Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913 and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A football standout at the University of Michigan, he later became a lawyer, Navy officer in World War II, and Republican congressman. He served in the House for nearly twenty-five years and became minority leader. In 1973, after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned, Richard Nixon appointed Ford vice president under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.

Ford became president on August 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal. He was the only person to become president without being elected either president or vice president. In his first address, he told Americans that “our long national nightmare is over,” signaling a desire to restore trust and stability after constitutional crisis.

His most consequential decision came one month later, when he granted Nixon a full pardon for federal crimes he may have committed as president. Ford argued that the pardon was necessary to move the country forward, and Ford believed the pardon was necessary to allow the country to move forward and heal.

Ford’s presidency also faced inflation, recession, energy problems, and the aftermath of the Vietnam War. In 1975, Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces, marking the final collapse of South Vietnam. Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, continued détente with the Soviet Union, and restored a measure of normal constitutional process. He lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter and later became a respected elder statesman. He died in 2006.