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Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( / ˈdʒɛrəld / JERR-əld; [1] born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He previously served as the leader of the Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1973, and as ...
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- From congressman to vice president and president
Gerald Ford graduated from the University of Michigan (1935), where he was a star gridiron-football player. He later earned a law degree from Yale University (1941).
What did Gerald Ford accomplish?
After becoming U.S. president, Gerald Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for those who had evaded the draft or deserted during the Vietnam War. Controversially, he pardoned former president Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974.
What were Gerald Ford’s jobs?
Gerald Ford joined the U.S. Navy during World War II and served in the South Pacific, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. In 1948 he won his first elective office, as Republican congressman from Michigan, and held that position until Richard Nixon named him vice president in 1973. Ford became U.S. president on August 9, 1974.
Gerald Ford (born July 14, 1913, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.—died December 26, 2006, Rancho Mirage, California) 38th president of the United States (1974–77), who, as 40th vice president, had succeeded to the presidency on the resignation of President Richard Nixon, under the process decreed by the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, and thereby became the country’s only chief executive who had not been elected either president or vice president.
While Gerald Ford was still an infant, his parents were divorced, and his mother moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she married Gerald R. Ford, Sr., who adopted the boy and gave him his name. After graduating from the University of Michigan (1935), where he was a star football player, Ford worked as an assistant coach while he earned a law degr...
Ford served in Congress for 25 years. Well-liked and ideologically flexible, he won the role of House minority leader in 1965 and held this position until Nixon named him vice president in 1973. During his time in Congress, he had developed a reputation for honesty and openness. When Nixon’s vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, was forced to resign from office in disgrace, the president had no choice but to nominate the only Republican whom the Democratic leadership of Congress would approve, the affable Jerry Ford.
In 1974, when it became clear that Nixon would face criminal charges for his role in the Watergate scandal and three articles of impeachment had been passed by the House Judiciary Committee, Nixon resigned, effective August 9. On that day, Ford took the oath of office and became president, stating, “Our long national nightmare is over.” He retained the foreign and domestic policy staffs of the Nixon administration, including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (See primary source document: First Address to Congress and the Nation. See also Cabinet of President Gerald Ford.)
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One of Ford’s early acts as president was the announcement of a conditional amnesty program for those who had evaded the draft or deserted during the Vietnam War. The most attention-getting act of his years in office, and the move that for many destroyed his credibility, followed in the next month. On September 8, 1974, declaring that in the end “it is not the ultimate fate of Richard Nixon that most concerns me” but rather “the immediate future of this great country,” Ford pardoned Nixon “for all offenses against the United States” that he had committed “or may have committed” while in office. The pardon, later alleged to have been the result of blackmail (that if Ford did not pardon him, Nixon would blacken the new president’s reputation by publicly claiming that Ford had promised a pardon in exchange for the presidency), effectively squelched any criminal prosecutions to which Nixon might have been liable. Afterward Ford voluntarily appeared before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives on October 17 to explain his reasoning—the first time a standing president had formally testified before a committee of Congress. In another startling move, Ford annoyed members of his own party by naming Nelson A. Rockefeller, both a party liberal and a representative of the so-called “Eastern establishment,” as his vice president.
Ford’s administration attempted to cope with the high rate of inflation, which he inherited from the Nixon administration, by slowing down the economy. The result was a very severe recession in 1974–75, which succeeded in lowering inflation but at the cost of an unemployment rate that rose to nearly 9 percent. Despite his WIN (Whip Inflation Now) program, he could do little to stop the country’s economic problems. Ford’s relations with the Democrat-controlled Congress were perhaps typified by his more than 50 vetoes of legislation by the end of 1976; more than 40 were sustained. Legislative gridlock set in.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Everett Raymond Kinstler’s portrait of Gerald R. Ford, commissioned by the White House Historical Association, was unveiled May 24, 1978. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., the nation’s only unelected president and vice president, was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14, 1913, the year his parents, Leslie and Dorothy King, divorced.
Presidency of Gerald Ford. Gerald Ford 's tenure as the 38th president of the United States began on August 9, 1974, upon the resignation of president Richard Nixon, and ended on January 20, 1977. Ford, a Republican from Michigan, had been appointed vice president since December 6, 1973, following the resignation of Spiro Agnew from that office.
Learn about Gerald R. Ford, the first vice president chosen under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, who succeeded Richard Nixon after his resignation. Find out about his life, career, achievements, and legacy as president.
Nov 9, 2009 · America’s 38th president, Gerald Ford (1913-2006) took office on August 9, 1974, following the resignation of President Richard Nixon (1913-1994), who left the White House in disgrace over the ...
Apr 2, 2014 · Learn about Gerald Ford's life, from his early years as a college football star and Navy veteran to his rise to the vice presidency and presidency after Richard Nixon's resignation. Find out how he pardoned Nixon, dealt with the Watergate scandal, and faced other challenges and controversies.
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