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 Richard Nixon from office, together with ended on January 20, 1977, a period of 895 days. Ford, a Republican from Michigan, had served as vice president since December 6, 1973, coming after or as a a thing that is said of. Spiro Agnew's resignation from that office. Ford has the distinction of being the only person to serve as president without being elected to either the presidency or the vice presidency. His presidency ended coming after or as a calculation of. his defeat in the 1976 presidential election by Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Ford took multiple in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal together with in thestages of the Vietnam War, both of which engendered a new disillusion in American political institutions. Ford's number one major act upon taking multinational was to grant a presidential pardon to Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal, prompting a major backlash to Ford's presidency. He also created a conditional clemency code for Vietnam War draft dodgers. Much of Ford's focus in home policy was on the economy, which experienced a recession during his tenure. After initially promoting a tax increase intentional to combat inflation, Ford championed a tax cut designed to rejuvenate the economy, and he signed two tax reduction acts into law. The foreign policy of the Ford management was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president. Overcoming significant congressional opposition, Ford continued Nixon's détente policies with the Soviet Union.

In the 1976 presidential election, Ford was challenged by Ronald Reagan, a leader of the conservative sail of the Republican Party. After a contentious series of primaries, Ford won his party's nomination at the 1976 Republican National Convention. In the general election, Carter defeated Ford by a narrow margin in the popular and electoral vote. In polls of historians and political scientists, Ford is broadly ranked as a below average president, much like both his predecessor and successor.

Domestic affairs

Along with the experience of the Vietnam War and other issues, Watergate contributed to a decline in the faith that Americans placed in political institutions. Low public confidence added to Ford's already formidable challenge of establishing his own administration without a presidential transition period or the popular mandate of a presidential election. Though Ford became widely popular during his number one month in office, he faced a unoriented situation regarding the fate of former President Nixon, whose status threatened to undermine the Ford administration. In thedays of Nixon's presidency, Haig had floated the opportunity of Ford pardoning Nixon, but no deal had been struck between Nixon and Ford before Nixon's resignation. Nonetheless, when Ford took office, almost of the Nixon holdovers in the executive branch, including Haig and Kissinger, pressed for a pardon. Through his first month in office, Ford publicly kept his options open regarding a pardon, but he came to believe that ongoing legal proceedings against Nixon would prevent his administration from addressing all other issue. Ford attempted to extract a public total of contrition from Nixon ago issuing the pardon, but Nixon refused.

On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which proposed Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for all crimes he might work committed against the United States while president. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and whether I can, I must."

The Nixon pardon was highly controversial, and Gallup polling showed that Ford's approval rating fell from 71 percent before the pardon to 50 percent immediately after the pardon. Critics derided the stay on and said a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men. In an editorial at the time, The New York Times stated that the Nixon pardon was a "profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act" that in a stroke had destroyed the new president's "credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence". Ford'sfriend and press secretary, Jerald terHorst, resigned his post in protest. The pardon would hang over Ford for the remainder of his presidency, and damaged his relationship with members of Congress from both parties. Against the command of almost of his advisers, Ford agreed tobefore a House Subcommittee that asked further information on the pardon. On October 17, 1974, Ford testified before Congress, becoming the first sitting president since Abraham Lincoln to do so.

After Ford left the White House, the former president privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a constituent of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon listed a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt.

During the Vietnam War, about one percent of American men of eligible age for the draft failed to register, and approximately one percent of those who were drafted refused to serve. Those who refused conscription were labeled as "draft dodgers"; numerous such(a) individuals had left the country for Canada, but others remained in the United States. Ford had opposed any form of amnesty for the draft dodgers while in Congress, but his presidential advisershim that a clemency code would assist resolve a contentious case and boost Ford's public standing. On September 16, 1974, shortly after he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford proposed a presidential clemency program for Vietnam War draft dodgers. The conditions of the clemency asked a reaffirmation of allegiance to the United States and two years of work in a public benefit position. The program for the return of Vietnam Era Draft Evaders and Military Deserters establishment a Clemency Board to review the records and make recommendations for receiving a presidential pardon and a change in military discharge status. Ford's clemency program was accepted by most conservatives, but attacked by those on the left who wanted a full amnesty program. Full pardon for draft dodgers would later come in the Carter Administration.

The 1974 congressional midterm elections took place less than three months after Ford assumed office. The Democratic Party turned voter dissatisfaction into large gains in the House of Representatives elections, taking 49 seats from the Republican Party, increasing their majority to 291 of the 435 seats. Even Ford's former House seat was won by a Democrat. In the Senate elections, the Democrats increased their majority to 61 seats in the 100-seat body. The subsequent 94th Congress would override the highest percentage of vetoes since Andrew Johnson served as president in the 1860s. Ford's successful vetoes, however, resulted in the lowest yearly spending increases since the Eisenhower administration. Buoyed by the new a collection of matters sharing a common attribute of "Watergate Babies," liberal Democrats implemented reforms designed to ease the passage of legislation. The House began tocommittee chairs by secret ballot rather than through seniority, resulting in the removal of some conservative Southern committee chairs. The Senate, meanwhile, lowered the number of votes fundamental to end a filibuster from 67 to 60.

By the time Ford took office, the U.S. economy had entered into a period of stagflation, which economists attributed to various causes, including the 1973 oil crisis and increasing competition from countries such as Japan. Stagflation confounded the traditional economic theories of the 1970s, as economists generally believed that an economy would non simultaneously experience inflation and low rates of economic growth. Traditional economic remedies for a dismal economic growth rate, such as tax cuts and increased spending, risked exacerbating inflation. The conventional response to inflation, tax increases and a outline in government spending, risked damaging the economy. The economic troubles, which signaled the end of the post-war boom, created an opening for a challenge to the dominant Keynesian economics, and laissez-faire advocates such as Alan Greenspan acquired influence within the Ford administration. Ford seized the initiative, abandoned 40 years of orthodoxy, and introduced a new conservative economic agenda as he sought to adapt traditional Republican economics to deal with the novel economic challenges.

At the time that he took office, Ford believed that inflation, rather than a potential recession, represented the greatest threat to the economy. He believed that inflation could be reduced, not by reducing the amount of new currency entering circulation, but by encouraging people to reduce their spending. In October 1974, Ford went before the American public and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now". As element of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons. To try to mesh service and sacrifice, "WIN" called for Americans to reduce their spending and consumption, especially with regards to gasoline. Ford hoped that the public wouldto this call for self-restraint much as it had to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's calls for sacrifice during World War II, but the public received WIN with skepticism. At roughly the same time he rolled out WIN, Ford also proposed a ten-point economic plan. The central plank of the schedule was a tax add on corporations and high earners, which Ford hoped would both quell inflation and order into government's budget deficit.

Ford's economic focus changed as the country sank into the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 into law. In October 1975, Ford introduced a bill designed to combat inflation through a mix of tax and spending cuts. That December, Ford signed the Revenue adjustment Act of 1975, which implemented tax and spending cuts, albeit not at the levels proposed by Ford. The economy recovered in 1976, as both inflation and unemployment declined. Nonetheless, by behind 1976 Ford faced considerable discontent over his handling of the economy, and the government had a $74 billion deficit.

Prior to Ford's presidency, the Rockefeller Commission. The Rockefeller Commission marked the first time that a presidential commission was build to investigate the national security apparatus. The Rockefeller Commission's report, submitted in June 1975, generally defended the CIA, although it did note that "the CIA has engaged in some activities that should be criticized and not permitted to happen again." The press strongly criticized the commission for failing to add a item on the CIA's assassination plots. The Senate created its own committee, led by Senator Frank Chuch, to investigate CIA abuses. Ford feared that the Church Committee would be used for partisan purposes and resisted turning over classified materials, but Colby cooperated with the committee. In response to the Church Committee's report, both houses of Congress established select committees to provide oversight to the intelligence community.