Ford Becomes President 

When President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 over the controversy of the Watergate scandal, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency; this made him the only person to assume the presidency without having been previously voted into either the presidential or vice presidential office. Ford was appointed Vice President after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973. Immediately after taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech broadcast live to the nation. Ford noted the peculiarity of his position: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers."

As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, marking a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in Vietnam essentially ended. Domestically, Ford presided over arguably the weakest economy since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. During Ford's incumbency, foreign policy was characterized, in procedural terms, by the increased role Congress began to play and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president. In 1976, Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination but lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Domestic Policies 

The economy was a great concern during the Ford administration. One of the first acts the new president took to deal with the economy was to create the Economic Policy Board by Executive Order on September 30, 1974. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public in October 1974 and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now." As part of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons.

The federal budget ran a deficit every year Ford was President. Despite his reservations about how the program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children," according to the official White House press release for the bill signing.

Foreign Policy

Ford continued the détente policy with both the Soviet Union and China, easing the tensions of the Cold War. Still in place from the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's December 1975 return to the communist country. In 1975, the Administration entered into the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union, creating the framework of the Helsinki Watch, an independent non-governmental organization created to monitor compliance that later evolved into Human Rights Watch.

Pardoning Nixon

On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." When he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford also introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. Full pardon, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter Presidency.

The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men. They claimed Ford's pardon was granted in exchange for Nixon's resignation, which elevated Ford to the Presidency. Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the trust of the public and subsequently lost the election in 1976. Ford's first press secretary and close friend, Jerald Franklin Horst, resigned his post in protest after President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before Congress on October 17, 1974, to give sworn testimony—the only time a sitting president has done so— about the pardon.

After Ford lost the reelection and left the White House in 1977, intimates said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon. In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon of Nixon, but later stated that history had proved Ford to have made the correct decision.

Mr. and Mrs. Ford with Mr. and Mrs. Nixon 1973

Gerald and Betty Ford with the President and First Lady Pat Nixon after President Nixon nominated Ford to be Vice President, October 13, 1973.