Gerald Ford

This article is about the U.S. president. For the banker, see Gerald J. Ford.

For the President's father, see Gerald Rudolff Ford.

Gerald Rudolph Ford
38th President of the United States
In office August 9 1974 – January 20 1977
Vice President	None (1974),<br
Preceded by	Richard Nixon
Succeeded by	Jimmy Carter
40th Vice President of the United States
In office December 6 1973 – August 9 1974
Preceded by	Spiro Agnew
Succeeded by	Nelson Rockefeller
Personal details
Born	225px (1913-07-14)July 14, 1913 Omaha, Nebraska
Died	December 26 2006 Rancho Mirage, California
Resting place	225px >Nelson Rockefeller (1974-1977)
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouses	Elizabeth Ann Ford
Parent	225px >Nelson Rockefeller (1974-1977)
Signature

Gerald Rudolph Ford (July 14 1913 – December 26 2006) was the 38th President (1974–1977) and 40th Vice President (1973–1974) of the United States. He was the first person appointed to the vice presidency, under the terms of the 25th Amendment. Upon succession to the presidency, Ford became the only person to hold that office without having been elected either president or vice president. Prior to becoming vice president, he served for over eight years as the Republican Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. At the age of 93, Ford was the longest-lived U.S. president.

The Ford administration saw the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam War, the execution of the Helsinki Accords, and the continuing specter of inflation and recession. Ford came under intense criticism for granting a preemptive pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal, and was subsequently defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election.

Early life

Childhood

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Ford with his pet Boston Terrier, 1916

Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. on Monday, July 14, 1913, at 12:43 AM CST in Omaha, Nebraska. His birthplace at 3202 Woolworth Avenue was the home of his banker grandfather, Charles Henry King. His parents were Leslie Lynch King, Sr., a wool trader, and his wife, the former Dorothy Ayer Gardner, who separated 16 days after his birth and divorced the following December. According to Associated Press reports, Leslie King, Sr. was abusive and had a drinking problem, and Ford later described his father as having frequently hit his mother. James M. Cannon, the executive director of the domestic council during the Ford administration, has written that the future president's father threatened Dorothy Gardner King with a butcher knife a few days after their son's birth and announced his intention to kill her, their son, and the baby's nursemaid.

On 1 February 1916, after returning to live with her parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dorothy King married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a paint salesman. She began calling her son Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr. The future president was never formally adopted, however, and he did not legally change his name until December 3, 1935; he also used a more conventional spelling of his middle name. He was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers by his mother's second marriage. (He also had three half-siblings by his father's second marriage.) Ford was not aware of his actual parentage until shortly before turning fifteen. He met his biological father, whom he described as a "carefree, well-to-do man", while working in a restaurant as a teenager, but it appears that no further meetings ensued. "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."

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. In subsequent years, Ford received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in May 1970 and Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He is the only US president who was an Eagle Scout.

Football

Ford 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.

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Ford as a University of Michigan football player, 1933

Attending the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, Ford became the center and linebacker for the school's football team and helped the Wolverines to undefeated seasons and national titles in 1932 and 1933. The team suffered a steep decline in his 1934 senior year, however, winning only one game. Ford was the team's star nonetheless, and after Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota (the eventual national champion) to a scoreless tie in the first half, assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan later said, "When I walked into the dressing room at half time, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud of them. Ford and [Cedric] Sweet played their hearts out. They were everywhere on defense." Ford himself later recalled: "During 25 years in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, I often thought of the experiences before, during, and after that game in 1934. Remembering them has helped me many times to face a tough situation, take action, and make every effort possible despite adverse odds." His teammates later voted Ford their most valuable player, with one assistant coach noting, "They felt Jerry was one guy who would stay and fight in a losing cause." As part of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team, Ford played against the Chicago Bears in an exhibition game at Soldier Field. His number 48 jersey has since been retired by the school.

At Michigan, Ford became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money for college expenses. Following his graduation in 1935 with a degree in political science and economics, he turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League in order to take a coaching position at Yale and apply to its law school. Each team was offering him a contract of $200 a game, but he wanted a legal education.

Law

While attending Yale Law School, after working since September 1935 as an assistant football and boxing coach at the university, 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 the America First Committee, a group determined to keep America out of World War II. 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. (In the early 1940s, he also worked as a sometime model, appearing with his then-girlfriend Phyllis Brown in a fashion shoot for the March 1940 issue of Look magazine and again posing with her for the April 1940 cover illustration of Cosmopolitan magazine. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip Buchen, but overseas developments caused a change in plans. Ford responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor by enlisting in the Navy.

Naval service in World War II

Ford received a commission as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 13 1942. On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary seamanship, ordnance, gunnery, first aid, and military drill. In addition, he coached in all nine sports that were offered, but mostly in swimming, boxing and football. During the one year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on June 2 1942, and to Lieutenant in March 1943.

Ford in Navy uniform, 1945

Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey, at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. From the ship's commissioning on June 17 1943 until the end of December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the Monterey. While he was on board, the carrier participated in many actions in the Pacific Theater with the Third and Fifth Fleets during the fall of 1943 and in 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, New Ireland in 1943. During the spring of 1944, the Monterey supported landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participated in carrier strikes in the Marianas, Western Carolines, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After overhaul, from September to November 1944, aircraft from the Monterey launched strikes against Wake Island, participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukyus, and supported the landings at Leyte and Mindoro.

Although the ship was not damaged by Japanese forces, the Monterey was one of several ships damaged by the typhoon that hit Admiral William Halsey's Third Fleet on December 18-19, 1944. The Third Fleet lost three destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. The Monterey was damaged by a fire, which was started by several of the ship's aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding during the storm. During the storm, Ford narrowly avoided becoming a casualty himself. After he left his battle station on the bridge of the ship in the early morning of December 18, the ship rolled twenty-five degrees, which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge of the deck. The two-inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier slowed him enough so he could roll, and he twisted into the catwalk below the deck. As he later stated, "I was lucky; I could have easily gone overboard."

After the fire the Monterey was declared unfit for service, and the crippled carrier reached Ulithi on December 21 before proceeding across the Pacific to Bremerton, Washington where it underwent repairs. On Christmas Eve 1944 at Ulithi, Ford was detached from the ship and sent to the Athletic Department of the Navy Pre-Flight School at Saint Mary's College of California, where he was assigned to the Athletic Department until April 1945. One of his duties was to coach football. From the end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois as the Staff Physical and Military Training Officer. On October 3 1945 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January 1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Great Lakes to be processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable conditions on February 23 1946. On June 28 1963, the Secretary of the Navy accepted Ford's resignation from the Naval Reserve.

For his naval service, Gerald Ford earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the Gilbert Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Marshall Islands, Asiatic and Pacific carrier raids, Hollandia, Marianas, Western Carolines, Western New Guinea, and the Leyte Operation. He also received the Philippine Liberation Medal with two bronze stars for Leyte and Mindoro, as well as the American Campaign and World War II Victory Medals.

Marriage and family

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President Ford and family in the Oval Office on inauguration day, August 9, 1974

See also: Betty Ford

On October 15 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Ford married Elizabeth Bloomer Warren, a department-store fashion consultant who had been a John Robert Powers fashion model and a dancer in the auxiliary troupe of the Martha Graham Dance Company. The bride had previously been married to and divorced from William G. Warren.

At the time of his engagement, Ford was campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections, because, as The New York Times reported in a 1974 profile of Betty Ford, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."

The couple had four children:

• Michael Gerald Ford (b. March 14, 1950), a minister
• John Gardner Ford (a.k.a. Jack, b. March 16, 1952), a journalist/public relations consultant (not to be confused with television personality Jack Ford)
• Steven Meigs Ford (b. May 19, 1956), an actor and rodeo rider
• Susan Elizabeth Ford (b. July 6, 1957), a photographer

Betty 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 to painkillers were discussed prominently in the media, as was the family's support in opening the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California.

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."

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Campaign billboard from 1948 election

During his first campaign in 1948, Ford visited farmers and promised he would work on their farms and milk the cows if elected—a promise he fulfilled. 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.

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for twenty-four years, holding the Grand Rapids congressional district seat from 1949 to 1973. It was a tenure largely notable for its modesty. As an editorial in The New York Times explained, Ford "saw himself as a negotiator and a reconciler, and the record shows it: he did not write a single piece of major legislation in his entire career."

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Ford meets with President Richard Nixon as House Minority Leader

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."

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. In 1997 the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released a document that revealed that Ford had altered the first draft of the report to read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine." Ford had elevated the location of the wound from its true location in the back to the neck to support the single bullet theory. The original first draft of the Warren Commission Report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's "back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the spine." Despite its conclusions, the Commission's work continues to be debated in the public arena.

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". Johnson said of Ford at the time, "That Gerald Ford. He can't fart and chew gum at the same time." The press, used to sanitizing LBJ's salty language, reported this as "Gerald Ford can't walk and chew gum at the same time."

In 1970, Ford led the unsuccessful effort to impeach William O. Douglas, an associate justice on the Supreme Court, for "moonlighting" for private clients.

Vice Presidency, 1973-74

On October 10 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. According to The New York Times, "Nixon sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement. The advice was unanimous. 'We gave Nixon no choice but Ford,' House Speaker Carl Albert recalled later". Ford was nominated to take Agnew's position on October 12, the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the 25th Amendment had been implemented. 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.

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Then-Representative Ford and his wife, with President Nixon and his wife, following Nixon's nomination of Ford to be Vice President, October 1973

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 election 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.

Following Ford's appointment, the Watergate investigation continued 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. At the time, Ford was residing in the same Virginia home he had as a congressman. He was waiting for repairs before becoming the first vice president to occupy the new vice president's official residence on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory (Number One Observatory Circle) in Washington, D.C. 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 [his wife], I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house.'"

Presidency, 1974-77

Accession

Vice President Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger as Mrs. Ford looks on.

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.

In assessing his time as president, The New York Times stated that Ford "judged, correctly, that his primary mission was to quiet national passions inflamed by war and Watergate—to end, as he put it, 'our long national nightmare'—and in so doing to restore a measure of respect to the presidency itself. To that end he made several small gestures largely forgotten now but symbolically important at the time. He announced that he would be lenient to draft resisters, he opened the White House to people on Mr. Nixon's 'enemies list', and he crisscrossed the country endlessly, speaking to groups large and small in an effort to open up an office that Nixon had all but closed to public inspection".

Nixon pardon

On September 8 1974, Ford gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed while president. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country and that the Nixon family's situation "is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." At the same time as he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. Unconditional amnesty, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter presidency.

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. Nixon's chief of staff, Alexander Haig, did in fact offer a deal to Ford. Bob Woodward, in his book Shadow, recounts that Haig entered Ford's office on August 1 1974 while Ford was still Vice President and Nixon had yet to resign. Haig told Ford that there were three pardon options: (1) Nixon could pardon himself and resign, (2) Nixon could pardon his aides involved in Watergate and then resign, or (3) Nixon could agree to leave in return for an agreement that the new president would pardon him. After listing these options, Haig handed Ford various papers; one of these papers included a discussion of the president's legal authority to pardon and another sheet was a draft pardon form that only needed Ford's signature and Nixon's name to make it legal. Woodward summarizes the setting between Haig and Ford as follows: "Even if Haig offered no direct words on his views, the message was almost certainly sent. An emotional man, Haig was incapable of concealing his feelings; those who worked closely with him rarely found him ambiguous." Despite the situation, Ford never accepted the offer from Haig and later decided to pardon Nixon on his own terms. Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the election in 1976. In the opinion of The New York Times, the Nixon pardon was "a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act” that in a stroke had destroyed the new president’s “credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence.”

Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald Franklin terHorst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before Congress on October 17, 1974 to give sworn testimony—the only time a sitting president has done so—about the pardon.

Administration and Cabinet

President Ford meets with his Cabinet in 1975

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 E. 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.

Ford selected George H. W. Bush to be his liaison to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in late 1975.

Ford's transition chairman and first Chief of Staff was former congressman and ambassador Donald Rumsfeld. In 1975, Rumsfeld was named by Ford as the youngest-ever Secretary of Defense. Ford chose a young Wyoming politician, Richard Cheney, to replace Rumsfeld as his new Chief of Staff and later campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign. Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 has been referred to by political commentators as The "Halloween Massacre."

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Gerald Ford	1974–1977
Vice President	Nelson Rockefeller	1974–1977
State	Henry A. Kissinger	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

Midterm elections

Main articles: United States House elections, 1974 and United States Senate elections, 1974

The 1974 Congressional midterm elections took place less than three months after Ford assumed office. Occurring in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Democratic Party was able to turn voter dissatisfaction into large gains in the House elections, taking 49 seats from the Republican Party and increasing their majority to 291 of the 435 seats. Even Ford's old, reliably Republican seat was taken by Democrat Richard VanderVeen. In the Senate elections, the Democratic majority became 60 in the 100-seat body. In both houses, the numbers were above or close to the two-thirds mark required to override a presidential veto, and the 94th Congress overrode the highest percentage of vetoes since Franklin Pierce was President in the 1850s.

Domestic policy

The economy was a great concern during the Ford administration. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public in October 1974 and asked them to "whip inflation now." As part of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons. In hindsight, this was viewed as simply a public relations gimmick without offering any effective means of solving the underlying problems. At the time, inflation was around 7%.

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."

Similar to the 2006 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. Although the vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, some 25% 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.

Foreign policy

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South Vietnamese civilians scramble to board a U.S. helicopter during the American evacuation of Saigon

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.

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Ford meets with Soviet Union leader Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok, November 1974, to sign a joint communiqué on the SALT treaty

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.

In his meeting with Indonesian dictator Suharto, Ford gave the green light through arms and aid to invade the former Portuguese colony East Timor. Though causing little response from the media, the invasion resulted in the massacre of between 100,000-200,000 people: around a third of the population of the country.

Still in place from the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's December 1975 visit to the communist country. 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.

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, forty-one U.S. servicemen were killed and fifty wounded while approximately sixty Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed.

Assassination attempts

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Secret Service rushing Ford to safety after an assassination attempt by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme

Ford faced two assassination attempts during his presidency, occuring within three weeks of each other. 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 four 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.

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. One person was injured when Moore fired, and she was later sentenced to life in prison.[3]

Canada and the G7

Gerald Ford never visited Canada during the short time he was U.S. President, but he did Canada a major favor on the international scene. In 1975, the West was facing an economic crisis caused by inflation and rising oil prices. French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing started a meeting for leaders to discuss the problem informally.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had an ally in Ford, who supported Canada's inclusion in the G8 in the mid-1970s. (Canadian Press). He invited the heads of a group called the G5 for talks, then added non-member Italy. But he was adamant that Canada be excluded, according to an article by Thomas Axworthy in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau fought back, and had some support from the leaders in Britain and Germany. "But Canada's key friend was President Gerald Ford of the United States," Axworthy's article said. Ford was "irate" about Canada's exclusion, and even considered refusing to attend. However, the President had a better plan. Just as France had invited Italy in 1975, he invited Canada to the 1976 summit in Puerto Rico.

"Once invited, President Ford concluded, you would not be excluded in the future," the article said. Canada became a member of the G7 as the group came to be called. It became the G8 when Russia joined in 1997.

Proximity mattered, said history Prof. Robert Bothwell of the University of Toronto. "He only lived, what, 100 miles [160 km] from the border and he visited southern Ontario very often,' he said. "And then as a congressman, he'd worked with Canadian parliamentarians and found a lot of common ground." Ford also supported international solutions to issues. "We live in an interdependent world and, therefore, must work together to resolve common economic problems," he said in a 1974 speech.

Supreme Court appointment

In 1975, Ford appointed John Paul Stevens as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to replace retiring Justice William O. Douglas. Stevens had been a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, appointed by President Nixon. During his tenure as House Republican leader, Ford had led efforts to have Douglas impeached. After being confirmed, Stevens eventually disappointed some conservatives by siding with the Court's liberal wing regarding the outcome of many key issues. Nevertheless, President Ford paid tribute to Stevens. "He has served his nation well," Ford said of Stevens, "with dignity, intellect and without partisan political concerns."

1976 Presidential Election

Main article: United States presidential election, 1976

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Ford and wife Betty after his nomination at the 1976 republican Convention

Ford reluctantly agreed to run for office in 1976 but first had to counter a challenge for the Republican party nomination. Former Governor of California 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.

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Ford and Jimmy Carter debate

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."

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.

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.

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."

In the end, Carter won the election, receiving 50.1% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes compared with 48.0% and 240 electoral votes for Ford. The election was close enough that had less than 25,000 votes shifted in Ohio and Wisconsin – both of which neighbored his home state – Ford would have won the electoral vote. Though he lost, in the three months between the Republican National Convention and the election Ford managed to close what was once a 34-point Carter lead to a 2-point margin.

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, 1977-2006

Activity

The pardon controversy eventually subsided. Ford's successor, Jimmy Carter, opened his 1977 inaugural address by praising the outgoing president, saying "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."

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Gerald R. Ford
Official White House Portrait by Everett Kinstler

Left to right: Former Presidents Ford, Richard Nixon, then President George H.W. Bush and former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the Reagan Presidential Library in 1991

Ford at his 90th birthday party at the White House in 2003

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 1977, he reluctantly agreed to be interviewed by James M. Naughton, a New York Times journalist who was given the assignment to write the former president's advance obituary, an article that would be updated prior to its eventual publication.

After securing the Republican nomination in 1980, Ronald Reagan gave serious consideration to his former rival Ford as a potential vice-presidential running mate. But negotiations between the Reagan and Ford camps at the Republican National Convention in Detroit were unsuccessful. Ford conditioned his acceptance on Reagan's agreement to an unprecedented "co-presidency", giving Ford the power to control key executive branch appointments (such as Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary). After rejecting these terms, Reagan offered the vice-presidential nomination instead to George H. W. Bush.

Ford was a close friend of his successor, Jimmy Carter, despite the fact that Carter had defeated him in the 1976 election. Their friendship began in 1981, after both had left office, when they attended the funeral of Egypt's slain leader Anwar Al Sadat. Up until Ford's death, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visited President and Mrs. Ford's home frequently. In 2001, Ford and Carter served as honorary co-chairs of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform.

In 1977, he established the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Public Policy and Service at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. The Institute is designed to give undergraduates training in public policy. In 1981, he opened the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1999, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton. 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. 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.

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

In a pre-recorded embargoed interview with Bob Woodward of The Washington Post in July 2004, Ford stated that he disagreed with the justifications for the Iraq War, and indicated that he would not have gone to war had he been president. The details of the interview were not released until after Ford's death, as he requested. In 2001, Ford broke with conservative members of the Republican party by stating that gay couples "ought to be treated equally. Period." He become the highest ranking Republican to embrace full equality for gay couples.

Health problems

As Ford approached his ninetieth year, he began to experience significant health problems associated with old age. He suffered two minor strokes at the 2000 Republican National Convention, but made a quick recovery. In January 2006, he spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center near his residence at Rancho Mirage, California, for treatment of pneumonia. On April 23, President George W. Bush visited Ford at his home in Rancho Mirage for a little over an hour. This was Ford's last public appearance and produced the last known public photos, video footage and voice recording. While vacationing in Vail, Colorado, he was hospitalized for two days in July, 2006 for shortness of breath. On August 15 Ford was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for testing and evaluation. On August 21, it was reported that he had been fitted with a pacemaker. On August 25, he underwent an angioplasty procedure at the Mayo Clinic, according to a statement from an assistant to Ford. On August 28, Ford was released from the hospital and returned with his wife Betty to their California home. On October 12, however, Ford entered the hospital yet again for undisclosed tests at the Eisenhower Medical Center; he was released on October 16. As a result of his frail health it was announced on October 17 that Ford was considering selling his home near Vail due to the uncertainty as to whether he would be able to return. Those that saw him during the last five months of his life said that he looked frailer than ever and that it appeared his body was slowly failing him. As late as November he could still hold conversations with people but his voice was reduced to a fragile whisper.

Longevity

File:20060423-2 g8o6137-515h.jpg

President George W. Bush with former President Ford and his wife Betty on April 23 2006; this is the last known public photo of Gerald Ford

• On November 12 2006, Ford officially became the longest-lived president, surpassing Ronald Reagan. He had the second-longest post-presidency after Herbert Hoover (Hoover's 31 years and 7 months to Ford's 29 years and 11 months).
• Ford was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission.
• Gerald and Betty Ford hold the record as the longest-lived First Couple at ages 93 and 88, respectively. The previous record (calculated using the combined ages of the two spouses) was held by Ronald and Nancy Reagan at ages 93 and 82, respectively, at the time of President Reagan's death on June 5 2004, at which time Gerald and Betty Ford had already tied their record at ages 90 and 86 respectively. Prior to 2003, Harry and Bess Truman had held the record for more than 30 years — at the time of President Truman's death in 1972, they were aged 88 and 87, respectively.
• He was, at 93 years of age, one of only four U.S. presidents to have lived to 90 or more years of age (the others being Reagan, also 93; John Adams 90, Herbert Hoover, also 90).

Death

Main article: Death and state funeral of Gerald Ford

Ford died at the age of 93 on December 26, 2006 at 6:45 p.m Pacific Standard Time (02:45, December 27, UTC) at his home in Rancho Mirage, California. Mrs. Ford and their three sons, who had celebrated Christmas the day before at the home, were at Ford's bedside when he died. No local clergy were present, but one of Ford's sons is a minister and performed last rites. At 8:49 p.m., Ford's wife, Betty, issued a statement that confirmed his death.

Mrs. Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage:

My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age. His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.

Ford will be buried at his Presidential Mueseum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He will have a state funeral with a closed coffin.

See also

Ford and his golden retriever Liberty in the Oval Office, 1974

• Betty Ford
• 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
• Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
• CVN-78
• List of notable World War II veterans
• Liberty, Ford's pet golden retriever

Bibliography

• Ford, Gerald R. (1994). Presidential Perspectives from the National Archives. ISBN 1-880875-04-7.
• Ford, Gerald R. (1987). Humor and the Presidency. ISBN 0-87795-918-8.
• Ford, Gerald R. (1979). A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford. ISBN 0-06-011297-2.
• Ford, Gerald R. (1973). Selected Speeches. ISBN 0-87948-029-7.
• Ford, Gerald R. (1965). Portrait of the assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald). ASIN B0006BMZM4.

Further reading

Personal memoirs and official biographies

• Cannon, James (1993). Time and Chance: Gerald R. Ford's Appointment with History. ISBN 0-472-08482-8.
• Ford, Betty (1978). The Times of My Life. ISBN 0-06-011298-0.

Administration officials' publications

• Casserly, John J. (1977). The Ford White House: Diary of a Speechwriter. ISBN 0-87081-106-1.
• Coyne, John R. (1979). Fall in and Cheer. ISBN 0-385-11119-3.
• Thompson, Kenneth (ed.) (1980). The Ford Presidency: Twenty-Two Intimate Perspectives of Gerald Ford. ISBN 0-8191-6960-9. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• Hartmann, Robert T. (1980). Palace Politics: An Insider's Account of the Ford Years. ISBN 0-07-026951-3.
• Hersey, John (1980). Aspects of the Presidency: Truman and Ford in Office (The President: A Minute-by-Minute Account of a Week in the Life of Gerald Ford). ISBN 0-89919-012-X.
• Kissinger, Henry A. (1999). Years of Renewal. ISBN 0-684-85572-0.

Outside sources

• Firestone, Bernard J. and Alexej Ugrinsky (eds) (1992). Gerald R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate America. ISBN 0-313-28009-6. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• Greene, John Robert (1992). The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations. ISBN 0-253-32637-0.
• Greene, John Robert (1995). The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. ISBN 0-7006-0639-4.
• Mieczkowski, Yanek (2005). Gerald Ford And The Challenges Of The 1970s. ISBN 0-8131-2349-6.
• Werth, Barry (2006). 31 Days: The Crisis That Gave Us the Government We Have Today. ISBN 0-385-51380-1.

External links

Published works

• Works by Gerald Ford at Project Gutenberg.
• First State of the Union Address.
• Second State of the Union Address.
• Third State of the Union Address.

Libraries and museums

• Gerald R. Ford Foundation.
• Ford Library and Museum.
• National Archives materials.
• Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies in President Ford's hometown.

Biographies

• White House biography
• United States Congress. "Gerald Ford (id: F000260)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies
• Brief biography of Gerald Ford
• Collection of photographs of President Ford's homes throughout his life
• Spartacus Educational Biography

Multimedia/Other

• Audio recordings of Ford's speeches.
• Ford forced to admit the Warren Report fictionalized
• April 23, 2006, Gerald Ford's visit with George W. Bush, the last known public photos, video footage and voice recording taken of Ford alive

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