BIOGRAPHY
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. was the
thirty-eighth president of the United States serving during the term of 4 years
from 1974 to 1977, prior to which he had served as the first Vice President
under the 25th Amendment (40th in lineage) from 1973 till he signed in as the
president. He was the fifth in the presidential lineage never to be elected to
post and the first to be not even elected for the vice presidential position.
Gerald Rudolph Ford was born to Leslie Lynch King, Sr. and Dorothy Ayer Gardner
on July 14, 1913. His parents divorced the following December and Ford’s
mother gained full custody of him. He was brought up in the Great Rapids with
the other children from his mother’s second marriage to Gerald Rudolf
Ford. He attended University of Michigan Law School and later graduated form
Yale Law School in 1941, his actual dream pursuit. His heroics in the US Navy
earned him medals and respect in the naval fraternity.
Before taking over as the vice-president of USA in 1973, Gerald Rudolph
Ford had served for the United States House of Representatives as the Republican
Minority Leader. He had been originally elected as the member of the Congress in
the year 1948 from Michigan.
Gerald Rudolph Ford’s domestic policy focused mainly on the economy
of the country that was fairly weak and suffered from mild recessions and
setbacks during his term. He introduced tax rebates and economic reformations
that would allow the economy to take a more stringent pace towards development
and progress. The Ford administration also had to handle the swine flu pandemic
and unstable inflation rates. During this period of financial crunch, he had
also signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, 1975 without
providing reliable information as to from where the budget for this program to
succeed would come from.
In his foreign policies, Gerald Rudolph Ford had given the final
withdrawal sign for the US troops in Vietnam in 1973. This was after the Khmer
Rouge had conquered South Vietnam. Also, the signing of the Helsinki Accords by
Ford was a major step in progressing towards détente in the Cold War.
Though not wrought with crises, Gerald Rudolph Ford had a fairly simple state of
foreign affairs to manage during his term at the president’s position.
But Gerald Rudolph Ford’s biggest threat and controversial coming
was from his pardon to Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974. Nixon’s role in
the Watergate scandal was heavily criticized and was hugely unpopular among the
US senators ad public alike. But as of Ford’s own accord and will, he
granted a presidential pardon to Nixon. This caused an outrage in the whole of
US.
Ford was accused of exchanging the pardon for the resignation of Nixon himself
that automatically propelled him to presidential power. This rumored offer was
rubbished by Ford himself, and he stated that the presidential pardon was a
thing he did of his own will and judgment. But this move made him face critical
outrage and public denouncement of his ability to judge and justify. It was one
of the major reasons of his loss in the next presidential elections to Democrat
Jimmy Carter in 1976. There had been two assassination attempts on his
life, none of which were fatal. Ford died at the age of 93 at his home in
California, of heart related diseases. He hadn’t been one of the most
popular or effective presidents in the illustrious US history, but he had helped
gain the US many allies which proved to be a long-term gain for the nation.
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