In 1974 history was made, as Gerald Ford became President of the United States. His presidency was so historic because he is the only president to take office without having been elected president or vice president. President Ford took the presidential office after Richard Nixon resigned, for fear of congressional impeachment in consequence to the Watergate Scandal. Based on the circumstances Gerald Ford had taken over in, a plummeting United States economy, citizens losing trust in their elected officials, and facing the impending collapse of an ally, President Ford actually accomplished a lot for the country. He took over in a time when congress was controlled by the Democrats, yet he was still able to get bills passed. Many people have …show more content…
mixed reviews about Gerald Ford, most of which not necessarily his fault, but more of what had already taken place, however, he had made some pretty obvious mistakes, that will be explained later in the paper. Overall, President Ford took over in a time of struggle for the United States and he was still able to do some good, but his success falls in the shadows of the burdens Nixon had left behind. Gerald Ford excelled both athletically and scholarly throughout the earlier years of his life. His excellence in the classroom and on the football field is what clasped him a spot in his high school’s honor society, a group for future leaders (“Gerald R. Ford Biography”). After high school, Ford attended the University of Michigan. At the univer he was a three year letterman for football, helped win two national championship, and was voted the Wolverine’s most valuable player, his senior year. His success in collegiate football earned him offers to play for the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers (“Ford Facts”). The young Gerald Ford declined both offers, deciding to become the assistant-varsity football coach and the boxing coach at Yale University. His coaching jobs helped him get accepted into law school at Yale, where he graduated in the top 25% of his class (“Gerald R. Ford Biography”). Gerald Ford’s first taste of the political world came in the 1940 election when he helped campaign for Wendell Willkie.
Even though the campaign failed, Ford became hooked on politics. Shortly after the campaign ended he joined the “Home Front,” a group of Republican Reformers located in Grand Rapid. His political career was put on hold after the attack on Pearl Harbor motivated him to join the Navy. In 1942, he was called to duty, he served four years, some of which were spent as an officer aboard the Monterey, an aircraft carrier (“Gerald Ford | Miller Center”). Gerald Ford served thirteen terms in congress, starting in 1948 at the age of thirty-five. During his time as a congressman, Ford served some time on the; House Appropriations Committee, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, NASA Oversight Committee, CIA and Intelligence Oversight Committee, and the Warren Commission, a group of individuals selected by President Johnson, dedicated to the investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination. Congressman Ford’s biggest accomplishment in the House of Representatives was becoming the minority leader of the house. Under his rule, the House Republicans increased in numbers, but they were never able to gain the majority. In 1973, under unusual circumstances, Gerald Ford was appointed vice president (“Gerald R. Ford …show more content…
Biography”). Gerald Ford’s path to presidency was unique, having been the only president not elected president or vice president.
After President Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign after being caught accepting bribes. A replacement needed to be found promptly, President Nixon chose Gerald Ford because Ford had been a major advocate for him during the elections and because Ford was one of the few people both the House and Senate were guaranteed to approve of. On August 9, 1974, after only having served nine months as vice president, Gerald Ford took over Presidency, a day after Richard Nixon resigned to avoid being impeached for the Watergate Scandal. In 1976, Ford beat Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, allowing him to run for re-election. Ford chose Senator Robert Dole as his running mate and campaigned with the same platform from his presidency. He promised an improved economy, better foreign relations, and to keep the United States as an image of world power. Ford narrowly lost the election to a “Washington outsider,” named Jimmy Carter. Ford fell short in the electoral vote, receiving only 240 to Carter’s 297, Carter also had over 1.5 million more popular votes than Ford. Ford’s loss in the 1976 election can be accredited to two major things, his pardon of former president Richard Nixon, and a troubled economy. The pardoning of his predecessor angered many Americans and led to conspiracy theories about a deal between the two. However, the poor
economic condition were wrongly blamed on Ford, since he had actually been making economic improvements (“Gerald R. Ford Biography”). President Ford, as well as Richard Nixon, was a Republican, meaning after Nixon resigned Ford adopted his platform and policies. At the time of Nixon’s election, the Republican platform revolved around fixing problems both on the national and international levels. The Republican’s economic policies focused on fixing the failing economy through cutting
Ford’s political life began in 1917 when he announced his intention to seek election as a senator for the state of Michigan. Once his campaign began, the state’s majority appeared to favor Ford. This voter popularity was gained largely after Ford revealed his life story - the son of a simple farmer; he overcame many obstacles rising to the status of a multimillionaire business person and potential Michigan senator. Many voters also admired Ford for his engineering feats, his notably low costing automobiles, and the high salaries that he paid his employees. Running as a peace candidate and not claiming affiliation to a political party, Ford placed his name on both republican and democratic primary ballots. All of the democratic candidates withdrew from the primary race, securing the nomination for Henry Ford, while Truman H. Newberry would eventually win the republican nomination.
Every four years there is an election to elect a new President of the United States. In some cases, if a President is well liked, they may be reelected to serve another term; but may only be in office for two consecutive terms (8 years). One of the few Presidents that held off a total of 8 years was President Ronald Reagan. He was the 40th President to be sworn into office, and at the time was the oldest to ever serve this country. When Reagan took office in 1980, he had many hopes and dreams to turn America into a great nation, and get America back on track. He fulfilled his goals and dreams for America and is highly regarded still to this day. He left office with great shoes to fill, and is looked back on as a great American leader. During his two terms as president, Reagan has had many major accomplishments/events while in office, such as signing of the Economic Recovery Tax Act, the Iran-Contra scandal, and aiding the United States in winning the cold war.
He initially ran for Congress in 1948 and remained a member of the House until becoming the Vice President in 1973. He served on the House Appropriations Committee, which decides how much money is going to be spent for what, after only his 2nd year of being a member. With this, he learned all of the ins and outs of the government: how it works and what works and what doesn’t work. Ford was also a supporter of the Marshall Plan and several other anti-communist initiatives. More importantly, he was a member of the Warren Commission as well, which investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Not to forget, he also became the House Minority leader in 1965.
Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Despite an attack of poliomyelitis, which paralyzed his legs in 1921, he was a charismatic optimist whose confidence helped sustain the American people during the strains of economic crisis and world war.
After the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt inherited a growing empire when he took office in 1901. The U.S. had annexed Hawaii in 1898 and Spanish-American War granted the U.S. control of the Philippines. It also led the U.S. to establish a protectorate over Cuba and grant territorial status for Puerto Rico. By taking on the Philippine Islands as an American colony after the Spanish-American War he had ended the U.S.'s isolation from international politics. Theodore Roosevelt believed that nations should pursue a strenuous life and do their part to maintain peace and order. It was also a belief that civilized nations had the duty of modernizing the barbarous ones. He also pushed for a bigger army and navy and by the end of his presidency he had built the U.S. Navy into a major force at sea.
He was totally obscure on the national stage. In the consequence of Nixon's Watergate outrage, be that as it may, this turned into preference. It additionally helped Carter that the disrespected Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew were supplanted on the republican ticket by Gerald Ford, a political insider with no moxy and an uncanny talent for tumbling down stairs on camera. In spite of a less than ideal meeting in Playboy magazine, which dove his rating in the surveys, Carter squeaked out a tight
On January 20, 1969 our 37th president, Richard Milhous Nixon, was sworn into Presidency. His main focus as president was to pull forces out of Vietnam in order to end the War that began in 1961. Nixon began this process by pulling 75,000 troops out of Vietnam in the first year he was president. Nixon also worked to improve US relations with China as well as with the Soviet Union. He was the first president to visit China. He also imposed a wage price freeze to combat inflation that was replaced by a system of wage price controls, to be later removed. Nixon?s term as President will forever be remembered due to his resignation from presidency over the Watergate scandal.
After graduating from Duke University, Nixon joined the navy during World War II. After returning from the war, Nixon jumped right into politics. He answered a Republican Party call in the newspaper. They were looking for someone to run against the five-term Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis. John Ehrlichman once said of Richard Nixon, “He is like a race horse specially trained to run a particular race and no good for pulling wagons.
The 1970's was a difficult time period in American history filled with chaos, domestic and international crises, and very poor presidential leadership. Richard Nixon was president during the early years of the seventies and he was far from popular in the eyes of the American people. With inflation rapidly rising, Nixon soon became unfavorable, and with the controversy surrounding his actions concerning the Watergate Crisis, he was impeached and forced to resign. His Vice President, Gerald R. Ford, soon took his place in the White House. However, Ford was unable to handle the crippling events taking place in the United States; his approval dropped drastically within months, and like Nixon he lost support of the American people. When the 1976 presidential election came around, the American people needed a new hero whom they could trust and who could pull the nation out of its current state of misery. To fill this position, American chose to elect James Earl Carter, Jr., Governor from Georgia. Jimmy Carter began his presidency in the bright glow of public support built on his promise of bringing honesty and morality back to politics; but unable to successfully deal with conflicts beyond his control concerning domestic and foreign affairs, his term as President ended behind a dark cloud of public disapproval.
Gerald Ford was the 38th president of the United States of America. He became president right after Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. This was not an expected time to have a new president. Ford said, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances … This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts (thewhitehouse.gov pg. 1).” While Ford had not planned to be a president, he still did great tasks, served 25 years in Congress, and he did his best.
In 1976 Jimmy Carter, a small peanut farmer from Georgia, was elected the President of the United States. Carter had limited experience in the National Political Arena. He used his inexperience to his advantage and promised to restore honesty and morality to the government. After the corruption that the United States had seen within the previous administrations of Nixon and Ford, Carter was welcomed with open arms. During his presidency, Carter was faced with a plethora of domestic and foreign issues.
Brinkley, Douglas. The wilderness warrior : Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for America. New York : HarperCollins, 2009.
In conclusion, President Jimmy Carter did not get re-elected for a second term. However, the President accomplished some very important things during his admistration. He is remembered for his peace agreement between Israel and Egypt and his improvement to human rights. Some controversal decisions like to boycott 1980 Olympics, and the return of the Panama Canal to Panama, earned the President of lot of backlash and ridicule. The poor economy, and the hostage crisis also contributed to President Carter's defeat by President Ronald Reagan in 1980.
John Ford John Ford was an American motion picture director. Winner of four Academy Awards, and is known as one of America’s great film directors. He began his career in the film industry around 1913. According to Ellis, Ford’s style is evident in both the themes he is drawn toward and the visual treatment of those themes, in his direction of the camera and in what’s in front of it. Although he began his career in the silent film area and continued to work fruitfully for decades after the thirties, Ford reached creative maturity in the thirties.
In 1862, President Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee and with this position he used the state as a laboratory for reconstruction. In 1864, the Republicans, contending that their National Union Party was for all loyal men, nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President.