2006-12-10 09:05:49 · 4 answers · asked by Anwar h 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
As Yank presidents go, he was one of the better ones I think.
I can only think of two cock-ups.
One was the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Vietnam.
The other was the "Mayageuz" incident when the troops he sent landed on the wrong island.
2006-12-10 09:11:21 · answer #1 · answered by the_lipsiot 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Watergate, even though he wasn't involved he still carried the baggage. Pardoning Richard Nixon left many Americans wondering if there had been prearranged deal.
The fall of Saigon disgraced American prestige.
The economy was in a recession. Unemployment was high. This probably did more than anything else to undermine Ford's presidency. I'm old enough to remember Ford's WIN (Whip Inflation Now) campaign. People were encouraged to wear WIN button and put WIN stickers on their cars. There was a common joke at the time that you better get your WIN buttons before the price went up.
Ford wasn't very media savvy. He was a Congressman from Michigan who never expected to be Speaker of the House, let alone President, when Nixon chose him to replace VP Agnew. He fell down on camera a couple times. When he debated Carter he came-off looking like a Washington insider up against a populist outsider.
2006-12-10 09:23:54 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
First, one of the first things he did was pardon Nixon for the Watergate scandal. It may have saved us from trying an ex-president, but it also caused us to believe he was hiding something, and that he was just part of politics as usual. Another major problem was runaway inflation. We had double-digit inflation, and his way of dealing with it seemed to be handing out WIN buttons (Whip Inflation Now). Also, he got a bad reputation because he was so accident prone. It was hard to take him seriously when we kept hearing about him accidentally hitting spectators when he played golf. Finally, some saw him as a caretaker president, since he had never been elected. As Speaker of the House, he became vice-president when Spiro Agnew resigned, and became president when Nixon resigned.
2006-12-11 00:51:23 · answer #3 · answered by cross-stitch kelly 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pardoning Richard Nixon
2006-12-10 09:12:37 · answer #4 · answered by goodbyewhite 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋