The Good
In a speech he gave to congress, Ford talked about the crime rate and how it affected every ones daily lives. He asked for 3 things from the federal government: leadership, stronger laws, and support for the state and local law enforcement.
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The Angola war in South Africa featured rebel troops, the Soviet Union, and Cuba. at this time the cold war was still raging and Ford kept us out of Angola. The war was over 26 years long and if not kept away from we could have either lost or fought til 2002.
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The Bad
One of the first things he did was pardon Richard Nixon. He felt that the scandal and trial took away from the actual problems in America. This upset a lot of Americans because they wanted Nixon to pay for what he had done and felt Ford was just being nice to him. This lost ford the reelection in 1976.
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These two women tried to assassinate Ford. Sara Moore (to the right) was a part of a radical group that thought that the Vietnam was cause for a violent overthrow. Lynette Fromm (left) was a part of the Manson family and had many previous charges and accusations from drugs to murder. |
Summary
To help out the American people Gerald ford tried to combat crime, kept us out of a war in Angola, and showed cooperation between political parties that was much needed in Washington D.C. Although he did all of these good things, the pardoning of Nixon was a complete misrepresentation of the American people. The fact that two people tried to assassinate him shows that he wasn't a very good representation of the United States.