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Wall Street History
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07/28/2006
Gerald Ford, Part I
In light of all the inflation talk the past six months or so,
particularly with the latest surge in oil prices and the Federal
Reserve’s moves on the monetary front, I thought we’d take a
brief look at the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, from an economic
standpoint, with the usual detour or two. You may want to get
out your WIN button Whip Inflation Now.
Ford was born Leslie L. King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, 1913. In
1915 his mother moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, following
the breakup of her marriage. She then married a paint salesman,
Gerald R. Ford, who adopted her son and gave him his name.
Young Jerry was a fine athlete and good student and he starred at
the University of Michigan on the gridiron before attending Yale
Law School, where he finished in the top third of his class. Ford
then served in the navy during World War II, where aside from
seeing extensive combat in the South Pacific, he survived a
typhoon on Dec. 18, 1944 that killed 800.
When he returned home, the ‘centrist’ Ford defeated a veteran
Republican congressman in the 1948 primary and won his seat
handily that fall. Gerald Ford then began working his way up the
ranks.
Congressman Ford was never known for his legislative acumen,
but his easy personality and his down-home honesty made him
many friends in the House. As Herbert S. Parmet writes in “The
Presidents”:
“Jerry Ford’s career had always exemplified the Sam Rayburn
dictum that ‘the best way to get along is to go along.’ As Charles
W. Colson told Seymour Hersh, ‘(Richard) Nixon knew that
Ford was a team player and understood how to work with a wink
and a nod.’ His rise had obviously had more to do with
availability than with ability. He was the perennial good guy, a
product of traditional American Midwestern conservatism. That
included all the exhortations upholding virtue, patriotism, and
individualism, as well as old prejudices against government
spending. Jerald terHorst, the newspaperman who became
Ford’s first presidential press secretary, has written that if Ford
‘saw a school kid in front of the White House who needed
clothing, he’d give him the shirt off of his back, literally. Then
he’d go right in the White House and veto a school-lunch bill.’”
Congressman Ford became minority leader in Jan. 1965, a big
step towards his long-time goal of becoming Speaker. But by
1970, with prospects looking grim due to the Democrats’ margin
in the House, he began to talk of retirement following the
congressional election of 1974. Then his life changed.
In the fall of 1973, as President Richard Nixon was fully
enmeshed in Watergate, winding down Vietnam, and dealing
with an Arab Oil Embargo that was threatening to throw the
nation into depression, Vice President Spiro Agnew faced a
scandal of his own, one involving bribery and tax fraud going
back to his days as governor of Maryland. Agnew resigned as
part of a deal with federal prosecutors and Nixon at first wanted
to designate his old buddy John Connally, the former Democratic
governor of Texas, who Nixon hoped would then succeed him in
1976.
But congressional Democrats warned Nixon that he faced a fight
in confirmation hearings because of the political overtones of the
choice so Nixon turned to House Minority Leader Gerald Ford,
who was himself a familiar national figure due to his many
appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows. Ford handily
won nomination, the first vice president to be selected under the
25th Amendment.
[Article XXV, Sec. 2: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office
of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice
President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority
vote of both Houses of Congress.]
Upon being selected by Nixon, Gerald Ford said “I am a Ford,
not a Lincoln,” an example of his self-effacing, unpretentious,
affable, open way. Former President Lyndon Johnson, though,
who had had to deal with Ford to get legislation passed, once told
an associate that Ford was “so dumb that he can’t walk and chew
gum at the same time.”
Ford, who was sworn in on Dec. 6, 1973, had been assured by
Nixon and his people that before he accepted the nomination, the
president wasn’t personally involved in the Watergate scandal or
cover-up. Ford initially didn’t believe he would ever assume the
most powerful position in the world. He soon realized, however,
that Watergate was going to spell the end for Nixon.
Richard Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. Gerald Ford was the
38th president of the United States.
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
President Ford went on to say in his initial remarks to the
American people:
“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your
president by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me as your
president with your prayers.”
And indeed, after all they had been through the previous year or
so, Americans took to Gerald Ford. He himself liked to boast he
had many rivals but no enemies. Coupled with First Lady Betty,
the nation saw in the Fords an ordinary American family and the
first Gallup poll gave the president a whopping 71 percent
approval rating, with just a 3(!) percent disapproval mark.
But it was clear to Gerald Ford and his staff that the issue of
pardoning Richard Nixon would dog him. At his first press
conference, reporters peppered him on the topic, with Helen
Thomas firing the first salvo. Did Ford agree with Nelson
Rockefeller, whom Ford had just nominated to be vice president,
that Nixon should have immunity from prosecution? Ford
answered by expressing the “hope that our former President, who
brought peace to millions, would find it for himself.” That same
press conference, towards the end, Ford didn’t rule out the
possibility of a pardon before a trial could take place. [“The
Presidents”]
History has shown that despite constant pressure from Nixon
associates, Gerald Ford did not cut a deal beforehand. It was
only after he had been in office a few weeks that he saw no other
solution to his own administration achieving its goals, telling
Henry Kissinger, “Henry, we’ve got to put this behind us.”
So on Sept. 8, 1974, following attendance at his regular Sunday
church service, Ford told the American people that he was
granting a “full, free, and absolute pardon for all offenses,”
adding the fate of Nixon was an “American tragedy (that) would
go on and on and on, or someone must write an end to it. I have
concluded that only I can do that.”
The New York Times echoed the sentiments of a vast majority in
the country; Ford’s act was “unconscionable,” and overnight his
poll numbers plunged, with Gallup showing his approval rating
going from 71 to 50 percent. White House press secretary Jerald
terHorst resigned as a matter of “conscience.” Ford’s credibility
was shot and the honeymoon was over. It was virtually
impossible to convince the public the pardon wasn’t part of some
secret deal, even though President Ford voluntarily testified
before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice in
October in an unprecedented move.
Ford took his case to the American people, revealing that while
the matter had been discussed with General Alexander Haig (the
holdover chief of staff) before Nixon resigned, no commitment
had been made.
“I want to assure you, members of this subcommittee, members
of Congress, and the American people, there was no deal, period,
under no circumstances,” as he pounded the table. “I wanted to
do all I could to shift our attentions from the pursuit of a fallen
President to the pursuit of the urgent needs of a rising nation.”
[“The Presidents”]
Nixon had already paid a large price, Ford went on, and his poor
health had been another consideration.
But as if this wasn’t enough, about the same time President Ford
was also announcing his amnesty program for Vietnam draft
evaders, one that Republican Senator Barry Goldwater said was a
“step that is like throwing mud in the faces of the millions of
men who had served this country,” while at the same time,
Nelson Rockefeller, hardly a darling of conservatives, was
having a rough time of it in his confirmation hearings to be vice
president as he was riddled with questions about conflicts of
interest involving his extensive wealth. [Rockefeller wasn’t
confirmed until December.]
Heading into the 1974 congressional elections, Republicans’
chances looked grim.
And on this note, we’ll pause. Some of you may be wondering,
hey, what did the above have to do with Wall Street History?
Well I had to set the stage, you understand. Keep that WIN
button on .we’ll get to the topic next time.
Sources:
“A History of the United States: Inventing America,” Pauline
Maier, Merritt Roe Smith, Alexander Keyssar, Daniel J. Kevles
“The Growth of the American Republic,” Samuel Eliot Morison,
Henry Steele Commager, William E. Leuchtenburg
“America: A Narrative History,” George Brown Tindall and
David E. Shi
“American Heritage: Illustrated History of the Presidents,” edited
by Michael Beschloss
“The Oxford Companion to United States History,” edited by
Paul S. Boyer
“The Presidents,” edited by Henry F. Graff
Wall Street History returns next week.
Brian Trumbore
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