Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Gerald Ford shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Gerald Ford offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Gerald Ford at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Gerald Ford? Wrong! If the Gerald Ford is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Gerald Ford then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Gerald Ford? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Gerald Ford and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Gerald Ford wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Gerald Ford then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Gerald Ford site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Gerald Ford, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Gerald Ford, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox_President| name=Gerald Ford| nationality=American| image=Gerald Ford.jpg|225px| order=38th President of the United States], 1974, [1977
(December 1974–January 1977)| predecessor=[Richard Nixon| order2=40th [Vice President of the United States, [1973, [1974| predecessor2=[Spiro Agnew| order3=15th [Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives| term_start3=January 3, 1965, [1973| successor3=[John Jacob Rhodes from [Michigan's 5th District], 1949, [1973| successor4=[Richard F. Vander Veen| death_date=| death_place=[Rancho Mirage, California| occupation=[Lawyer| party=[Republican Party (United States)| religion=Episcopal Church in the United States of America| signature=Gerald R. Ford signature.png|-->Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th President of the United States (1974–1977), and has been the only person to occupy that office who had been elected neither to the presidency nor the Vice President of the United States. Ford was the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and, after serving as the 40th Vice President (1973–1974) of the United States for less than a year, became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation. Prior to 1973, he served for over eight years as the Republican Party (United States) Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives of the United States House of Representatives; he was first elected to Congress in 1948 from Michigan's 5th congressional district.

In foreign policy, the Helsinki Accords marked a move toward détente in the Cold War, even as the former ally South Vietnam was invaded and conquered by North Vietnam; Ford did not intervene, but did help extract friends of the U.S. At home, the economy suffered from inflation and recession. Ford came under intense criticism for granting a preemptive pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. In United States presidential election, 1976, Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but ultimately lost the presidential election to Democratic Party (United States) Jimmy Carter.

After experiencing health troubles and being admitted to hospital four times in 2006, Ford Death and state funeral of Gerald Ford on December 26 of that year, aged 93.

Early life Childhood Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. on July 14, 1913 at 12:43 a.m. Central Time zone, at Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska, Nebraska. His parents, Leslie Lynch King, Sr., a wool trader whose father was a prominent banker, and his wife, the former Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford, separated 16 days after his birth. His mother took him to the Oak Park, Illinois, Illinois home of her sister Tannisse and her husband, Clarence Haskins James. From there she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and his wife, the former Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Michigan. They divorced the following December. Ford's mother gained full custody.

As Gerald Ford recalled later in life, his biological father was spousal abuse and had a history of hitting his mother. James M. Cannon, who was the executive director of the domestic council during the Ford administration, wrote in a biography of the former president that the Kings' separation and divorce was sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King, Sr. threatened his wife, Dorothy, with a butcher knife and announced his intention to kill her, the baby, and the baby's nursemaid. His first abusive action, according to Ford, occurred on the couple's honeymoon, when King hit his wife for smiling at another man.

On February 1, 1916, now settled in Grand Rapids, Dorothy King married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company who later became president of the firm. She began calling her son Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr. The future president was never formally adoption, however, and he did not legally change his name until December 3, 1935; he also used a more conventional spelling of his middle name. He was raised in East Grand Rapids, Michigan with his three half-brothers by his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison Ford (born 1924), and James Francis Ford (1927–2001). He also had three half-siblings by his father's second marriage: Marjorie King (1921–1993), Leslie Henry King, Sr. (1923–1976), and Patricia Jane King (born 1925).

Ford was not aware of his biological parentage until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth. That same year his biological father, whom he described as a "carefree, well-to-do man", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King, Sr.'s death,Associated Press. Nebraska - Born, Ford Left State As Infant. The New York Times (December 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-31. but Ford maintained his distance emotionally, saying, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."

Ford joined the Boy Scouts of America, and attained that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America). He always regarded this as one of his proudest accomplishments, even after attaining the White House. In subsequent years, Ford received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in May 1970 and Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He is the only US president who was an Eagle Scout. Scouting was so important to Ford that his family asked that Scouts participate in his funeral. About 400 Eagle Scouts were part of the funeral procession, where they formed an honor guard as the casket went by in front of the museum, and served as ushers.

Sports player, 1933Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School and was a star athlete and captain (sports) of his American football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League. He also attracted the attention of college recruiters.

Attending the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, Ford played center (football) and linebacker for the school’s football team and helped the Michigan Wolverines football to undefeated seasons and NCAA Division I-A national football championship in 1932 and 1933. The team suffered a steep decline in his 1934 senior year, however, winning only one game. Ford was the team’s star nonetheless, and after a game during which Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota Golden Gophers football (the eventual national champion) to a scoreless tie in the first half, assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan later said, “When I walked into the dressing room at half time, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud of them. Ford and Sweet played their hearts out. They were everywhere on defense.” Ford himself later recalled, “During 25 years in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, I often thought of the experiences before, during, and after that game in 1934. Remembering them has helped me many times to face a tough situation, take action, and make every effort possible despite adverse odds.” His teammates later voted Ford their most valuable player, with one assistant coach noting, “They felt Jerry was one guy who would stay and fight in a losing cause.”

During the same season, in a game against the University of Chicago, Ford “became the only future U.S. president to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down running back Jay Berwanger, who would win the first Heisman the following year.” In 1934 Gerald Ford was selected for the Eastern Team on the Shriner’s East West Crippled Children game at San Francisco (a benefit for crippled children), played on January 1 1935.

As part of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team, Ford played against the Chicago Bears in an exhibition game at Soldier Field. The University of Michigan retired Ford's #48 jersey (clothing) in 1994.

At Michigan, Ford became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money for college expenses. Following his graduation in 1935 with a degree in political science and economics, he turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League in order to take a coaching position at Yale University and apply to its law school. Each team was offering him a contract of $200 a game, but he wanted a legal education. Ford continued to contribute to football and boxing, accepting an assistant coaching job for both at Yale in September 1935.

Ford retained his interest in football and his alma mater, asking on one occasion to be awakened to find out the score of an Ohio State-Michigan football game while attending a summit in the Soviet Union. Ohio State won 12-10.

Law Ford hoped to attend Yale's law school beginning in 1935 while serving as boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach, but Yale officials initially denied his admission to the law school, because of his full-time coaching responsibilities. He spent the summer of 1937 as a student at the University of Michigan Law School and was eventually admitted in the spring of 1938 to Yale Law School. Ford earned his LL.B. degree in 1941 (later amended to Juris Doctor), graduating in the top 25 percent of his class. His introduction to politics came in the summer of 1940 when he worked in Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign.While attending Yale Law School, he joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for the America First Committee, a group determined to keep the U.S. out of World War II. p. 7 Ford's position on U.S. involvement in the war would soon change.

Ford graduated from law school in 1941, and was admitted to the Michigan bar (law) shortly thereafter. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip Buchen, who would later serve as Ford's White House counsel. But overseas developments caused a change in plans, and Ford responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor by enlisting in the Navy.

Naval service in World War II Ford received a commission as Ensign (rank)#United States in the United States Navy Reserve on April 13, 1942. On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary seamanship, ordnance, gunnery, first aid and military drill. In addition, he coached in all nine sports that were offered, but mostly in swimming, boxing and football. During the one year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade on June 2, 1942, and to Lieutenant in March 1943. uniform, 1945Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26), at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, New Jersey. From the ship's commissioning on June 17, 1943 until the end of December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the Monterey. While he was on board, the carrier participated in many actions in the Pacific Theater of Operations with the United States Third Fleet and United States Fifth Fleet during the fall of 1943 and in 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, New Ireland in 1943. During the spring of 1944, the Monterey supported landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participated in carrier strikes in the Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After overhaul, from September to November 1944, aircraft from the Monterey launched strikes against Wake Island, participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukyu Islands, and supported the landings at Leyte Island and Mindoro.

Although the ship was not damaged by Empire of Japan forces, the Monterey was one of several ships damaged by the typhoon that hit Admiral William Halsey, Jr.'s Third Fleet on Typhoon Cobra. The Third Fleet lost three destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. The Monterey was damaged by a fire, which was started by several of the ship's aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding during the storm. During the storm, Ford narrowly avoided becoming a casualty himself. After he left his battle station on the bridge of the ship in the early morning of December 18, the ship rolled twenty-five degrees, which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge of the deck. The two-inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier slowed him enough so he could roll, and he twisted into the catwalk below the deck. As he later stated, "I was lucky; I could have easily gone overboard." playing basketball in the forward elevator well June, 1944. The jumper on the left is Gerald FordAfter the fire the Monterey was declared unfit for service, and the crippled carrier reached Ulithi on December 21 before proceeding across the Pacific to Bremerton, Washington, Washington where it underwent repairs. On December 24, 1944 at Ulithi, Ford was detached from the ship and sent to the Athletic Department of the Navy Pre-Flight School at Saint Mary's College of California, where he was assigned to the Athletic Department until April 1945. One of his duties was to coach football. From the end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station Glenview as the Staff Physical and Military Training Officer. On October 3, 1945 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January 1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Naval Station Great Lakes to be processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable conditions on February 23, 1946. On June 28, 1946, the United States Secretary of the Navy accepted Ford's resignation from the Naval Reserve.

For his naval service, Gerald Ford earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the Gilbert Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Marshall Islands, Asiatic and Pacific carrier raids, Battle of Hollandia, Marianas, Western Carolines, Western New Guinea, and the Leyte Operation. He also received the Philippine Liberation Medal with two bronze stars for Leyte and Mindoro, as well as the American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal medals.

Marriage and children On October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in the United States of America in Grand Rapids, Ford married Betty Ford, a department store fashion consultant. Warren had been a John Robert Powers fashion model and a dancer in the auxiliary troupe of the Martha Graham Dance Company. She had previously been married to and divorced from William G. Warren.

At the time of his engagement, Ford was campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. The wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, as The New York Times reported in a 1974 profile of Betty Ford, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."

The Fords had four children:

Organizations Gerald R. Ford was initiated into Freemasonry on September 30, 1949, in Malta Lodge No. 465, Grand Rapids, along with his brothers Thomas Gardner Ford, Richard Addison Ford and James Francis Ford. The Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA. In 1959, he became a Shriner, joining the Saladin Shrine Temple in Grand Rapids. Three years later, Ford was made a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33°, and Honorary Member, Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Northern Jurisdiction at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, on September 26, 1962, for which he served as Exemplar (Representative) for his class. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, The Masonic President Tour.

President Ford's personal opinions about Freemasonry can be found preserved in a speech he gave at the Unveiling Ceremony at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia, Virginia, February 17, 1975. "When I took my obligation as a master mason — incidentally, with my three younger brothers — I recalled the value my own father attached to that order. But I had no idea that I would ever be added to the company of the Father of our Country and 12 other members of the order who also served as Presidents of the United States." About one-third of the List of Presidents of the United States have been List of Freemasons#U.S. Presidents.

Gerald Ford was also a member of several other civic organizations. These included the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and AMVETS.

House of Representatives {{Infobox Congressman|name= Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.|image name=|state= Michigan|party= [Republican Party (United States)|term= 1949–1973|preceded= Bartel J. Jonkman|date of birth= |place of birth= [Omaha, Nebraska, [California|religion= [Episcopal Church in the United States of America|current occupation=-->Following his return from the war, Ford became active in local Republican politics. Grand Rapids supporters urged him to take on Bartel J. Jonkman, the incumbent Republican congressman. Ford had changed his view of the world as a result of his military service; "I came back a converted internationalist", Ford stated, "and of course our congressman at that time was an avowed, dedicated United States non-interventionism. And I thought he ought to be replaced. Nobody thought I could win. I ended up winning two to one."During his first campaign in United States House elections, 1948, Ford visited Agriculture in the United Statess and promised he would work on their farms and milk the cows if elected—a promise he fulfilled. In 1961, the U.S. House membership voted Ford a special award as a "Congressman's Congressman" that praised his committee work on military budgets.

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for twenty-four years, holding the Grand Rapids congressional district seat from 1949 to 1973. It was a tenure largely notable for its modesty. As an editorial in The New York Times described him, Ford "saw himself as a negotiator and a reconciler, and the record shows it: he did not write a single piece of major legislation in his entire career." Appointed to the United States House Committee on Appropriations two years after being elected, he was a prominent member of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Ford described his philosophy as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a fiscal conservatism in fiscal policy."

, Congressman George H. Mahon, and NASA Administrator James E. Webb visit the Marshall Space Flight Center for a briefing on the Saturn program, 1964In November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission, a special task force set up to investigate the Assassination of John F. Kennedy of President John F. Kennedy. Ford was assigned to prepare a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin.In 1997 the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released a document that revealed that Ford had altered the first draft of the report to read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of neck slightly to the right of the spine." Some believed that Ford had elevated the location of the wound from its true location in the back to the neck to support the single bullet theory. () The original first draft of the Warren Commission Report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's "back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the vertebral column." Ford replied in an introduction to a new edition of the Warren Commission Report in 2004:I have been accused of changing some wording on the Warren Commission Report to favor the lone-assassin conclusion. That is absurd. Here is what the draft said: "A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the spine.” To any reasonable person, “above the shoulder and to the right” sounds very high and way off the side — and that’s what it sounded like to me. That would have given the totally wrong impression. Technically, from a medical perspective, the bullet entered just to the right at the base of the neck, so my recommendation to the other members was to change it to say, “A bullet had entered the back of his neck, slightly to the right of the spine.” After further investigation, we then unanimously agreed that it should read, “A bullet had entered the base of his neck slightly to the right of the spine.” As with any report, there were many clarifications and language changes suggested by several of us.Ford's description matched a drawing prepared for the Commission under the direction of Dr. James J. Humes, supervisor of Kennedy's autopsy, who in his testimony to the Commission said three times that the entrance wound was in the "low neck." The Commission was not shown the autopsy photographs. The Commission's work continues to be debated in the public arena.

In 1965, Republican members of the House elected Ford as its Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives. During the eight years (1965–1973) he served as Minority Leader, Ford won many friends in the House because of his fair leadership and inoffensive personality. But President Johnson disliked Ford for the congressman's frequent attacks on the administration's "Great Society" programs as being unneeded or wasteful, and for his criticism of the President's handling of the Vietnam War. As Minority Leader in the House, Ford appeared in a popular series of televised press conferences with famed Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, in which they proposed Republican alternatives to Johnson's policies. Many in the press jokingly called this "The Ev and Jerry Show". Johnson said of Ford at the time, "That Gerald Ford. He can't fart and chew gum at the same time." The press, used to sanitizing LBJ's salty language, reported this as "Gerald Ford can't walk and chew gum at the same time."

In 1970, Ford led the unsuccessful effort to impeachment William O. Douglas, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on the Supreme Court of the United States, for "moonlighting" for private clients. Gerald Ford's Remarks on the Impeachment of Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, April 15, 1970. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (last updated September 14, 1998). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Vice Presidency, 1973–74 On October 10, 1973, Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigned and then pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he accepted $29,500 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland. According to The New York Times, "Nixon sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement. The advice was unanimous. 'We gave Nixon no choice but Ford,' Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Carl Albert recalled later".

following President Nixon's nomination of Ford to be Vice President of the United States, October 1973Ford was nominated to take Agnew's position on October 12, the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been implemented. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, and on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35.

Ford's tenure as Vice President was little noted by the media. Instead, reporters were preoccupied by the continuing revelations about criminal acts during the United States presidential election, 1972 and allegations of cover-ups within the White House. Ford said little about the Watergate scandal, although he privately expressed his personal disappointment in the President's conduct.

Following Ford's appointment, the Watergate investigation continued until White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig contacted Ford on August 1, 1974, and told him that "smoking gun" evidence had been found. The evidence left little doubt that President Nixon had been a part of the Watergate cover-up. At the time, Ford and his wife, Betty, were living in suburban Virginia, waiting for their expected move into the newly designated Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C. However, "Al Haig to come over and see me," Ford later related, "to tell me that there would be a new Watergate tapes released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, 'I'm just warning you that you've got to be prepared, that things might change dramatically and you could become President.' And I said, 'Betty, I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house.'"

Presidency, 1974–77 Accession Warren Burger in the White House East Room, while Betty Ford looks on.When Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency. Immediately after taking the oath of office in the East Room (White House) of the White House, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech broadcast live to the nation. Ford noted the peculiarity of his position: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers." On August 20 Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the vice presidency he had vacated. Rockefeller was confirmed by the House and Senate.

Nixon pardon On September 8, 1974, Ford issued :wikisource:Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have 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 if I can, I must." At the same time as he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. Unconditional amnesty, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter Presidency.

The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed, a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men. They claimed Ford's pardon was quid pro quo in exchange for Nixon's resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency. Nixon's Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig, did in fact offer a deal to Ford. Bob Woodward, in his book Shadow, recounts that Haig entered Ford's office on August 1, 1974 while Ford was still Vice President and Nixon had yet to resign. Haig told Ford that there were three pardon options: (1) Nixon could pardon himself and resign, (2) Nixon could pardon his aides involved in Watergate and then resign, or (3) Nixon could agree to leave in return for an agreement that the new president would pardon him. After listing these options, Haig handed Ford various papers; one of these papers included a discussion of the president's legal authority to pardon and another sheet was a draft pardon form that only needed Ford's signature and Nixon's name to make it legal. Woodward summarizes the setting between Haig and Ford as follows: "Even if Haig offered no direct words on his views, the message was almost certainly sent. An emotional man, Haig was incapable of concealing his feelings; those who worked closely with him rarely found him ambiguous."

Despite the situation, Ford never accepted the offer from Haig and later decided to pardon Nixon on his own terms. Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the United States presidential election, 1976, an observation with which Ford concurred. 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's first press secretary and close friend Jerald terHorst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before United States Congress on October 17, 1974 to give sworn testimony—the only time a sitting president has done so—about the pardon.

After Ford left the White House in 1977, intimates said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 Supreme Court of the United States decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon.

Administration and cabinet Upon assuming office, Ford inherited the United States Cabinet Nixon selected during his tenure in office. Over the course of Ford's relatively brief administration, only United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and United States Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon remained. Ford appointed William T. Coleman, Jr. as United States Secretary of Transportation, the second African American to serve in a presidential cabinet (after Robert Clifton Weaver) and the first appointed in a Republican administration. Secretary of Transportation: William T. Coleman Jr. (1975–1977) - AmericanPresident.org (2005-01-15). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

{]||align="left" |Gerald Ford||align="left"|1974–1977|-|align="left"|Vice President of the United States||align="left"|Nelson Rockefeller]||align="left"|Henry Kissinger]||align="left"|William E. Simon]||align="left"|James R. Schlesinger]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|Attorney General of the United States||align="left"|William Saxbe]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of the Interior||align="left"|Rogers Morton]||align="left"|1975|-|align="left"| ||align="left"|Thomas S. Kleppe]||align="left"|Earl Butz]||align="left"|1976–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of Commerce||align="left"|Frederick B. Dent]||align="left"|1975|-|align="left"| ||align="left"|Elliot Richardson]||align="left"|Peter J. Brennan]||align="left"|1975–1976|-|align="left"| ||align="left"|William Usery, Jr.]||align="left"|Caspar Weinberger]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development||align="left"|James Thomas Lynn]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of Transportation||align="left"|Claude Brinegar]||align="left"|1975–1977|}

Other cabinet-level posts:



Other important posts:



Ford selected George H.W. Bush to be his United States Ambassador to China#Ambassadors/liaisons to the People's Republic of China (1973–) to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and then Director of Central Intelligence of the Central Intelligence Agency in late 1975. George Herbert Walker Bush Bush Profile, CNN. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Ford's transition chairman and first Chief of Staff was former congressman and ambassador Donald Rumsfeld. In 1975, Rumsfeld was named by Ford as the youngest-ever United States Secretary of Defense. Ford chose a young Wyoming politician, Dick Cheney, to replace Rumsfeld as his new Chief of Staff and later campaign manager for Ford's United States presidential election, 1976. Richard B. Cheney. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 has been referred to by political commentators as The "Halloween Massacre."

Midterm elections The 1974 Congressional midterm elections took place less than three months after Ford assumed office. Occurring in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Democratic Party was able to turn voter dissatisfaction into large gains in the United States House elections, 1974, taking 49 seats from the Republican Party, and increasing their majority to 291 of the 435 seats, which was one more than the number needed (290) for a 2/3rds majority, necessary in order to over-ride a Presidential veto (or to submit a Constitutional Amendment). Perhaps due in part to this fact, the 94th United States Congress overrode the highest percentage of vetoes since Andrew Johnson was President of the United States (1865–1869). Bush vetoes less than most presidents, CNN, May 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. Even Ford's old, reliably Republican seat was taken by Democrat Richard VanderVeen. In the United States Senate elections, 1974, the Democratic majority became 61 in the 100-seat body.Renka, Russell D. Nixon's Fall and the Ford and Carter Interregnum. Southeast Missouri State University, (April 10, 2003). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Domestic policy in 1975.The Economy of the United States was a great concern during the Ford administration. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public in October 1974 and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now." As part of this program, he urged people to wear "Whip Inflation Now" buttons. Gerald Ford Speeches: Whip Inflation Now (October 8, 1974), Miller Center of Public Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-12-31 In hindsight, this was viewed as simply a public relations gimmick without offering any effective means of solving the underlying problems. At the time, inflation was approximately seven percent. Consumer Price Index, 1913-. Federal Reserve System of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Retrieved on 2006-12-31

The economic focus began to change as the country sank into a mild recession, and in March 1975, Congress passed and Ford signed into law income tax rebates as part of the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 to boost the economy. When New York City faced bankruptcy in 1975, List of mayors of New York City Abraham Beame was unsuccessful in obtaining Ford's support for a federal bailout. The incident prompted the New York Daily News' notorious headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."Lemann, Nick. Rhetorical Bankruptcy. The Harvard Crimson, November 8, 1975. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. Sometime in the early 1970s, an influenza strain H1N1 shifted from a form of flu that affected primarily pigs and crossed over to humans. On February 5, 1976, an United States Army recruit at Fort Dix, New Jersey mysteriously died and four fellow soldiers were hospitalized; Centers for Disease Control announced that "swine flu" was the cause. Soon after, public health officials in the Ford administration urged that every person in the United States be vaccination. Pandemic Pointers. Living on Earth, March 3, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. Although the vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, some 25% of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was canceled in December of that year. The vaccine was blamed for twenty-five deaths; more people died from the shots than from the swine flu.Mickle, Paul. 1976: Fear of a great plague. The Trentonian. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Despite his reservations about how this program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford still signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children" according to the official White House press release for the bill signing. President Gerald R. Ford's Statement on Signing the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, December 2, 1975. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Ford was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, issuing Presidential Proclamation 4383.In this Land of the Free, it is right, and by nature it ought to be, that all men and all women are equal before the law.

Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, to remind all Americans that it is fitting and just to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment adopted by the Congress of the United States of America, in order to secure legal equality for all women and men, do hereby designate and proclaim August 26, 1975, as Women's Equality Day.

As president, Ford's position on abortion was that he supported {{Infobox_President| name=Gerald Ford| nationality=American| image=Gerald Ford.jpg|225px| order=38th President of the United States], 1974, [1977
(December 1974–January 1977)| predecessor=[Richard Nixon| order2=40th [Vice President of the United States, [1973, [1974| predecessor2=[Spiro Agnew| order3=15th [Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives| term_start3=January 3, 1965, [1973| successor3=[John Jacob Rhodes from [Michigan's 5th District], 1949, [1973| successor4=[Richard F. Vander Veen| death_date=| death_place=[Rancho Mirage, California| occupation=[Lawyer| party=[Republican Party (United States)| religion=Episcopal Church in the United States of America| signature=Gerald R. Ford signature.png|-->Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th President of the United States (1974–1977), and has been the only person to occupy that office who had been elected neither to the presidency nor the Vice President of the United States. Ford was the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and, after serving as the 40th Vice President (1973–1974) of the United States for less than a year, became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation. Prior to 1973, he served for over eight years as the Republican Party (United States) Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives of the United States House of Representatives; he was first elected to Congress in 1948 from Michigan's 5th congressional district.

In foreign policy, the Helsinki Accords marked a move toward détente in the Cold War, even as the former ally South Vietnam was invaded and conquered by North Vietnam; Ford did not intervene, but did help extract friends of the U.S. At home, the economy suffered from inflation and recession. Ford came under intense criticism for granting a preemptive pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. In United States presidential election, 1976, Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but ultimately lost the presidential election to Democratic Party (United States) Jimmy Carter.

After experiencing health troubles and being admitted to hospital four times in 2006, Ford Death and state funeral of Gerald Ford on December 26 of that year, aged 93.

Early life Childhood Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. on July 14, 1913 at 12:43 a.m. Central Time zone, at Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska, Nebraska. His parents, Leslie Lynch King, Sr., a wool trader whose father was a prominent banker, and his wife, the former Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford, separated 16 days after his birth. His mother took him to the Oak Park, Illinois, Illinois home of her sister Tannisse and her husband, Clarence Haskins James. From there she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and his wife, the former Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Michigan. They divorced the following December. Ford's mother gained full custody.

As Gerald Ford recalled later in life, his biological father was spousal abuse and had a history of hitting his mother. James M. Cannon, who was the executive director of the domestic council during the Ford administration, wrote in a biography of the former president that the Kings' separation and divorce was sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King, Sr. threatened his wife, Dorothy, with a butcher knife and announced his intention to kill her, the baby, and the baby's nursemaid. His first abusive action, according to Ford, occurred on the couple's honeymoon, when King hit his wife for smiling at another man.

On February 1, 1916, now settled in Grand Rapids, Dorothy King married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company who later became president of the firm. She began calling her son Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr. The future president was never formally adoption, however, and he did not legally change his name until December 3, 1935; he also used a more conventional spelling of his middle name. He was raised in East Grand Rapids, Michigan with his three half-brothers by his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison Ford (born 1924), and James Francis Ford (1927–2001). He also had three half-siblings by his father's second marriage: Marjorie King (1921–1993), Leslie Henry King, Sr. (1923–1976), and Patricia Jane King (born 1925).

Ford was not aware of his biological parentage until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth. That same year his biological father, whom he described as a "carefree, well-to-do man", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King, Sr.'s death,Associated Press. Nebraska - Born, Ford Left State As Infant. The New York Times (December 27, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-31. but Ford maintained his distance emotionally, saying, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."

Ford joined the Boy Scouts of America, and attained that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America). He always regarded this as one of his proudest accomplishments, even after attaining the White House. In subsequent years, Ford received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in May 1970 and Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He is the only US president who was an Eagle Scout. Scouting was so important to Ford that his family asked that Scouts participate in his funeral. About 400 Eagle Scouts were part of the funeral procession, where they formed an honor guard as the casket went by in front of the museum, and served as ushers.

Sports player, 1933Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School and was a star athlete and captain (sports) of his American football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League. He also attracted the attention of college recruiters.

Attending the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, Ford played center (football) and linebacker for the school’s football team and helped the Michigan Wolverines football to undefeated seasons and NCAA Division I-A national football championship in 1932 and 1933. The team suffered a steep decline in his 1934 senior year, however, winning only one game. Ford was the team’s star nonetheless, and after a game during which Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota Golden Gophers football (the eventual national champion) to a scoreless tie in the first half, assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan later said, “When I walked into the dressing room at half time, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud of them. Ford and Sweet played their hearts out. They were everywhere on defense.” Ford himself later recalled, “During 25 years in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, I often thought of the experiences before, during, and after that game in 1934. Remembering them has helped me many times to face a tough situation, take action, and make every effort possible despite adverse odds.” His teammates later voted Ford their most valuable player, with one assistant coach noting, “They felt Jerry was one guy who would stay and fight in a losing cause.”

During the same season, in a game against the University of Chicago, Ford “became the only future U.S. president to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down running back Jay Berwanger, who would win the first Heisman the following year.” In 1934 Gerald Ford was selected for the Eastern Team on the Shriner’s East West Crippled Children game at San Francisco (a benefit for crippled children), played on January 1 1935.

As part of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team, Ford played against the Chicago Bears in an exhibition game at Soldier Field. The University of Michigan retired Ford's #48 jersey (clothing) in 1994.

At Michigan, Ford became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money for college expenses. Following his graduation in 1935 with a degree in political science and economics, he turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League in order to take a coaching position at Yale University and apply to its law school. Each team was offering him a contract of $200 a game, but he wanted a legal education. Ford continued to contribute to football and boxing, accepting an assistant coaching job for both at Yale in September 1935.

Ford retained his interest in football and his alma mater, asking on one occasion to be awakened to find out the score of an Ohio State-Michigan football game while attending a summit in the Soviet Union. Ohio State won 12-10.

Law Ford hoped to attend Yale's law school beginning in 1935 while serving as boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach, but Yale officials initially denied his admission to the law school, because of his full-time coaching responsibilities. He spent the summer of 1937 as a student at the University of Michigan Law School and was eventually admitted in the spring of 1938 to Yale Law School. Ford earned his LL.B. degree in 1941 (later amended to Juris Doctor), graduating in the top 25 percent of his class. His introduction to politics came in the summer of 1940 when he worked in Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign.While attending Yale Law School, he joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for the America First Committee, a group determined to keep the U.S. out of World War II. p. 7 Ford's position on U.S. involvement in the war would soon change.

Ford graduated from law school in 1941, and was admitted to the Michigan bar (law) shortly thereafter. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip Buchen, who would later serve as Ford's White House counsel. But overseas developments caused a change in plans, and Ford responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor by enlisting in the Navy.

Naval service in World War II Ford received a commission as Ensign (rank)#United States in the United States Navy Reserve on April 13, 1942. On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary seamanship, ordnance, gunnery, first aid and military drill. In addition, he coached in all nine sports that were offered, but mostly in swimming, boxing and football. During the one year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade on June 2, 1942, and to Lieutenant in March 1943. uniform, 1945Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26), at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, New Jersey. From the ship's commissioning on June 17, 1943 until the end of December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the Monterey. While he was on board, the carrier participated in many actions in the Pacific Theater of Operations with the United States Third Fleet and United States Fifth Fleet during the fall of 1943 and in 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, New Ireland in 1943. During the spring of 1944, the Monterey supported landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participated in carrier strikes in the Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After overhaul, from September to November 1944, aircraft from the Monterey launched strikes against Wake Island, participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukyu Islands, and supported the landings at Leyte Island and Mindoro.

Although the ship was not damaged by Empire of Japan forces, the Monterey was one of several ships damaged by the typhoon that hit Admiral William Halsey, Jr.'s Third Fleet on Typhoon Cobra. The Third Fleet lost three destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. The Monterey was damaged by a fire, which was started by several of the ship's aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding during the storm. During the storm, Ford narrowly avoided becoming a casualty himself. After he left his battle station on the bridge of the ship in the early morning of December 18, the ship rolled twenty-five degrees, which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge of the deck. The two-inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier slowed him enough so he could roll, and he twisted into the catwalk below the deck. As he later stated, "I was lucky; I could have easily gone overboard." playing basketball in the forward elevator well June, 1944. The jumper on the left is Gerald FordAfter the fire the Monterey was declared unfit for service, and the crippled carrier reached Ulithi on December 21 before proceeding across the Pacific to Bremerton, Washington, Washington where it underwent repairs. On December 24, 1944 at Ulithi, Ford was detached from the ship and sent to the Athletic Department of the Navy Pre-Flight School at Saint Mary's College of California, where he was assigned to the Athletic Department until April 1945. One of his duties was to coach football. From the end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station Glenview as the Staff Physical and Military Training Officer. On October 3, 1945 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January 1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Naval Station Great Lakes to be processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable conditions on February 23, 1946. On June 28, 1946, the United States Secretary of the Navy accepted Ford's resignation from the Naval Reserve.

For his naval service, Gerald Ford earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the Gilbert Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Marshall Islands, Asiatic and Pacific carrier raids, Battle of Hollandia, Marianas, Western Carolines, Western New Guinea, and the Leyte Operation. He also received the Philippine Liberation Medal with two bronze stars for Leyte and Mindoro, as well as the American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal medals.

Marriage and children On October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in the United States of America in Grand Rapids, Ford married Betty Ford, a department store fashion consultant. Warren had been a John Robert Powers fashion model and a dancer in the auxiliary troupe of the Martha Graham Dance Company. She had previously been married to and divorced from William G. Warren.

At the time of his engagement, Ford was campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. The wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, as The New York Times reported in a 1974 profile of Betty Ford, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."

The Fords had four children:

Organizations Gerald R. Ford was initiated into Freemasonry on September 30, 1949, in Malta Lodge No. 465, Grand Rapids, along with his brothers Thomas Gardner Ford, Richard Addison Ford and James Francis Ford. The Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA. In 1959, he became a Shriner, joining the Saladin Shrine Temple in Grand Rapids. Three years later, Ford was made a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33°, and Honorary Member, Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Northern Jurisdiction at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, on September 26, 1962, for which he served as Exemplar (Representative) for his class. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, The Masonic President Tour.

President Ford's personal opinions about Freemasonry can be found preserved in a speech he gave at the Unveiling Ceremony at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia, Virginia, February 17, 1975. "When I took my obligation as a master mason — incidentally, with my three younger brothers — I recalled the value my own father attached to that order. But I had no idea that I would ever be added to the company of the Father of our Country and 12 other members of the order who also served as Presidents of the United States." About one-third of the List of Presidents of the United States have been List of Freemasons#U.S. Presidents.

Gerald Ford was also a member of several other civic organizations. These included the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and AMVETS.

House of Representatives {{Infobox Congressman|name= Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.|image name=|state= Michigan|party= [Republican Party (United States)|term= 1949–1973|preceded= Bartel J. Jonkman|date of birth= |place of birth= [Omaha, Nebraska, [California|religion= [Episcopal Church in the United States of America|current occupation=-->Following his return from the war, Ford became active in local Republican politics. Grand Rapids supporters urged him to take on Bartel J. Jonkman, the incumbent Republican congressman. Ford had changed his view of the world as a result of his military service; "I came back a converted internationalist", Ford stated, "and of course our congressman at that time was an avowed, dedicated United States non-interventionism. And I thought he ought to be replaced. Nobody thought I could win. I ended up winning two to one."During his first campaign in United States House elections, 1948, Ford visited Agriculture in the United Statess and promised he would work on their farms and milk the cows if elected—a promise he fulfilled. In 1961, the U.S. House membership voted Ford a special award as a "Congressman's Congressman" that praised his committee work on military budgets.

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for twenty-four years, holding the Grand Rapids congressional district seat from 1949 to 1973. It was a tenure largely notable for its modesty. As an editorial in The New York Times described him, Ford "saw himself as a negotiator and a reconciler, and the record shows it: he did not write a single piece of major legislation in his entire career." Appointed to the United States House Committee on Appropriations two years after being elected, he was a prominent member of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Ford described his philosophy as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a fiscal conservatism in fiscal policy."

, Congressman George H. Mahon, and NASA Administrator James E. Webb visit the Marshall Space Flight Center for a briefing on the Saturn program, 1964In November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission, a special task force set up to investigate the Assassination of John F. Kennedy of President John F. Kennedy. Ford was assigned to prepare a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin.In 1997 the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) released a document that revealed that Ford had altered the first draft of the report to read: "A bullet had entered the base of the back of neck slightly to the right of the spine." Some believed that Ford had elevated the location of the wound from its true location in the back to the neck to support the single bullet theory. () The original first draft of the Warren Commission Report stated that a bullet had entered Kennedy's "back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the vertebral column." Ford replied in an introduction to a new edition of the Warren Commission Report in 2004:I have been accused of changing some wording on the Warren Commission Report to favor the lone-assassin conclusion. That is absurd. Here is what the draft said: "A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder and to the right of the spine.” To any reasonable person, “above the shoulder and to the right” sounds very high and way off the side — and that’s what it sounded like to me. That would have given the totally wrong impression. Technically, from a medical perspective, the bullet entered just to the right at the base of the neck, so my recommendation to the other members was to change it to say, “A bullet had entered the back of his neck, slightly to the right of the spine.” After further investigation, we then unanimously agreed that it should read, “A bullet had entered the base of his neck slightly to the right of the spine.” As with any report, there were many clarifications and language changes suggested by several of us.Ford's description matched a drawing prepared for the Commission under the direction of Dr. James J. Humes, supervisor of Kennedy's autopsy, who in his testimony to the Commission said three times that the entrance wound was in the "low neck." The Commission was not shown the autopsy photographs. The Commission's work continues to be debated in the public arena.

In 1965, Republican members of the House elected Ford as its Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives. During the eight years (1965–1973) he served as Minority Leader, Ford won many friends in the House because of his fair leadership and inoffensive personality. But President Johnson disliked Ford for the congressman's frequent attacks on the administration's "Great Society" programs as being unneeded or wasteful, and for his criticism of the President's handling of the Vietnam War. As Minority Leader in the House, Ford appeared in a popular series of televised press conferences with famed Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, in which they proposed Republican alternatives to Johnson's policies. Many in the press jokingly called this "The Ev and Jerry Show". Johnson said of Ford at the time, "That Gerald Ford. He can't fart and chew gum at the same time." The press, used to sanitizing LBJ's salty language, reported this as "Gerald Ford can't walk and chew gum at the same time."

In 1970, Ford led the unsuccessful effort to impeachment William O. Douglas, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on the Supreme Court of the United States, for "moonlighting" for private clients. Gerald Ford's Remarks on the Impeachment of Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, April 15, 1970. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (last updated September 14, 1998). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Vice Presidency, 1973–74 On October 10, 1973, Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigned and then pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he accepted $29,500 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland. According to The New York Times, "Nixon sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement. The advice was unanimous. 'We gave Nixon no choice but Ford,' Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Carl Albert recalled later".

following President Nixon's nomination of Ford to be Vice President of the United States, October 1973Ford was nominated to take Agnew's position on October 12, the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been implemented. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, and on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35.

Ford's tenure as Vice President was little noted by the media. Instead, reporters were preoccupied by the continuing revelations about criminal acts during the United States presidential election, 1972 and allegations of cover-ups within the White House. Ford said little about the Watergate scandal, although he privately expressed his personal disappointment in the President's conduct.

Following Ford's appointment, the Watergate investigation continued until White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig contacted Ford on August 1, 1974, and told him that "smoking gun" evidence had been found. The evidence left little doubt that President Nixon had been a part of the Watergate cover-up. At the time, Ford and his wife, Betty, were living in suburban Virginia, waiting for their expected move into the newly designated Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C. However, "Al Haig to come over and see me," Ford later related, "to tell me that there would be a new Watergate tapes released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, 'I'm just warning you that you've got to be prepared, that things might change dramatically and you could become President.' And I said, 'Betty, I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house.'"

Presidency, 1974–77 Accession Warren Burger in the White House East Room, while Betty Ford looks on.When Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency. Immediately after taking the oath of office in the East Room (White House) of the White House, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech broadcast live to the nation. Ford noted the peculiarity of his position: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers." On August 20 Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the vice presidency he had vacated. Rockefeller was confirmed by the House and Senate.

Nixon pardon On September 8, 1974, Ford issued :wikisource:Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have 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 if I can, I must." At the same time as he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. Unconditional amnesty, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter Presidency.

The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed, a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men. They claimed Ford's pardon was quid pro quo in exchange for Nixon's resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency. Nixon's Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig, did in fact offer a deal to Ford. Bob Woodward, in his book Shadow, recounts that Haig entered Ford's office on August 1, 1974 while Ford was still Vice President and Nixon had yet to resign. Haig told Ford that there were three pardon options: (1) Nixon could pardon himself and resign, (2) Nixon could pardon his aides involved in Watergate and then resign, or (3) Nixon could agree to leave in return for an agreement that the new president would pardon him. After listing these options, Haig handed Ford various papers; one of these papers included a discussion of the president's legal authority to pardon and another sheet was a draft pardon form that only needed Ford's signature and Nixon's name to make it legal. Woodward summarizes the setting between Haig and Ford as follows: "Even if Haig offered no direct words on his views, the message was almost certainly sent. An emotional man, Haig was incapable of concealing his feelings; those who worked closely with him rarely found him ambiguous."

Despite the situation, Ford never accepted the offer from Haig and later decided to pardon Nixon on his own terms. Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the United States presidential election, 1976, an observation with which Ford concurred. 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's first press secretary and close friend Jerald terHorst resigned his post in protest after the announcement of President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before United States Congress on October 17, 1974 to give sworn testimony—the only time a sitting president has done so—about the pardon.

After Ford left the White House in 1977, intimates said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 Supreme Court of the United States decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon.

Administration and cabinet Upon assuming office, Ford inherited the United States Cabinet Nixon selected during his tenure in office. Over the course of Ford's relatively brief administration, only United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and United States Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon remained. Ford appointed William T. Coleman, Jr. as United States Secretary of Transportation, the second African American to serve in a presidential cabinet (after Robert Clifton Weaver) and the first appointed in a Republican administration. Secretary of Transportation: William T. Coleman Jr. (1975–1977) - AmericanPresident.org (2005-01-15). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

{]||align="left" |Gerald Ford||align="left"|1974–1977|-|align="left"|Vice President of the United States||align="left"|Nelson Rockefeller]||align="left"|Henry Kissinger]||align="left"|William E. Simon]||align="left"|James R. Schlesinger]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|Attorney General of the United States||align="left"|William Saxbe]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of the Interior||align="left"|Rogers Morton]||align="left"|1975|-|align="left"| ||align="left"|Thomas S. Kleppe]||align="left"|Earl Butz]||align="left"|1976–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of Commerce||align="left"|Frederick B. Dent]||align="left"|1975|-|align="left"| ||align="left"|Elliot Richardson]||align="left"|Peter J. Brennan]||align="left"|1975–1976|-|align="left"| ||align="left"|William Usery, Jr.]||align="left"|Caspar Weinberger]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development||align="left"|James Thomas Lynn]||align="left"|1975–1977|-|align="left"|United States Secretary of Transportation||align="left"|Claude Brinegar]||align="left"|1975–1977|}

Other cabinet-level posts:



Other important posts:



Ford selected George H.W. Bush to be his United States Ambassador to China#Ambassadors/liaisons to the People's Republic of China (1973–) to the People's Republic of China in 1974 and then Director of Central Intelligence of the Central Intelligence Agency in late 1975. George Herbert Walker Bush Bush Profile, CNN. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Ford's transition chairman and first Chief of Staff was former congressman and ambassador Donald Rumsfeld. In 1975, Rumsfeld was named by Ford as the youngest-ever United States Secretary of Defense. Ford chose a young Wyoming politician, Dick Cheney, to replace Rumsfeld as his new Chief of Staff and later campaign manager for Ford's United States presidential election, 1976. Richard B. Cheney. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 has been referred to by political commentators as The "Halloween Massacre."

Midterm elections The 1974 Congressional midterm elections took place less than three months after Ford assumed office. Occurring in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Democratic Party was able to turn voter dissatisfaction into large gains in the United States House elections, 1974, taking 49 seats from the Republican Party, and increasing their majority to 291 of the 435 seats, which was one more than the number needed (290) for a 2/3rds majority, necessary in order to over-ride a Presidential veto (or to submit a Constitutional Amendment). Perhaps due in part to this fact, the 94th United States Congress overrode the highest percentage of vetoes since Andrew Johnson was President of the United States (1865–1869). Bush vetoes less than most presidents, CNN, May 1, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. Even Ford's old, reliably Republican seat was taken by Democrat Richard VanderVeen. In the United States Senate elections, 1974, the Democratic majority became 61 in the 100-seat body.Renka, Russell D. Nixon's Fall and the Ford and Carter Interregnum. Southeast Missouri State University, (April 10, 2003). Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Domestic policy in 1975.The Economy of the United States was a great concern during the Ford administration. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public in October 1974 and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now." As part of this program, he urged people to wear "Whip Inflation Now" buttons. Gerald Ford Speeches: Whip Inflation Now (October 8, 1974), Miller Center of Public Affairs. Retrieved on 2006-12-31 In hindsight, this was viewed as simply a public relations gimmick without offering any effective means of solving the underlying problems. At the time, inflation was approximately seven percent. Consumer Price Index, 1913-. Federal Reserve System of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Retrieved on 2006-12-31

The economic focus began to change as the country sank into a mild recession, and in March 1975, Congress passed and Ford signed into law income tax rebates as part of the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 to boost the economy. When New York City faced bankruptcy in 1975, List of mayors of New York City Abraham Beame was unsuccessful in obtaining Ford's support for a federal bailout. The incident prompted the New York Daily News' notorious headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."Lemann, Nick. Rhetorical Bankruptcy. The Harvard Crimson, November 8, 1975. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. Sometime in the early 1970s, an influenza strain H1N1 shifted from a form of flu that affected primarily pigs and crossed over to humans. On February 5, 1976, an United States Army recruit at Fort Dix, New Jersey mysteriously died and four fellow soldiers were hospitalized; Centers for Disease Control announced that "swine flu" was the cause. Soon after, public health officials in the Ford administration urged that every person in the United States be vaccination. Pandemic Pointers. Living on Earth, March 3, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-31. Although the vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, some 25% of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was canceled in December of that year. The vaccine was blamed for twenty-five deaths; more people died from the shots than from the swine flu.Mickle, Paul. 1976: Fear of a great plague. The Trentonian. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Despite his reservations about how this program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford still signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children" according to the official White House press release for the bill signing. President Gerald R. Ford's Statement on Signing the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, December 2, 1975. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.

Ford was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, issuing Presidential Proclamation 4383.In this Land of the Free, it is right, and by nature it ought to be, that all men and all women are equal before the law.

Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, to remind all Americans that it is fitting and just to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment adopted by the Congress of the United States of America, in order to secure legal equality for all women and men, do hereby designate and proclaim August 26, 1975, as Women's Equality Day.

As president, Ford's position on abortion was that he supported

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum
The Ford Library (in Ann Arbor, MI) and Ford Museum (in Grand Rapids, MI) are part of the presidential library system operated by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Information About Gerald and Betty Ford
This page has been renamed. It can now be found at: http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/grf/fordbiop.asp . Last Updated: June 4, 2008

Gerald Ford
Leslie King was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 14th July, 1913. His parents divorced when he was an infant and his mother remarried a paint salesman in Michigan.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Obituary: Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford unexpectedly became 38th president of the United States in 1974, following Richard Nixon's resignation over the Watergate scandal.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US ex-President Gerald Ford dies
Gerald Ford, who took over the US presidency after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, has died aged 93.

Gerald Ford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the thirty-eighth President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the fortieth Vice President of ...

Biography of Gerald R. Ford
Short biography from the official White House site.

Gerald Ford | Times Online Obituary
Obituary for Gerald Ford from The Times and Sunday Times. Gerald Ford was unique in the history of the United States as being the only man to occupy both the vice-presidency and ...

Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford. AKA Leslie Lynch King, Jr. Born: 14-Jul-1913 Birthplace: Omaha, NE Died: 26-Dec-2006 Location of death: Rancho Mirage, CA Cause of death: Natural Causes

Gerald Ford - wnqb | Google Groups
Gerald Ford Gerald R. Ford - White House Biography of the late Gerald R. Ford, the 38th U.S. president, from the official White House web site. Includes highlights of Ford's two ...

 

Gerald Ford



 
Copyright © 2008 Hintcenter.com - All rights reserved.
Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
All Trademarks belong to their repective owners. Many aspects of this page are used under
commercial commons license from Yahoo!