The Ford custodianship
- Gerald Ford had to try to rebuild confidence in government in the face of the widespread cynicism the Watergate scandals had produced.
- He had to try to restore prosperity in the face of major domestic and international challenges to the American economy.
- Ford explained that he was attempting to spare the nation the ordeal of years of litigation and to spare Nixon himself any further suffering.
- The Ford administration enjoyed less success in its effort to solve the problems of the American economy.
- In the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo of 1973, the OPEC cartel began to raise their price of oil-by 400 percent in 1974 alone.
- Ford retained Henry Kissinger as secretary of state and continued the general policies of the Nixon years.
- Late in 1974, Ford met with Leonid Brezhnev at Vladivostok in Siberia and signed an arms control accord that was to serve as the basis for SALT II, thus achieving a goal the Nixon administration had long sought.
- In the republican primary campaign Ford faced a powerful challenge from former California governor Ronald Reagan, leader of the party’s conservative wing, who spoke for many on the right who were unhappy with any conciliation of communists.