AP U.S. History

Daniel Lee

Author's Bio

Yanek Mieczkowski is currently the associate professor of history in Dowling College. He is the chairman of the Dowling College History Department. In 1995 Mieczkowski earned his Ph.D. from the Columbia University. His main area of research is the twentieth century America, the American Presidency, and the US Presidential Elections. Mieczkowski has been a Reader for the Advanced Placement Exam in U.S. History and Educational Testing Service. He has also been Consultant for McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, and Pennsylvania Historical Society.

Monument to Human Discord

     "On August 9, 1974, Gerald and Betty Ford somberly accompanied Richard and Pat Nixon down the White House lawn, where the thirty-seventh president retreated to a private life."1 That day, Gary Seevers, a member of the Council of Economic Advisors, said Gerald Ford "was the saddest-looking man I've ever seen."2 Ford seemed to know the burden that he was going to inherit. During Ford's presidency he cleaned up the messes left from previous presidential administrations. Starting from the 1960's the average American was loosing trust in the United States government. Lyndon Johnson's and Richard Nixon's deceptive conduct of the Vietnam War led to deep mistrust in the presidency. Nixon further deteriorated public trust with the Watergate Scandal. By the late 1960's the post World War II economic boom started to slow down and in the 1970's then it had ended. Labor productivity slumped, and manufacturing employed a declining share of workers, resulting in deindustrialization. This, along with other factors, led to the Great Inflation of the 1970's. At the same time the United States gave aid to Israel in the Arab Israeli War, the Arabs responded with a total oil embargo against America. The embargo reduced the oil supply by two million barrels daily, resulting in an energy crisis in the United States. Gerald Ford saw these problems as the greatest of his presidency. After almost a year as chief executive, Gerald Ford cited three goals that he had set for his administration: reducing inflation and unemployment, restoring public confidence in the White House, and redressing the country's energy crisis. These problems became the themes and challenges of the Ford presidency and the 1970's.
     By 1974, a series of presidential tragedies has blinded American's political sensibilities. John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, Lyndon Johnson led the United States into a brutal war in Vietnam, and Nixon prolonged the war. In 1974, feeling betrayed by their president because of Watergate, Americans hungered for new national heroes. Gerald Ford was the type of person that the Americans wanted and a person that they needed. After taking the oath of the presidency in August 9, 1974, Ford reassured the nation, "I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government, but civilization itself," and pledged, "In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end."3 These are the words that the American people wanted and needed to hear. One of the first thing that Ford did as president was repair damaged relations in many areas and especially with the media. Nixon despised and hated the press. Ford restored the practice of inviting reporters to the White House as guests and established a great relationship between the executive power and the media. The distrust of government was one of the greatest challenges that the nation faced during the 1970's. Within the first couple months of his presidency Ford did something that would further increase the distrust of government and would also ruin his good image as president that he built up in at the beginning of his term as executive. Ford decided to pardon Nixon. Although his idea was rejected by many, he believed that on the long run pardoning Nixon was the right choice. However, Ford's good relations with Congress were disrupted by the reality of politics. Even if the Nixon pardon did not destroy Ford's popularity, the 1974 midterm election would. The Ninety-fourth Congress ended up with a Democratic majority. Since Ford had not campaigned for his presidency he avoided proposing new programs. During Ford's presidency one of his challenges was he had to compromise while preserving essential elements of his proposal.
     There were only two decades in the twentieth century that Americans ended the decade poorer than when they had started it. One was the 1930's when the Great Depression hit and the other was in the 1970's when America was in the Great Inflation. While deflation usually followed the previous wars, the opposite effect happened after the Vietnam War. In President Ford's view, "high federal spending was a root cause of inflation."4 Ford believed that spending more money requires collecting more money. Unconcerned with the long term effect on the economy, the government and civilians bid against each other for goods and services in the free market, leading to the economy overheat, and resulting in inflation. Most economists exclaimed that the oil shock was the major cause of the Great Inflation. As inflation eroded the value of Americans' money, Americans' confidence and spending decisions crumbled. When people are less secure about their future, they postpone purchase. Because personal income did not keep up with the rise in price, purchasing power of people fell. During his presidency, Ford called inflation the nation's number one domestic enemy, declaring that, "If we take care of inflation¡I think most of our domestic programs or problems will be solved."5 Ford and his advisers were more preoccupied with inflation than unemployment, as the former affects the latter, and promotes an economic malaise. The unemployment rate was just as bad. By August 1974 the jobless rate had hit 5.4 percent and was even forecasted to rise more than 6 percent, which would signal the onset of a recession. Ford's anti-inflation proposal consists of government spending limit and increase in investment tax credit. Ford's program was a failure and considered a political time bomb. Many Democrats rejected Ford's anti-inflation surtax arguing that it targeted the wrong enemy. The economy needed a program that dealt with both recession and inflation. Ford's "Whip Inflation Now" (WIN) program to fight inflation also ended in failure. In late 1974, with both the surtax and WIN both dead, the Ford administration began considering an anti recession program. Tax cut emerged as the best policy to fight recession. It would avoid government pump priming, provide consumers with more money to spend, and provide a quicker jolt to the economy. In 1975 Ford delivered his State of the Union address. He explained his plan to fight unemployment; he described a $16 billion tax cut proposal and promised to return quickly to the economy the new revenues from energy conservation taxes and to bring the total of returned taxes to $46 billion. The House found the tax cut legislation agreeable, and it proved effective in curing both recession and inflation.
     Most Americans believe that the energy crisis began with the Arab oil embargo, but in reality, the problem was built up over time. Many factors contributed to the problem, including a system of price controls the Nixon administration imposed during the early 1970's. Controls distorted the oil market. The federal government defied a basic economic principle- suppliers feel less encouraged to produce goods when the price of goods decreases, and consumers use more of it, it will result in inflation. In 1973, when United States provided Israel with military weapons and parts, the Arabs responded with a total oil embargo on the United States. Congress stated that energy may become the "Achilles heel" of the United States. 6 The United States was addicted to foreign oil. Ford recommended a decontrol oil to fight the energy crisis. Ford and Employer Resource Control proposed a $2.30 increase a barrel, and this increase would reduce demand by 850,000 barrels a day. The ERC also recommended an excise tax and an import tariff of $2, which would discourage consumption enough to realize an additional savings of 600,000 barrels a day by the end of 1977. Ford unveiled his proposal in his State of the Union speech, but his proposal was denied by the Congress. Ford was angry at Congress not coming up with an energy proposal quickly enough to serve the people. Due to Ford's actions in decontrolling oil from stripper wells as well as residual fuels, domestic oil production decline was slowed, which represented a small step towards victory.
     The struggle between the White House and Capitol Hill over foreign policy became a theme of Ford's presidency. One of the first foreign policies that Ford and Congress had conflicted over was Turkey's invasion on Cyprus. Congress asserted, "Cyprus is not American responsibility", but White House claimed that, "If they do not act Soviet Union will use the crisis to embarrass the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."7 Congress could neither form a consensus nor act quickly in this foreign crisis, which shows that foreign policy is an area in which Congress clearly cannot provide the lead. As a president Ford wanted to improve relations with other nations, and became the first American president to visit the critical ally, Japan. In 1976, Reagan started challenging Ford. Although Reagan lost the battle for the 1976 nomination, he in effect won the presidency in 1980. In the TV debates of the 1976 election, Ford lost to Jimmy Carter; thus later on, loosing the presidency as well. As Ford left office, Ford's economic stewardship seemed solid. The recovering economy made Americans more appreciative of Ford's leadership. By 1979, a poll showed that voters would elect Ford over Carter 51 to 42 percent. Unlike his predecessors, Ford left both the economy and his party in better shape than when he took office.
     In the book Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970's by Yanek Mieczkowski, was a book about Ford and what he did in his two and a half years of presidency. In Yanek's book, he stressed three main topics in Gerald Ford's presidency: public distrust in the presidency,recession and inflation in the United States, and the energy crisis and how Gerald Ford dealt with the problem. These three problems are stressed through out the book and they are also the great challenges of the 1970's.
     In a review by David Veenstra, from the Michigan Historical Review, Ford's presidency is viewed as weak and ineffective. Gerald Ford never appealed to the nation that he was firmly in charge or strongly determined to lead a nation toward any specific objectives or goals. After reading the book Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970's David Veenstra changed his mind. He concluded that Ford had clear priorities and a guiding philosophy: He wanted to "contain inflation, establish policies for sustained economic growth, calm the country after Watergate, repair relations with Capitol Hill, revitalize the Republican Party, and restore the nation's leadership role in the world." 8He concluded that Ford "gave the nation a presidency that, while not spectacular, was steady."8 Veenstra claims that Mieczkowski did extensive research on Gerald Ford and that he captures almost every aspect of Ford from Ford's foreign policy and leadership style to Ford's responses to United States' economic and energy problem during the 1970's. In the end, Veenstra concludes that the book adds a great deal to one's understanding of Ford's priorities and guiding philosophy for the nation's domestic and international policies. Veenstra strongly recommends this book and thinks it is useful to academic libraries as well as students.
     Another review by Nancy Baker called White House Studies claims that Gerald Ford's presidency was worth reexamining for two reasons. The first reason is that Ford was not an inept president, but out of his depth, may recall him to be one. The second reason is because "it reveals about the difficulty of exercising the responsibilities of the Oval Office when Congress". 10 Mieczkowski writes this book to stress three critical national challenges of in the time: double digit inflation, energy crisis, and the public trust in the presidency. Baker claim a strength in the book is that it "situates the Ford presidency" in the times, so the book also served as a cultural history of the mid 1970's.10 Baker also claims that Mieczkowski ignored one critical area in the book. He left out Gerald Ford's appointments of John Paul Stevens as an associate justice of the Supreme Court and Edward Levi to be attorney general, which helped rebuild the public trust in the American government. However, she concludes that this is a good book that adds knowledge of this president and his time.
     After reading the book by Mieczkowski, it gave the impression that Ford was too kind as a president. Ford kindness during the countries' hard time "made America seemed weak". 11 This book by Mieczkowski was well written and researched. Mieczkowski tried to rescue Ford's reputation and portray Ford as a man of integrity. The book is not only a political biography of Gerald Ford, it was also history of policies during the 1970's, and it also deals with the challenges and problems of the 1970's. This book by Mieczkowski succeeds as a political biography of Ford and it also successfully shows the challenges of 1970's and how Ford endured them.
     As a president in such a trouble time, the task of leadership in the 1970's was "trying". 11 Throughout Ford's presidency he saw inflation as the nation's greatest danger, yet his anti inflation program started off slowly. Congress rejected his proposed surtax and his WIN program, embarrassing Ford. In the end, Ford not only controlled inflation but also lowered unemployment in the United States. Ford, in proposing a decontrol in the United States, helped the country in the time of the great energy crisis. Ford had great difficulty carrying out his plan of decontrolling. Decontrol meant dispelling concerns over inflation and persuading a reluctant Congress to follow him. Ford was a long term president; he time in office was a brief 895 days. During his presidency, Ford focused on the long term. He believed that a true statesman should anticipate the concerns of later generation. He believed in suffering now and enjoying later. Ford's achievement was slow and steady, and this reflected his leadership style. His successes went passed unnoticed during his time in office. His fighting inflation or tax cut to cure recession proved to be effective. His policies in oil decontrol, deregulation, and concerns over other deficits attracted attention and led to action after he had left office. The challenges of the 1970's were daunting, and Ford struggled and tried his best to bring them under control. In the end, he left a lighter burden for the future country to bear.
     America in the seventies faced a hard time. During the seventies people in the United States faced many great problems. Three of the more major problem was the American citizens' distrust in national government, nation's energy crisis, and the double digit inflation and recession. During this hard time Ford emerged and proved himself as a great president.

Endnotes

1. Mieczkowski, Yanek. Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s. 663 South Limestone Street: Kentucky Press, 24 2. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 24. 3. Mieczkowski, Yanek 14. 4. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 98. 5. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 162. 6. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 267. 7. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 304 8. Veenstra, David W. "Yanek Mieczkowski. Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s.(Book review)." Michigan Historical Review 32.1 (Spring 2006): 137(2). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. UC Irvine. 3 June 2007 . 9. Baker, Nancy V. "Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s.(Book review)." White House Studies 6.3 (Summer 2006): 332(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale. UC Irvine. 3 June 2007 . 10. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 356. 11. Mieczkowski, Yanek. 354.