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'''Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.''' (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) was the 38th [[President of the United States of America]], serving from August 1974 to January 1977. He was the first president not elected to either the presidency or vice-presidency. A Republican, Ford served as U.S. [[Representative]], 1948–73, and was the House Minority Leader from 1965 to 1973. 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.
President Ford received heavy criticism for pardoning Nixon. Ford watched helpless helplessly as [[South Vietnam]] fell to a Communist invasion, after all American forces had been removed. He promoted [[détente]] with the [[Soviet Union]], incurring the wrath of the conservatives, led by [[Ronald Reagan]]. He narrowly defeated Reagan for renomination in 1976 by in the [[Republican partyParty]]primaries, then lost narrowly to Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]].
Ford was a pro-business and a local activist, and was known as a decent person and good family man; in his three years in office, he did much to heal the deep national wounds he had inherited from Nixon.
However, Ford nominated [[John Paul Stevens]] to the Supreme Court – Stevens became one of its most left-wing justices.<ref>Watkins, William J. (July 29, 2019). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/29/how-misstep-can-shape-supreme-court/ How a misstep can shape the Supreme Court]. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved July 29, 2019.</ref>
In 1942 he joined the Navy as an ensign. He served 47 months, including 18 months aboard the light aircraft carrier ''USS Monterey'' in the South Pacific. He served 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. He came close to being swept overboard from his ship. After the war was over in 1946 he returned to his law firm in Grand Rapids.
Three weeks before his first election, on Oct. 15, 1948, Ford married Elizabeth "Betty" Bloomer, a former model and aspiring dancer. Born in Chicago, she had lived most of her life in Grand Rapids and had been married and divorced. Jerry and Betty Ford had three sons and a daughter. She became a vocal and effective spokeswoman for important social and women's issues during and after her years in the White House, appearing somewhat less conservative than Ford himself.<ref>Maryanne Borrelli, "Competing Conceptions of the First Ladyship: Public Responses to Betty Ford's ''60 Minutes '' Interview." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 2001 31(3): 397-414. ISSN 0360-4918.</ref>
==Congressional career==
In 1961, Ford became chairman of the House Republican Conference, making him the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives.
In 1963 Ford took over as chairman of the House Republican caucus. Two years later, with the help of young Turk House colleagues [[Melvin Laird]] of Wisconsin, Robert Griffin of Michigan, and Charles Goodell of New York, Ford became House minority leader by ousting the current Leader [[Charles Halleck]] of Indiana by a 73-67 vote. His weekly press conferences with [[Everett Dirksen]], the GOP Senate leader, made them the national voice of the Republican party. In 1963 He supported Kennedy and Johnson's involvement in the [[Vietnam War]]. ====Warren Commission appointment==== Ford was appointed by the new president [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1963 to the [[Earl Warren|Warren Commission]], which investigated the assassination of President [[John F. Kennedy]]. He supported Kennedy and JohnsonFord was known to have changed autopsy reports regarding JFK's involvement assassination, changing notes to "clarify meaning", in the his own words.<ref>[[Vietnam War]http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/JFK/ford.html Gerald Ford forced to admit the Warren Report fictionalized]</ref> Despite his own claims of only intending "to be more precise", it is apparent that Ford intentionally changed the reports to support the single bullet theory.<ref>[http://www.jfklancer.com/Ford-Rankin.html Gerald Ford's Terrible Fiction]</ref> ====Tenure====
Domestically, he was consistently conservative, and led the fight against Johnson's [[Great Society]]. As long as the [[Conservative Coalition]] was intact he usually won; Johnson's landslide in 1964 over [[Barry Goldwater]] brought in scores of new Democrats and opened the door for liberal legislation and Ford was usually on the losing side. Ford's conservatism was endorsed by the voters in 1966, as the [[New Deal Coalition]] started unraveling because of voter disgust with Johnson's inept handling of the Vietnam war and the violent outbreaks in large American cities.
[[Image:Ford1976.JPG|left|thumb|250px|President Ford at work in the Oval Office, 08/12/76]] Ford's vision for America were grounded in conservative principles that emphasized fiscal responsibility, decreased federal involvement in the economy, lower taxes, and long-term sustainable growth with low inflation. Rampant inflation was the economic terror of the 1970s, and its reduction was Ford's overriding domestic priority. But growth rates were also low—the combination was new and unexpected and was called "stagflation." Mus of the problem came from international economic trends, as oil prices skyrocketed and Japanese and German imports for the first time became major threats to American factories.
Ford's favored means for combating inflation was the conservative stand-by: a combination of fiscal [[Ascesis|austerity ]] and a tight federal monetary policy. He attacked the heavily Democratic 94th Congress for wasteful spending, and 66 times wielded the presidential veto to kill costly congressional bills. His refusal to help New York City's financial crisis was briefly popular in the hinterland.<ref>Yanek Mieczkowski, ''Gerald Ford And The Challenges Of The 1970s'' (2005).</ref>
The weak economy was a major concern during the Ford administration. Inflation was in the double digits, unemployment was rising and the gross domestic product was in decline.<ref>Henry F. Graff, "Gerald R. Ford," ''The Presidents, P. 538</ref> Ford proposed a tight lid of $300 billion on the federal budget and asked for a $5 billion surtax (additional income tax) on corporations and families in the higher income bracket. These were part of his "whip inflation now" (WIN) program; they proved ineffective.
*Ford was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, living to age 93.
* He was the only President to have been an Eagle Scout.
==Notes==
* Greenspan, Alan. ''The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World'' (2007), memoir by senior economics advisor
* Kissinger, Henry. ''Years of Renewal'' (2000). 1152pp; in-depth memoirs of the Ford years; [https://www.amazon.com/Years-Renewal-Henry-Kissinger/dp/1842120425/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194399605&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
**Zelikow, Philip. "The Statesman in Winter: Kissinger on the Ford Years" ''Foreign Affairs'' (1999) 78(3): 123-128123–128. Issn: 0015-7120 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Laird, Melvin R. "A Strong Start in a Difficult Decade: Defense Policy in the Nixon-Ford Years." ''International Security'' (1985) 10(2): 5-26. Issn: 0162-2889 Fulltext: [http://www.jstor.org.proxy.cc.uic.edu/view/01622889/di008112/00p00147/0 in Jstor]
[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom award winners]]
[[Category:1970s]]
[[Category:Eagle Scouts]]
[[Category:Moderate Republicans]]
