Changes

'''Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.''' (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) was the 38th [[President of the United States of America]], serving from August 1974 to January 1977.  He was the first person to be appointed President without being elected to either the presidency or vice-presidency.  A [[Republican]], Ford also served as U.S. [[Representative]], 1948-73, and was the House Minority Leader in 1965.  His most famous and daring decision was to pardon former President [[Richard Nixon]] of any crimes for the good of the nation.  Nixon appointed Ford as Vice President on the resignation of [[Spiro Agnew]].  When Nixon subsequently resigned as President, Ford succeeded him.  

'''Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.''' (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) was the 38th [[President of the United States of America]], serving from August 1974 to January 1977.  He was the first person to be appointed President without being elected to either the presidency or vice-presidency.  A [[Republican]], Ford also served as U.S. [[Representative]], 1948-73, and was the House Minority Leader in 1965.  His most famous and daring decision was to pardon former President [[Richard Nixon]] of any crimes for the good of the nation.  Nixon appointed Ford as Vice President on the resignation of [[Spiro Agnew]].  When Nixon subsequently resigned as President, Ford succeeded him.  

==Early Life==

==Early Life==

Ford was born in Omaha, [[Nebraska]], but did not live there long, as his mother left her husband and fled with the child within a month due to domestic abuse. He was not legally adopted by his mother's second husband, but they called him "Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr."  He legally changed his name to the one he is known by when he was 22 years old. He was raised in [[Michigan]], and became an Eagle Scout. He attended the University of Michigan where he was a football star for the Wolverines. He later declined contracts to play professional football for the NFL, instead choosing to go to [[Yale]] Law School. <ref>http://www.historyguy.com/biofiles/ford_gerald.html</ref> After graduation he co-founded a [[law]] practice, however, after the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] he decided to enlist in the [[Navy]]. In the spring of 1943 he began service in the light aircraft carrier USS MONTEREY. He was first assigned as athletic director, then gunnery division officer, an assistant navigator with major operations in the South Pacific, and then a lieutenant commander. He encountered a near death experience in December 1944 during a vicious typhoon in the [[Philippine]] Sea. He came close to being swept overboard from his ship. <ref>http://www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/fordbiop.asp</ref> After the war was over in 1946 he returned to his law firm in Grand Rapids.

Ford was born on July 14, 1913, in [[Omaha]], [[Nebraska]], and was named Leslie King after his father, a wool trader. When Ford was two years old his parents were divorced because of abuse. His mother, Dorothy Gardner King, moved to [[Grand Rapids]], Michigan. There she met and married Gerald R. Ford, owner of a small paint factory. Ford adopted her son, and the boy's name was changed to Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Gerald Ford, Sr., described by biographers as a dominant athletic man and strong believer in self-discipline, later fathered three sons. He never told young Gerald that he was adopted until years later.

 

At South High School in Grand Rapids, the younger Ford was all-city football center for three years and also made the all-state team. He played football career at the [[University of Michigan]]; in 1934 he was the Wolverines' most valuable member. He graduated in 1935 with a bachelor of arts degree.  Ford declined bids from professional football teams in order to attend [[Yale Law School]]. He alternated semesters at study with work as an assistant football and freshman [[boxing]] coach. Ford graduated in 1941 in the top third of his class and returned to Grand Rapids to practice law.  

 

In 1942 he joined the Navy as an ensign. He served 47 months, including 18 months aboard the light aircraft carrier ''USS Monterey'' in the South Pacific, and was discharged in January 1946 as a lieutenant commander. He served as athletic director, then gunnery division officer, an assistant navigator with major operations in the South Pacific, and then a lieutenant commander. He encountered a near death experience in December 1944 during a vicious typhoon. He came close to being swept overboard from his ship. After the war was over in 1946 he returned to his law firm in Grand Rapids.

 

==Congressional Career==

==Congressional Career==

Like many returning veterans, Ford became involved in politics. In 1948 he was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] from Michigan's fifth congressional district after defeating an incumbent Republican in a primary campaign. He was a prominent member of the House Appropriations Committee. In [[Congress]], he supported President [[Harry S. Truman]]'s programs for post-[[World War II]] recovery in [[Europe]] and supported the need to block communist expansionism from the [[Soviet Union]]. Ford quickly gained stature in Congress. In 1961, he became chairman of the House Republican Conference, making him the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives. In November 1963, President [[Lyndon Johnson]] appointed Ford as a member of the Warren Commission, to investigate the events of President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s assassination. The Commission's findings were that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] was the lone assassin.  

Both his father, a Republican leader in Grand Rapids, and the late Republican Senator [[Arthur H. Vandenberg]] urged young Ford to run for Congress. Vandenberg, who was an internationalist, wanted to oust the isolationist Republican congressman from the Grand Rapids area district, Bartel Jonkman. Ford won the primary by more than 9,000 votes and went on to an easy victory.  At this stage his basic political basic outlook was influenced by [[Wendell Willkie]], by service in World War II, and by hostility to the dominant local machine. Ford ran as a minority reformer. Ford's view of himself as a minority reformer willing to stand up and oppose what he saw as corruption.<ref>William A. Syers, "The Political Beginnings of Gerald R. Ford: Anti-bossism, Internationalism, and the Congressional Campaign of 1948." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1990 20(1): 127-142. ISSN 0360-4918.</ref>

 

 

In 1949, the year he entered Congress, Ford was selected by the [[U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce]] as one of the country's ten outstanding young men. Ford's rise in the House was steady, assured by his repeated reelection from the strongly Republican district in a conservative region.

 

After two years in the House, Ford won a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and soon became the top Republican on its defense subcommittee. He became an expert on defense and military affairs and emerged as a strong anti-Soviet hawk in the [[Cold War]] years. In 1961, he became chairman of the House Republican Conference, making him the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives. In November 1963, President [[Lyndon Johnson]] appointed Ford as a member of the [[Earl Warren|Warren Commission]], to investigate the events of President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s assassination. The Commission's findings were that [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] was the lone assassin.  

On January 4, 1965, Ford was elected House Minority Leader by a vote of 73-67. Although his ambition was always to became [[Speaker of the House]]. Ideologically Ford was flexible. He once described himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a [[conservative]] in fiscal policy."

On January 4, 1965, Ford was elected House Minority Leader by a vote of 73-67; his ambition was to became [[Speaker of the House]]. Ideologically Ford was flexible. He once described himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a [[conservative]] in fiscal policy."

==Vice Presidency==

==Vice Presidency==