Presidency of Gerald Ford

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Gerald Ford served 29 months as President from 1974 to 1977.

Contents

[edit] Accession

Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger, while Betty Ford looks on
Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger, while Betty Ford looks on

When President Richard 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."[1] 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.[2], being sworn in December 19, 1974.

[edit] Nixon pardon

On September 8, 1974, Ford gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President.[3][4] 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."[5] 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.[6] Unconditional amnesty, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter Presidency.[7]

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The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men.[8] 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, an observation with which Ford concurred.[9] In an editorial at the time, The New York Times stated that 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."[10]

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.[11]

After Ford left the White House in 1977, intimates said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt.[9] In 1991, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon.[12]

[edit] 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 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.[13]

The Ford Cabinet
OFFICE NAME TERM
President Gerald Ford 1974–1977
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller 1974–1977
State Henry 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 S. Kleppe 1975–1977
Agriculture Earl Butz 1974–1976
  John Albert Knebel 1976–1977
Commerce Frederick B. Dent 1974–1975
  Rogers Morton 1975
  Elliot Richardson 1975–1977
Labor Peter J. Brennan 1974–1975
  John Thomas Dunlop 1975–1976
  William Usery, Jr. 1976–1977
HEW Caspar Weinberger 1974–1975
  F. David Mathews 1975–1977
HUD James Thomas Lynn 1974–1975
  Carla Anderson Hills 1975–1977
Transportation Claude Brinegar 1974–1975
  William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. 1975–1977

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.[14]

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.[15] Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 has been referred to by political commentators as The "Halloween Massacre."

[edit] 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, which was one more than the number needed (290) for a 2/3rds majority, necessary in order to over-ride a Presidential veto (or to submit a Constitutional Amendment). Perhaps due in part to this fact, the 94th Congress overrode the highest percentage of vetoes since Andrew Johnson was President of the United States (1865–1869).[16] 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.[17]

[edit] Domestic policy

President Ford meets with his Cabinet in 1975
President Ford meets with his Cabinet in 1975

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.[18] In hindsight, this was viewed as simply a public relations gimmick without offering any effective means of solving the underlying problems.[19] At the time, inflation was approximately seven percent.[20]

The economic focus began to change as the country sank into a mild recession, and in March 1975, Congress passed and Ford 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."[21]

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 primarily 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.[22] 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 canceled. The vaccine was blamed for twenty-five deaths; more people died from the shots than from the swine flu.[23]

Despite his reservations about how this program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford still signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children" according to the official White House press release for the bill signing.[24]

Ford was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, issuing Presidential Proclamation 4383.

In this Land of the Free, it is right, and by nature it ought to be, that all men and all women are equal before the law.

Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, to remind all Americans that it is fitting and just to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment adopted by the Congress of the United States of America, in order to secure legal equality for all women and men, do hereby designate and proclaim August 26, 1975, as Women's Equality Day.[1]

[edit] Foreign policy

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

All American military forces had withdrawn from Vietnam in 1973. As the North Vietnamese invaded and conquered the South in 1975, Ford ordered the final withdrawal of American civilians 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.

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

Ford continued the détente policy with both the Soviet Union and China, easing the tensions of the Cold War.

Left-wing critics contend that in his meeting with Indonesian president Suharto, Ford gave the green light[25][26] through arms and aid to invade the former Portuguese colony East Timor. Notes from the meeting indicate that Kissinger had insisted on the consent of the population first.

Still in place from the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.[27][verification needed] The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's December 1975 visit to the communist country.[28] In 1975, the Administration entered into the Helsinki Accords[29] 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.[30]

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.[31]

Ford attended the inaugural meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations (initially the G5) in 1975 and secured membership for Canada. Ford 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.[32]

[edit] Assassination attempts

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

Ford faced two assassination attempts during his presidency, occurring 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. As Fromme pulled the trigger, Larry Buendorf[33], a Secret Service agent, grabbed the gun and managed to insert the webbing of his thumb under the hammer, preventing the gun from firing. It was later found that, although the gun was loaded with four bullets, it was a semi-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.[34]

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 former marine Oliver Sipple deflected her shot. One person was injured when Moore fired, and she was later sentenced to life in prison.[35][36]

[edit] 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.[37] 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.[38] 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."[39]

[edit] 1976 presidential election

Main article: United States presidential election, 1976

Ford reluctantly agreed to run for office in 1976, but first he 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 (negotiations for the canal continued under President Carter, who eventually signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties). 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.[40]

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."[41]

President Ford's 1976 election campaign had the advantage that he was an incumbent President during several anniversary events held during the period leading up to the United States Bicentennial. The Washington, D.C. fireworks display on the Fourth of July was presided over by the President and televised nationally.[42] On July 7, 1976, the President and First Lady served as proud hosts at a White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of Great Britain, which was televised on the Public Broadcasting Service network. The 200th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts gave Ford the opportunity to deliver a speech to 110,000 in Concord acknowledging the need for a strong national defense tempered with a plea for "reconciliation, not recrimination" and "reconstruction, not rancor" between the United States and those who would pose "threats to peace."[43] Speaking in New Hampshire on the previous day, Ford condemned the growing trend toward big government bureaucracy and argued for a return to "basic American virtues."[44]

Ford (at right) and Jimmy Carter debate
Ford (at right) and Jimmy Carter debate

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."[45] In an interview years later, Ford said he had intended to imply that the Soviets would never crush the spirits of eastern Europeans seeking independence. However, the phrasing was so awkward that questioner Max Frankel was visibly incredulous at the response.[46]

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 fewer than 25,000 votes shifted in Ohio and Wisconsin – both of which neighbored his home state – Ford would have won the electoral vote.[47] 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. In fact, the Gallup poll the day before the election showed Ford held a statistically insignificant 1-point advantage over Carter.[48]

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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Remarks By President Gerald Ford On Taking the Oath Of Office As President. Watergate.info (1974). Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
  2. ^ ROCKEFELLER, Nelson Aldrich (1908–1979). Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. US Congress. Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
  3. ^ Ford, Gerald (1974-09-08). President Gerald R. Ford's Proclamation 4311, Granting a Pardon to Richard Nixon. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum. University of Texas. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  4. ^ Ford, Gerald (1974-09-08). Presidential Proclamation 4311 by President Gerald R. Ford granting a pardon to Richard M. Nixon. Pardon images. University of Maryland. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  5. ^ Ford, Gerald (1974-09-08). Gerald R. Ford Pardoning Richard Nixon. Great Speeches Collection. The History Place. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  6. ^ Bacon, Paul. The Pardoning President. Public Broadcasting System. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  7. ^ Carter's Pardon. McNeil/Lehrer Report. Public Broadcasting System (1977-01-21). Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  8. ^ Kunhardt, Jr., Phillip [1999]. Gerald R. Ford "Healing the Nation". New York: Riverhead Books, pp. 79–85. Retrieved on 2006-12-28. 
  9. ^ a b Shane, Scott. "For Ford, Pardon Decision Was Always Clear-Cut", The New York Times, p. A1. Retrieved on 2006-12-29. 
  10. ^ Gerald R. Ford. Editorial. The New York Times (2006-12-28). Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
  11. ^ Timeline of President Ford's Life and Career. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum. Gerald R. Ford Library. Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
  12. ^ Award Announcement. JFK Library Foundation (2001-05-01). Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
  13. ^ Secretary of Transportation: William T. Coleman Jr. (1975 - 1977) - AmericanPresident.org (2005-01-15). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  14. ^ George Herbert Walker Bush - profile. CNN. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  15. ^ Richard B. Cheney. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  16. ^ Presidential Vetoes. Office of the Clerk, United States House of Representatives (July 19, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  17. ^ Renka, Russell D. Nixon’s Fall and the Ford and Carter Interregnum. Southeast Missouri State University, (April 10, 2003). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  18. ^ Gerald Ford Speeches: Whip Inflation Now (October 8, 1974), Miller Center of Public Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-12-31
  19. ^ WIN buttons and Arthur Burns. Econbrowser (2006). Retrieved on 2007-01-24.
  20. ^ Consumer Price Index, 1913-. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved on 2006-12-31
  21. ^ Lemann, Nick. Rhetorical Bankruptcy. The Harvard Crimson, (November 8, 1975). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  22. ^ Pandemic Pointers. Living on Earth (March 3, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  23. ^ Mickle, Paul. 1976: Fear of a great plague. The Trentonian. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  24. ^ President Gerald R. Ford's Statement on Signing the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (December 2, 1975). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  25. ^ Hitchens, Christopher. "The Accidental President Gerald Ford: 1913-2006", The Mirror, December 28, 2006, p. 17. Retrieved on 2007-01-01. 
  26. ^ "East Timor Revisited", National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 62, December 6, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-01-03. 
  27. ^ Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Houghton Mifflin College. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  28. ^ Trip To China. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. University of Texas. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  29. ^ President Gerald R. Ford's Address in Helsinki Before the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
  30. ^ About Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  31. ^ Capture and Release of SS Mayaguez by Khmer Rouge forces in May 1975. United States Merchant Marine (2000). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  32. ^ "President Ford got Canada into G7", Canadian Broadcasting Company, December 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. 
  33. ^ Election Is Crunch Time for U.S. Secret Service
  34. ^ McLaren, Janet (2005-06-26). 'Squeaky' up for parole. New York Daily News. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  35. ^ Lee, Vic (2007-01-02). Interview: Woman Who Tried To Assassinate Ford (HTML) (English). ABC-7 News. KGO-TV. Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
  36. ^ United States Secret Service. Public Report of the White House Security Review (HTML) (English). United States Department of the Treasury. Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
  37. ^ John Paul Stevens. OYEZ. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  38. ^ Levenick, Christopher. "The Conservative Persuasion", The Daily Standard, 2005-09-25. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. 
  39. ^ Mauro, Tony. "Bush's words saddle Miers: 'She's not going to change'", USA Today, 2005-10-09. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. 
  40. ^ Another Loss For the Gipper. Time, March 29, 1976. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  41. ^ VH1 News Presents: Politics: A Pop Culture History Premiering Wednesday, October 20 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT). PRNewswire October 19, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  42. ^ Election of 1976: A Political Outsider Prevails. C-SPAN. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  43. ^ Shabecoff, Philip. "160,000 Mark Two 1775 Battles; Concord Protesters Jeer Ford -- Reconciliation Plea." New York Times, April 20, 1975, p.1.
  44. ^ Shabecoff, Philip. "Ford, on Bicentennial Trip, Bids U.S. Heed Old Values." New York Times, April 19, 1975, p.1.
  45. ^ Election 2000: 1976 Presidential Debates. CNN (2001). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  46. ^ Lehrer, Jim (2000). 1976:No Audio and No Soviet Domination. Debating Our Destiny. PBS. Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
  47. ^ Presidential Election 1976 States Carried. miltied.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  48. ^ Americans On - Gerald Ford. Hear The Issues. Gallup Poll. Retrieved on 2007-01-24.
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