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At noon on August 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president of the United States following Richard Nixon's resignation. Ford, who had been appointed vice president after Spiro Agnew's resignation in 1973, was the first president in U.S. history to come to the office by appointment rather than election. With the American economy suffering through severe inflation and an energy crisis, and with public faith in the White House eroded after the Watergate scandal, President Ford had his work cut out for him. In one of his first acts as chief executive he pardoned Richard Nixon for any offenses he may have committed while in office, an act that caused outrage in many quarters. To deal with the economic recession, Ford proposed tax cuts, curbs on government spending, and heavy taxation on imported oil, but he found little support in the Democratic Congress. In his first two years in office he vetoed over forty bills sent to him from Capitol Hill. In 1976, he narrowly won the Republican presidenti

Posted: 4/6/2008 Length: 03:46 Price: Free Video Type: Clip