Category: People
Key figures: Gerald Ford (38th President of the United States), Richard Nixon (37th President), Betty Ford (First Lady), Donald Rumsfeld (Chief of Staff, later Secretary of Defense), Dick Cheney (Deputy Chief of Staff, later Vice President)
Summary
Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, died on December 26, 2006, at age 93 at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, after a period of declining health attributed to arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis. His death made him the longest-lived U.S. president to that point in history, a record later surpassed by Jimmy Carter in 2019. Ford had assumed the presidency on August 9, 1974, following Richard Nixon’s resignation in the Watergate scandal, becoming the only person in American history to serve as both Vice President and President without having been elected to either office by the general electorate.
Early Life and Political Career
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother remarried Gerald Rudolff Ford Sr., whose name her son took. Ford attended the University of Michigan, where he was a standout center on the football team and was named most valuable player in 1934. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1941, where he had coached football and boxing while studying.
Ford served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including time aboard the light carrier USS Monterey during Pacific operations. After the war he entered Republican politics in Michigan, winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1948. He served thirteen consecutive terms (1949–1973), becoming Minority Leader in 1965. Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the Warren Commission investigating Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. By 1968, he had become a fixture of Congressional Republican leadership and a confidant of Richard Nixon.
The Watergate Succession
Appointment as Vice President
The chain of events that brought Ford to the presidency began with Vice President Spiro Agnew’s resignation on October 10, 1973, over a bribery and tax evasion scandal unrelated to Watergate. Nixon nominated Ford as Agnew’s replacement under the 25th Amendment. Ford was confirmed by the Senate 92–3 and the House 387–35 on December 6, 1973, becoming Vice President—a role he had never sought.
Assuming the Presidency
As the Watergate scandal consumed the Nixon administration through 1974, Nixon’s political position collapsed. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in United States v. Nixon (July 24, 1974) that Nixon must surrender the White House tape recordings to the special prosecutor. The “smoking gun” tape (released August 5, 1974) revealed Nixon had personally participated in the cover-up six days after the break-in. Facing certain impeachment, Nixon announced his resignation in a televised address on the evening of August 8, 1974.
Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th President at 12:03 p.m. on August 9, 1974, in the East Room of the White House, declaring: “Our long national nightmare is over.” Betty Ford held the Bible as Ford took the oath, administered by Chief Justice Warren Burger.
The Nixon Pardon
The most consequential and controversial act of Ford’s presidency came on September 8, 1974—just 31 days after taking office—when he issued Proclamation 4311, granting Richard Nixon “a full, free, and absolute pardon … for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in” during his presidency. Ford stated he acted to spare the nation the trauma of a prolonged criminal prosecution of a former president and to allow the country to move forward.
The pardon triggered immediate public outrage. Ford’s press secretary, Jerald terHorst, resigned in protest on the day of the announcement—the only press secretary in modern history to resign over a presidential decision. Ford’s approval ratings plummeted from approximately 71% to 50% almost overnight. Many historians and contemporaries suspected a pre-arranged deal between Ford and Nixon, a charge Ford consistently denied; he testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee in October 1974—the first sitting president to testify before Congress since Abraham Lincoln—to address these concerns directly. Decades later, the pardon was broadly reassessed as an act of political courage: Senator Ted Kennedy, who had criticized the pardon at the time, presented Ford with the Profile in Courage Award in 2001, acknowledging that it had been the right decision even at great political cost.
Presidential Record (1974–1977)
Foreign Policy
Ford inherited a foreign policy shaped largely by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and continued Nixon’s détente-era diplomacy. Key developments included:
- Helsinki Accords (August 1, 1975): Ford signed the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, along with leaders of 34 other nations. The accords recognised post-World War II European borders—validating Soviet territorial gains—in exchange for commitments to respect human rights and freedoms of movement. Critics accused Ford of legitimising Soviet domination of Eastern Europe; proponents argued the human rights provisions helped plant the seeds of dissident movements that ultimately contributed to the fall of communism.
- Fall of Saigon (April 30, 1975): Ford oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam as Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces. He had requested emergency military and economic aid for South Vietnam, but Congress declined. The evacuation of roughly 7,000 Americans and South Vietnamese allies by helicopter marked the formal end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
- Mayaguez Incident (May 12–15, 1975): When Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces seized the U.S. merchant vessel SS Mayaguez, Ford ordered a military rescue operation. Forty-one American servicemembers died in the operation; the crew of 39 was recovered. The incident was widely seen as Ford reasserting American resolve after Vietnam.
Domestic Policy
- Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975): Signed November 29, 1975, this landmark legislation guaranteed free and appropriate public education for children with disabilities—a foundational precursor to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
- “Whip Inflation Now” (WIN) campaign: Ford launched the WIN campaign in October 1974 to combat stagflation (unemployment at 7.2% and inflation at 11%), encouraging voluntary conservation and austerity. The campaign, featuring WIN lapel buttons, was widely mocked and abandoned within months.
- Tax Reduction Act of 1975: Signed March 29, 1975, the act provided approximately $22.8 billion in tax cuts to stimulate the economy, including expanded standard deductions and a temporary refund of 1974 taxes.
- Two assassination attempts: Ford survived two assassination attempts within 17 days in September 1975, both in California—Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (September 5, Sacramento) and Sara Jane Moore (September 22, San Francisco).
1976 Election Defeat and Later Life
Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 but lost the general election to Democrat Jimmy Carter, 297 electoral votes to 240. Ford carried 27 states; Carter’s margin of victory was attributed partly to continued resentment over the Nixon pardon. Ford became the first incumbent president to lose a presidential election since Herbert Hoover in 1932.
In retirement, Ford was regarded as an elder statesman and was known for his warm relationships across partisan lines. He co-authored a joint op-ed with Jimmy Carter in 2001 urging electoral reform following the disputed 2000 election. He revealed in 2004 that he had privately supported same-sex civil unions while publicly staying silent—a notably progressive position for a Republican of his era. Ford underwent heart surgery in August 2000 and a series of health setbacks in his final years. He died at 6:45 p.m. on December 26, 2006.
Death, State Funeral, and Legacy
Ford’s state funeral included services in Palm Desert, California; the U.S. Capitol Rotunda (where his body lay in state December 30–January 2); Washington National Cathedral; and Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was buried on January 3, 2007. President George W. Bush delivered the eulogy at the National Cathedral. Congress passed a resolution declaring January 2, 2007, a national day of mourning.
At the time of his death, Ford was the longest-lived U.S. president at 93 years and 165 days, surpassing Ronald Reagan (who had died in 2004 at 93 years and 120 days). Jimmy Carter later exceeded both, living to 100 years.
Polls and historical rankings have placed Ford in the lower-middle tier of U.S. presidents, reflecting the brevity of his administration and the legacy of the pardon. However, his reputation for honesty, decency, and institutional fidelity in a period of severe constitutional crisis has consistently attracted favourable retrospective assessments. He is credited with restoring basic trust in the executive branch at a moment when that trust had reached a nadir.
Significance
Ford’s presidency is remembered chiefly for restoring stability and public confidence in the federal government during the gravest constitutional crisis since the Civil War, and for the controversial pardon of Richard Nixon that likely cost him the 1976 election but was later widely reassessed as an act of political courage. His death in December 2006 prompted a national period of mourning and a broad reappraisal of a presidency long defined by its brevity and the pardon.