Gerald Ford (1913 - 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. [1] He reached the presidency without having been elected to either national office, appointed vice president in 1973 after Spiro Agnew's resignation and taking office the following year when Richard Nixon resigned over Watergate. His decision to pardon Nixon defined his short presidency. [2]
Early life and education
Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, on 14 July 1913. His parents separated soon after his birth and his mother remarried; he was renamed after his stepfather and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. [1] He became an Eagle Scout, an honour he often cited in later life.
He was a standout centre on the University of Michigan football team, which won national championships in 1932 and 1933, and turned down professional offers to coach at Yale while studying law. He earned his law degree at Yale Law School in 1941. During the Second World War he served in the United States Navy aboard the light aircraft carrier USS Monterey in the Pacific, surviving a severe typhoon in December 1944. [3]
Congressional career
Ford was elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan in 1948 and held the seat for twenty-five years. He built a reputation as a conventional, internationalist Republican, working on defence appropriations and generally supporting a strong Cold War posture. [1]
He was appointed to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and in 1965 became House Minority Leader, a post he held until 1973. His ambition was to become Speaker of the House rather than to seek national office. [2]
Vice presidency and presidency
When Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973, Nixon nominated Ford under the Twenty-fifth Amendment and Congress confirmed him. On 9 August 1974, when Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment, Ford was sworn in as president, telling the country that "our long national nightmare is over." [1]
A month later he granted Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any federal offences committed in office. The decision was deeply unpopular and is generally judged to have cost him the 1976 election, though later assessments were more favourable and he received the Profile in Courage Award for it in 2001. [4]
His administration faced high inflation and recession, responding with the "Whip Inflation Now" campaign and later tax cuts. In foreign policy he continued détente with the Soviet Union, signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975 and presided over the final American withdrawal from Vietnam as Saigon fell. He survived two assassination attempts in September 1975. [3] After narrowly holding off Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, he lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter.
Later life
Ford retired to California, wrote a memoir and remained active on the speaking circuit and in Republican politics, while developing an unexpectedly close friendship with Carter. [2] He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 and the Congressional Gold Medal the same year.
He died at Rancho Mirage, California, on 26 December 2006 at the age of 93, then the longest-lived American president. [1] Historians generally credit him with restoring a measure of public trust in the presidency after Watergate, while continuing to debate the pardon that cost him office.
