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Ford was born on July 14, 1913, in [[Omaha]], [[Nebraska]], and was named Leslie King after his father, a wool trader. When Ford was two years old his parents were divorced because of abuse. His mother, Dorothy Gardner King, moved to [[Grand Rapids]], Michigan. There she met and married Gerald R. Ford, owner of a small paint factory. Ford adopted her son, and the boy's name was changed to Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Gerald Ford, Sr., described by biographers as a dominant athletic man and strong believer in self-discipline, later fathered three sons. He never told young Gerald that he was adopted until years later.

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.

[[Image:Fordcampaign.gif‎|left|thumb|250px|Gerald R. Ford, Jr., Republican primary campaign billboard, 1948.]] Both his father, a Republican leader in Grand Rapids, and the late Republican Senator [[Arthur H. Vandenberg]] urged young Ford to run for Congress. Vandenberg, who was an internationalist, wanted to oust the isolationist Republican congressman from the Grand Rapids area district, Bartel Jonkman. Ford won the primary, defeating incumbent Congressman Bartel J. Jonkman by more than 9,000 votes and went on to an easy victory in the general election. At this stage his basic political outlook was influenced by [[Wendell Willkie]], by service in World War II, and by hostility to the dominant local machine. Ford ran as a minority reformer. Ford's view of himself as a minority reformer willing to stand up and oppose what he saw as corruption.<ref>William A. Syers, "The Political Beginnings of Gerald R. Ford: Anti-bossism, Internationalism, and the Congressional Campaign of 1948." ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' 1990 20(1): 127-142. ISSN 0360-4918.</ref>

In 1961, Ford became chairman of the House Republican Conference, making him the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives.

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.

As vice-president, Ford called inflation "Public Enemy Number One," promoted the "WIN: Whip Inflation Now" slogan, and urged budget cuts. He was an ardent foe of busing to achieve racial integration. He repeatedly defended President Nixon's innocence in the [[Watergate affair]] and its cover-up. Ford dropped that defense only when Nixon, on August 5, 1974, released tapes that showed his complicity in the cover-up and made his impeachment and conviction inevitable. Nixon then resigned, and Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974.

Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States on August 9, 1974. Responding to the Watergate affair, he focused his inaugural address on integrity.

By telling the American people that he was "a Ford, not a Lincoln," he not only lowered public expectations about what he might accomplish, he also reassured the American people that the days of the imperial presidency in the style of Johnson and Nixon had ended.

===Administration===

Ford kept some of the original cabinet members from Nixon's Presidency, such as Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]]. He replaced Nixon's Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce and Attorney General would resign. He chose liberal Republican [[Nelson Rockefeller]], governor of New York, as his Vice President. After a bruising hearing. Rockefeller was confirmed in December 1974, over the opposition of some conservatives like [[Barry Goldwater]]. Rockefeller was ineffective and unhappy in the new role.<ref>http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917422,00.html</ref>

===Pardon===

===Economy===

Ford fought constantly with Congress, especially when Democrats made major gains after attacking his pardon in the 1974 elections. Sixty-six times he exercised his veto power. ''Congressional Quarterly'' reported that Ford won only 58% of congressional votes that he took a position on, the lowest level of support from any president. Ford's press secretary, Ron Nessen, was incompetent and repeatedly blamed the news media for reporting on Ford's failures.

The initial goodwill toward Ford steadily eroded as the numbers turned sour. Unemployment went from 4.8% in 1972 to 8.0% when he took office; consumer price inflation jumped from 3.4% to 11.0%. Unexpectedly high inflation, fueled by soaring oil prices, made it difficult to plan for the future; cheap imports from Germany and Japan for the first time became a threat to autos and electronics; high unemployment troubled industrial areas. By early 1975 the jobless rate was the worst since the [[Great Depression]]. Ford insisted that inflation was the greater problem. He sought to slow it, as Nixon had, by severe restraints on government spending for social programs. He also tried to curb private spending by asking Congress to raise the taxes on personal incomes. But the Democratic majority refused, and in congressional elections in November 1974 Democrats increased their majorities to three-fifths in the Senate and two-thirds in the House. In January 1975 Ford finally yielded to liberals' demands for a program to stop the economic slump and promote hiring. He proposed personal [[income tax]] rebates, especially to higher-income people, who might spend extra money on durable goods such as automobiles. Liberals criticized Ford's proposal for offering little relief for the poor, so they pushed through Congress a modified, though modest, tax rebate bill favoring lower-income people. Ford signed it reluctantly. He continued to resist liberal demands for massive public works spending to employ the jobless, and vetoed many bills.

==1976 Reelection Campaign==

By late 1976 the United States was not involved in any war, but the détente policy was rapidly losing political support, with Kissinger a scapegoat. Inflation had moderated. Business had recovered from the deep slump, though unemployment was still high.

Ford, after overcoming a strong challenge for the Republican nomination from conservative [[Ronald Reagan]], replaced liberal Rockefeller with conservative Senator [[Robert Dole]] of Kansas, as his running mate. He campaigned on his record of having blocked expensive social programs and thereby slowed inflation.

Ford-the-insider was challenged by a complete outsider, [[Jimmy Carter]], a former Georgia governor who promised to restore trust in government, reduce unemployment, and shrink the federal bureaucracy. Ford accused Carter of being fuzzy on issues and of lacking experience in foreign affairs. However he agreed to nationally televised debates - the first between presidential candidates since 1960 and in one debate Ford blundered badly by insisting falsely that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe."

Historians generally agree with the verdict: the Ford presidency showed indecisive leadership, repeated political miscalculation, poor judgment, and lack of vision.

[[Image:20061226-2_g8o6137-1-515h.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Gerald Ford and Betty Ford with President [[George W. Bush]], 04/23/06]] Ford remained active in politics after his Presidency through lecturers at hundreds of colleges and universities over current issues. There was serious consideration in 1980 that Ronald Reagan would select Ford as his Vice Presidential running mate; it proved impossible to broker a deal giving Ford the powers he wanted, so Reagan instead chose [[George H.W. Bush]].

President Ford died on December 26, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California due to arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease. Ford was 93 years old. President Ford's body was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center where it remained until the start of State Funeral Services.

*Ford was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, living to age 93.

* Cannon, James. ''Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment With History'' (1998), 528pp; the major biography

* Greene, John Robert. ''The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations'' (1992)

* Schapsmeier, Edward L. and Frederick H. Schapsmeier. ''Gerald R. Ford's Date With Destiny: A Political Biography'' (1989), strongest on Congressional years.

* Suri, Jeremi. ''Henry Kissinger and the American Century'' (2007)

* Ford, Gerald R. ''A time to heal: the autobiography of Gerald R. Ford'' (1979)

* Greenspan, Alan. ''The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World'' (2007), memoir by senior economics advisor

* 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]

{{USPresidents}}

{{USVicePresidents}}

[[Category:United States History]]

[[Category:1960s]]