Presidency of Gerald Ford (Essay Sample)

Presidency of Gerald Ford
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Personal Background
Having served as the U.S.’ 38th president, Gerald Ford left a legacy, which will remain significant in the American history. In terms of his personal background, Ford was humbly born to Dorothy Gardner and Leslie King in Omaha, a city where his parents’ paternal grandparents lived. Leslie King was a renowned wool trader born to Martha King, and Charles King who was a prominent banker. Sixteen days following Ford’s birth, his mother separated from his father, and she took Ford to live with her sister in Illinois. After sometime, Dorothy went back home to live with her parents, and later divorced with King in early December 1913, when she obtained Ford’s full custody. The reason as to why Ford’s parents separated was gender violence of his father against his mother.
After 2.5 years of divorce in 1916, Dorothy married Ford’s stepfather, by name Gerald Rudolff Ford, whom Ford the president is named after. Nevertheless, Ford adopted his father’s name in the late 1935. He grew together with three of his half brothers (Thomas Ford, James Ford, and Richard Ford) in Dorothy’s second marriage. However, he also had other three half-siblings (Marjorie King, Patricia King, and Henry King) who were born in Rudolff Ford’s second marriage.
In his later life in 1948, Ford the renowned president married Elizabeth Warren at Episcopal Church. His wife was a fashion consultant, a former dancer and fashion model who was a divorcee before meeting him. In their marriage, they were blessed with four children namely Michael Gerald, Steven Meigs, John Gardner and Susan Elizabeth. During his engagement to Elizabeth Warren, Ford was actually campaigning for a position in the American House of the Representatives. In fact, their wedding was slightly, delayed until before elections took place.
Finally yet importantly, Ford loved scouting, golf and football. Actually, he once received the highly recognized ranks of an Eagle Scout and the Silver Buffallo Award in 1970. From the awards, Ford has remained the only American president with the rank of the Eagle Scout. In his high school, Ford also captained the school’s football team, and played center, as well as linebacker. Accordingly, Ford is known to have been a passionate golfer, and received various golf awards. Precisely, Ford was a true athlete who valued exercising throughout his entire life.
Professional Background
By contrast, Ford’s professional background is arguably traceable in his early days in his academic career. Research indicates that he attended the Grand Rapids South High School before being admitted in University of Michigan where he graduated with a B.A in economics. In order to cater for his college expenses, Ford joined Delta Kappa Epsilon organization where he washed dishes for a payment.
Immediately after graduation, he decided to turn down job offers from Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions in order to coach Yale University’s boxing club, and at the same time be an assistant football coach for the institution. Perhaps, this decision was driven by his need to join the Yale University to study law. However, he was initially, denied admission because of the huge responsibilities he held as a full-time coach. Later, in 1938, Ford received admission for the law program in Yale University, where he earned an LL.B. degree, and graduated in 1941 as one of the top-performing students.
Before graduating, Ford had introduced himself to politics in 1940 as he campaigned for Wendell Willkie. Actually, with the leadership of one of the law students in Yale by name Douglas Stuart, Ford and his student colleagues signed the petition of enforcing the renowned Neutrality Act passed in 1939, which lobbied for the U.S. to withdraw from the World War II (WWII). Shortly after graduating with the degree in law, Ford received an admission in Michigan bar, and in mid-1941, Philip Buchen and him opened a big Grand Rapids law firm.
In 1942, Ford enlisted in American Navy where he trained for one month in Annapolis’s V-5 instructor school. Subsequently, he joined Navy Preflight in North Carolina, and served as an instructor of navigation skills, gunnery, ordnance, military drill and first aid. He also coached various athletic teams such as football, boxing and swimming clubs. In recognition of his efforts, he received a promotion to become a Lieutenant Junior Grade and later a Lieutenant.
In 1943, Ford was instructed to pre-commission the detachment for USS Monterey (a new aircraft) in New Jersey. He thereafter served as an assistant navigator, antiaircraft battery executive, and athletic officer. In the navy, Ford received many other promotions such as the one of the Lieutenant Commander He also earned many medals, and joined various civic organizations such as American Legion, Jaycees and AMVETS. In 1946, Ford gave his formal resignation from Naval Reserve. Later, he ventured deeply in politics, which saw him become a president in 1974.
Path to White House
In his early political life, Ford served effectively as a Representative from the fifth congressional district in Michigan. Actually, for eight years, he was an influential Minority Leader in Republican Party. Consequently, as an avid republican, Ford received the appointment to become the U.S. Vice President under 25th Amendment terms. This appointment followed shortly after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, who was the Vice President up to late 1972. In the political history of U.S.’ Vice Presidents, Ford is number 40 although his was an appointed tenure rather than an elected one. The Vice Presidency of Ford lasted for one year from 1973, after which he received an appointment to the presidency in 1974.
Coincidental with the events following Ford’s appointment to the Vice Presidency, Ford’s presidential appointment followed shortly after Richard Nixon who was the 37th President resigned in mid-1974. Undoubtedly, this is a remarkable history for Ford for being the only person who held the Vice Presidency, as well as the Presidency without Electoral College’s election.
As the President, Gerald Ford is known to have signed Helsinki Accords, which marked the move toward the détente in Cold War. Actually, nine months after he became the President, North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam, leading to the end of Vietnam involvement. However, he presided over a worse economy after the popular Great Depression. During that period, inflation grew very high and a recession occurred. Accordingly, his first presidency tenure did not go without controversy, especially when he pardoned Richard Nixon in his role during Watergate Scandal.
In 1976, there was an election, in which Jimmy Carter who was the Democrat candidate challenged and defeated Ford even after he had defeated his Republican competitor by name Ronald Reagan. When his presidency ended on January 1977, Ford continued with his active membership in Republican Party. Nevertheless, he started experiencing age-related health challenges, which claimed his life in 2006 at 93 years of age. Apparently, this makes him the oldest lived U.S. president, even though he is the shortest U.S. President to have not died in tenure because he only served in Presidency for 895 days.
Accomplishments/ Failures as the President (Including domestic, foreign affair, as well as political)
During Ford’s tenure, there were certain developments that took place as recorded in the American history although many were marred with public controversies. One of the developments involves his streamlining of domestic policy. In the policy, Ford made commendable steps in improving the economy by creating the 1974 Economic Policy Board. Moreover, in order to address the rising inflation, he requested the public to whip the inflation. As per his instructions, people were to wear the WIN buttons to signify their commitment to win the war against inflation.
At that time, the inflation seemed a bigger economic threat than the rising unemployment. Actually, Ford focused on curbing inflation as another way of fixing unemployment. The WIN slogan thus called for all Americans to cut their spending, as well as consumption. In addition, he gave a very powerful speech on October 1974 to launch the WIN strategic campaign. Apart from advocating for reduced spending, Ford’s WIN strategic speech served to introduce the 5% increase in income tax on wealthy individuals and corporations. In the WIN strategy, the budget was to be reduced by $4.4 billion in order to bring down the federal spending to less than $300. Encouragingly, Ford’s WIN strategy helped in slightly reducing the inflation below the 12% rate recorded at that time.
Accordingly, the other aspect of domestic policy in which Ford achieved was the prevention of the Swine pandemic. The flu had crossed over from pigs to humans leading to the death of one army recruit and hospitalization of four soldiers in 1976. In order to prevent the fatal flu from spreading, Ford effectively worked with his administration to mount a vaccination program for all citizens. Nevertheless, in as much as some people commended Ford for his efforts to fight Swine flu, some people opposed the vaccination, and this lead to the cancellation of the program in December 1976. In fact, some reports blamed the vaccine for around 25 % deaths, claiming that the vaccination shots killed more people than swine flu did. Perhaps, this was one of the weaknesses that Ford administration may receive blame for from various critics, especially the democrats.
Moreover, Ford fought for the legal equality of all the men and women in the U.S. Actually, he was a very outspoken Equal Rights supporter and issued the presidential proc...