20th Century U.S. History Since World War II

Unit 7 – Ford Administration (1974-1977)

Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977)

Ford Administration Gerald Ford was sworn in as President on

August 9, 1974 He was the first president to not be elected to

either the Vice Presidency or the Presidency He had replaced Spiro Agnew as VP when the

latter pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering in 1973

When he took office, he appointed Nelson D. Rockefeller as his Vice President Rockefeller was a liberal Republican and former

Governor of New York

Ford Administration A number of Ford’s appointments played huge

roles in the government over the next thirty years Ford also appointed George H.W. Bush as his

liaison to China Bush was later promoted to Director of the CIA in 1975 He was president from 1989-1993

His Chief of Staff was Donald Rumsfeld He was later promoted in 1975 to Secretary of Defense He held the position again under George W. Bush

His second Chief of Staff was Richard Cheney He was Secretary of Defense during most of the George

H.W. Bush Administration He became Vice President under George W. Bush

The Pardon On September 8, 1974, Ford shocked the nation

by pardoning Nixon with Proclamation 4311 It stated that Ford “have granted and by these

presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.”

Ford believed the pardon was in the best interest of the country

Critics said the pardon was a “corrupt bargain” with Nixon Nixon would resign and get off easy while Ford would

gain the presidency

The Pardon In his book Shadow, Bob Woodward claimed

that Ford was given three options by Chief of Staff Alexander Haig before Nixon resigned Nixon could first pardon himself and then resign Nixon could pardon his aides and then resign Nixon would resign on the condition that Ford

would pardon him Ford believed he was following legal

precedence The Supreme Court case Burdick v. U.S. (1915)

stated that when a person accepts a pardon it is an “admission of guilt”

The Pardon Still, not everyone was happy with the pardon

A number of staff members resigned in protest Many believe that the pardon eliminated any

chance of Ford winning in the 1976 election This is including Ford himself

At the same time Ford announced the pardon, he also announced the creation of a Presidential Clemency Board The purpose was to grant clemency to those who

had left the country to avoid the draft

Ford’s Pardon of Nixon

1974 Mid-Term Elections One thing that was greatly affected by the

pardon was the 1974 mid-term Congressional Elections They occurred only three months after Nixon’s

resignation Democrats won 49 seats in the House and got a

2/3 majority to override presidential vetoes They went on to veto 60 bills in the next two years

In the Senate, the Democrats had 60 seats This meant that for most of his short

administration, Ford had to deal with a very hostile Congress

Whip Inflation Now buttons

Inflation and Unemployment On the domestic front, Ford had to deal with

an increasing inflation and unemployment On October 8, 1974, Ford gave a speech

called “Whip Inflation Now” The goal was to control inflation by regulating

production and sales This included increase the amount of food produced by

farmers to lower prices Another proposal was reduce America’s dependency on

foreign oil by using “cleaner coal processes and nuclear fuel”

Finally, the “enforcement of laws against price fixing and bid rigging”

Inflation and Unemployment Many saw the WIN campaign just as a political

and ineffective gimmick In 1974, inflation was at 11%

Ford finally introduced a tight money policy There was a major reduction in federal spending This led to the most severe recession since the

Great Depression Another problem Ford had to face was

unemployment When he took office in August 1974,

unemployment was at 5.5%

Inflation and Unemployment By January 1975, unemployment was up to 8.1%

By that May, it hit 9.0% As inflation and unemployment both continued

to rise and the GNP declined, Congress pushed for an anti-recession spending program Ford had to endorse a major tax cut along with

higher unemployment benefits The Comprehensive Employment and Training

Act was passed This provided temporary government or not-for-profit

jobs for skilled workers with contracts from 12-24 months

William Colby Director of CIA (1973-1976)

“Family Jewels” After the Watergate Scandal broke, the CIA

began investigating itself for any illegal activities This was because both E. Howard Hunt and James

McCord were both former members of the CIA On May 9, 1973, James R. Schlesinger,

Director of the CIA, put together a report known as the “Family Jewels” It was a listing of all potentially illegal actions

made by the CIA since the 1950s The 693 report was given to William Colby when

he took office

“Family Jewels” Details of the report were leaked to Seymour

Hersh, a reporter for the New York Times In December 1974, Hersh’s article appeared on the

front page accusing the CIA of “violating its charter” It also stated that it “conducted a massive, illegal

domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups…”

The full report was made public in June 2007 The CIA spied on numerous U.S. citizens, especially

journalists It also planned numerous assassination attempts

against Castro

“Family Jewels” Congress responded by passing the Hughes-Ryan

Act on December 22, 1974 It required the president to notify Congress of any

covert actions Congress also would not provide funding for any

covert operations unless the president can prove how it is beneficial for national security

In 1975, the Church Committee was created to investigate illegal actions by both the CIA and FBI It was headed by Idaho Senator Frank Church The Committee recommend oversight of the CIA

which led to the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Ford and Brezhnev (November 23, 1974)

Continued Détente Ford continued on Nixon’s policy of détente

with the Soviet Union In November 1974, he met with Soviet

General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev in Vladivostok They signed a joint communiqué on the limitation

of strategic offensive arms Specifically Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry

Vehicles (MIRVs), which allowed one nuclear missile to hit multiple targets

It also included a promise to negotiate a new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II)

Continued Détente On August 1, 1975, Ford signed the Helsinki

Accords It was signed by almost all European countries as

well as Canada The purpose was to improve relations between the

West and the Communist Bloc by respecting territorial integrity of countries and non-intervention in the internal affairs of countries

Part of this also included a push for human rights, freedom of conscience, and self-determination

The Accords were criticized by Congress They said that Ford was accepting the annexation

of a number of countries by the Soviets

Continued Détente Ford also promoted the joint Apollo-Soyuz Test

Project in the summer of 1975 It was a joint venture between the U.S. and the

Soviets It was also the last mission for the Apollo program

Ford also travelled to China in December 1975 It was to continue normalizing relations with China However, at the same time, he was continuing to

recognize the Republic of China on Taiwan

Fall of Saigon (April 30, 1975)

Trouble in Southeast Asia Ford was not so successful with his foreign

policy in southeast Asia He was unable to get Congressional funding

for aiding the South Vietnamese military The U.S. military participated in Operation

Frequent Wind on April 29, 1975 This was to help evacuate as many refugees from

South Vietnam as possible Helicopters and busses were used to transfer

people from the U.S. embassy in Saigon to Tan Son Nhut

Trouble in Southeast Asia The city of Saigon fell to North Vietnamese

troops on April 30, 1975 In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge took the

capital city of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 It created a new government known as the

Democratic Kampuchea Its leader was General Secretary Pol Pot

On May 12, 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized the container ship S.S. Maygüez As the U.S. government did not recognize the

Democratic Kampuchea, Ford ordered a military response against this “piracy”

Trouble in Southeast Asia The ship’s crew was released but the news did

not reach the marines before the attack During the course of the attack, 41 troops were

killed and another 50 wounded 60 Khmer Rouge forces were killed as well

Ford asked Congress for $222 million in foreign aid to free Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge Congress refused

The Khmer Rouge participated in mass genocide over the next four years Estimates go from 1.4 million to 2.2 million dead

Ford–Carter Debate (September 23, 1976)

Election of 1976 Ford was not an automatic shoe-in for the

Republican nomination in 1976 His main challenger was former California governor

Ronald Reagan Reagan was a conservative and criticized Ford’s positions

on détente with the Soviet Union However, he did win the nomination on the first vote He selected Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his

running mate Democrats picked Jimmy Carter as their

candidate The former governor of Georgia was a relative

unknown when the primaries started He chose liberal Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota

as his running mate

Election of 1976 Even with the problems associated with his

administration, he did have some positive public relations Specifically, he was the center of the country’s

bicentennial celebrations during the summer of 1976

Carter’s position was that he was “untainted” by Washington politics This was slap to Ford being Vice President during

the Watergate Scandal Carter also played upon the negative public

response of Ford’s pardon of Nixon

Election of 1976 Ford actually had a huge lead in the campaign

until the second debate on October 6, 1976 He said that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern

Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration”

Many, especially conservatives, were already critical of Ford’s relations with the Soviets; this gave fuel to their opposition

On November 2nd, Carter won the election Carter received 40.8 million votes which gave him 23

states and a total of 297 electoral votes Ford received 39.1 million which gave him 27 states

but only a total of 240 electoral votes One “faithless elector” from Washington gave his

vote to Reagan instead of Ford

1976 Election Results