Ford, Gerald R. at English => English (The Britannica Concise) Of Explained:
38th president of the U.S. (1974-77). Born in Omaha, Neb., he was an infant when his parents divorced, and his mother later married Gerald R. Ford. He attended the Univ. of Michigan and Yale law school, and practiced law in Michigan after World War II. He served in the U.S. House of Representative 1948-73, becoming minority leader in 1965. After S. Agnew resigned as vice president in 1973, R. Nixon nominated Ford to fill the vacant post. When the Watergate scandal forced Nixon's departure, Ford became the first president who had not been elected to either the vice presidency or the presidency. A month later he pardoned Nixon; to counter widespread outrage, he voluntarily appeared before a House subcommittee to explain his action. His administration gradually lowered the high inflation rate it inherited. Ford's relations with the Democratic-controlled Congress were typified by his more than 50 vetoes, of which more than 40 were sustained. In the final days of the Vietnam War in 1975, he ordered an airlift of 237,000 anti-Communist Vietnamese refugees, most of whom came to the U.S. Reaction against Watergate contributed to his defeat by J. Carter in 1976.