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The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. The Ford Library in Ann Arbor. The Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. Overview of Holdings. - 21 million pages of materials 400+ sets of papers 500,000 audiovisual items 17,000 artifacts

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The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

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  1. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum

  2. The Ford Library in Ann Arbor The Ford Museum in Grand Rapids

  3. Overview of Holdings • - 21 million pages of materials • 400+ sets of papers • 500,000 audiovisual items • 17,000 artifacts • holdings include Congressional, Vice Presidential, and Presidential materials

  4. Gerald R. FordCongressionalPapers

  5. President’s Commission on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Warren Commission) Files

  6. National Security Adviser Files

  7. Congressman Ford and Vietnam • Serves in the Navy during WWII. The experience changed his world view. • Seat on the House Subcommittee on Defense. • Tours Vietnam in 1953. • By the late 1960s Gerald Ford still felt the North Vietnamese could be defeated. • Paris Peace Accord signed in January 1973. • War Powers Act of 1973 signed in November.

  8. The 1970s

  9. Richard Nixon announces end of Vietnam War

  10. Gerald Ford becomes 38th President of the United States

  11. “Almost by definition, the decisions that must be made in the Oval Office are difficult. If they’re easy, they’re made elsewhere in the federal bureaucracy.” Gerald R. Ford 38th President of the United States

  12. …a full, free, and absolute pardon…

  13. Gerald R. Ford and the Vietnam WarThe Fall of Saigon

  14. “It was the saddest hour of my time in the White House, sitting in the Oval Office and watching those last Americans being finally evacuated from Vietnam. To see United States troops kicked out, literally, was a hard thing for a President to swallow, and hard for most Americans to swallow.”

  15. PresidentialDecision-makingThe Fall of Saigon

  16. Timeline1974 • August 9: Gerald R. Ford sworn in as 38th President of the United States • August 12: Gerald Ford addresses a Joint Session of Congress • August 13: Congress cuts the budget for South Vietnam in half. • August 19: Addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, announcing his Clemency Program • September 16: Unveils Clemency Program • December 30: Ford signs Foreign Assistance Act of 1974

  17. Timeline1975 • January: North Vietnam steps up movement into South Vietnam. • March 25: Ford meets with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor Major General Brent Scowcroft, Ambassador Graham Martin, Army Chief of Staff General Frederick C. Weyand. • March 26: State Department announces beginning of evacuation of remaining U.S. personnel and Vietnamese refugees. • April: Evacuation of South Vietnamese orphans, “Operation Baby Lift.” • April 4: Receives General Weyand’s memo regarding the status of South Vietnam • April 5: Meets with General Weyand … report on situation • Meets with National Security Council • April 10: Addressed Joint Session of Congress • April 14: Senate Foreign Relations Committee requests a meeting with President Ford • April 17: Khmer Rouge troops take Cambodia • April 23: Gives Tulane University Speech • April 25: Final siege of Saigon begins • April 28: Air Force halts evacuation flights because of artillery attacks. • Ford convenes NSC • Ford orders final evacuation • April 29: In 16 hours 6,500 Americans and South Vietnamese are evacuated from Saigon.

  18. North Vietnamese forces step up their advance into South Vietnam. By the end of March 1975 they control most of the country.

  19. Ambassador Graham Martin, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Frederick Weyand, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger discuss the situation in Vietnam, March 25, 1975.

  20. April 1975The Final Month

  21. April 10President Ford Addresses aJoint Session of Congress President Truman's resolution must guide us today. Our purpose is not to point the finger of blame, but to build upon our many successes, to repair damage where we find it, to recover our balance, to move ahead as a united people. Tonight is a time for straight talk among friends, about where we stand and where we are going. A vast human tragedy has befallen our friends in Vietnam and Cambodia. Tonight I shall not talk only of obligations arising from legal documents. Who can forget the enormous sacrifices of blood, dedication, and treasure that we made in Vietnam? Under five Presidents and 12 Congresses, the United States was engaged in Indochina. Millions of Americans served, thousands died, and many more were wounded, imprisoned, or lost. Over $150 billion have been appropriated for that war by the Congress of the United States. And after years of effort, we negotiated, under the most difficult circumstances, a settlement which made it possible for us to remove our military forces and bring home with pride our American prisoners. This settlement, if its terms had been adhered to, would have permitted our South Vietnamese ally, with our material and moral support, to maintain its security and rebuild after two decades of war. The chances for an enduring peace after the last American fighting man left Vietnam in 1973 rested on two publicly stated premises: first, that if necessary, the United States would help sustain the terms of the Paris accords it signed 2 years ago, and second, that the United States would provide adequate economic and military assistance to South Vietnam.

  22. April 23President Ford Speaks At Tulane University Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned. As I see it, the time has come to look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the Nation's wounds, and to restore its health and its optimistic self-confidence.

  23. The Final 48 Hours April 28 The Air Force halts evacuation flights. The President convenes a meeting of the National Security Council. Just before midnight, Gerald Ford orders the final evacuation of Saigon.

  24. April 28

  25. National Security Council Meets

  26. April 29State Department Cables to and from Ambassador Graham Martin, April 29, 1975

  27. Scowcroft (Situation Room) to Martin: “Insure that all 400 Americans in the Embassy compound are evacuated in this operation ASAP. “ 9:47 a.m. EST 1:42 p.m. Zulu Time

  28. From Secy. Of State Kissinger to Martin (via Brown)“IBM headquarters reports its personnel still in Saigon and is most disturbed. Do what you can.” 10:11 a.m. EST 2:11 p.m. Zulu Time

  29. The End In 16 hours, United States forces evacuated 6,500 Americans and South Vietnamese from Saigon, ending decades of American involvement in the area.

  30. RefugeesWhat Would You Do?

  31. Refugees & Immigration • There were now over 120,000 South Vietnamese refugees … men, women, and children who had nowhere to go. • On April 30, 1975 Gerald Ford requested $507 million from Congress for refugee transport and care. • The United States House of Representatives rejected that request the following day.

  32. April 1975“Operation Baby Lift”The evacuation of South Vietnamese orphans begins.

  33. Refugees escaped using any method available to them … On foot By boat By air

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