minor strokes at the 2000 Republican National Convention, but made a quick recovery.[Gerald Ford recovering after strokes] - BBC, August 2 2000 In January 2006, he spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center near his residence at Rancho Mirage, California, for treatment of pneumonia.[Gerald Ford hospitalized with pneumonia] - Associated Press, January 17 2006 President George W. Bush visited former President Ford in April 2006 at Ford's home in Rancho Mirage; the former President, walking with a cane, escorted Bush back outside to his car after visiting for about an hour.

On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Ford and the other living former Presidents (Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

Ford is a close friend of his successor Jimmy Carter, despite the fact that Carter defeated him in the 1976 presidential election. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visit Mr. and Mrs. Ford's home frequently.

Gerald Ford is the sole surviving member of the Warren Commission.

Presidential Trivia

If Ford remains living until November 12, 2006, he will become the longest living U.S. President of all time, surpassing Ronald Reagan.

See also

• Gerald R. Ford Freeway
• Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Notable World War II Veterans

Notes

NATO

United States

Winston Churchill