1974-77 Gerald R. Ford

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born July 14, 1913) was the 40th (1973–1974) Vice President and the 38th (1974–1977) President of the United States. Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, his parents divorced when he was two years old. more...

Ford was renamed when his mother moved to Michigan and remarried; in addition, his step-father, Gerald R. Ford, Sr., informally adopted him. Ford obtained his bachelors degree from the University of Michigan, where he was a star football player. He then went on to obtain a law degree from Yale University before serving in the United States Navy during World War II.

Returning from the war a confirmed "internationalist," Republican Ford defeated the incumbent in the party primary and was elected to the United States House of Representatives representing the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. He was elected House Minority Leader in 1963 and served in the House until 1973. When Spiro Agnew resigned, Ford was appointed Vice President of the United States during the height of the Watergate scandal. Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford ascended to the presidency on August 9, 1974.

The Ford administration saw the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, the execution of the Helsinki Accords and the continuing specter of inflation and recession. Faced with an overwhelmingly Democratic majority in Congress, the administration was hampered in its ability to pass major legislation and Ford's vetoes were frequently overridden. After Ford was excoriated by many for granting a pardon to Nixon, Democrat Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential race. Ford is the nation's only President who was elected to neither the Presidency nor Vice Presidency. Along with his own Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, he is one of two appointed Vice President rather than elected.

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