Gerald Ford

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Gerald Ford
200px
38th President of the United States
Term of office
August 9, 1974 - January 20, 1977[1]
Political party Republican
Vice Presidents None (Aug.-Dec. 1974)
Nelson Rockefeller (1974-1977)
Preceded by Richard Nixon
Succeeded by Jimmy Carter
40th Vice-President of the United States
Term of office
December 6, 1973 - August 9, 1974
President Richard Nixon
Preceded by Spiro Agnew
Succeeded by Nelson Rockefeller
Born July 14, 1913
Omaha, Nebraska
Died December 26, 2006
Rancho Mirage, California
Spouse Elizabeth Bloomer Warren
Religion Episcopalian

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) was the 38th President of the United States of America, serving from 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 1964. 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.

Ford is married to Elizabeth Bloomer Warren and they had four children.

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. [2] 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. [3] After the war was over in 1946 he returned to his law firm in Grand Rapids.

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-Word War 2 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.

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."

Vice Presidency

On October 10, 1973, Vice President under Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew resigned for office after pleading no contest to failure to report income. Nixon chose Representative Ford as his replacement and was confirmed by the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate. During that period the Watergate affair was a major issue, when members of the campaign to reelect Richard Nixon broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel during the 1972 presidential election campaign. Being loyal to the President, Ford defended Nixon. However, on August 9th 1974 Nixon resigned from the Presidency because of the national scandal.

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.

"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. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many.

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.

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over."[4]

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 New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President. He was confirmed in December 1974, although some - including Senator Barry Goldwater - voted against him. [5] 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.

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. [6] 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.

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. [7]

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. [8]

In terms of the Judiciary, 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. He was confirmed in December by a 98-0 vote in the Senate.

1976 Reelection Campaign

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. Ford emphasized the reduction of inflation towards the end of his Presidency and 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."

Post-Presidency

Ford remained active in politics after his Presidency through lecturers at hundreds of colleges and universities over current issues. There was serious consideration in 1980 that Ronald Reagan would select Ford as his Vice Presidential running mate. However Reagan instead chose George H.W. Bush. Ford attended the annual Public Policy Week Conferences of the American Enterprise Institute, and in 1982 established the AEI World Forum, which was a gathering of international former and current world leaders to discuss political and business policies. On August 11, 1999, then-President Bill Clinton awarded Ford the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor. [9] In 2001, Ford was also awarded the Profiles in Courage Award. After the 2000 Presidential election, he and his former rival Jimmy Carter co-chaired the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. [10]

President Ford died on December 26, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California due to arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease. Ford was 93 years old. President Ford's body was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center where it remained until the start of State Funeral Services.

Trivia

  • The 1976 Presidential Election was the only campaign Gerald Ford has ever lost.
  • Gerald Ford is the only President to serve in office with out having been elected to the Presidency or Vice Presidency.
  • Ford was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, living to age 93.

External links

Gerald R. Ford Foundation

References

  1. http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm
  2. http://www.historyguy.com/biofiles/ford_gerald.html
  3. http://www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/fordbiop.asp
  4. http://www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/speeches/740001.htm
  5. http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917422,00.html
  6. [Henry F. Graff, The Presidents, Pg. 538]
  7. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/38_ford/index.html
  8. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=4900159
  9. http://www.ford.utexas.edu/avproj/post-presidential.asp
  10. http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/grf/timeline.asp#post