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Episode 180 GERALD FORD The Accidental President (Part 5 Special Edition) May 6, 1975 wide ranging Press Conference just after the end of the Vietnam War
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On April 30, 1975, The North Vietnamese Army invaded Saigon and the war in Vietnam ended. While it was not a defeat for the United States since President Nixon had brokered a peace in January of 1973, and we had left, it sure felt like one.
Gerald Ford , who had inherited the Presidency at the end of the Watergate legal process ( A process we have shown that was riddled with alleged prosecutorial misconduct) was forced to watch helplessly as the city was overrun and we had to evacuate our Embassy.
President Ford had wanted to live up to the promises we had made when President Nixon had negotiated our exit from the country. However, Congress had cut all funding to the nation and refused to allow President Ford to spend any money to even offer air support for the South Vietnamese Army. It was a shameful abandonment to an ally that had trusted us.
Seven days later, President Gerald Ford faced the television cameras and the Washington Press Corp. This is that press conference. It was a real symbol that the war was finally over as Ford actually has to answer a wide variety of questions on subjects that are very far ranging. It is a Press Conference that gives you a feel for just how many different issues the President has to deal with at any given time. It also gives you a feel for the President himself, and how he made decisions, and how open he tried to be with the American People, in contrast to several of his predecessors in that office.
It is also , in a brief answer to a question, one of the first times you hear the President firmly state to the nation that the war in Vietnam is over for America.
Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!
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By Randal Wallace
4.5
1111 ratings
Send us a text
On April 30, 1975, The North Vietnamese Army invaded Saigon and the war in Vietnam ended. While it was not a defeat for the United States since President Nixon had brokered a peace in January of 1973, and we had left, it sure felt like one.
Gerald Ford , who had inherited the Presidency at the end of the Watergate legal process ( A process we have shown that was riddled with alleged prosecutorial misconduct) was forced to watch helplessly as the city was overrun and we had to evacuate our Embassy.
President Ford had wanted to live up to the promises we had made when President Nixon had negotiated our exit from the country. However, Congress had cut all funding to the nation and refused to allow President Ford to spend any money to even offer air support for the South Vietnamese Army. It was a shameful abandonment to an ally that had trusted us.
Seven days later, President Gerald Ford faced the television cameras and the Washington Press Corp. This is that press conference. It was a real symbol that the war was finally over as Ford actually has to answer a wide variety of questions on subjects that are very far ranging. It is a Press Conference that gives you a feel for just how many different issues the President has to deal with at any given time. It also gives you a feel for the President himself, and how he made decisions, and how open he tried to be with the American People, in contrast to several of his predecessors in that office.
It is also , in a brief answer to a question, one of the first times you hear the President firmly state to the nation that the war in Vietnam is over for America.
Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!
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