The First Unelected President: Ford
1974-1976
How he became president
- a vote of Congress in August 1974 made Gerald Rudolph Ford the new President
- worse off, he was vice-president only because Spiro Agnew disgracefully resigned and Ford was selected as the new vice-pres.
- Ford pardon – Ford pardoned Nixon of all crimes he committed as a president; outraged Democrats; Ford claimed he wanted to end Nixon’s personal agony; created huge skepticism of Ford and is presidency
End of the Vietnam War
- the North Vietnamese plowed southward in early 1975; no American aid offered; quick defeat for the South Vietnamese
- American helicopters frantically evacuated and 140,000 South Vietnamese immediately immigrated to the U.S.
- America's cost in the war was ultimately $118 billion and 56,000 dead