THE PRESIDENCY OF GERALD FORD

As described previously, Gerald Ford came to the presidency under the worst of circumstances. To his advantage, he was incredibly well liked in Washington and totally free of any hint of scandal. However, during his time in office, Ford seemed to lack a grand “plan” for what he wanted to accomplish. Several historians note that Ford’s presidency was doomed from September 8, 1974, when he pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes that he might have committed. This soured many Americans on Ford; his later explanation was that up until that point virtually his entire time in office was spent dealing with Watergate-related affairs, and that the only way to move past that was to pardon the former president. The public expressed their opinion in the fall congressional elections, when many Democrats were swept into office.

Ford became the second American president to visit China, and the first to visit japan. It should be remembered it was during the Ford administration that South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong. The last American troops had left in 1973; by 1975 the North Vietnamese army began to occupy several major South Vietnamese cities. Ford toyed with the idea of sending in troops to aid the South Vietnamese, but ended up asking Congress for a major aid package for South Vietnam. By this point the vast majority of Americans wanted nothing to do with the situation in Southeast Asia, and Congress defeated Ford’s request. In late April the North Vietnamese were closing in on Saigon; some of the most gripping photographs of the era were photos of American helicopters evacuating Americans and Vietnamese who had worked for them from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon one day before the city was captured by the North Vietnamese.

The major problem that Ford’s presidency faced was the economy. The American economy had always suffered from cither unemployment or inflation; during the Ford administration the economy suffered from both. This economic situation was termed stagflation. Critics of Ford claimed that his tactics were no different than those of Herbert Hoover, as he tried to restore confidence in the economy by asking people to wear “WIN” buttons (“Whip Inflation Now”) and to voluntarily spend less to lessen the effects of inflation. Ford pushed for tax cuts and for less government spending; despite these various approaches, by 1975 unemployment in America stood near 10 percent and inflation remained a problem. On several occasions Ford fell or tripped in public settings, which did not improve the image of the presidency.

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1976 President Ford was able to fend off the campaign of former Governor of California and actor Ronald Reagan. In the election Ford faced the former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, During the campaign Carter continually stressed that he would be an outsider in Washington, and not tied to any of the messes that had gone on in Washington since 1968; to many in a post-Watergate America, this message sold perfectly. In addition, Ford did not help himself in the campaign by making several misstatements, such as claiming in one debate that Eastern Europe was not controlled by the Soviet Union. Carter won the presidency by a fairly narrow margin by keeping the New Deal Democratic coalition together. Some Southerners who had voted for Nixon in 1968 and 1972 returned to vote Democrat in 1976 because of Carter’s Southern roots.