Gerald Ford

On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first president in all of American history - and to this day, the only president in all of American history - to resign. Nixon did not resign due to health issues or disinterest in the office. If anything, he resigned because he was too disinterested in the White House. His resignation was the pathetic and depressing result of his carnivorous and, eventually, self-cannibalizing need to remain in power. In 1972, Nixon was running for reelection against the Democrat George McGovern. On June 23, 1972, he ordered his staff to suppress an investigation into his reelection campaign ordering a raid of a DNC office in the Watergate complex where the goal was to bug phones and, in the process, spy on conversations exchanged by DNC officials in pursuit of damning information to use against McGovern. Following an order issued by the Supreme Court on July 24, 1974, Nixon released a collection of tapes secretly recorded in the White House from 1971 to 1974 on August 5 of that same year. In doing this, Nixon leaked the tape where he called for an end to the investigations into what is now infamously immortalized as the Watergate Scandal.

With this, Nixon realized that if he stayed in office, he would be removed from the presidency in a humiliating impeachment trial. So, on August 8, 1974, he announced that effective noon the next day, he would resign. After his resignation took effect, Gerald Ford became president of the United States of America. A little under a month after taking office, Ford pardoned Nixon for his role in the Watergate Scandal on September 8, 1974. The move was incredibly unpopular. Since Ford only became president following the resignation of Nixon's first vice president Spiro Agnew (who had been exposed for engaging in tax evasion and bribery he engaged in as governor of Maryland), many rumored that Nixon had struck a corrupt bargain with the future-President: He, Ford, would get to be president in exchange for granting Nixon clemency regarding his role in Watergate.

Although the rumors regarding a smoke-and-mirrors deal between Ford and Nixon were obviously untrue, the public was still right to oppose Nixon's pardon. Pardoning Nixon created a filthy precedent of presidents and other public officials being above the law. Think: Had Nixon not gotten away with something as comparatively minor as Watergate, would Ronald Reagan have assumed he could get away with the Iran-Contra Scandal, where he funded terrorists in Nicaragua and gave weapons to a theocracy? Would Donald Trump have thought he could get away with trying to overturn the 2020 election? Ford obviously cannot be held personally responsible for the actions of Reagan and Trump, but by letting Nixon get away with Watergate, Ford arguably made his successors more willing to engage in corruption and deception.

Many try to justify Ford's pardon of Nixon by saying that it avoided further damage to American democracy and the American population's morale. Had the Watergate trials dragged on with Nixon being indicted, people would be left depressed and appalled, unable to forget what they saw in the courtrooms. That is their argument. But if anything, dragging out the Watergate trials and showing images of Nixon being arrested and imprisoned would have been great for America. The American political system would have immensely benefitted from it. The fact that no one - not even the president of the United States - could avoid accountability for their actions would be burned into the popular memory. Rarely would politicians dare to participate in the obstruction of justice, illegal financial deals, or other forms of corruption.

Pardoning Nixon was Ford's biggest mistake, but not his only one. His economic policy was also very damaging and incompetent. During Nixon's presidency, Egypt and Israel became embroiled in the Yom Kippur War. Nixon and other Western leaders came to the aid of Israel, resulting in OPEC enacting a total oil embargo on the US and its major allies. This incident (known as the Oil Shock) was relatively brief, extending just from October 17, 1973, to March 18, 1974. However, it still had long-lasting effects. The Oil Shock dramatically decreased the amount of oil present in America, thus causing the average barrel price to massively expand. Coupled with a decrease in wheat caused by large Soviet purchases of the crop's American yield, this fact created an inflation crisis. This inflation was paired with rising unemployment, forming the stagflation of the 1970s.

Ford began looking for ways to resolve the stagflation issues. He decided to tackle inflation first. Despite being an economist who studied the field in college, Ford didn't seem to know exactly what to do. He proposed an anti-inflation strategy that would raise taxes and cut government employees' salaries. However, he was never able to pass any such legislation through Congress. Had he not been so forgiving toward Nixon's crimes against democracy, maybe the legislative branch would have trusted him more! He soon gave up on this pursuit and opted to address unemployment. Thinking he could resolve this through lower taxes, he requested such a bill from Congress. Congress obliged but made the selfish and childish move of increasing government spending in that exact same law. Many historians think that this was done solely to make Ford look bad. Ford had these suspicions even at the time, yet signed the bill anyway because he was scared that he'd be accused of not acting on the recession. The combination of lower taxes and higher spending resulted in an increase in the national debt. We would see a similar pattern under Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump.

By the end of his presidency, stagflation still had yet to be fully resolved and the economy was still suffering. Ford did make an admirable effort to make the US less reliant on foreign oil. He was understandably scared of repeats of the Oil Shock. To this end, he raised tariffs, which I consider a positive in general. However, he also deregulated the oil industry. Considering how, even when regulated and monitored by the government, oil drilling releases greenhouse gases that damage the environment, it was very irresponsible and short-sighted of Ford to loosen much-needed oil regulations. His ultimate goal was good and not all of his tactics were harmful, but enough of said tactics were harmful to where at least a portion of his actions here need to be counted against - rather than for - the Ford Administration.

Diplomacy was something that Ford faired much, much better than domestic policy. For instance, when troops affiliated with Pol Pot's Cambodia hijacked the USS Mayaguez, Ford successfully used the US military to liberate the ship. Ford also signed the Helsinki Accords on August 1, 1975. First proposed by Nikita Khrushchev, the Helsinki Accords sought to reduce Cold War tensions by giving the socialist and capitalist worlds a set of values to unite for. The Helsinki Accords required all signing countries to regularly meet with one another, to respect human rights, and to work with each other on economic, humanitarian, and scientific goals. Even domestic policy wasn't all bad for Ford. He set up a committee to prevent the CIA from illegally spying on American citizens. While not very successful in the long term, it was a great idea that Ford deserves credit for. My compliments for the Ford presidency run out here, however.

In 1974, a judge in Boston, Massachusetts, sought to help enforce the integration of public schools (as mandated by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education) through busing reform. White students who rode the bus, he explained, would be sent to previously all-black schools. It worked the other way around too, with black students who rode the bus being sent to previously all-white schools. The policy was incredibly controversial and sparked a violent racial conflict known as the Boston Busing Riots. In what was possibly worse than enabling corruption through his pardon of Nixon, Ford refused to intervene here on the side of the judge and his pro-integration efforts. Owing to his concern for states' rights (an admirable concern, but not one that is applicable here), Ford did nothing to mitigate the Boston Busing Riots and they existed in one form or another until 1988. That is a staggering 14 years.

Gerald Ford was a good person. He spent his post-presidency working with Jimmy Carter fighting for a more peaceful Middle East, better treatment of Palestinians, and improved conditions for Americans living at home. And I don't believe for a second that even one thing he did as president was malicious or callous. He was doing what he thought was right. He didn't exist as a bystander during the Boston Busing Crisis because he hated black people or integration. He did so because he loved the 10th Amendment and prioritized states' rights. He didn't deregulate the oil industry because he hated nature like some cartoon supervillain. He did so because he wanted America to be energy-independent. He didn't pardon Nixon because of a shady deal made without the knowledge of ordinary people or because he didn't see what was wrong with the Watergate Scandal. He did so because he wanted America to move on. But good intentions do not equate to good results. The Ford presidency is an excellent example of this: Ford entered the presidency with only good desires but left near exclusively bad imprints.