Have Ford successfully face down a major threat to the whole world, something like the Cuban Missile Crisis on steroids. Perhaps a coup takes out Brezhnev, threatens massive aggression against the West, a Cuban Missile style crisis which Ford both successfully avoids whilst at the same time succeeding in smashing USSR power for good and ending the Cold War.
Averting the end of the world and defeating the US' greatest ever enemy would put Ford up to Lincoln/FDR levels.
Averting the end of the world and defeating the US' greatest ever enemy would put Ford up to Lincoln/FDR levels.