Ford Administration

Fought in U.S. Navy during WWII

Congressman for 25 years

Became House Minority Leader in 1965

Nominated for VP

Appointed through 25th Amendment by Nixon following Spiro Agnew's resignation

Soviet Union

Detente continued to be pursued

Henry Kissinger retained as Sec. of State

Helsinki Accords

Ford and Brezhnev endorsed

Nations of Europe officially in favor of human rights

Ford wasn't as strict w human rights in order to further limit arms

SALT II

Arms control over human rights

Continuation of SALT I

Pledge to limit nuclear arms production

Southeast Asia

Khmer Rogue

Communist govt. of Cambodia

Launched massive genocide

1.5 million killed between 1975-79

No U.S. intervention

The Mayaguez

Khmer Rogue seized American merchant ship

Marines sent in to free ship

South Vietnam

Falls to North Vietnam

Fall of Saigon

Hundreds of thousands try to escape

Many had worked w/U.S.

Boat People

Many refugees used boats unfit for high seas

Largest mass migration by sea in modern human history

>1 million over 20 years

Fought storms, pirates, starvation

Hoped for refuge in nearby nations, many come to U.S. and Canada as well

Operation Babylift

Mass airborne evacuation of Vietnamese babies by U.S. govt.

Low point for public trust in govt.

Struggling economy (stagflation)

Nixon Pardon

Lost any confidence he had gathered

Attempt to move on as a nation

Ford accused of secret deal with Nixon

Nelson Rockefeller

Former Gov. of New York

VP for Ford Administration

Congressional Election of 1974

Republicans lose 48 seats in the House

Showed public disapproval of pardon and Watergate in general

WIN

W.hip I.nflation N.ow

Double digit inflation in '74 and early '75

Mostly voluntary plan to combat inflation

Huge failure

Factories close

Consumer demand for goods dropped sharply

Unemployment rose steadily

Intelligence Agencies Struggle

Questionable, sometimes illegal, domestic surveillance done since WWII

FBI, successive presidents, and CIA

CIA Secrets

Constant leaks

Best-selling exposes from former agents

Reporters work to reveal domestic spying operations

Ford's Role

Let slip that the CIA was involved in attempts to assassinate foreign leaders

Creates commission led by VP Rockefeller to look into domestic spying allegations

Committees from the House and Senate find "dirty tricks"

Drug-testing on unsuspecting suspects

Mail covers on private citizens

Efforts to destabilize foreign economies

Several bizarre plots to murder foreign leaders

Presidential Image

Good guy, Boy Scout

Trying to convince country of his ability

Tripping off helicopters and on ski slopes

Assassination attempts

Democratic Congress v. Ford Presidency

Oil Embargo

Ford aimed to raise price of domestic gasoline by boosting federal taxes and ending all price regulations

Attempt to force down consumption

Democrats felt that Ford's idea would accelerate inflation bc of raising gas prices, unfairly hurting low-income people, and giving oil companies windfall profits