WI/AHC Gerald Ford considered one of the best Presidents

So, with a PoD between 1964 and 1977 think up a scenario where 1. Gerald Ford takes office. and 2. Is considered among both the public and historians as one of the "top ten" presidents.
 
So, with a PoD between 1964 and 1977 think up a scenario where 1. Gerald Ford takes office. and 2. Is considered among both the public and historians as one of the "top ten" presidents.

Nuclear war occurs between the USSR and US during his presidency and Ford helps to stabilize the US in the midst of nuclear chaos.
 
Wasn't the "tree trimming" incident along the DMZ in Korea during the Ford Admin.?

Where two American soldiers supervising South Korean soldiers trimming a tree were beaten to death by North Koreans.

The U.S. ended up sending in a massive force and cutting the tree down afterwards

What if instead the U.S. retaliated massively kicking off another Korean conflict.

President Ford uses the incident to marshal public opinion in favor of the "liberation" of North Korea. The U.S. and South Koreans roll over the North Koreans before the Chinese and Soviets can react.

Democracy then breaks out in a united Korea which is quickly rebuilt with massive U.S. and Japanese aid.

The successful resumption of the Korean War and decisive rollback of communism is considered a major contributor to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1980 just before President Ford leaves office.
 
It was to trim a tree to increase visibility in the DMZ. And two American officers were beaten to death. It's galling. I can just see the arrogance that these sorry mother fuckers are proud of what they have done. I want to squelch down hard.

And yes, my intellectual response, I do want to do something active that shows we will not be intimidated. But I don't want to do something which will just make the situation worse. We could do an air strike at a N. Korean military outpost, but that's likely to just kill a bunch of soldiers who had nothing to do with the original incident.
 
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Ford and Brezhnev almost had a deal for SALT II after meeting Nov. '74, but conservative Democrats like Henry 'Scoop' Jackson were against it. Perhaps in part because they weren't included in the loop. And treaties take 2/3's of the Senate for confirmation, which is a big, big hurdle.

Alright, for the high trajectory Ford presidency, he does more things informally and things which require just a regular majority vote.

But skillfully underselling, he gets the Soviets to push for joint peacekeeping in Cambodia. And he does keep Congress in the loop as information becomes available. He includes conventional forces in Europe in negotiations and brings NATO conventional forces up to the level of the Warsaw Pact. The transition is handled well like the middle innings of a baseball game, and danger points are avoided. Ford is viewed much like Reagan, but without the dangerous 1983.

The cold war moves away from propping up dictatorships and supporting armed rebellion. It generally becomes a contest of which superpower can do a better job of providing economic development for Third World countries. Many countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Kenya, Malawi, Egypt, Jordan, Thailand, Indonesia, etc., have a lot of development projects with both countries. (*I think some of this went on OTL, but in this timeline to a much greater extent.) Globalization comes about a decade and a half earlier, but with better journalism and less of a belief that unregulated markets always work best.

Domestically, Ford deals with a Democratic Congress his entire 6 and a 1/2 years as president. But he becomes good at placing items in the national agenda which he's not that insistent how they're dealt with, as long as they are dealt with.

For example, in President Ford's January 1975 State of the Union Address, he spent a lot of time talking about energy policy. It's like he anticipated Carter by a couple of years. :)
 
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Morbid as this may sound the easiest way to do this is for something bad to happen to Reagan in 1977.

In the absence of Reagan the GOP lacks a prohibitive frontrunner in 1980. Ford at least considered running again in 1980. Without Reagan he does so. Ford easily wins renomination and resoundingly wins his rematch with Jimmy Carter.

When the economy recovers by 1984 the Ford administration receives much of the credit.

All of this may not be enough to make him top ten, but he'd be a widely admired President. He'd be credited with nation's recovery from both Watergate and stagflation along with what foreign policy successes he has in his second term.
 
Assuming he is president from 1977-1980, much depends on how Ford handles the Iran crisis. To be one of the top ten, the entire embassy hostage crisis needs to be avoided, and the initial democratic provisional government triumph over Khomeini. Let's say skillful diplomacy by Ford early on creates a steady transition from the Shah to a constitutional democracy. How that is done, I don't know.

Ford would also likely need to permanently end high inflation and further economic reform to improve the economy.

Other possibilities include an Israeli-Egypt peace agreement like what happened under Carter. This is doable.

Other possible legacies include shepherding the Equal Rights Amendment and an amendment that allowed states to pass their own abortion laws. Whatever one's position on abortion, allowing the legislature(s) to decide rather than the ham handed Roe vs Wade (which in my view is unconstitutional, something many pro-choice people at the time commented) is to allow the US to resolve the issue like Europe did and prevent it from becoming an ongoing cancerous sore that has badly disrupted politics.

If Ford leaves office in 1980 with an America at peace and with a good economy, and restored the prestige of the office and country after Watergate and Vietnam plus some legacies (like the ERA), he'll likely be rated high.
 
I think a preliminary step to this would have to be not pardoning Nixon, at least not immediately.

teg
 
In the anthology "Alternate Presidents" IIRC, the Iranian Hostage Crisis happens just as it did and Ford accidentally at a press conference says something about the Iranians not being able to wage war because the don't have nuclear weapons.

He intended to say "sea power".

The world freaks out that Ford is threatening Iran with nuclear weapons but after one of the Iman's is seized after making a speech by a group of Iranian anti nuclear protesters and strangled with his own clothes, the Iranians release the hostages.
 
Nixon choses Former Texas Governor, John Connally as his new Vice President, to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned on October 10, 1973.

Connally, succeeds as President, when Nixon resigns on August 9, 1974.

The Republicans, decide to not nominate, incumbent President, John Connally, but instead go with Former Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, however the damage to the Republican Party's image could not be saved by this former actor and democratic nominee and former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter's presidency, follows pretty much same as OTL so in 1980, Gerald Ford, wins by a land slide and has 8 smashing years in the oval office.

President Ford 0.20.png
 
I like your timeline!

Connally '74 to '77

Carter '77 to '81

Ford '81 to '89

I will put on my thinking cap.

Connally was Nixon's choice to replace Agnew in the 1972 election, but Nixon was pressured by his party to keep Agnew on.
And when Agnew resigned, Connally was one of his choices for replacement. so not completely ASB.

I was also thinking:
1969-1974: Richard Nixon
1974-1977: John Connally
1977-1981: Jimmy Carter
1981-1989: Gerald Ford
1989-199?: Al Gore
 
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Connally was Nixon's choice to replace Agnew in the 1972 election, but Nixon was pressured by his party to keep Agnew on.
And when Agnew resigned, Connally was one of his choices for replacement. so not completely ASB.

I was also thinking:
1969-1974: Richard Nixon
1974-1977: John Connally
1977-1981: Jimmy Carter
1981-1989: Gerald Ford
1989-199?: Al Gore

IIRC, George H.W. Bush maneuvered hard behind the scenes to be named Nixon's VP in 1972 and later to replace Agnew after Agnew resigned.

Of course eventually Bush was outflanked by one of his mortal political enemies Donald Rumsfeld and manipulated into being appointed Ambassador to China where it made it impossible for him to scheme.
 
would Ford handle the situation as well with a Soviet Union which needs to reform, is reforming, but is not reforming enough? Plus, Reagan may have gotten lucky in some regards.

We typically put it in a narrative and clean it up too much: Trying to keep up with Star Wars bankrupted the Soviets and then they had to make changes. When in fact, it might have been reaching nuclear parity in the '70s which severely strained the Soviet economy, plus a lot of other stuff going on as well.
 
Nuclear war occurs between the USSR and US during his presidency and Ford helps to stabilize the US in the midst of nuclear chaos.
Actually it would be better to have a nuclear war between the PRC and USSR, and for Ford to thus be the president to force the rollback of communism in the aftermath
 
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