Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford is the only person in American history to serve as president without ever winning a national election for president or vice president. He held the office from 1974 to 1977. Both of the jobs that carried him there came to him by appointment, and neither came by a vote of the American people.
He was a football star from Michigan who had once turned down professional contracts. He spent a quarter of a century in the House of Representatives, and his highest ambition there was to run it. So how did a man who wanted to be Speaker of the House end up in the Oval Office? What did he do with a presidency that nobody had voted him into? And why did the people who judged him harshly at the time grow kinder in later years?
On the 14th of July 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, a baby was born with the name Leslie Lynch King Jr. His parents lived there with his paternal grandparents. His father, Leslie Lynch King Sr., was a wool trader. His mother was Dorothy Ayer Gardner.
The marriage lasted sixteen days after the birth. Ford later said that his father had a history of hitting his mother. The biographer James M. Cannon wrote that the split began when King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, the infant, and the nursemaid. Dorothy took the baby to relatives in Oak Park, Illinois, and then to her parents' home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The couple divorced in December 1913, and she won full custody.
On the 1st of February 1917, she married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman at a family paint and varnish company. The boy was never formally adopted, but from then on people called him Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. The name, with the spelling changed to Rudolph, was made official on the 3rd of December 1935. He grew up in what is now East Grand Rapids beside three half-brothers: Tom, Dick and Jim.
In August 1927 he earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest in the Boy Scouts of America. He remains the only Eagle Scout to become president. At Grand Rapids South High School he captained the football team, and in 1930 he made the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League.
At the University of Michigan he played center and linebacker. The Wolverines went undefeated and won national titles in 1932 and 1933. His senior season of 1934 was a collapse, with a single win. Even so, in one game Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota to a scoreless tie through the first half. Assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan said afterward that he had tears in his eyes at halftime. Ford later said the memory of that day helped him face hard situations through 25 years of politics. His teammates voted him most valuable player.
That season also tested him off the field. Georgia Tech said it would refuse to play if a Black Michigan player named Willis Ward took the field, and university officials gave in. Ward was Ford's best friend on the team, and the two roomed together on road trips. Ford reportedly threatened to quit. He played only after Ward himself asked him to.
Michigan retired his No. 48 jersey in 1994. With the family's blessing, it came back into use in 2012, and sophomore linebacker Desmond Morgan wore it against Illinois on the 13th of October. As president, Ford often asked the Navy band to play Michigan's fight song, "The Victors", at state events instead of "Hail to the Chief".
After graduating in 1935 with a degree in economics, Ford turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. He took a job at Yale as boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach, and he applied to the law school. Officials first refused him because of his coaching duties, and he was admitted in the spring of 1938. During those years he worked as a model with the Harry Conover agency until 1941. He graduated in the top third of his class in 1941. That May he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip W. Buchen. Seven months later came the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On the 13th of April 1942, Ford received a commission as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve. His first posting was Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors. He taught navigation, gunnery, first aid and drill, and he coached all nine sports on offer, mostly swimming, boxing and football.
He asked for sea duty and joined the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey, which was commissioned on the 17th of June 1943. Ford served aboard as assistant navigator, athletic officer and antiaircraft battery officer. The carrier took part in strikes and landings across the Pacific, including the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944.
Japanese forces never damaged the ship. A storm did. On the 18th and the 19th of December 1944, Typhoon Cobra hit Admiral William Halsey's Third Fleet, which lost three destroyers and over 800 men. Aboard the Monterey, aircraft tore loose from their cables and collided on the hangar deck, starting a fire. Ford was the officer of the deck at general quarters. He was ordered below to size up the blaze, did so safely, and reported to Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll. The crew contained the fire, but the ship was declared unfit for service. Ford was honorably discharged in February 1946 as a lieutenant commander.
Back in Grand Rapids, he decided that the war had turned him into an internationalist. His congressman, Bartel J. Jonkman, was an avowed isolationist. Ford wrote that nobody thought he could win, and he won two to one. Along the way he met voters at factory gates, and a wager on the campaign trail left him milking cows for two weeks after the election.
He held Michigan's 5th district seat from 1949 to 1973. A New York Times editorial later observed that he saw himself as a negotiator and reconciler, and that he did not write a single piece of major legislation in his career. His colleagues called him a "Congressman's Congressman". He voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960-1964 and 1968, and for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He turned down chances to run for the Senate or for governor, because he wanted to be Speaker, which he called "the ultimate achievement".
On the 29th of November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ford wrote a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald for the panel. He and Earl Warren also interviewed Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer. In 1965 Ford published Portrait of the Assassin, written with John R. Stiles, which defended the commission's findings.
The 1964 election gave Johnson a landslide and cost Republicans 36 House seats. Ford was chosen as minority leader, replacing Charles Halleck of Indiana. The members who pushed his candidacy became known as the Young Turks, and one of them was Donald Rumsfeld of Illinois.
Ford eventually criticized Johnson's handling of Vietnam from the House floor. Johnson answered that Ford had played "too much football without a helmet". Ford's televised press conferences with Senator Everett Dirksen were nicknamed "The Ev and Jerry Show". After Richard Nixon won in 1968, Ford became the White House's advocate in the House. In 1972 he helped pass revenue sharing for state and local governments by 223 votes to 185. He told his wife he would try once more for a Republican majority in 1974 and then retire in 1976.
On the 10th of October 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned as vice president, and Nixon asked congressional leaders who should replace him. House Speaker Carl Albert later said, "We gave Nixon no choice but Ford." Ford told his wife that the job would be a nice conclusion to his career.
Nixon nominated him on the 12th of October. It was the first use of the vacancy provision in the 25th Amendment. The Senate confirmed Ford 92 to 3 on the 27th of November, and the House voted 387 to 35 on the 6th of December.
By the summer of 1974, Ford and his wife, Betty, were living in suburban Virginia and waiting to move into the new vice-presidential residence. On the 1st of August, Chief of Staff Alexander Haig came to see him. A new tape was about to be released, Haig said, and the evidence on it was devastating. Impeachment or resignation seemed likely, and Ford should be ready. Ford turned to Betty and said they would probably never live in that house.
Nixon resigned on the 9th of August 1974, and Ford took the oath in the East Room of the White House. In a speech broadcast live, he said that "our long national nightmare is over". On the 20th of August he nominated Nelson Rockefeller as vice president, over the other leading candidate, George H. W. Bush. The hearings embarrassed Rockefeller when it emerged that he had given large gifts to senior aides such as Henry Kissinger. Barry Goldwater was among those who voted no.
On the 8th of September 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, a full and unconditional pardon of Nixon. On television he said the Nixon family's situation was a tragedy in which "we all have played a part". He added that someone had to write the end of it, and that "only I can do that, and if I can, I must." Critics suspected a "corrupt bargain" in which the pardon was payment for the resignation. His press secretary and close friend, Jerald terHorst, quit in protest. A New York Times editorial called the pardon "profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust".
On the 17th of October 1974, Ford testified before the House about it. He was the first sitting president to do so since Abraham Lincoln. For months he avoided saying Nixon's name, calling him "my predecessor". Later he kept in his wallet a passage from the 1915 Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States, which said that accepting a pardon implied guilt. Historians believe the pardon was a major reason he lost in 1976, and Ford agreed. In 2001 the John F. Kennedy Library gave him its Profile in Courage Award. Senator Ted Kennedy said he had first opposed the pardon but now believed history had proved Ford right.
On the 16th of September, Ford also offered conditional amnesty to Vietnam War draft dodgers and military deserters. They had to reaffirm their allegiance and perform two years of public service. A Clemency Board reviewed each record. Full pardons waited until Jimmy Carter.
Ford inherited Nixon's Cabinet and replaced nearly all of it. Only Kissinger and Treasury Secretary William E. Simon stayed. The fall 1975 shake-up was nicknamed the "Halloween Massacre". Rumsfeld became the youngest defense secretary in the nation's history, and Dick Cheney took over as chief of staff.
In the elections of November 1974, less than three months into Ford's presidency, voters took out their anger over Watergate on his party. Democrats gained 49 House seats and reached 291 of the 435, one more than the two-thirds needed to override a veto. Ford's old Grand Rapids seat went to a Democrat, Richard Vander Veen. The 94th Congress went on to override a record share of vetoes.
Inflation topped twelve percent that autumn. In a speech to Congress on the 4th of October 1974, Ford launched a campaign called "Whip Inflation Now", with the slogan on buttons reading "WIN". Over the next nine days, 101,240 Americans mailed in pledges to spend less. Many later saw it as a public relations gimmick. The speech also asked Congress for a one-year, five-percent income tax increase on corporations and wealthy individuals.
Then the economy turned. By May 1975, unemployment had reached nine percent, in the worst recession since the Great Depression. In January 1975, Ford proposed a one-year tax cut of $16 billion, and critics hit him for flipping from a tax increase. Congress raised the cut to $22.8 billion and passed the Tax Reduction Act in March. Deficits followed: about $53 billion for fiscal 1975 and $73.7 billion for 1976.
When New York City neared bankruptcy in 1975, Mayor Abraham Beame could not win a federal bailout. The New York Daily News answered with the headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead".
On the 5th of February 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix died, and four fellow soldiers were hospitalized. Officials announced swine flu as the cause. Public health officials urged that every American be vaccinated. The program ran into delays and public relations problems, and about 25 percent of the population was vaccinated before it was canceled in December 1976. Ford and his family took their shots in front of cameras in October.
His record on social questions was mixed. In 1975 he signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which created special education nationwide, despite worries over its cost. He backed the Equal Rights Amendment and proclaimed the 26th of August 1975 as Women's Equality Day. On abortion, he supported an amendment letting each state decide. When Betty Ford called Roe v. Wade a "great, great decision" on 60 Minutes, he came under criticism. He later identified as pro-choice.
His one Supreme Court pick came in 1975, when he named John Paul Stevens to replace William O. Douglas. As House Republican leader, Ford had once led efforts to impeach Douglas. Stevens later disappointed some conservatives by siding with the liberal wing, yet in 2005 Ford praised him for serving with "dignity, intellect and without partisan political concerns". Ford also appointed 11 appeals judges and 50 district judges.
Ford took office with the Cold War in a thaw. He kept the detente policy with the Soviet Union and China, and he visited China in December 1975. In 1975 he joined the Helsinki Accords, which led to the Helsinki Watch monitoring group, an ancestor of Human Rights Watch. He also attended the first meeting of what became the Group of Seven and secured a seat for Canada.
Vietnam was the harder problem. The Paris Peace Accords of the 27th of January 1973 had ended American offensive operations and called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Nixon had promised South Vietnam's president, Nguyen Van Thieu, that America would defend him if the North broke the deal. In December 1974, North Vietnamese forces invaded Phuoc Long province. Ford asked Congress for $722 million in aid for the South, and Congress refused by a wide margin. Senator Jacob K. Javits offered "large sums for evacuation, but not one nickel for military aid".
Thieu resigned on the 21st of April 1975, blaming the lack of American support. Two days later, at Tulane University, Ford told a cheering crowd that the war was over "as far as America is concerned". Operation Frequent Wind evacuated 1,373 Americans and 5,595 Vietnamese and third-country nationals from Saigon. In all, 130,000 Vietnamese refugees reached the United States in 1975.
In May 1975, Cambodians seized the American merchant ship Mayaguez in international waters, only weeks after the Khmer Rouge took power. Ford sent in Marines. They landed on the wrong island and met stiff resistance, just as the crew was being released. Two helicopters were shot down. Forty-one American servicemen died and 50 were wounded, and about 60 Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed. Ford's approval rating still rose 11 points. The dead became the last names carved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In 2009, the historian Andrew Gawthorpe showed from internal records that Ford's team saw the seizure as a local provocation, not a Soviet plot, but wanted to deter other Communist governments.
The administration also backed Indonesia's Suharto regime, which it saw as essential after Vietnam. One day before Indonesia invaded East Timor, Ford and Kissinger met Suharto and assured him that relations would stay strong. The invasion led to a genocide that killed close to a third of the population.
In the Middle East, Ford grew frustrated when Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy stalled. In March 1975, he cabled Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to protest Israel's attitude and announced a "reassessment" of policy. For six months the United States signed no new arms agreements with Israel. Rabin called it one of the worst periods in American-Israeli relations. On the 21st of May, seventy-six senators wrote to Ford urging him to meet Israel's request for $2.59 billion in aid. The Sinai Interim Agreement was signed on the 1st of September, and aid resumed.
After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974, Congress voted to halt aid to Turkey, and Ford vetoed the bill twice. Aid was suspended on the 5th of February 1975. At home, conservatives were already furious over the Helsinki Accords, and Ronald Reagan was ready to say so.
On the 5th of September 1975, in Sacramento, California, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, aimed a Colt .45 at Ford from point-blank range and pulled the trigger. Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf grabbed the gun. Fromme received a life sentence and was paroled on the 14th of August 2009 after 34 years.
The Secret Service then kept Ford farther from anonymous crowds. That may have saved him seventeen days later, as he left the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Sara Jane Moore, standing among onlookers across the street, fired a .38 revolver. Retired Marine Oliver Sipple lunged at her arm and deflected the shot. The bullet hit a wall about six inches above and to the right of Ford's head and ricocheted into a taxi driver, who was slightly wounded. Moore got a life sentence and was paroled on the 31st of December 2007, after 32 years.
Ronald Reagan launched his challenge in the autumn of 1975. He faulted Ford over South Vietnam, the Helsinki Accords and talks to give up the Panama Canal. Reagan won primaries in North Carolina, Texas, Indiana and California but fell short of a delegate majority, and he withdrew at the Republican Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The insurgency still cost Ford his running mate. He dropped Nelson Rockefeller and chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas.
Media images hurt him too. Chevy Chase often did pratfalls on Saturday Night Live in imitation of Ford, who had stumbled in public twice. The Bicentennial helped. Ford presided over the Fourth of July fireworks in Washington, hosted a televised state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II on the 7th of July 1976, and spoke to 110,000 people at Concord, Massachusetts.
Televised debates returned for the first time since 1960, and Ford became the first incumbent president to take part in one. In the second debate, he declared that "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford Administration." He added that he did not believe the Poles considered themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. Years later he said he meant that the Soviets would never crush the spirit of eastern Europeans. At the time, the questioner Max Frankel looked visibly incredulous.
Carter later credited the debates for his win. The final tally was 50.1 percent and 297 electoral votes for Carter, against 48.0 percent and 240 for Ford.
Jimmy Carter opened his 1977 inaugural address by thanking "my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land". The Fords moved to Denver, Colorado, where Ford invested in oil with Marvin Davis, and the income later helped his children. In 1979 he published his autobiography, A Time to Heal. A review in Foreign Affairs called it the shortest and most honest of recent presidential memoirs, with no deep probing of motives.
He also built institutions. In 1977 he founded the Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Policy at Albion College in Michigan. In April 1981 he opened the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, on the University of Michigan's north campus, and in September the Gerald R. Ford Museum opened in Grand Rapids. He played golf often with his friend Bob Hope, and in 1977 he made a hole in one at a Pro-am in Memphis, Tennessee.
For a while he considered a rematch with Carter in 1980. On the 15th of March 1980, he announced he would not run. At the convention, Reagan's camp explored Ford as a running mate. Ford demanded a "co-presidency" with control over key appointments, such as Kissinger at State and Alan Greenspan at Treasury. Reagan refused and picked George H. W. Bush. Ford still appeared in a commercial for the ticket.
The bitterness toward Carter faded. Their close friendship grew after the two men traveled together to Anwar el-Sadat's funeral in 1981. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visited the Fords often. In 2001 and 2002, the two former presidents served as honorary co-chairs of two commissions, on federal election reform and on continuity of government.
Ford's moderate views set him against the party's right. In January 1998, he warned that the party would not elect a president if it moved to the "hard right". In October 2001, he said gay and lesbian couples "ought to be treated equally. Period." That made him the highest-ranking Republican to embrace full equality for gays and lesbians. He joined the Republican Unity Coalition, a group aiming to make sexual orientation a non-issue in the party.
His health declined with age. In April 1990, he had his left knee replaced. He suffered two minor strokes at the 2000 Republican National Convention. In January 2006, he spent 11 days in Eisenhower Medical Center with pneumonia. On the 23rd of April 2006, George W. Bush visited him at his home in Rancho Mirage for a little over an hour. It was Ford's last public appearance. He died there on the 26th of December 2006.
Historians and political scientists rank him as a below-average president, though later public polls were warmer. One more verdict arrived only after his death. In July 2004, Ford told Bob Woodward of The Washington Post that he disagreed "very strongly" with the Iraq invasion, calling it a "big mistake". He had asked that the interview stay sealed until he was gone.
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Common questions
Why is Gerald Ford the only person to serve as president without winning an election for president or vice president?
Spiro Agnew resigned as vice president in October 1973, and Ford was appointed to the post under the 25th Amendment. When Richard Nixon resigned on the 9th of August 1974, Ford became president automatically.
Why was Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon so controversial?
On the 8th of September 1974, Ford issued a full and unconditional pardon. Critics suspected a corrupt bargain in exchange for the resignation, and his press secretary Jerald terHorst quit in protest. Historians believe it helped cost Ford the 1976 election.
What was the Whip Inflation Now campaign?
In October 1974, with inflation over twelve percent, Ford urged Americans to cut their spending and wear WIN buttons. Over nine days, 101,240 people mailed in pledges. Many later saw it as a public relations gimmick.
What happened on the USS Monterey during Typhoon Cobra?
On the 18th and the 19th of December 1944, aircraft on the Monterey's hangar deck tore loose and started a fire. Ford, the officer of the deck at general quarters, went below to assess it and reported to the captain. The ship was later declared unfit for service.
How did the 1976 election end?
Jimmy Carter won with 50.1 percent of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes. Ford received 48.0 percent and 240 electoral votes. His awkward second-debate remark about Eastern Europe was widely seen as a turning point.
All sources
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- 55JournalHouse – August 3, 1965U.S. Government Printing Office
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- 58LBJ Appoints Gerald Ford to the Warren CommissionMiller Center of Public Affairs
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- 61NewsFord told FBI about panel's doubts on JFK murderAugust 9, 2008
- 62BookAuthor in Chief: The Presidents as Writers from Washington to TrumpMichael B. Costanzo — McFarland — 2019
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- 66Unger, Irwin, 1996: 'The Best of Intentions: the triumphs and failures of the Great Society under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon': Doubleday, p. 104.
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- 70BookA Ford, not a LincolnRichard Reeves — 1975
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- 73NewsJudge Orders Fine, 3 Years' ProbationJames M. Naughton — October 11, 1973
- 76Remarks By President Gerald Ford On Taking the Oath Of Office As PresidentWatergate.info — 1974
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- 78The Daily Diary of President Gerald R. FordAugust 20, 1976
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- 80President Gerald R. Ford's Proclamation 4311, Granting a Pardon to Richard NixonGerald Ford — University of Texas — September 8, 1974
- 81Presidential Proclamation 4311 by President Gerald R. Ford granting a pardon to Richard M. NixonGerald Ford — University of Maryland — September 8, 1974
- 83Gerald R. Ford Pardoning Richard NixonGerald Ford — The History Place — September 8, 1974
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- 85NewsFor Ford, Pardon Decision Was Always Clear-CutScott Shane — December 29, 2006
- 86Ford Testimony on Nixon PardonOctober 17, 1974
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- 88Fred Barnes on Conversations with Bill KristolMay 24, 2015
- 89Shadow, by Bob Woodward, chapter on Gerald Ford; Woodward interviewed Ford on this matter, about twenty years after Ford left the presidency
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- 92NewsFord Offers Amnesty Program Requiring 2 Years Public Work; Defends His Pardon Of NixonMarjorie Hunter — September 16, 1974
- 94Carter's PardonPublic Broadcasting System — January 21, 1977
- 100Greene, John Robert. The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. University Press of Kansas, 1995
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- 105NewsConsumer prices up 0.9% in October, 12.2% for year; annual rate is highest since 1947Edwin L. Jr. Dale — November 22, 1974
- 108BookDisasters, accidents and crises in American history: a reference guide to the nation's most catastrophic eventsBallard C. Campbell — Facts On File — 2008
- 109NewsU.S. jobless rate up to 9.2% in May, highest since '41Edwin L. Jr. Dale — June 7, 1975
- 110Office of Management and Budget. "Historical Table 1.1"White House
- 111NewsInfamous 'Drop Dead' Was Never Said by FordSam Roberts — December 28, 2006
- 112NewsFord to New York: Drop DeadFrank Van Riper — October 30, 1975
- 115NewsFords get their flu shots; some clinics, closed after deaths, are reopenedOctober 15, 1976
- 116Proclamation 4383 – Women's Equality Day, 1975Gerald R. Ford — The American Presidency Project — August 26, 1975
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- 134Ford, Kissinger and the Indonesian Invasion, 1975–76December 6, 2001
- 135Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal, 1979, p.240
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- 139Gerald Ford, A Time to Heal, 1979, p.298
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- 143NewsVietnam's President Thieu resignsApril 21, 1975
- 145BookTerms of refuge: the Indochinese exodus & the international responseWilliam Courtland Robinson — Zed Books — 1998
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- 147Debrief of the Mayaguez Captain and CrewMay 19, 1975
- 148Capture and Release of SS Mayaguez by Khmer Rouge forces in May 1975United States Merchant Marine — 2000
- 149Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, p. 284
- 150Cécile Menétray-Monchau (August 2005), "The Mayaguez Incident as an Epilogue to the Vietnam War and its Reflection on the Post-Vietnam Political Equilibrium in Southeast Asia", Cold War History, p. 34
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- 1521975 Year in Review: Ford Assassinations AttemptsUnited Press International
- 155Public Report of the White House Security ReviewUnited States Secret Service — United States Department of the Treasury
- 156Interview: Woman Who Tried To Assassinate FordVic Lee — KGO-TV — January 2, 2007
- 157John Paul StevensOyez
- 158News Release, Congressman Gerald R. FordApril 15, 1970
- 159NewsThe Conservative PersuasionChristopher Levenick — September 25, 2005
- 161Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public-domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- 165Shabecoff, Philip. "160,000 Mark Two 1775 Battles; Concord Protesters Jeer Ford – Reconciliation Plea", The New York Times, April 20, 1975, p. 1.
- 166Shabecoff, Philip. "Ford, on Bicentennial Trip, Bids U.S. Heed Old Values", The New York Times, April 19, 1975, p. 1.
- 1681976:No Audio and No Soviet DominationJim Lehrer — PBS — 2000
- 170Jimmy CarterBartleby.com — January 20, 1977
- 171MagazineThe Man Who Ate HollywoodMark Seal — November 1, 2005
- 172Perrone, Marguerite. "Eisenhower Fellowship: A History 1953–2003". 2003.
- 173The Real Jerry FordJames M Naughton — PoynterOnline — December 27, 2006
- 174A Time to HealGaddis Smith — Council on Foreign Relations — 1979
- 175NewsFord Arranged His Funeral to Reflect Himself and Drew in a Former AdversaryAnne Kornblut — December 29, 2006
- 176NewsFlying Coach to CairoMark K. Updegrove — August–September 2006
- 177NewsFord to Formally Unveil His Presidential LibraryLessenberry, Jack — April 20, 1981
- 178Remarks at the Dedication of the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, MichiganGerald R. Ford — September 18, 1981
- 179NewsReagan Praises Ford at Opening of MuseumBrian Tucker — September 18, 1981
- 180The Selling of the ex-President: Nixon and Carter Just Wrote Books. Ford Had a Better IdeaRonald Brownstein — February 15, 1987
- 181The 38th President: More Than Met the EyeEvan Thomas — 2007
- 183Reagan campaign adLivingroomcandidate.org — November 4, 1979
- 184NewsFormer President Gerald Ford said Wednesday former President Richard...Tom Uhlenbrock — United Press International — October 8, 1980
- 185NewsFormer President Gerald Ford Friday accused President Carter of...United Press International — October 3, 1980
- 186NewsFormer President Gerald Ford says people who commit crimes...Pamela Brownstein — United Press International — April 3, 1981
- 187NewsFormer President Gerald Ford had some advice today for...United Press International — September 18, 1981
- 188NewsFormer President Gerald Ford continued his campaign in favor...United Press International — October 20, 1981
- 189NewsFormer President Gerald Ford endorsed President Reagan's handling of...Arnold Sawislak — United Press International — March 24, 1982
- 190NewsA $3m giftScott Whipple — October 18, 2005
- 191NewsGerald Ford: 'Carter administration blew it'Tamara Henry — UPI — August 10, 1982
- 192NewsFormer President Gerald Ford and former Vice President Walter...United Press International — October 21, 1982
- 193NewsFormer presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter have signed...United Press International — January 2, 1984
- 195NewsBork's Nomination Is Rejected, 58–42; Reagan 'Saddened'Linda Greenhouse — October 24, 1987
- 196Often the target of jokes, Ford laughed right alongBruce Fessier — The Seattle Times
- 197MagazineBoard GamesLLC — January 25, 1988
- 198NewsFord's Citigroup ConnectionDecember 27, 2006
- 199NewsIke commemorated with 100th birthday bashUnited Press International — October 14, 1990
- 200NewsCarter, Ford Join Other Former Presidents in Backing Gun BillApril 29, 1991
- 201NewsFord, Carter, Reagan Push for Gun BanWilliam J. Eaton — May 5, 1994
- 202NewsFord warns Clinton victory would return America to Carter eraMark Langford — United Press International
- 203NewsPresidents Call for Big Citizenship, Not Big GovernmentJames Bennet — April 29, 1997
- 204NewsFord Urges G.O.P. to Drop Abortion Issue and Shift CenterRichard L. Berke — January 20, 1998
- 205NewsCarter breaks silence on Clinton, says nation will healEmory — September 28, 1998
- 207Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. "Vocal Gay Republicans Upsetting Conservatives", The New York Times, June 1, 2003, p. N26.
- 208Ex-Presidents Join 9/11 Memorial EffortJosh Getlin — The Los Angeles Times
- 211NewsFord undergoes knee surgeryUnited Press International — April 4, 1990
- 213NewsHospitalized After Suffering a Stroke, Former President Ford Is Expected to Fully RecoverB. Drummond Jr. Ayres — August 3, 2000
- 216Former President Gerald Ford Released from HospitalOctober 16, 2006
- 218DeFrank T: Write It When I'm Gone, G. Putnam & Sons, New York, NY, 2007.
- 219NewsGerald Ford, 38th President, Dies at 93James M. Naughton et al. — December 27, 2006
- 220NewsBush and ex-presidents eulogize Gerald R. FordStout, David — January 2, 2007
- 221Lying in State or in HonorUS Architect of the Capitol (AOC)
- 222NewsFord Is Buried After Thousands in Hometown Pay RespectsMonica Davey — January 4, 2007
- 223Eagle Scout Welcome Gerald Ford HomeMark Ray — 2007
- 224NewsFord Arranged His Funeral to Reflect Himself and Drew in a Former AdversaryAnne E. Kornblut — December 29, 2006
- 225NewsFuneral: Marching Band Plays in His HonorJanuary 3, 2007
- 226NewsStatue of President Ford dedicated in CapitolMay 3, 2011
- 227BookGerald R. Ford "Healing the Nation"Phillip Jr. Kunhardt — Riverhead Books — 1999
- 228NewsA Common Man on an Uncommon ClimbAugust 19, 1976
- 229NewsThe 38th First Lady: Not a Robot At AllJane Howard — December 8, 1974
- 230Gerald Ford: Family LifeJohn Robert Greene — Miller Center of Public Affairs — October 4, 2016
- 231NewsGerald R. Ford 1913–2006Sons of the Revolution in the State of California — 2006
- 233Gerald FordUniversity of California – Santa Barbara
- 234Masonic Record of Gerald FordWayne Brady — December 31, 2006
- 236The Daily Diary of President Gerald R. FordDonna Larson — Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library — January 11, 1977
- 237The Brother PresidentWilliam McCraw et al. — Masons of California
- 238Gerald Ford, Betty's HusbandThe Phoenix Media/Communications Group
- 240NewsGerald R FordJanuary 21, 2009
- 242Differences in Policy between Nixon and Ford AdministrationsOffice of the Historian — October 22, 2007
- 243NewsSNL' returns with spotlight on prez impersonatorsCoyle Jake — CBS Interactive Inc. — September 12, 2008
- 244NewsChevy Chase recalls Ford as 'a terrific guy': 'SNL' comedian became famous in the 1970s portraying president as klutzToday.com — December 27, 2006
- 245MagazineA Briefing on the Eating of TamalesAdam Chandler — February 5, 2015
- 246NewsEating While Politicking Is Harder Than It's Ever Been. Here's Why.Lyz Lenz — September 3, 2022
- 247NewsFood Fails: The Presidential EditionJuly 26, 2016
- 248MagazineWhite House Couples That Have Been Portrayed on ScreenDiana Pearl — February 21, 2017
- 249MagazineAaron Eckhart to Play Gerald Ford in Showtime Series 'The First Lady'Joe Otterson — February 16, 2021
- 250Reinanzaka Scout ClubMay 23, 2014
- 251Old Tom Morris Award RecipientsGolf Course Superintendents Association of America
- 253Politicians Who Received the Medal of FreedomThe Political Graveyard
- 254Gerald FordJohn F. Kennedy Library Foundation — 2001
- 255Gerald R. Ford Middle School, Grand Rapids Public Schoolsgrpublicschools.org
- 257President Ford Field Service Council, Boy Scouts of Americamichiganscouting.org
- 258BookGerald R. FordDouglas Brinkley — Times Books — 2007
- 259BookTime and Chance: Gerald R. Ford's Appointment with HistoryJames Cannon — University of Michigan Press — 1993
- 260BookGerald R. Ford and the Politics of Post-Watergate AmericaGreenwood Press — 1992
- 261BookAmbition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. FordScott Kaufman — University Press of Kansas — 2017
- 262BookPresidential Perspectives from the National ArchivesGerald Ford — National Archives and Records Administration — 1994
- 263BookHumor and the PresidencyGerald Ford — Arbor House — 1987
- 264BookA Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. FordGerald Ford — Harper & Row — 1979
- 265Gerald Ford Presidential Autograph LettersShapell Manuscript Foundation
- 266BookSelected SpeechesGerald Ford — R. W. Beatty — 1973
- 267BookPortrait of the assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald)Gerald Ford — Simon & Schuster — 1965
- 268BookThe Times of My LifeBetty Ford — Harper & Row — 1978
- 269BookThe Ford Presidency: Twenty-Two Intimate Perspectives of Gerald FordUniversity Press of America — 1980