Changes

Domestically, he was consistently conservative, and led the fight against Johnson's [[Great Society]]. As long as the [[Conservative Coalition]] was intact he usually won; Johnson's landslide in 1964 over [[Barry Goldwater]] brought in scores of new Democrats and opened the door for liberal legislation and Ford was usually on the losing side. Ford's conservatism was endorsed by the voters in 1966, as the [[New Deal Coalition]] started unraveling because of voter disgust with Johnson's inept handling of the Vietnam war and the violent outbreaks in large American cities.  

Domestically, he was consistently conservative, and led the fight against Johnson's [[Great Society]]. As long as the [[Conservative Coalition]] was intact he usually won; Johnson's landslide in 1964 over [[Barry Goldwater]] brought in scores of new Democrats and opened the door for liberal legislation and Ford was usually on the losing side. Ford's conservatism was endorsed by the voters in 1966, as the [[New Deal Coalition]] started unraveling because of voter disgust with Johnson's inept handling of the Vietnam war and the violent outbreaks in large American cities.  

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."  Ford had a good television persona, which he needed as the main spokesman for his party. He showed a knack for wooing more liberal congressmen, especially within his own party. His easygoing amiability made him widely popular.  Ford had harbored only one further ambition - to become speaker of the House - but he became discouraged when the Republican Party could not gain a majority.

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."  Ford had a good television persona, which he needed as the main spokesman for his party. He showed a knack for wooing more liberal congressmen, especially within his own party. His easygoing amiability made him widely popular.  Ford's leadership of an effort in 1970 to impeach liberal Supreme court Justice [[Wiliam O. Douglas]] was attributed to soldierly loyalty to the White House. Ford had harbored only one further ambition - to become speaker of the House - but he became discouraged when the Republican Party could not gain a majority.

==Vice Presidency==

==Vice-President==

On October 10, 1973, [[Richard Nixon]]'s Vice President, Spiro Agnew resigned for office after pleading no contest to failure to report income from illegal bribes. Nixon chose Ford as his replacement and he was confirmed by Congress.  During that period the [[Watergate affair]] escalated, destroying Nixon's p[olitical base in public opinion and within the GOP. Loyally Ford defended Nixon until he learned that Nixon was indeed guilty. On August 9th 1974 Nixon resigned from the Presidency and Ford took over.

As vice-president, Ford called inflation "Public Enemy Number One," promoted the "WIN: Whip Inflation Now" slogan, and urged budget cuts. He was an ardent foe of busing to achieve racial integration. He repeatedly defended President Nixon's innocence in the [[Watergate Scandal]] and its cover-up. Ford dropped that defense only when Nixon, on August 5, 1974, released tapes that showed his complicity in the cover-up and made his impeachment and conviction inevitable. Nixon then resigned, and Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974.

==Presidency (1974-1977)==

==Presidency (1974-1977)==

Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States on August 9, 1974. Responding to the Watergate affair, he focused his inaugural address on integrity.  

Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States on August 9, 1974. Responding to the Watergate affair, he focused his inaugural address on integrity.  

''If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman--my dear wife--as I begin this very difficult job.''

Ford's vision for America were grounded in conservative principles that emphasized fiscal responsibility, decreased federal involvement in the economy, lower taxes, and long-term sustainable growth with low inflation. Rampant inflation was the economic terror of the 1970s, and its reduction was Ford's overriding domestic priority. Throughout his presidency his favored means for combating inflation was the conservative stand-by: a combination of fiscal austerity and a tight federal monetary policy. He scored the heavily Democratic 94th Congress for wasteful spending, and 66 times wielded the presidential veto to kill costly congressional bills.  His refusal to help New York City's financial crisis was briefly popular in the hinterland.<ref>Yanek Mieczkowski, ''Gerald Ford And The Challenges Of The 1970s'' (2005).</ref>

 

 

Oil prices were also a major concern. Congress turned down Ford's proposals for phasing out the federal ceilings on the price of most domestic oil. Senate Majority Whip [[Robert Byrd]] (D-West Virginia) explained why Democrats rejected Ford's plans: "After all, he doesn't have a national constituency, his is an inherited Presidency." Ford and Congressional Democrats finally reached a compromise with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. "Half a loaf was better then none, so I decided to sign it," Ford explained.

 

The initial goodwill toward Ford steadily eroded as the numbers turned sour.  Unemployment went from 4.8% in 1972 to 8.0% when he took office; consumer price inflation jumped from 3.4% to 11.0%.  Unexpectedly high inflation, fueled by soaring oil prices, made it difficult to plan for the future; cheap imports from Germany and Japan for the first time became a threat to autos and electronics; high unemployment troubled industrial areas. By early 1975 the jobless rate was the worst since the [[Great Depression]]. Ford insisted that inflation was the greater problem. He sought to slow it, as Nixon had, by severe restraints on government spending for social programs. He also tried to curb private spending by asking Congress to raise the taxes on personal incomes. But the Democratic majority refused, and in congressional elections in November 1974 Democrats increased their majorities to three-fifths in the Senate and two-thirds in the House. In January 1975 Ford finally yielded to liberals' demands for a program to stop the economic slump and promote hiring. He proposed personal [[income tax]] rebates, especially to higher-income people, who might spend extra money on durable goods such as automobiles. Liberals criticized Ford's proposal for offering little relief for the poor, so they pushed through Congress a modified, though modest, tax rebate bill favoring lower-income people. Ford signed it reluctantly. He continued to resist liberal demands for massive public works spending to employ the jobless, and vetoed many bills.

 

''My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over."''<ref>http://www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/speeches/740001.htm</ref>

Deregulation - that is, the removal of the old [[New Deal]] controls on transportation, communications, finance and other businesses  - began under Ford (Nixon was more of a New Dealer who liked federal regulations), and continued under Carter and Reagan until most of the New Deal controls on business had ended.

When an opening occurred in the Supreme Court in 1975, Ford was determined to use the appointment not as a vehicle for his own political or ideological goals, but to help restore confidence in government. He did this by placing a premium on professional considerations and relying on his attorney general, Edward Levi.  

[[Image:A4256-04-thm.jpg|left|thumb|250px|President Ford chats with Chief of Staff [[Donald Rumsfeld]] and Rumsfeld’s assistant [[Richard Cheney]] in the Oval Office, 04/28/75]] Ford kept some of the original cabinet members from Nixon's Presidency, such as [[Secretary of State]] [[Henry Kissinger]]. However, the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Attorney General would resign. He announced [[liberal]] [[Republican]] [[New York]] [[Governor]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]] as his Vice President. He was confirmed in December 1974, although some - including Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] - voted against him. <ref>http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917422,00.html</ref> Two of Ford's biggest decisions in his first month in office was when he granted a full presidential pardon to Richard Nixon, which prevented any legal action against the former President, and when he gave amnesty to all [[Vietnam]] draft evaders.  

Ford nominated Circuit Judge [[John Paul Stevens]] as an Associate Justice of the [[Supreme Court]] in 1975 to replace Justice [[William O. Douglas]], who had recently retired. Stevens was unanimously confirmed in December. In nominating [[John Paul Stevens]], Ford chose someone he saw as a nonpolitical choice, someone he could allow independence from White House supervision, and someone who reflected a nonideological, nonpartisan selection process, although Stevens over the years emerged as the most liberal justice, though less so than Douglas, who was one of the last new Dealers in power.<ref>David M. O'Brien, "The Politics of Professionalism: President Gerald R. Ford's Appointment of Justice John Paul Stevens." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' (1991) 21(1): 103-126. ISSN 0360-4918.</ref>  

In foreign affairs, Ford preserved the détente forged by Nixon and Kissinger. The [[Helsinki Treaty]], ratifying the postwar borders in Europe and supposedly committing the Soviets to hiuman rights, was signed in August 1975. Republican conservatives, led by [[Ronald Reagan]], bemoaned détente as another indicator of the slippage of American power and prestige, and laid plans to defeat Ford's bid for reelection.

The economy was a major concern during the Ford administration. When taking office, [[Inflation]] was in the double digits, unemployment was rising and the gross national product was in decline. <ref>[Henry F. Graff, The Presidents, Pg. 538]</ref> Ford proposed a tight lid of $300 billion on the federal budget and asked for a $5 billion surtax on corporations and those in the higher income bracket. These were part of his "whip inflation now" policies. He did not have an easy time on Capital Hill with the Democratic-Congress. Sixty-six times he exercised his veto power. According to Congressional Quarterly, Ford won only 58 percent of congressional votes that he took a position on, the lowest level of support from any President. Therefore, Ford's inflation policies went no were.

On November 23, 1974, President Ford and Soviet General Secretary [[Leonid Brezhnev]] reached an agreement by signing the SALT treaty, which froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels.  

Oil prices were also a major concern. Congress turned down Ford's proposals for phasing out the federal ceilings on the price of most domestic oil. Senate Majority Whip [[Robert Byrd]] (D-[[West Virginia]]) explained the Democrats refusing of Ford's plans, saying, ''"After all, he doesn't have a national constituency, his is an inherited Presidency."'' Ford and Congressional Democrats finally reached a compromise with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. ''"Half a loaf was better then none, so I decided to sign it"'' Ford would later write. Under matters of foreign policy, the [[Cold War]] was a significant issue. On November 23, 1974, President Ford and Soviet General Secretary [[Leonid Brezhnev]] reached an agreement by signing the SALT treaty, which froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels. Being sworn into office just after the Vietnam War, Ford proposed emergency funds for South Vietnam, however, Congress rejected it, and Vietnam fell to [[Communist]] forces. <ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/38_ford/index.html</ref>

Ford blamed Congress for Communist North Vietnam's conquest of American ally South Vietnam in April 1975, because it had banned the renewed use of U.S. military forces there and refused his request for more aid to the crumbling resistance. In May 1975, when Cambodia seized a U.S. merchant ship, the SS Mayagüez, sailing close to its coast, he demonstrated that he could still act with secrecy and haste by sending U.S. marines to help recover the vessel and planes to bomb Sihanoukville (see [[Mayagüez incident]]). In 1975-1976 he sanctioned secret U.S. aid to the anti-Soviet factions in the civil war in [[Angola]], which ended in a leftist victory.

Gerald Ford was the subject of two unsuccessful assassination attempts. One in [[Sacramento]], [[California]] on September 5, 1975. by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme. Then in [[San Francisco]], Sara Jane Moore pointed a pistol at him, and just before firing a former Marine grabed the gun. Both were sentenced to life in Prison. However, Moore was paroled on December 31, 2007. <ref>http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=4900159</ref>

But by late 1976 the United States was not involved in any war, but the détente policy was rapidly losing political support, with Kissinger a scapegoat. Inflation had moderated. Business had recovered from the deep slump, though unemployment was still high.

==1976 Reelection Campaign==

==1976 Reelection Campaign==

''Main article: [[United States presidential election, 1976]]''

''Main article: [[United States presidential election, 1976]]''

Determined to win a term of his own, In 1976 President Ford defeated [[conservative]] [[California]] [[Governor]] [[Ronald Reagan]] in a long, hard-fought Republican Primary. His Democrat opponent in the general election was Governor [[Jimmy Carter]] of [[Georgia]]. Beneficial to Ford, the economy was improving and inflation was being reduced. He portrayed himself as a post-Watergate healer. Although Carter was expected to win easily, Ford almost wiped out his lead by the end of the campaign. Carter won on November 2nd, narrowly defeating Ford 50%-48%. Carter payed tribute to Ford in his inaugural address.

Determined to win a term of his own, In 1976 President Ford defeated conservative [[Ronald Reagan]] in a long, hard-fought Republican contest. His Democrat opponent in the general election was former governor [[Jimmy Carter]] of Georgia. Beneficial to Ford, the economy was improving and inflation was being reduced. He portrayed himself as a post-Watergate healer. Although Carter was expected to win easily, Ford almost wiped out his lead by the end of the campaign. Carter won on November 2nd, narrowly defeating Ford 50%-48%. Carter payed tribute to Ford in his inaugural address. "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."

 

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

==Post-Presidency==

==Post-Presidency==