Begin his career as an attorney. We are at the gerald r. Ford Residential Museum in grand rapids, michigan. We are in the gallery where he is beginning his professional career. It is not especially clear even to him, because at the same time that he is establishing hislop thehis law practice he is , applying to become a field agent for the f. B. I. He wants to be a gman. He is writing letters and toward the end of 1941, trying to figure out what the status of his application is. As he is in grand rapids in 1941, he finds himself, along with america, caught up with world affairs, when the japanese bomb pearl harbor. Quickly thereafter, he shifts his attention to the navy. He wants to become a naval officer. He sends in his application to be commissioned as an officer in the navy. By april, 1942, he has joined the navy. He is commissioned as an infant the mesh incent. He is sent to annapolis where he goes through an officer Training Program then in North Carolina as an athletic officer training pilots in physical activity. He grows bored with that very quickly. Almost as quickly as he is down there, he is writing letters to people he knows in washington dc d. C. He ison, fortunate to find a person who can help him. He gets assigned to an Aircraft Carrier that is being built. Rey. Uss monter ford is responsible for putting the sailors through calisthenics. He is the athletic officer aboard the ship. He wears a number of different hats. One is he is also the gunnery officer. He has a responsibility for gun crews on the aft end of the ship. They get to the pacific in late 1943. And almost immediately are thrown into action against the gilbert islands. And he will be involved in action against the japanese in the gilberts and the marshall islands, along the philippine coast. The ship will earn eight battle stars. And ford along with the ship. A few months after he joins an , opportunity arises for him to become the assistant navigator. He has earned a reputation as a solid officer and he is given that responsibility by the captain. He is named navigator, which means that he moves from the fan tale of the ship up to the command bridge of the ship. His general quarter station is now on the ships tower on the command ridge as the officer of the deck. He stands alongside the captain and navigator of the ship. Words now inown , the center of the action. He spends as much time in combat in the pacific with this ship as any other world war ii president we have. As i said, he earns eight battle stars. They are in a number of engagements. They are supporting macarthurs landing in the philippines. It is during that activity in december of 1944 where he comes very close to losing his life. Not to the japanese, but to a typhoon. The ship is caught up in a typhoon and he is almost washed overboard. He is able to recover himself by the thinnest of means, his foot catches a rail along the side as he is sliding on the deck. He is able to throw himself onto a catwalk and then gather himself and make his way to his generalrter quarters station. As the ship is burning it has to , return to the port to fix the damage. On christmas day, 1944, he is detached from the ship and is sent to the states where he becomes an athletic officer again training pilots in chicago in the Naval Training center north of chicago. It is there that he ends his naval career. He leaves the navy in 1946 and he returns to grand rapids. Professionalis career there. He is involved in a number of civic activities. His name is well known in grand rapids. His father is involved in the republican party. And he then, having been bitten by the political bug long ago having worked in wendell wilkies 1940 cap name, turns campaign, turns his attention to politics. He joins a law firm that gives him permission to pursue his political interest. This involves challenging the sitting congressman, who is an isolationist. But gerald ford has left his isolationism behind with the war. He has become an internationalist. It is going to be this largely that is the separating point between him and the other candidate. Ford, not wanting to draw attention to himself that but being ambitious, approaches Civic Leaders and asks them about challenging him. Each one of them says i am not interested in doing that. But if you are interested we , would probably support you. He gathers support even as he is trying to enlist other people to do the job that he wants. With their support and with the support of the grand rapids press, he throws his hat into the ring, challenges him, and beats him in the primaries. In grand rapids, if you win the republican riemer, that is the hardest job. As gerald ford is campaigning for congress in 1948, he met a woman by the name of betty blumer warren. He has become interested and they become an item. Betty was a native of grand rapids. She grew up in an upper middle class home, attended central high. There is a fiveyear difference between gerald and betty. She was born in 1918. She knew of gerald ford, the High School Star athlete growing up, but she never met him before. They did not meet each other until 1947. They were introduced at a party. She was working as a Fashion Designer for a Department Store, one of the Big Department stores in downtown grand rapids. She started there as a model. She modeled addresses in what wherealled the tea room andn would come to have tea young women would model dresses for the older women. She was one of those models and she studied in vermont and new york for modern dance. She then had come back to grand rapids, married a salesman by the name of bill warren. And now in 1947, shes in the midst of securing a divorce from mr. Warren. She is introduced to gerald ford at a party, and he is quite interested. That evening after the party he calls her up and invites her out for a drink. Shes kind of angry about that because she is working on an ad campaign for her Department Store so she has homework to do. Also, she chides him. You are an attorney and you know better than to call me up because i am in the middle of a divorce. He said dont worry about it, i know a place that is out of the way and we can go and have a private drink. He persuades her to do that. From that moment, they become something of an item. Gerald and betty are married in october, 1948. It was an announcement that was put off for a while because he was running for congress. He didnt want to get married until october because he wanted to handle the primary. As soon as they are married, he wins the election and they are off to establish a home in washington. By 1950, they had their first child, michael. Then jack and steve. By 1957, susan has arrived. By 1957 they have four children , at home as ford is moving up in the leadership ranks with increasing responsibility on capitol hill. The kids recall that when their dad was home, that he set the briefcase aside and he was a dad to them. He took them fishing, teaches the boys how to use the lawnmower and do things around the house, takes Family Vacations with them. They go on skiing trips, and back to grand rapids, they have the grandparents there in washington on occasion. In many respects, it is a typical middleclass experience, except that their dad increasingly has building responsibilities on capitol hill. This is his congressional desk from early in his career. The items on top of that are original to his Congressional Office. The desk itself was the congressional desk he used in his grand rapids office. It is much the same as the one he would have used in his Congressional Office in washington, d. C. , because they were made by the same company. Gerald ford as a congressman enters congress in 1949, launching up on this new career. His ambition became not for the presidency, but he wanted to become the speaker of the house. An office he never was never able to attain. However, he has a fascinating career. Congress, beginning in 1949 in postwar america. Some of those critical moments of postwar america he is right there at the cutting edge of them. He is introduced to president truman because in his first congressional term, he is on the public works committee. He oversees the maintenance of federal buildings. One of those buildings is the white house. The white house is crumbling around president truman. Congressman ford overseas a lot of the reconstruction of the white house during the truman administration. Truman is also trying to build a cold war strategy. A strategy for fighting the soviet union. Gerald ford is involved in that, this internationalist congressman from grand rapids gains an important seat on the appropriations committee. In time he oversees the armys , budget. So, he is involved in the cold war strategy. As he travels from base to base around the globe, looking at american interests and Army Installations around europe and southeast asia. Ford was a republican on capitol hill. He is engaged in partisan struggle. He is interested in republican policies. Just as the democrats are interested in democratic policies. You have to find a way to Work Together on capitol hill. And ford quickly earned a reputation as somebody who could work with both sides of the aisle. There were times when he challenged his Republican Leadership and he worked with democrats. And there were times when he pulled democrats into what were republican issues, to further legislation on the hill. He earned a reputation even as as he pursued partisan politics in a leadership position as being able to work with others in the democrat party. That came to a head in 1964. Following the assassination of president kennedy. President johnson pulled together a commission to investigate the assassination of president kennedy which would take the name of the warren commission, named after the chief justice of the supreme court. Lyndon johnson reached into the congressional pool and plucked two members of congress to sit on the commission. Two members of the house of representatives. One was gerald ford. It was largely because he had that reputation of being able to Work Together with people of differing ideas, to reach reasonable conclusions. He became one of the seven warren commissioners. After he completes his commissions work, he and another man by the name of jack stiles worked on a book called a portrait of the assassin. He believed firmly in the commissions finding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. There was no evidence brought to the commission that would refute that finding. He remained open to other evidence that might prove otherwise, that might counter that contention. But during his lifetime, he never saw any that could show that it was Lee Harvey Oswald alone who acted as the assassin of president kennedy. Congressman ford is earning a reputation through hard work. Not a piece of legislation that he is known for. He is known for being able to move legislation, to craft the coalitions necessary to get legislation passed. Its that reputation that moves him forward in conversations about leadership. Mounts a campaign and by a narrow margin is able to defeat him and become the minority leader. He wants this to become a majority party. In 1966, he makes strides in doing that on capitol hill. But he is never able to gain a majority of republicans on capitol hill. He is locked in the minority position. The republicans cannot find a way to build a National Majority position on capitol hill that would have secured for ford his ambition to become speaker of the house. Other things were to intervene, however. Thet of that happened with election of one of his friends, Richard Nixon, in 1968. Richard nixon has selected as his running mate the governor of maryland, spiro agnew. They are reelected in 1972 in a landslide election. While it is a landslide for the executive branch, it barely moves the needle for the republicans on capitol hill. Ford after the election decides he is going to run one more time in 1974. In 1976, he is going to from congress. Again, history intervenes with that. Agnew has to step down as Vice President because of malfeasance in office as governor of maryland. He had taken some bribes, contract issues, obstruction of justice for things not related at all to watergate. Agnew has to step down. Nixon is able, through the provisions of the 32nd amendment 25th amendment, to nominate somebody to replace spiro agnew as Vice President. But it requires confirmation of both the senate and the house of representatives. Ford is a natural selection. He is not nixons first choice, but he is a solid choice for Richard Nixon. Because of his coalition building, work, and reputation on capitol hill is an easy selection. Carl albert, the speaker of the house, tells Richard Nixon, i can get you jerry ford. Nixon makes that choice and ford goes through an extended investigation background information. Because even as he is selected, there is this whirlwind of controversy surrounding Richard Nixon over the matter of watergate. Nefarious activities that have taken place during the 1972 election and before involving secret tapes. Bugging of opposition offices, and a number of other issues that many people believed the president himself had been involved in. What nixon was involved in was obstructing the investigation into it. Even as ford is being investigated for the vice presidency, there are a number on capitol hill who believe they are choosing not the next Vice President but the next president of the United States. President nixon nominates gerald ford to fill the vacancy for vice residency. Over 400 f. B. I. Agent spread out over the country to investigate congressman ford. He passes the investigation, the results are handed to congress. Congress schedules a vote on congressman fords nomination. This is the card that speaker of the house carl albert hands to jerry ford, noting the house 387 in support 35 , opposing. There was another vote that was held in the senate and only three senators voted against his nomination to the vice presidency. Congressman ford in december 1973 is sworn in as Vice President. This is the bible on which he was sworn in. Again, he has it open to his favorite passage, the passage that he and betty had leaned on many times in their lives. 3 58. S trust in the lord with all in heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. He will have the bible open to the same passage when he is sworn in as president. He will only be Vice President for eight months. He does not know it at the time. But what he does know is the controversy is swirling around president nixon. His responsibility is to forward nixons agenda and promote his policies abroad. He spends almost the entirety of his vice presidency on the road traveling, away from washington, promoting that message and camp campaigning for nixons agenda before the American Public and on capitol hill. We covered four galleries in the museum dealing with his early life, his collegiate career, navy, and in congress. The remainder of the museum is dedicated to his presidency and his postpresidency. I hope the visitors to the museum are able to take away from here what a unite time it was and what a unique man ford was and how he was able to meet the challenge. Ford never aspired to become president. Yet throughout his life, events and people he encountered prepared him for the burden that he was asked to bear in august, 1974, when he became president , an office he never campaigned for, never aspired to but one , which was handed and entrusted to him by those who closest, those on on capital hill. To be able to appreciate how he rose to handle the responsibilities. You are watching american, 40 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Forow us on twitter information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. Check out our classroom website. It is full of free Teaching Resources for cspan classroom members. The improved layout gives events videoss to , constitution clips that bring the constitution to life, social studies lesson plans, as well as history resources. Teachers to search and filter by date, person, keyword, topic, and grade level. There are short videos paired thatdiscussion questions make government more accessible to students. I love the bell ringers. A lot of times, i use them in conjunction with an activity we are doing that day as more like a wrapup. The new website is fabulous. My students use it regularly. It is so easy they are right now working on making questions they can design and turn into their own bell ringers. Is a perfectly set up, ready to go classroom discussion on a variety of topics that are current and relevant today. School orare a middle high school teacher, join thousands of your fellow teachers across the nation as a member of cspan classroom. It is free and easy to register. Request our timeline poster, the graphic display of the biographies of all 45 president s. Find out more about it. Monday night, we recently attended the state of the net conference in washington, d. C. , memberke with a board and policy professor about issues with internet use today. I am concerned when countries try to shut off Internet Access or monitor the internet in a major way. That is not my concept of internet freedom. There is a lot of pressure on the intermediaries, facebook, suppress theer, to communication of these people who are proisis. That is one of these fine lines we have to draw. Watch monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. The United States entered world war i on april 6, 1917 president wilson signed a congressional declaration of war against germany. Next, paul kennedy talks about how the u. S. Mobilized its industry and the military to fight what was then called the great war. Professor kennedy pays particular attention to stories from the city and the citys role in the war effort. He concludes his remarks with a look at the wars legacy. This talk was the keynote address on a conference on world war i posted by Columbia University in new york city. This is just under one hour
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