Ford, Gerald R. (1913–)

GERALD FORD HOLDS a unique position among American presidents because he is the only president never elected by the electoral process. When Spiro Agnew (1918) resigned as Vice President of the United States on October 19, 1973, after having been accused of taking bribes as governor of Maryland and after being indicted for income tax evasion, President Richard Nixon invoked a provision of the 25th Amendment that allowed the president to nominate a new vice president when the office was vacated.

The effectiveness of the Ford administration was threatened from the beginning by the aftermath[Page 329] of the Nixon Watergate scandal and the general political unrest of the times. The Ford Department of Justice (DOJ) was heavily involved in stemming the white-collar crime and government corruption ...