Coordinates	52°0′54″N4°21′24″N
Name	Hyman George Rickover
Birth place	Maków Mazowiecki, Poland
Death place	Arlington, Virginia
Nickname	"Father of the Nuclear Navy"
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States Navy
Serviceyears	1918–1982 (includes academy years)
Rank
Commands	USS ''Finch''Naval Reactors
Battles	World War IICold War
Awards	Navy Distinguished Service Medal (2)Legion of Merit (2)Congressional Gold Medal (2)Presidential Medal of FreedomEnrico Fermi Award
Laterwork	}}

Hyman George Rickover (January 27, 1900 – July 8, 1986) was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of Naval Reactors. In addition, he oversaw the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor used for generating electricity.

Rickover is known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy", which as of July 2007 had produced 200 nuclear-powered submarines, and 23 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and cruisers, though many of these U.S. vessels are now decommissioned and others under construction.

With his unique personality, political connections, responsibilities, and depth of knowledge regarding naval nuclear propulsion, Rickover became the longest-serving naval officer in U.S. history with 63 years active duty.

Rickover's substantial legacy of technical achievements includes the United States Navy's continuing record of zero reactor accidents, as defined by the uncontrolled release of fission products subsequent to reactor core damage.

Early life

Hyman Rickover was born to Abraham Rickover and Rachel (née Unger) Rickover, a Jewish family in Maków Mazowiecki of Poland, at that time under Russian rule. "Rickover" is derived from the village and the estate of Ryki, located within an hour of Warsaw, as is Maków Mazowiecki. "Hyman" is derived from the Hebrew word חַיִּים (Chayyim) meaning "life."

Fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms, the young Rickover emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1905; decades later, the entire remaining Jewish communities of Ryki and Maków Mazowiecki were killed or otherwise perished during the Holocaust.

Rickover's immediate family lived initially on the East Side of Manhattan and moved two years later to Lawndale, a community of Chicago, where Rickover's father continued work as a tailor. Rickover took his first paid job at nine years of age, earning three cents an hour for holding a light as his neighbor operated a machine. Later, he delivered groceries. He graduated from grammar school at 14.

While attending John Marshall High School in Chicago, from where he graduated with honors in 1918, Rickover held a full-time job delivering Western Union telegrams, through which he became acquainted with U.S. Congressman Adolph J. Sabath. By way of the intervention of a family friend, Sabath, himself a Czech Jewish immigrant, nominated Rickover for appointment to the United States Naval Academy. Though only a third alternate for an appointment, through disciplined self-directed study and good fortune the future four-star admiral passed the entrance exam and was accepted.

Early naval career through World War II

On 2 June 1922, Rickover graduated 107th out of 540 Midshipmen and was commissioned as an Ensign. He joined destroyer USS ''La Vallette'' (DD-315) on 5 September 1922. Rickover impressed his commanding officer with his hard work and efficiency, and was made engineer officer on 21 June 1923, becoming the youngest such officer in the squadron.

He next served on board the battleship USS ''Nevada'' (BB-36) before earning a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering by way of a year at the Naval Postgraduate School at the Naval Academy, followed by further work at Columbia University. At Columbia he met his future wife, Ruth D. Masters, a graduate student in international law, whom he married in 1931 after she returned from her doctoral studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. Shortly after marrying, Rickover wrote to his parents of his decision to become an Episcopalian, remaining so for the remainder of his life.

More fond of life on a small ship, and knowing that young officers in the submarine service were advancing quickly, Rickover went to Washington and volunteered for submarine duty. His application was turned down due to his age, at that time 29 years old. Fortunately for Rickover, he ran into his former commanding officer from ''Nevada'' while leaving the building, who interceded successfully on Rickover's behalf. From 1929 to 1933 Rickover qualified for submarine duty and command aboard the submarines ''S-9'' and ''S-48''.

During 1933, while at the Office of the Inspector of Naval Material in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rickover translated ''Das Unterseeboot'' (''The Submarine'') by World War I German Imperial Navy Admiral Hermann Bauer. Rickover's translation became a basic text for the U.S. submarine service.

In June 1937, he assumed command of the minesweeper USS ''Finch'' (AM-9), and on 1 July of that year was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In October his designation as an engineering duty officer became effective, and he left the ''Finch''. He was assigned to the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines, expecting to be transferred shortly to the Bureau of Engineering in Washington D.C. After a trip overland across China, Burma, and India, by air across the Mideast to Athens and then London, and by ship to the U.S., Rickover arrived in Washington and took up his duties as assistant chief of the Electrical section of the Bureau of Engineering on 15 August 1939.

On 10 April 1942, after America's entry into World War II, Rickover flew to Pearl Harbor to organize repairs to the electrical power plant of the USS ''California''. In that role he was "a leading figure in putting the ship's electric alternators and motors back into operating condition," enabling the battleship to sail under her own power from Pearl Harbor to Puget Sound Navy Yard.

Later during the war, his service as head of the Electrical Section in the Bureau of Ships brought him a Legion of Merit and gave him experience in directing large development programs, choosing talented technical people, and working closely with private industry. During his wartime service, as noted later in the January 11, 1954 ''Time'' magazine issue that featured him on its cover:

"Sharp-tongued Hyman Rickover spurred his men to exhaustion, ripped through red tape, drove contractors into rages. He went on making enemies, but by the end of the war he had won the rank of captain. He had also won a reputation as a man ''who gets things done.''"

Naval Reactors and the Atomic Energy Commission

In 1946 a project was begun at the Manhattan Project's nuclear-power focused Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to develop a nuclear electric generating plant. The United States Navy decided to send eight men to this project, including three civilians and one senior and four junior naval officers. Realizing the potential that nuclear energy held for the Navy, Rickover applied.

Although he was not initially selected, through the intercession of his wartime boss, Admiral Earle Mills, who became the head of the Navy's Bureau of Ships that same year, Rickover was finally sent to Oak Ridge as the deputy manager of the entire project, granting him access to all facilities, projects and reports.

Following efforts by physicists Ross Gunn, Philip Abelson and others in the Manhattan Project, he became an early convert to the idea of nuclear marine propulsion. Rickover worked with Alvin M. Weinberg, the Oak Ridge director of research, both to establish the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology and to begin the design of the pressurized water reactor for submarine propulsion.

In February 1949, he received an assignment to the Division of Reactor Development, Atomic Energy Commission, and then assumed control of the Navy's effort as Director of the Naval Reactors Branch in the Bureau of Ships, reporting to Mills. This twin role enabled him to both lead the effort to develop the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS ''Nautilus'' (SSN-571), which was launched and commissioned in 1954, as well as oversee the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first commercial pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant.

The decision for selecting Rickover to head the development of the nation's nuclear submarine program ultimately rested with Admiral Mills. According to Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, the primary military leader in charge of the Manhattan Project, Mills was anxious to have a very determined man involved, and – though he knew that Rickover was "not too easy to get along with" and "not too popular" – in his judgment Rickover was the man who the Navy could depend on "no matter what opposition he might encounter, once he was convinced of the potentialities of the atomic submarine."

Rickover did not disappoint. The imagination, drive, creativity and engineering expertise demonstrated by Rickover and his team during that era resulted in a highly reliable nuclear reactor in a form-factor that would fit into a submarine hull with no more than a 28-foot beam. These were substantial technical achievements:

In the early 1950s, a megawatt-scale nuclear reactor took up an area roughly the size of a city block.

The prototype for the USS ''Nautilus'' propulsion plant was the world's first high-temperature nuclear reactor.

The basic physics data needed for the reactor design were as yet unavailable.

The reactor design methods had yet to be developed.

There were no available engineering data on the performance of water-exposed metals that were simultaneously experiencing high temperatures, pressures and multi-spectral radiation levels.

No nuclear power plant of any kind had ever been designed to produce steam.

No steam propulsion plant had ever been designed for use in the widely varying sea temperatures and pressures experienced by the condenser during submarine operations.

Components from difficult, exotic materials, such as zirconium and hafnium, would have to be extracted and manufactured with precision via techniques that were as yet unknown.

Promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral in 1958, the same year he was awarded the first of two Congressional Gold Medals, for nearly the next three decades Rickover exercised tight control over the ships, technology, and personnel of the nuclear Navy, interviewing and approving or denying every prospective officer being considered for a nuclear ship. Over the course of Rickover's record-length career, these personal interviews amounted to tens of thousands of highly impressionable events; over 14,000 interviews were with recent college-graduates alone. These legendary interviews loomed large in the minds of midshipmen from both the U.S. Naval Academy and Naval ROTC. Varying from arcane to combative to humorous, and ranging from midshipmen to very senior naval aviators who sought command of aircraft carriers (which sometimes lapsed into ego battles), the content of most of these interviews has been lost to history, though some were later chronicled in the several books on Rickover's career, as well as in a rare personal interview with Diane Sawyer in 1984.

Rickover's stringent standards and powerful focus on personal integrity are largely credited with being responsible for the United States Navy's continuing record of zero reactor accidents. During the mid-late 1950s, Rickover revealed the source of his obsession with safety in a personal conversation with a fellow Navy captain:

"I have a son. I love my son. I want everything that I do to be so safe that I would be happy to have my son operating it. That's my fundamental rule." (p. 55, ''Power at Sea: A Violent Peace, 1946-2006'' (2006))

He also made it a point to be aboard during the initial sea trial of almost every nuclear submarine completing its new-construction period, and by his presence both set his stamp of personal integrity that the ship was ready for the rigors of the open seas, and ensured adequate testing to either prove as much or to establish issues requiring resolution.

As head of Naval Reactors, Rickover's focus and responsibilities were dedicated to reactor safety rather than tactical or strategic submarine warfare training. It could be argued that because of Rickover's singular focus on reactor operations, and direct line of communications with each nuclear submarine's captain, that this acted against the captains' war-fighting abilities.

Such a claim, however, does not hold up well in consideration of the highly-classified national security accomplishments of the submarine force, such as are allegedly chronicled in ''Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage''. Moreover, the accident-free record of United States Navy reactor operations stands in stark contrast to those of America's primary competitor during the Cold War, the Soviet Union, which lost several submarines to reactor accidents in both its haste and chosen priorities for competing with superior U.S. technology.

As stated in a retrospective analysis in October 2007:

"U.S. submarines far outperformed the Soviet ones in the crucial area of stealth, and Rickover's obsessive fixation on safety and quality control gave the U.S. nuclear Navy a vastly superior safety record to the Soviet one. This was especially crucial as in a democratic society, particularly after the Three Mile Island nuclear power station crisis in March 1979, a host of nuclear accidents or well-publicized near misses could have shut down the nuclear fleet completely."

However, the extreme focus on nuclear propulsion plant operation and maintenance was well known during Rickover's era as a potential hindrance to balancing operational priorities. One way by which this was addressed after the Admiral retired was that only the very strongest, former at-sea submarine commanders have held Rickover's now uniquely eight-year position as NAVSEA-08, the longest chartered tenure in the U.S. military. From Rickover's first replacement, Kinnaird R. McKee, to today's head of Naval Reactors, Kirkland H. Donald, all have held command of nuclear submarines, their squadrons and ocean fleets; not one has been a long-term Engineering Duty Officer such as Rickover.

Three Mile Island

Following the Three Mile Island (TMI) power plant's partial core melt on March 28, 1979, President Jimmy Carter commissioned a study, "Report of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (1979)." Subsequently, Admiral Rickover was asked to testify before Congress in the general context of answering the question as to why naval nuclear propulsion had succeeded in achieving a record of zero reactor-accidents (as defined by the uncontrolled release of fission products to the environment resulting from damage to a reactor core) as opposed to the dramatic one that had just taken place at Three Mile Island. In his testimony, he said:

"Over the years, many people have asked me how I run the Naval Reactors Program, so that they might find some benefit for their own work. I am always chagrined at the tendency of people to expect that I have a simple, easy gimmick that makes my program function. Any successful program functions as an integrated whole of many factors. Trying to select one aspect as the key one will not work. Each element depends on all the others."

Controversy

Hyperactive, political, blunt, confrontational, insulting, flamboyant, and an unexcelled workaholic who was always demanding of others — without regard for rank or position — as well as himself, Admiral Rickover was a thundering force of nature and lightning rod for controversy. Moreover, he had "little tolerance for mediocrity, none for stupidity." "If a man is dumb," said a Chicago friend, "Rickover thinks he ought to be dead." Even while a Captain, Rickover did not conceal his opinions, and many of the officers he regarded as dumb eventually rose in rank to be admirals and were assigned to the Pentagon.

Rickover found himself frequently and loudly in bureaucratic combat with these senior naval officers, to the point that he nearly never became "Admiral" Rickover: Two admiral-selection boards — exclusively made up of admirals — passed over Captain Rickover for promotion, even while he was in the process of becoming famous. One of these selection boards even met the day after USS ''Nautilus'' had its keel-laying ceremony in the presence of President Truman. It eventually took the intervention of the White House, U.S. Congress and the Secretary of the Navy — and the very real threat of changing the Navy's admiral-selection system to include civilians — before the next flag-selection board welcomed the twice passed-over Rickover (normally a career-ending event) into their ranks.

Even Rickover's most senior, renowned and professionally-accomplished nuclear-trained officers that he had personally selected, such as Edward L. Beach, Jr., had mixed feelings about "the kindly old gentleman," or simply "KOG", as Rickover became euphemistically known in inner circles. Beach, in his later years, once referred to him as a "tyrant" with "no account of his gradually failing powers" (p. 179, ''United States Submarines'', 2002).

However, President Nixon's comments upon awarding the admiral's fourth star in 1973 are germane:

"I don't mean to suggest ... that he is a man who is without controversy. He speaks his mind. Sometimes he has rivals who disagree with him; sometimes they are right, and he is the first to admit that sometimes he might be wrong. But the greatness of the American military service, and particularly the greatness of the Navy, is symbolized in this ceremony today, because this man, who is controversial, this man, who comes up with unorthodox ideas, did not become submerged by the bureaucracy, because once genius is submerged by bureaucracy, a nation is doomed to mediocrity."

While both Rickover's military authority and congressional mandate with regard to the U.S. fleet's reactor operations was absolute, it was not infrequently a subject of Navy-internal controversy. As head of the Naval Reactors branch, and thus responsible for "signing off" on a crew's competence to operate the reactor safely, he had the power to effectively remove a warship from active service and did so on several occasions, much to the consternation of those affected.

In short, Rickover was obsessed with a safe, details-focused and successful nuclear program. Coincident with this success, the perception became established among many observers that he sometimes used the raw exercise of power to settle scores or tweak noses.

Full accountability

In a distinct contrast to numerous examples of admirals and senior naval officers who would come to point their finger at individuals or groups of individuals in the fleet when something went seriously awry, Rickover adamantly took full responsibility for everything within the scope of the naval nuclear propulsion program (NNPP). Sample Rickover quote:

"My program is unique in the military service in this respect: You know the expression 'from the womb to the tomb'; my organization is responsible for initiating the idea for a project; for doing the research, and the development; designing and building the equipment that goes into the ships; for the operations of the ship; for the selection of the officers and men who man the ship; for their education and training. In short, I am responsible for the ship throughout its life — from the very beginning to the very end." (''Hearings on Military Posture and H.R. 12564'', U.S. G.P.O., 1974, page 1,392)

Willingness to "sink them all"

Given Rickover's single-minded focus on naval nuclear propulsion, design and operations, it came as a surprise to many when in 1982, near the end of his career, he testified before the U.S. Congress that, were it up to him, he "would sink them all." A seemingly outrageous enigma of a statement — and perhaps one attributable to an old man beyond his time — in context, Rickover's personal integrity and honesty were such that he was lamenting the need for such war machines in the modern world, and specifically acknowledged as well that the employment of nuclear energy ran counter to the course of nature over time.

At a congressional hearing Rickover testified that:

"I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation. Then you might ask me why do I have nuclear powered ships. That is a necessary evil. I would sink them all. I am not proud of the part I played in it. I did it because it was necessary for the safety of this country. That's why I am such a great exponent of stopping this whole nonsense of war. Unfortunately limits — attempts to limit war have always failed. The lesson of history is when a war starts every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon it has available."'' Further remarking: ''"Every time you produce radiation, you produce something that has a certain half-life, in some cases for billions of years. I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it." (Economics of Defense Policy: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., Pt. 1 (1982))

However, after his retirement — and only a few months later, in May 1982 — Admiral Rickover spoke more specifically regarding the questions "Could you comment on your own responsibility in helping to create a nuclear navy? Do you have any regrets?":

"I do not have regrets. I believe I helped preserve the peace for this country. Why should I regret that? What I accomplished was approved by Congress — which represents our people. All of you live in safety from domestic enemies because of security from the police. Likewise, you live in safety from foreign enemies because our military keeps them from attacking us. Nuclear technology was already under development in other countries. My assigned responsibility was to develop our nuclear navy. I managed to accomplish this."

Willingness to forgo all accomplishments

As quoted by President Jimmy Carter during his 1984 interview with Diane Sawyer:

"One of the most remarkable things that he ever told me was when we were together on the submarine and he said that he wished that a nuclear explosive had never been evolved. And then he said, 'I wish that nuclear power had never been discovered.' And I said, 'Admiral, this is your life.' He said, 'I would forego all the accomplishments of my life, and I would be willing to forego all the advantages of nuclear power to propel ships, for medical research and for every other purpose of generating electric power, if we could have avoided the evolution of atomic explosives.'"

Focus on education

When he was a child still living in Russian-occupied Poland, Rickover was not allowed to attend public schools because of his Jewish faith. Starting at the age of four, he attended a religious school where the teaching was solely from the Old Testament in Hebrew. School hours were from sunrise to sunset, six days a week.

Following his formal education in the U.S. as described above and the birth of his son, Robert, Admiral Rickover developed a decades-long and outspoken interest in the educational standards of the United States, stating in 1957:

"I suggest that this is a good time to think soberly about our responsibilities to our descendants - those who will ring out the Fossil Fuel Age. Our greatest responsibility, as parents and as citizens, is to give America's youngsters the best possible education. We need the best teachers and enough of them to prepare our young people for a future immeasurably more complex than the present, and calling for ever larger numbers of competent and highly trained men and women."

Rickover was particularly of the opinion that U.S. standards of education were unacceptably low. His first book centered on education and was a collection of essays calling for improved standards of education, particularly in math and science, entitled ''Education and Freedom'' (1960). In this book, the Admiral states that, "education is the most important problem facing the United States today” and “only the massive upgrading of the scholastic standards of our schools will guarantee the future prosperity and freedom of the Republic." A second book, ''Swiss Schools and Ours'' (1962) was a scathing comparison of the educational systems of Switzerland and America. He argued that the higher standards of Swiss schools, including a longer school day and year, combined with an approach stressing student choice and academic specialization produced superior results.

His persistent interest in education led to some related discussions with President John F. Kennedy. While still on active duty, the Admiral had suggested that there are three things that a school must do: First, it must transmit to the pupil a substantial body of knowledge; second, it must develop in him the necessary intellectual skill to apply this knowledge to the problems he will encounter in adult life; and third, it must inculcate in him the habit of judging issues on the basis of verified fact and logical reasoning.

Recognizing "that nurturing careers of excellence and leadership in science and technology in young scholars is an essential investment in the United States national and global future," following his retirement Admiral Rickover founded the Center for Excellence in Education in 1983.

Additionally, the Research Science Institute (formerly the Rickover Science Institute), founded by Admiral Rickover in 1984, is a highly respected summer science program hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for rising high school seniors from around the world.

Forced retirement

By the late 1970s, Rickover's position seemed stronger than it had ever been. He had survived more than two decades of attempts by the Navy brass to force him into retirement — including being made to work out of a converted ladies room and being passed over twice for promotion. Over many years, powerful friends on both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees ensured that he remained on active duty long after most other admirals had retired from their second careers.

But on January 31, 1982, in his 80's, and after 63 years of service to his country under 13 presidents (Woodrow Wilson through Ronald Reagan), Rickover was forced to retire from the Navy as a full admiral by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, with the knowledge and consent of President Reagan. This was done in a premeditated fashion. As Lehman, a reservist naval aviator while serving as Secretary of the Navy, put it in his book, ''Command of the Seas'':

[O]ne of my first orders of business as secretary of the navy would be to solve ... the Rickover problem. Rickover's legendary achievements were in the past. His present viselike grip on much of the navy was doing it much harm. I had sought the job because I believed the navy had deteriorated to the point where its weakness seriously threatened our future security. The navy's grave afflictions included loss of a strategic vision; loss of self-confidence, and morale; a prolonged starvation of resources, leaving vast shortfalls in capability to do the job; and too few ships to cover a sea so great, all resulting in cynicism, exhaustion, and an undercurrent of defeatism. The cult created by Admiral Rickover was itself a major obstacle to recovery, entwining nearly all the issues of culture and policy within the navy.

Fitting to the end of the decades-long reign and reputation of Rickover, his career concluded in both a battle with the defense establishment and a coming-to-terms with his own human limitations.

In the early 1980s, structural welding flaws — whose nature and existence had been covered up by falsified inspection records — led to significant delays and expenses in the delivery of several submarines being built at the General Dynamics Electric Boat Division shipyard. In some cases the repairs resulted in practically dismantling and then rebuilding what had been a nearly-completed submarine. While the yard tried to pass the vast cost overruns directly onto the Navy, Rickover fought Electric Boat's general manager, P. Takis Veliotis, tooth and nail at every possible turn, demanding that the yard make good on its shoddy workmanship.

Although the Navy eventually settled with General Dynamics in 1981, paying out $634 million of $843 million in Los Angeles class submarine cost-overrun and reconstruction claims, Rickover was bitter over the yard having effectively and successfully sued the Navy for its own incompetence and deceit. Of no small irony, the United States Navy was also the yard's insurer — though the concept of reimbursing General Dynamics under these conditions was initially considered "preposterous" in the words of Secretary Lehman, the legal basis of General Dynamics' claims included insurance compensation.

Outraged, Rickover furiously lambasted both the settlement and Secretary Lehman, who was partly motivated to seek an agreement in order to continue to focus on achieving President Reagan's goal of a 600-ship Navy. This was hardly Rickover's first clash with the defense industry; he was historically hard, even harsh, in exacting high standards from these contractors – but now his relationship with Electric Boat took on the characteristics of an all-out, no-holds-barred war (''Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover & General Dynamics'', 1986).

Veliotis came to be indicted by a federal grand jury under racketeering and fraud charges in 1983 for demanding $1.3 million in kickbacks from a subcontractor. He nonetheless eventually escaped into exile and a life of luxury in his native Greece where he remains a fugitive from U.S. justice.

Subsequent to accusations by the indicted Veliotis, a Navy Ad Hoc Gratuities Board determined that Rickover had received gifts from General Dynamics including jewelry, furniture and exotic knives valued at $67,628 over a 16-year period. Charges were investigated as well that gifts were provided by two other major nuclear ship contractors for the navy, General Electric and the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock.

Veliotis also charged, without providing substantiating evidence, that General Dynamics had given gifts to other senior naval officers, and had routinely underbid contracts with the intention of charging the government for cost overruns. These charges were not pursued by the Navy, at least in part due to Veliotis' flight from justice.

Secretary Lehman admonished Rickover for this impropriety via a nonpunitive letter and stating that Rickover's "fall from grace with these little trinkets should be viewed in the context of his enormous contributions to the Navy." Rickover released a statement through his lawyer saying his "conscience is clear" with respect to the gifts. "No gratuity or favor ever affected any decision I made." Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin, a longtime supporter of Rickover, later publicly associated a debilitating stroke suffered by the Admiral to his having been censured and "dragged through the mud by the very institution to which he rendered his invaluable service."

Beyond any personal enmity or power struggles between the two naval leaders, it was Rickover's advanced age, singular focus and waning political clout regarding nuclear power, and strong, near-insubordinate stance against paying the fraudulently inflated submarine construction claims that gave Secretary Lehman substantial political capital to have Rickover retired. A moderate loss of ship control and subsequent depth excursion during the sea trials of the newly constructed USS La Jolla (SSN-701) — over which Rickover had direct supervisory control and, as the man-in-charge, actual culpability by way of human error — provided Lehman with the final impetus for ending Rickover's career.

Upon being apprised of Lehman's decision that it was time for the admiral to finally retire, President Reagan asked to meet with Rickover. As quoted from Lehman's ''Command of the Seas'', Rickover was unhappy with the course of events and held forth in a tirade against Lehman, with Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger in attendance, at the meeting with the President:

(Rickover, referring to Lehman:) "Mr. President, that piss-ant knows nothing about the Navy." The admiral turned toward (Lehman) and raised his voice now to a fearsome shout. "You just want to get rid of me, you want me out of the program because you want to dismantle the program." Shifting now toward President Reagan, he roared on: "He's a goddamn liar, he knows he is just doing the work of the contractors. The contractors want me fired because of all the claims and because I am the only one in the government who keeps them from robbing the taxpayers."

(Lehman, as later quoted by CNN:) "... it was a difficult moment for the president in the Oval Office. And he was so concerned about the man, about Admiral Rickover and that he not be embarrassed, that he asked us all to leave. He said, "Admiral Rickover and I see things the same way. Could you leave us a while? We want to talk about policy."

Offering respectful words for Admiral Rickover's past service, but not encouragement for continued service, President Reagan eventually brought the meeting to a close and Rickover's 63-year career was at its end.

The Navy's official investigation of General Dynamics' Electric Boat division was ended shortly afterward. According to Theodore Rockwell, Rickover's Technical Director for more than 15 years, more than one source at that time stated that General Dynamics officials were bragging around Washington that they had "gotten Rickover."

On February 28, 1983, a post-retirement party honoring Admiral Rickover was attended by all three living former U.S. Presidents at the time, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. President Reagan was not in attendance.

Final public words and thoughts

Developed and polished over the course of the last five of his 63 years of public service, Admiral Rickover's final public remarks after his retirement included a lecture in May 1982 at the Morgenthau Memorial Lecture series under the auspices of the Carnegie Council (''"The Voice for Ethics in International Policy")''.

In his lecture, titled ''Thoughts On Man's Purpose in Life'', Rickover presented his crucible, summary comments on the subject for the audience's careful consideration. Drawing upon wide-ranging philosophers and dignitaries such as Voltaire, Emerson, Sir Thomas More, Robert Browning, President Theodore Roosevelt, Justice Louis Brandeis, Aristotle and Martin Luther, as well as extracts from the ''I Ching,'' Rickover presented some of the fundamentally guiding thoughts and beliefs that he had acquired during his lifetime.

Rickover's core comments centered around the thoughts that "principles of existence — responsibility, perseverance, excellence, creativity, courage — must be wedded to intellectual growth and development if we are to find meaning and purpose in our lives" and that "a final principle of existence essential to man's purpose in life is the development of standards of ethical and moral conduct."

Earnest in pointing out the triumph of action over thoughts alone, Rickover's comments included the following:

"Man has a large capacity for effort. In fact it is so much greater than we think it is that few ever reach this capacity.

We should value the faculty of knowing what we ought to do and having the will to do it. Knowing is easy; it is the doing that is difficult. The critical issue is not what we know but what we ''do'' with what we know. The great end of life is not knowledge, but action.

I believe that it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him ... we must live for the future, not for our own comfort or success."

He closed his remarks at the lecture with a question and answer period that addressed various aspects of Rickover's public service record, opinions, philosophies and anticipation for the future.

Death

Subsequent to strokes, pneumonia and generally declining health over time, Admiral Rickover died at his home in Arlington, Virginia, on July 8, 1986. Memorial services were led by Admiral James D. Watkins at the Washington National Cathedral, with President Carter, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Secretary Lehman, senior naval officers and about 1,000 other people in attendance. Mrs. Rickover had asked President Carter to read from John Milton's ''On His Blindness''. Carter was at first puzzled by her choice, but then came to believe that the last line had special meaning for all wives and family members of submariners who were away at sea: ''"They also serve who only stand and wait."''

Clearly a man of conscience, despite Admiral Rickover's last public and instructive remarks he went to his deathbed questioning the meaning and purpose of his own life, and specifically whether or not it was led in consonance with God's intentions (''"How the hell are you supposed to know what God wants you to do with your life, eh?"''). Milton's poetic words regarding a man's inherent blindness and potential-yet-unknown ability to otherwise serve God may well thus have also held a special meaning to Rickover himself, as it paradoxically answers one of the Admiral's last questions in life:

::"... God doth not need ::Either man's work or his own gifts: who best ::Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state ::Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed ::And post o'er land and ocean without rest: ::They also serve who only stand and wait."

Admiral Rickover is buried in Section 5 at Arlington National Cemetery. His first wife, Ruth Masters Rickover (1903–1972), is buried with him and the name of his second wife, Eleonore A. Bednowicz Rickover, whom he met and married while she was serving as a Commander in the Navy Nurse Corps, is also inscribed on his gravestone. He is survived by Robert Rickover, his sole son by his first wife.

At Arlington, Rickover's burial site overlooks the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame. Of note, it was Rickover who gave President Kennedy the old Breton fisherman’s prayer plaque, which states, "O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small." The plaque is displayed in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum as part of the Oval Office exhibit.

During the last century, only a few names naturally come to mind of those who have made a truly major impact on both their navies and their nations: Mahan, Fisher and Gorshkov. Rickover joined them. Creating a detail-focused pursuit of excellence to a degree previously unknown, he redirected the United States Navy’s ship propulsion, quality control, personnel selection, and training and education, and has had far reaching effects on the defense establishment and the civilian nuclear energy field.

Named in his honor

The ''Los Angeles''-class submarine USS ''Hyman G. Rickover'' (SSN-709) was named for him. It was commissioned two years before the Admiral's death, making it one of the relatively few United States Navy ships to be named for a living person.

USS ''Hyman G. Rickover'' was launched on August 27, 1983, sponsored by the Admiral's second wife, Mrs. Eleonore Ann Bednowicz Rickover, commissioned on July 21, 1984, and deactivated on December 14, 2006.

''Rickover Hall'' at the United States Naval Academy, housing the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Ocean Engineering, Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering, and ''Rickover Center'' at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command are also named in his honor.

Others:

Admiral Hyman Rickover Fellowship (M.I.T.)

Rickover Naval Academy

Rickover Junior High School

Awards

Decorations and Medals

Presidential Medal of Freedom (1980)

Congressional Gold Medal — 2 awards (1958, 1982)

Distinguished Service Medal with two gold stars representing 3 awards (1961, 1964, 1982)

Legion of Merit with gold star representing 2 awards (1945, 1952)

Navy Commendation Medal (1945)

Army Commendation Medal (1946) (Conversion award from Letter of Commendation from the Secretary of the Army)

World War I Victory Medal

China Service Medal

American Defense Service Medal

Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal

Navy Occupation Service Medal with "ASIA" clasp

National Defense Service Medal with bronze star representing 2 awards

Foreign Order

Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1946)

Qualification Badge

Submarine Qualification Insignia, a.k.a. "Dolphins"

In recognition of his wartime service, he was made Honorary Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1946.

Admiral Rickover was twice awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for exceptional public service; the first in 1958, and the second 25 years later in 1983, becoming one of only three persons to be awarded more than one. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter presented Admiral Rickover with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest non-military honor, for his contributions to world peace.

He also received 61 civilian awards and 15 honorary degrees, including the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award ''"For engineering and demonstrative leadership in the development of safe and reliable nuclear power and its successful application to our national security and economic needs."'' In addition to the Enrico Fermi Award, some of the most notable awards include:

the ''Egleston Medal Award'' of Columbia University Engineering School Alumni Association (1955),

the ''George Westinghouse Gold Medal'' from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) (1955),

the ''Michael I. Pupin 100th Anniversary Medal'' (1958),

the ''Golden Omega Award'' from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) (1959),

the ''Prometheus Award'' from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) (1965)

the ''Newcomen Medal'' (1968)

the ''Washington Award'' from the Western Society of Engineers (1970)

Some of his Honorary degrees included: Sc.D.: Colby College (1954); Stevens Institute of Technology (1958); Columbia University (1960)

See also

President Jimmy Carter's naval career (and the role of Admiral Rickover)

Naval Nuclear Power School

References

Resources

In order of publication:

''The Man in Tempo 3'' cover story on Rickover in ''Time'' magazine (January, 1954)

Blair, Clay, ''The Atomic Submarine and Admiral Rickover'' (H. Holt, 1954)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Nuclear Power and the Navy'' (Navy League of the United States, 1955)

Stanford, Neal, ''The Future of Fossil Fuels - An Intimate Message from Washington'' (The Christian Science Monitor, 1957)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Education and Freedom'' (Dutton, 1959)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Swiss Schools and Ours: Why Theirs are Better'' (Little, Brown, 1962)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''American Education, a National Failure; The problem of our schools and what we can learn from England'' (Dutton, 1963)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Liberty, Science and Law'' (Newcomen Society in North America, 1969)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Eminent Americans: Namesakes of the Polaris Submarine Fleet'' (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Nuclear Warships and the Navy's Future'' ({s.n.}, 1974)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''The Role of Engineering in the Navy'', speech, (1974)

Groves, Leslie R., ''Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project'' (Da Capo PR, 1975)

Zumwalt, Elmo R., ''On Watch: A Memoir'' (Quadrangle/New York Times Co., 1976) includes a chapter on Rickover

Rickover, Hyman G., ''How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed'' (Naval Institute Press, 1976)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life'' speech presented at the San Diego Rotary Club (1977)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''No Holds Barred: The Final Congressional Testimony of Admiral Hyman Rickover'' (Center for Study of Responsive Law, 1982)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Doing a Job'' 1981 management philosophy speech at Columbia University School of Engineering (CoEvolution Quarterly, 1982)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life'', (Second Annual Morgenthau Memorial Lecture, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, 1982 revision)

Schratz, Paul R., ''"Admiral Rickover and the Cult of Personality"'' (Air University Review, July–August 1983) -- "non-conformist" opinion piece from a World War II diesel boat commander

Rickover, Hyman G., personal interview on 60 Minutes by Diane Sawyer and Edward R. Murrow (1984)

Tyler, Patrick, ''Running Critical: The Silent War, Rickover & General Dynamics'' (Harper Trade, 1986)

Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 3 (1989)

Duncan, Francis, ''Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: The Discipline of Technology'' (Naval Institute Press, 1990)

Rockwell, Theodore, ''The Rickover Effect: The Inside Story of How Adm. Hyman Rickover Built the Nuclear Navy '' (John Wiley & Sons, 1995)

Beaver, William, ''Admiral Rickover: Lessons for Business Leaders'' (Business Forum, 1998)

Sontag, Sherry; Drew, Christopher; Drew, Annette Lawrence; ''Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage'' (PublicAffairs, 1998)

Gordon, Robert B., ''Working for Admiral Rickover: Memoir'' (Naval Historical Foundation Memoir program, 2000)

Duncan, Francis, ''Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence'' (Naval Institute Press, 2001)

Craven, John Piña, ''The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea'' (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Lehman, Jr., John F., ''Command of the Seas'', (US Naval Institute Press, 2nd rev. ed., 2001)

Rockwell, Theodore, ''The Rickover Effect: How One Man Made a Difference'' (Backinprint.com, 2002)

Clancy, Tom, ''Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship'' (Berkley, 2002)

Hinkle, David, ''United States Submarines'' (Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 2002)

Polmar, Norman; Allen, Thomas; ''Rickover – Admiral of the Fleet – Controversy and Genius, A Biography'' (Ross & Perry, 2003)

David, Heather M., ''Admiral Rickover and the Nuclear Navy'' (Putnam Pub Group, 2004)

Zweigenhaft, Richard L., ''Diversity in the Power Elite: How It Happened, Why It Matters'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006)

Gilchrist, Dan, ''Power Shift: The Transition to Nuclear Power in the U.S. Submarine Force As Told by Those Who Did It'' (iUniverse, 2006)

Rickover, Hyman G., ''Energy Resources and Our Future'', 1957 speech, (Energy Bulletin, 2006)

Rose, Lisle A., ''Power at Sea: A Violent Peace, 1946-2006'' (University of Missouri Press, 2006)

Allen, Thomas; Polmar, Norman; ''Rickover: Father of the Nuclear Navy'' (Potomac Books, 2007)

Meyer, CM, ''The Long Shadow of Admiral Hyman Rickover'', Part 1, PDF document, (''energize'' magazine, April 2007)

Meyer, CM, ''The Long Shadow of Admiral Hyman Rickover'', Part 3, PDF document, (''energize'' magazine, June 2007)

Spear, Steven J., ''Chasing the Rabbit'' (McGraw-Hill, 2008) -- includes applicable business lessons from the US Navy's Nuclear Power Program

Tucker, Todd, ''Atomic America: How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History'' (Free Press, 2009)

Toti, William J., ''The Wrath of Rickover'' (Proceedings Magazine, U.S. Naval Institute Press, June 2010)

External links

Annotated Bibliography for Hyman G. Rickover from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Blind Man's Bluff made-for-TV movie history of American submarine espionage (2001)

Illinois Hall of Fame: Hyman G. Rickover

Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory – conducts R&D; for the United States Navy nuclear propulsion program

Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory – KAPL, a civilian-run support organization for the United States Navy nuclear propulsion program

Naval Nuclear Power Training Command (NNPTC)

Smithsonian Institution – "Fast Attacks and Boomers: Submarines in the Cold War"

U.S. Naval Academy – the U.S. nuclear submarine officer career path

U.S. Naval Institute: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover Materials in the Oral History Collection – précis of Rickover-related materials

USS ''Springfield'' and USS ''Nautilus'' on-line tours via PBS ''Nova''

Remembering Admiral Rickover - Personal account

Y-12 National Security Complex - enriched uranium manufacturer for naval nuclear reactors

Category:1900 births Category:1986 deaths Category:United States Navy admirals Category:American Episcopalians Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism Category:Submariners Category:Columbia Engineering alumni Category:Honorary Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Polish emigrants to the United States Category:Enrico Fermi Award recipients Category:United States Naval Academy alumni Category:Naval Postgraduate School alumni Category:Oak Ridge National Laboratory people Category:American people of Polish descent Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Deaths from stroke Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American military history

de:Hyman Rickover es:Hyman Rickover fr:Hyman Rickover it:Hyman Rickover he:היימן ריקובר nl:Hyman Rickover ja:ハイマン・G・リッコーヴァー pl:Hyman Rickover pt:Hyman Rickover ru:Риковер, Хайман Джордж sv:Hyman G. Rickover zh:海曼·里科弗

The Atom is a name shared by several fictional comic book superheroes from the DC Comics universe.

There have been five characters who have shared the Atom codename. The original Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, was created by Ben Flinton and Bill O'Connor and first appeared in All-American Publications' ''All-American Comics'' #19 (Oct. 1940). The second Atom was the Silver Age Atom, Ray Palmer, who first appeared in 1961. The third Atom, Adam Cray, was a minor character present in Suicide Squad stories. The fourth Atom, Ryan Choi, debuted in a new ''Atom'' series in August 2006. The fifth Atom from the 853rd Century first appeared as part of Justice Legion Alpha in August 1999.

The Atom has been the star of multiple solo series, and four of the five have appeared as members of various superhero teams, such as the Justice Society of America, the Justice League, the Suicide Squad, and the Justice Legion Alpha.

Fictional character biographies

Al Pratt

The original Atom, Al Pratt, first appeared in ''All-American Comics'' #19 (Oct. 1940). He initially had no superpowers; instead, he was a diminutive college student and later a physicist who was depicted as a tough guy, a symbol of all the short kids who could still make a difference. Pratt was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, later gaining limited super-strength, and an energy charged 'atomic punch'. He died in the charge against Extant during the Zero Hour.

Ray Palmer

The Atom introduced during the Silver Age of comic books in ''Showcase'' #34 (1961) is physicist and university professor Ray Palmer (named for real-life science fiction writer Raymond A. Palmer, who was himself quite short). Using a mass of white dwarf star matter, he fashioned a lens which allowed him to shrink down to subatomic size. Originally, his size and molecular density abilities derived from the white dwarf star material of his costume, controlled by mechanisms in his belt, and later by controls in the palms of his gloves. Much later, he gained the innate equivalent powers within his own body. After the events of ''Identity Crisis'', Ray shrunk himself to microscopic size and disappeared. Finding him became a major theme of the Countdown year long series and crossover event.

Paul Hoben

Prior to Ray Palmer's fateful trip to the Amazon Jungle, he learns his wife Jean Loring had an affair with fellow lawyer Paul Hoben and the two divorce. Later, Palmer would offer his blessing to the couple who marry and offers Hoben his size-changing belt in order to protect Ivy Town (as Ray wished to remain with the Morlaidhans) which he accepts. His belt would later be stolen by Adam Cray. It should be noted, Hoben never takes up the costume or name of the Atom.

===Adam Cray===

Adam Cray, son of the murdered Senator Cray, first appeared as the Atom in the pages of ''Suicide Squad'' #44 by John Ostrander (August 1990). At first Cray was widely believed to be Ray Palmer in disguise (by both the fans and the characters). Actually Cray had been recruited by Palmer himself, who faked his death, in order to apprehend the Micro Squad (a group of villains that had been shrunk down) as well as uncover information about a shadowy government cabal, who were interested in Palmer's knowledge of the other heroes' secret identities (his own identity being no longer a secret).

While Palmer would infiltrate the Micro Squad, Cray would gather the attention of the Cabal as the new Atom, so that no one would notice Palmer assuming the identity of a fallen Micro Squad member.

Adam Cray ran with the Suicide Squad only for a short while, serving as a secret weapon most of the time, and his existence was for a while even unknown to others of the Squad. Cray even saves a wounded Amanda Waller from a group of assassins. At one point, Cray approaches Deadshot about the fact that Deadshot had murdered his father. Deadshot tells Cray that he would get one free shot at him. Soon after, on a mission, Cray is impaled through the chest by Blacksnake, a Micro Squad member who believes him to be Palmer.

After the murder of Cray (a move Palmer had not foreseen), Palmer reveals himself and defeats Cray's murderer. The ruse ended, Palmer explains himself to the Justice League, who had been searching for him, after hearing rumors of a new Atom.

During the events of ''Blackest Night'', Adam's corpse is reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps alongside several other fallen Suicide Squad members. Following his reanimation, Adam and the other Black Lanterns travel to Belle Reve and attack Bane and Black Alice. Adam is apparently destroyed by the Manhunter's self destruct mechanism to unleashing an explosion of Green Lantern energy that eradicates the Black Lanterns.

===Ryan Choi=== Ryan Choi, as described by DC solicitations, is "a young hotshot professor who's filling the extra spot on Ivy University's teaching staff. .. and who inadvertently ends up filling the old Atom's super-heroic shoes". This new Atom is based on a redesign by Grant Morrison. He debuted in the ''Brave New World'' one-shot, a preview of upcoming projects, and then appeared in the series, ''The All-New Atom'', written by Gail Simone. He is later murdered by Deathstroke and his Titans.

Atom One Million

An unnamed scientist in the 853rd Century performed experiments in superstring theory that creates a singularity and whose radiation alters his physical make-up. When the singularity threatened to expand and destroy his universe, he enters it in an attempt to save the universe but instead finds himself on an interdimensional bridge to another universe as his own is wiped out, unable to stop it. At the end of the bridge, he finds Superman Prime who came to help but was too late. Stranded, he searches this universe for remnants of the one he lost, in time taking the name the Atom and joining the Justice Legion Alpha when he helped them defeat the Bizarro-Legion. This Atom's powers differ from his predecessors in that he doesn't shrink but breaks up into several smaller duplicates of himself divided amongst his mass. At atomic size, these duplicates can mimic elements such as gold and oxygen.

Other versions

Frank Miller portrayed Ray Palmer as a major player in ''Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again''. He was taken prisoner by Lex Luthor and made to live in one of his own petri dishes for a period of months until his rescue by Catgirl. He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor.

Tangent Comics

In the Tangent Comics print, The Atom is Arthur Harrison Thompson, a subject of radiation testing on human beings. The first hero in the Tangent timeline, he was succeeded by his son, who was killed by the Tangent Comics version of the Fatal Five, and a grandson named Adam, who, in ''Tangent: Superman's Reign'', is being held captive by Superman.

Elseworlds

Some other re-imaginings of the Atom include an appearance in ''League of Justice'', a story portraying the Justice League in a ''The Lord of the Rings''-type story where the Atom was recast as a wizard/fortune teller called "Atomus The Palmer".

Al Pratt as the Atom was one of the three heroes who chose to work at the side of Senator Thompson in ''The Golden Age''. When Al discovers that Thompson is really the Ultra-Humanite, he joins the other heroes against the villain and Dyna-Man.

The Al Pratt Atom appeared in ''JSA: The Unholy Three'' as a post-WW2 intelligence agent with transparent atomic flesh and a visible skeleton.

''JLA: Age of Wonder'' where Ray Palmer worked with a science consortium whose numbers at one point included Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.

''JLA: Created Equal'', after Ray Palmer is killed in the cosmic storm that nearly wipes out the rest of the male population on Earth, a graduate student named Jill Athron is given a research grant to study Palmer's white-dwarf-star-belt. She becomes the Atom and joins the Justice League.

Atom evolved from a hawkman that had evolved from Robin in the ''Just Imagine...'' comic book.

52 Multiverse

In the final issue of ''52'', a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-2". As a result of Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-2, including the Atom among other Justice Society of America characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear, but the Atom is visually similar to the Al Pratt Atom. Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-2.

In ''Countdown'' #30, the Challengers from Beyond encountered Earth-15, a world where the sidekicks had taken their mentor's places. On this Earth, the Atom is Jessica Palmer, a genius who graduated from MIT at age eight. ''The Search for Ray Palmer - Red Son'' features the Ray Palmer of Earth-30, an American captured by the Superman of a communist Russia. ''Countdown: Arena'' also depicts the Ray Palmer of Earth-6, who through unknown circumstances now has the powers and title of the Ray. ''The Search For Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman'' briefly features a female version of The Atom.

In the first issue of the 2010 ''Batman Beyond'' limited series, a future African-American version of the Atom known as Micron appears as one of the heroes of Earth-12.

Collected Editions

''Ray Palmer''

Title	Material collected	Pages	ISBN#
''The Atom'' Archives, Vol. 1	''Showcase'' #34-36, ''The Atom'' #1-5		208		ISBN 1563897172
''The Atom'' Archives, Vol. 2	''The Atom'' #6-13		208		ISBN 1401200141
''Sword of the Atom''	''Sword of the Atom'' #1-4 and ''Sword of the Atom Special'' #1-3		232		ISBN 140121553X
''DC Comics Presents: The Atom''	''Legends of the DC Universe'' #28-29 and 40-41		96

''Ryan Choi''

Title	Material collected	Pages	ISBN#
My Life in Miniature	''The All-New Atom'' #1-6		160		ISBN 1401213251
Future/Past	''The All-New Atom'' #7-11		128		ISBN 1401215688
The Hunt for Ray Palmer	''The All-New Atom'' #12-16		128		ISBN 9781401217822
Small Wonder	''The All-New Atom'' #17-18 and 20-25		192

In other media

Television

Ray Palmer (voiced by Pat Harrington, Jr.) appeared in his own episodes in ''The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure.''

Ray Palmer appears with the ''SuperFriends'' in ''The All-New Super Friends Hour'' and ''The Super Friends Hour'' voiced by Wally Burr.

The Atom also makes an appearance with a slightly different color scheme costume in the live action 1979 TV special "Legends of the Superheroes", specifically "The Roast" episode.

A future version of the Atom called Micron appeared as a Justice League Unlimited member in the ''Batman Beyond'' two part episode "The Call" voiced by Wayne Brady. Unlike the Atom, Micron can grow as well as shrink, and similar to Atom Smasher with strength and flight.

In an early ''Justice League'' episode, "Legends," the League team up with the Justice Society pastiche the Justice Guild of America. JGA member Tom Turbine is a cross between Golden Age Atom and the Golden Age Superman. The Atom is later mentioned by name in "Hereafter," as a future Vandal Savage describes how he stole technology from Ray Palmer and destroyed the world.

The Atom (Ray Palmer) later appeared in ''Justice League Unlimited'' in both "Dark Heart" and "The Return" as a nanotechnology expert, voiced by John C. McGinley.

The Atom (Ray Palmer) also appeared in the 1997 live action made-for-TV movie pilot, ''Justice League of America'' played by John Kassir.

The Ryan Choi version of the Atom appears in the series ''Batman: The Brave and the Bold'', voiced by James Sie. The Atom helps Batman stop evil sorcerer Felix Faust from opening Pandora's Box in "Evil Under the Sea!". He re-appeared along with Aquaman to save Batman from a virus created by Chemo in "Journey to the Center of the Bat!". Atom has a Crime Syndicate counterpart called Dyna-Mite, also voiced by James Sie. A mind-controlled Ryan Choi appears in "The Siege of Starro! Part One", demonstrating the ability to grow to giant sizes, which he uses to prevent Batman from destroying a signal leading Starro to Earth. He also appears in the teaser for "The Criss Cross Conspiracy!", where he, Batman, and Aquaman battle the Bug-Eyed Bandit.

Video Game

The Atom (Ray Palmer) appears in DC Universe Online.

See Also

Molecule

References

External links

Index to the Atom's Earth-1 adventures

Article on the history/legacy of The Atom from the Comics 101 article series by Scott Tipton

THE SIMONE FILES II: THE ALL NEW ATOM

COUNTING DOWN TO COUNTDOWN IV: THE GREAT DISASTER AND THE ATOM

Category:DC Comics superheroes Atom Category:Fictional American people of Chinese descent Category:Fictional Hong Kong people Category:Fictional schoolteachers Category:DC Comics martial artists Category:Fictional professors Category:Comics characters introduced in 1990 Category:Comics characters introduced in 2006 Category:Size change in fiction

da:Atomet de:The Atom es:Atom (DC Comics) fr:Atom (comics) it:Atomo (fumetto) nl:Atom (DC Comics) pt:Eléktron sc:Atomo (fumettu) fi:Atomi (sarjakuvahahmo) sv:Atom (serier)

Coordinates	52°0′54″N4°21′24″N
Name	Jimmy Carter
Office	39th President of the United States
Vicepresident	Walter Mondale
Term start	January 20, 1977
Term end	January 20, 1981
Predecessor	Gerald Ford
Successor	Ronald Reagan
Order2	76th Governor of Georgia
Lieutenant2	Lester Maddox
Term start2	January 12, 1971
Term end2	January 14, 1975
Predecessor2	Lester Maddox
Successor2	George Busbee
Office3	Georgia State Senatorfrom the 14th District
Term start3	January 14, 1963
Term end3	January 10, 1967
Predecessor3	Constituency established
Successor3	Hugh Carter
Constituency3	Sumter County
Birth date	October 01, 1924
Birth place	Plains, Georgia, U.S.
Party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Rosalynn Smith (1946–present)
Children	JackJamesDonnelAmy
Alma mater	Georgia Southwestern State UniversityGeorgia Institute of TechnologyUnited States Naval Academy
Profession	FarmerOfficer
Religion	Baptist
Signature	Jimmy Carter Signature-2.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Branch	United States Navy
Serviceyears	1946–1953
Rank	Lieutenant
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize }}

James "Jimmy" Earl Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975), and was a peanut farmer and naval officer.

As President, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.

Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He took office during a period of international stagflation, which persisted throughout his term. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (at the end of 1979), and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

By 1980, Carter's popularity had eroded. He survived a primary challenge against Ted Kennedy for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980 election, but lost the election to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan. On January 20, 1981, minutes after Carter's term in office ended, the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Iran were released, ending the 444-day Iran hostage crisis.

After leaving office, Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization that works to advance human rights. He has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project, and also remains particularly vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Early life

James Earl Carter, Jr., was born on October 1, 1924, in the tiny southwest Georgia city of Plains, near Americus. The first president born in a hospital, he is the eldest of four children of James Earl Carter and Bessie Lillian Gordy. Carter's father was a prominent business owner in the community and his mother was a registered nurse.

The Carter family had come from southern England (Carter's paternal ancestor arrived in the American Colonies in 1635), and had lived in the state of Georgia for several generations. Carter has documented ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, and he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Carter's great-grandfather, Private L.B. Walker Carter (1832–1874), served in the Confederate States Army.

Carter was a gifted student from an early age who always had a fondness for reading. By the time he attended Plains High School, he was also a star in basketball. He was greatly influenced by one of his high school teachers, Julia Coleman (1889–1973). While he was in high school he was in the Future Farmers of America, which later changed its name to the National FFA Organization, serving as the Plains FFA Chapter Secretary.

After high school, Carter enrolled at Georgia Southwestern College, in Americus. Later, he applied to the United States Naval Academy and, after taking additional mathematics courses at Georgia Tech, he was admitted in 1943. Carter graduated 59th out of 820 midshipmen at the Naval Academy.

Carter had three younger siblings: sisters Gloria Carter Spann (1926–1990) and Ruth Carter Stapleton (1929–1983), and brother William Alton "Billy" Carter (1937–1988). During Carter's Presidency, Billy was often in the news, usually in an unflattering light.

He married Rosalynn Smith in 1946. They have four children: John William "Jack" Carter (born 1947); James Earl "Chip" Carter III (born 1950); Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" Carter, (born 1952) and Amy Lynn Carter (born 1967).

He is a first cousin of politician Hugh Carter and a distant cousin of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. on his mother's side, and a cousin of June Carter Cash.

Naval career

Carter served on surface ships and on diesel-electric submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. As a junior officer, he completed qualification for command of a diesel-electric submarine. He applied for the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program run by then Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest influence on him. Carter has said that he loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations. Carter felt the best route for promotion was with submarine duty since he felt that nuclear power would be increasingly used in submarines. Carter was based in Schenectady, New York, and working on the nuclear propulsion system for prototype of a new submarine.

On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown. The resulting explosion caused millions of liters of radioactive water to flood the reactor building’s basement, and the reactor’s core was no longer usable. He was now ordered to Chalk River, joining other Canadian and American service personnel. Carter was the officer in charge of the U.S. team assisting in the shutdown of the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor.

Once they arrived, Carter's team used a model of the reactor to practice the steps necessary to disassemble the reactor and seal it off. During execution of the actual disassembly each team member, including Carter, donned protective gear, was lowered individually into the reactor, stayed for only a few seconds at a time to minimize exposure to radiation, and used hand tools to loosen bolts, remove nuts and take the other steps necessary to complete the disassembly process.

During and after his presidency Carter indicated that his experience at Chalk River shaped his views on nuclear power and nuclear weapons, including his decision not to pursue completion of the neutron bomb.

Upon the death of his father James Earl Carter, Sr., in July 1953, he was urgently needed to run the family business. Lieutenant Carter resigned his commission, and he was discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953.

Farming and prayer

Carter took over and expanded his family business in Plains. His farming business was successful, and during the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, he was considered a wealthy peanut farmer.

From a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity, serving as a Sunday School teacher throughout his life. Even as President, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man, called, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

Early political career

State Senate

Jimmy Carter started his career by serving on various local boards, governing such entities as the schools, hospitals, and libraries, among others. In the 1960s, he served two terms in the Georgia Senate from the fourteenth district of Georgia.

His 1961 election to the state Senate, which followed the end of Georgia's County Unit System (per the Supreme Court case of ''Gray v. Sanders''), was chronicled in his book ''Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age''. The election involved corruption led by Joe Hurst, the sheriff of Quitman County; system abuses included votes from deceased persons and tallies filled with people who supposedly voted in alphabetical order. It took a challenge of the fraudulent results for Carter to win the election. Carter was reelected in 1964, to serve a second two-year term.

For a time in State Senate he chaired its Education Committee.

In 1966, Carter declined running for re-election as a state senator to pursue a gubernatorial run. His first cousin, Hugh Carter, was elected as a Democrat and took over his seat in the Senate.

Campaigns for Governor

In 1966, during the end of his career as a state senator, he flirted with the idea of running for the United States House of Representatives. His Republican opponent, Howard Callaway, dropped out and decided to run for Governor of Georgia. Carter did not want to see a Republican Governor of his state, and, in turn, dropped out of the race for Congress and joined the race to become Governor. Carter lost the Democratic primary, but drew enough votes as a third place candidate to force the favorite, liberal former governor Ellis Arnall, into a runoff election, setting off a chain of events which resulted in the nomination of segregationist Democrat Lester Maddox. Maddox would go on to be selected governor of Georgia by the Georgia General Assembly despite finishing a close second in a three-way general election race between Maddox, Callaway, and Arnall, who ran as a write-in candidate. During the primary Carter ran as a moderate alternative to both liberal Arnall and conservative Maddox. Although he lost, his strong third place finish was viewed as a success for a little-known state senator.

For the next four years, Carter returned to his agriculture business and carefully planned for his next campaign for Governor in 1970, making over 1,800 speeches throughout the state.

During his 1970 campaign, he ran an uphill populist campaign in the Democratic primary against former Governor Carl Sanders, labeling his opponent "Cufflinks Carl". Carter was never a segregationist, and refused to join the segregationist White Citizens' Council, prompting a boycott of his peanut warehouse. His family was also one of only two that voted to admit blacks to the Plains Baptist Church.

"Carter himself was not a segregationist in 1970. But he did say things that the segregationists wanted to hear. He was opposed to busing. He was in favor of private schools. He said that he would invite segregationist governor George Wallace to come to Georgia to give a speech.", according to historian E. Stanly Godbold.

After his election, Carter would make a statement that would displease the segregationists: "I say to you quite frankly, that the time for racial discrimination is over. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice."

Leroy Johnson, Georgia State Senator reflected: "We were extremely pleased. Many of the white segregationists were displeased. And I'm convinced that those people that supported him, would not have supported him if they had thought that he would have made that statement."

Carter's campaign aides handed out a photograph of his opponent celebrating with black basketball players. Following his close victory over Sanders in the primary, he was elected Governor over Republican Hal Suit.

Governor of Georgia

Carter was sworn in as the 76th Governor of Georgia on January 12, 1971 and held this post for one term, until January 14, 1975. Governors of Georgia were not allowed to succeed themselves at the time. His predecessor as Governor, Lester Maddox, became the Lieutenant Governor. Carter and Maddox found little common ground during their four years of service, often publicly feuding with each other.

Civil rights politics

Carter declared in his inaugural speech that the time of racial segregation was over, and that racial discrimination had no place in the future of the state, the first statewide office holder in the Deep South to say this in public. Afterwards, Carter appointed many African Americans to statewide boards and offices. He was often called one of the "New Southern Governors" much more moderate than their predecessors, and supportive of racial desegregation and expanding African-Americans' rights.

Abortion

Although "personally opposed" to abortion, after the landmark US Supreme Court decision ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 US 113 (1973) Carter supported legalized abortion. He did not support increased federal funding for abortion services as president and was criticized by the ACLU for not doing enough to find alternatives.

State government reforms

Carter improved government efficiency by merging about 300 state agencies into 30 agencies. One of his aides recalled that Governor Carter "was right there with us, working just as hard, digging just as deep into every little problem. It was his program and he worked on it as hard as anybody, and the final product was distinctly his." He also pushed reforms through the legislature, providing equal state aid to schools in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia, set up community centers for mentally handicapped children, and increased educational programs for convicts. Carter took pride in a program he introduced for the appointment of judges and state government officials. Under this program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than political influence.

Vice-Presidential aspirations in 1972

In 1972, as US Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was marching toward the Democratic nomination for President, Carter called a news conference in Atlanta to warn that McGovern was unelectable. Carter criticized McGovern as too liberal on both foreign and domestic policy, yet when McGovern's nomination became a foregone conclusion, Carter lobbied to become his vice-presidential running mate.

During the 1972 Democratic National Convention he endorsed the candidacy of Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington. Carter received 30 votes at the Democratic National Convention in the chaotic ballot for Vice President. McGovern offered the second spot to Reubin Askew, from next door Florida and one of the "new southern governors", but he declined.

Death penalty and crime

After the US Supreme Court overturned Georgia's death penalty law in 1972, Carter quickly proposed state legislation to replace the death penalty with life in prison (an option that previously didn't exist).

When the legislature passed a new death penalty statute, Carter, despite voicing reservations about its constitutionality, signed new legislation on March 28, 1973 to authorize the death penalty for murder, rape and other offenses, and to implement trial procedures that conformed to the newly announced constitutional requirements. In 1976, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's new death penalty for murder. In the case of ''Coker v. Georgia'', the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional as applied to rape.

Many in America were outraged by William Calley's life sentence at Fort Benning for his role in the My Lai Massacre; Carter instituted "American Fighting Man's Day" and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on in support of Calley. Indiana's governor asked all state flags to be flown at half-staff for Calley, and Utah's and Mississippi's governors also disagreed with the verdict. Currently, Carter is known for his outspoken opposition to the death penalty in all forms; in his Nobel Prize lecture, he urged "prohibition of the death penalty".

United States Senate appointment

Richard Russell, Jr., then-President pro tempore of the United States Senate, died in office on January 21, 1971. Carter, only nine days into his governorship, appointed state Democratic Party chair David H. Gambrell to fill an unexpired Russell term in the Senate on February 1. Gambrell was defeated in the next Democratic primary by the more conservative Sam Nunn.

Other activities

In 1973, while Governor of Georgia, Carter filed a report on his 1969 UFO sighting with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City. In 2007, Carter stated that he did not remember why he filed the report and that he believes he probably only did it at the request of one of his children. He also stated he does not believe it was an alien spacecraft, but rather that it was likely some sort of military experiment being conducted from a nearby military base.

Carter made an appearance as the first guest of the evening on an episode of the game show ''What's My Line'' in 1974, signing in as "X", lest his name give away his occupation. After his job was identified on question seven of ten by Gene Shalit, he talked about having brought movie production to the state of Georgia, citing ''Deliverance'', and the then-unreleased ''The Longest Yard''.

In 1974, Carter was chairman of the Democratic National Committee's congressional, as well as gubernatorial, campaigns.

1976 presidential campaign

When Carter entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1976, he was considered to have little chance against nationally better-known politicians. He had a name recognition of only two percent. When he told his family of his intention to run for President, his mother asked, "President of what?" The Watergate scandal was still fresh in the voters' minds, and so his position as an outsider, distant from Washington, D.C., became an asset. The centerpiece of his campaign platform was government reorganization.

Carter became the front-runner early on by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He used a two-prong strategy: In the South, which most had tacitly conceded to Alabama's George Wallace, Carter ran as a moderate favorite son. When Wallace proved to be a spent force, Carter swept the region. In the North, Carter appealed largely to conservative Christian and rural voters and had little chance of winning a majority in most states. He won several Northern states by building the largest single bloc. Carter's strategy involved reaching a region before another candidate could extend influence there. He traveled over 50,000 miles, visited 37 states, and delivered over 200 speeches before any other candidates even announced that they were in the race. Initially dismissed as a regional candidate, Carter proved to be the only Democrat with a truly national strategy, and he eventually clinched the nomination.

The media discovered and promoted Carter, as Lawrence Shoup noted in his 1980 book ''The Carter Presidency and Beyond'':

Carter was interviewed by Robert Scheer of ''Playboy'' for its November 1976 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple of weeks before the election. It was here that in the course of a digression on his religion's view of pride, Carter admitted: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." He remains the only American president to be interviewed by this magazine.

As late as January 26, 1976, Carter was the first choice of only four percent of Democratic voters, according to a Gallup poll. Yet "by mid-March 1976 Carter was not only far ahead of the active contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he also led President Ford by a few percentage points", according to Shoup.

He chose Senator Walter F. Mondale as his running mate. He attacked Washington in his speeches, and offered a religious salve for the nation's wounds.

Carter began the race with a sizable lead over Ford, who was able to narrow the gap over the course of the campaign, but was unable to prevent Carter from narrowly defeating him on November 2, 1976. Carter won the popular vote by 50.1 percent to 48.0 percent for Ford and received 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. He became the first contender from the Deep South to be elected President since the 1848 election.

Presidency

Carter was elected over Gerald Ford in 1976. His tenure was a time of continuing inflation and recession, as well as an energy crisis. On January 7, 1980, Carter signed Law H.R. 5860 aka Public Law 96-185 known as ''The Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979'' bailing out Chrysler Corporation. He led the plan to deregulate the airline industry. He canceled military pay raises during a time of high inflation and government deficits. He declared amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers. He encouraged energy conservation, installed solar panels on the White House, and wore sweaters while turning down the heat. While attempting to calm various conflicts around the World, most visibly in the Middle East resulting in the signing of the Camp David Accords, giving back the Panama Canal and signing the SALT II nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the final year of his administration was marred by the Iran hostage crisis, which contributed to his losing his 1980 re-election campaign to Ronald Reagan

Carter wore a sweater on April 17, 1977 while delivering a televised "fireside chat" and declaring during the speech (with clenched his fist for dramatic effect) that the U.S. energy situation during the 1970s was the moral equivalent of war.

In 1978, Carter declared a federal emergency in the neighborhood of Love Canal in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. More than 800 families were evacuated from the neighborhood, which was built on top of a toxic waste landfill. The Superfund law was created in response to the situation. Federal disaster money was appropriated to demolish the approximately 500 houses, the 99th Street School, and the 93rd Street School, which were built on top of the dump and to remediate the dump and construct a containment area. This was the first time that such a thing had been done. He then said that there were several more "Love Canals" across the country, and that discovering such dumpsites was "one of the grimmest discoveries of our modern era".

During 1979, Carter deregulated the American beer industry by opening access of the home-brew market back up to the craft brewers, making it again legal to sell malt, hops, and yeast to American home brewers for the since the effective 1920 beginning of Prohibition in the United States.

One of Carter's most bitterly controversial decisions was his boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This marks the only time since the founding of the modern Olympics in 1896 that the United States has ever failed to participate in a Summer or Winter Olympics. The Soviet Union retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and did not withdraw troops from Afghanistan until 1989 (eight years after Carter left office).

Carter wrote that the most intense and mounting opposition to his policies came from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which he attributed to Ted Kennedy’s ambition to replace him as president. Kennedy, originally on board with Carter's health plan, pulled his support from that legislation in the late stages; Carter states that this was in anticipation of Kennedy's own candidacy, and when neither won, the tactic effectively delayed comprehensive health coverage for decades.

Carter's campaign for re-election in 1980 was one of the most difficult, and least successful, in history. He faced strong challenges from the right (Ronald Reagan), the center (John B. Anderson), and the left (Ted Kennedy). He had to run against his own "stagflation"-ridden economy. He alienated liberal college students, who should have been his base, by re-instating registration for the draft. He was defeated by Ronald Reagan.

Post-Presidency

In 1981, Carter returned to Georgia to his peanut farm, which he had placed into a blind trust during his presidency to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. He found that the trustees had mismanaged the trust, leaving him over one million dollars in debt. In the years that followed, he has led an active life, establishing The Carter Center, building his presidential library, teaching at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and writing numerous books.

Legacy

}} When he first left office, Carter's presidency was viewed by some as a failure. In historical rankings of US presidents, the Carter presidency has ranged from #19 to #34. Although Carter's presidency received mixed reviews from some historians, his all-around peace keeping and humanitarian efforts since he left office have led him to be widely renowned as one of the most successful ex-presidents in US history.

Although Carter has also received mixed reviews in both television and film documentaries, such as the ''Man from Plains'' (2007), the 2009 documentary, ''Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace'', credits Carter's efforts at Camp David, which brought peace between Israel and Egypt, with bringing the only meaningful peace to the Middle East. The film opened the 2009 Monte-Carlo Television Festival in an invitation-only royal screening on June 7, 2009 at the Grimaldi Forum in the presence of Albert II, Prince of Monaco.

Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On December 11, 2006, they had been out of office for 25 years and 325 days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826.

Jimmy Carter is one of only four presidents, and the only one in modern history, who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court. He was the only president out of the four to have served at least a full four years in office. The other three are William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Andrew Johnson.

Public image

The Independent writes, "Carter is widely considered a better man than he was a president." While he began his term with a 66% approval rating, this had dropped to 34% approval by the time he left office, with 55% disapproving.

Much of this image in the public eye results from the Presidents proximate to him in history. In the wake of Nixon's Watergate Scandal, exit polls from the 1976 Presidential election suggested that many still held Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon against him, and Carter by comparison seemed a sincere, honest, and well-meaning Southerner.

Carter's administration suffered from his inexperience in politics: Carter paid too much attention to detail, was quick to retreat when under fire from political rivals, he frequently appeared to be indecisive and ineffective, and did not define his priorities clearly. He seemed uninterested in working with other groups, or even with Congress controlled by his own party, which he denounced for being controlled by special interest groups. Though he made efforts to address many of these issues in 1978, the approval he won from his reforms did not last long.

When Carter ran for reelection, Ronald Reagan's nonchalant self-confidence contrasted to Carter's serious and introspective temperament. Carter's personal attention to detail, his pessimistic attitude, seeming indecisiveness and weakness with people was also accentuated by Reagan's charm and easy delegation of tasks to subordinates. Ultimately, the combination of the economic problems, Iran hostage crisis, and lack of Washington cooperation made it easy for Reagan to portray him as a weak and ineffectual leader, causing Carter to become the first president since 1932 to lose a reelection bid, and his presidency was largely considered a failure.

Notwithstanding perceptions while Carter was in office, his reputation has much improved. Carter's presidential approval rating, which sat at 31% just prior to the 1980 election, was polled in early 2009 at 64%. Carter's continued post-Presidency activities have also been favorably received. Carter explains that a great deal of this change was owed to Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, who actively sought him out and was far more courteous and interested in his advice than Reagan had been.

Carter Center

As President, Carter expressed a goal of making government "competent and compassionate." In pursuit of that vision, he has been involved in a variety of national and international public policy, conflict resolution, human rights and charitable causes.

In 1982, he established The Carter Center in Atlanta to advance human rights and alleviate unnecessary human suffering. The non-profit, nongovernmental Center promotes democracy, mediates and prevents conflicts, and monitors the electoral process in support of free and fair elections. It also works to improve global health through the control and eradication of diseases such as Guinea worm disease, river blindness, malaria, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. It also works to diminish the stigma of mental illnesses and improve nutrition through increased crop production in Africa. A major accomplishment of The Carter Center has been the elimination of more than 99% of cases of Guinea worm disease, a debilitating parasite that has existed since ancient times, from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to 3,190 reported cases in 2009. The Carter Center has monitored 81 elections in 33 countries since 1989. It has worked to resolve conflicts in Haiti, Bosnia, Ethiopia, North Korea, Sudan and other countries. Carter and the Center actively support human rights defenders around the world and have intervened with heads of state on their behalf.

Nobel Peace Prize

In 2002, President Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work "to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development" through The Carter Center. Three sitting presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama, have received the prize; Carter is unique in receiving the award for his actions after leaving the presidency. He is, along with Martin Luther King, Jr., one of only two native Georgians to receive the Nobel.

Diplomacy

North Korea

In 1994, North Korea had expelled investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency and was threatening to begin processing spent nuclear fuel. In response, then-President Clinton pressured for US sanctions and ordered large amounts of troops and vehicles into the area to brace for war.

Bill Clinton secretly recruited Carter to undertake a peace mission to North Korea, under the guise that it was a private mission of Carter's. Clinton saw Carter as a way to let North Korean President Kim Il-sung back down without losing face.

Carter negotiated an understanding with Kim Il-sung, but went further and outlined a treaty, which he announced on CNN without the permission of the Clinton White House as a way to force the US into action. The Clinton Administration signed a later version of the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle its current nuclear program and comply with its nonproliferation obligations in exchange for oil deliveries, the construction of two light water reactors to replace its graphite reactors, and discussions for eventual diplomatic relations.

The agreement was widely hailed at the time as a significant diplomatic achievement. In December 2002, the Agreed Framework collapsed as a result of a dispute between the George W. Bush Administration and the North Korean government of Kim Jong-il. In 2001, Bush had taken a confrontational position toward North Korea and, in January 2002, named it as part of an "Axis of Evil". Meanwhile, North Korea began developing the capability to enrich uranium. Bush Administration opponents of the Agreed Framework believed that the North Korean government never intended to give up a nuclear weapons program, but supporters believed that the agreement could have been successful and was undermined.

In August 2010, Carter traveled to North Korea in an attempt to secure the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes. Gomes, a U.S. citizen, was sentenced to eight years of hard labor after being found guilty of illegally entering North Korea. Carter successfully secured the release.

Middle East

Carter and experts from The Carter Center assisted unofficial Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in designing a model agreement for peace–-called the Geneva Accord–-in 2002–2003.

Carter has also in recent years become a frequent critic of Israel's policies in Lebanon, West Bank, and Gaza.

In 2006, at the UK Hay Festival, Carter stated that Israel has at least 150 nuclear weapons. He expressed his support for Israel as a country, but criticized its domestic and foreign policy; "One of the greatest human rights crimes on earth is the starvation and imprisonment of 1.6m Palestinians," said Carter.

He mentioned statistics showing nutritional intake of some Palestinian children was below that of the children of Sub-Saharan Africa and described the European position on Israel as "supine".

In April 2008, the London-based Arabic newspaper ''Al-Hayat'' reported that Carter met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on his visit to Syria. The Carter Center initially did not confirm nor deny the story. The US State Department considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Within this Mid-East trip, Carter also laid a wreath on the grave of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on April 14, 2008. Carter said on April 23 that neither Condoleezza Rice nor anyone else in the State Department had warned him against meeting with Hamas leaders during his trip. Carter spoke to Mashaal on several matters, including "formulas for prisoner exchange to obtain the release of Corporal Shalit."

In May 2007, while arguing that the United States should directly talk to Iran, Carter again stated that Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal.

In December 2008, Carter visited Damascus again, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, and the Hamas leadership. During his visit he gave an exclusive interview to Forward Magazine, the first ever interview for any American president, current or former, with a Syrian media outlet.

Carter visited with three officials from Hamas who have been living at the International Red Cross office in Jerusalem since July 2010. Israel believes that these three Hamas legislators had a role in the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and has a deportation order set for them.

Africa

Carter held summits in Egypt and Tunisia in 1995–1996 to address violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Carter played a key role in negotiation of the Nairobi Agreement in 1999 between Sudan and Uganda.

On July 18, 2007, Carter joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, to announce his participation in a new humanitarian organization called The Elders. In October 2007, Carter toured Darfur with several of The Elders, including Desmond Tutu. Sudanese security prevented him from visiting a Darfuri tribal leader, leading to a heated exchange.

On June 18, 2007, Carter, accompanied by his wife, arrived in Dublin, Ireland, for talks with President Mary McAleese and Bertie Ahern concerning human rights. On June 19, Carter attended and spoke at the annual Human Rights Forum at Croke Park. An agreement between Irish Aid and The Carter Center was also signed on this day.

In November 2008, President Carter, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Graca Machel, wife of Nelson Mandela, were stopped from entering Zimbabwe, to inspect the human rights situation, by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Americas

Carter led a mission to Haiti in 1994 with Senator Sam Nunn and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell to avert a US-led multinational invasion and restore to power Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Carter visited Cuba in May 2002 and had full discussions with Fidel Castro and the Cuban government. He was allowed to address the Cuban public uncensored on national television and radio with a speech that he wrote and presented in Spanish. In the speech, he called on the US to end "an ineffective 43-year-old economic embargo" and on Castro to hold free elections, improve human rights, and allow greater civil liberties. He met with political dissidents; visited the AIDS sanitarium, a medical school, a biotech facility, an agricultural production cooperative, and a school for disabled children; and threw a pitch for an all-star baseball game in Havana. The visit made Carter the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban revolution of 1959.

Carter observed the Venezuela recall elections on August 15, 2004. European Union observers had declined to participate, saying too many restrictions were put on them by the Hugo Chávez administration. A record number of voters turned out to defeat the recall attempt with a 59% "no" vote. The Carter Center stated that the process "suffered from numerous irregularities," but said it did not observe or receive "evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the vote". On the afternoon of August 16, 2004, the day after the vote, Carter and Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General César Gaviria gave a joint press conference in which they endorsed the preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Council. The monitors' findings "coincided with the partial returns announced today by the National Elections Council," said Carter, while Gaviria added that the OAS electoral observation mission's members had "found no element of fraud in the process." Directing his remarks at opposition figures who made claims of "widespread fraud" in the voting, Carter called on all Venezuelans to "accept the results and work together for the future". A Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) exit poll had predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%; when the election results showed him to have won by 20%, Schoen commented, "I think it was a massive fraud". ''US News and World Report'' offered an analysis of the polls, indicating "very good reason to believe that the [Penn, Schoen & Berland] exit poll had the result right, and that Chávez's election officials and Carter and the American media got it wrong." The exit poll and the government's programming of election machines became the basis of claims of election fraud. An Associated Press report states that Penn, Schoen & Berland used volunteers from pro-recall organization Súmate for fieldwork, and its results contradicted five other opposition exit polls.

Following Ecuador's severing of ties with Colombia in March 2008, Carter brokered a deal for agreement between the countries' respective presidents on the restoration of low-level diplomatic relations announced June 8, 2008.

Vietnam

On November 18, 2009, Carter visited Vietnam to build houses for the poor. The one-week program, known as Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2009, built 32 houses in Dong Xa village, in the northern province of Hai Duong. The project launch was scheduled for November 14, according to the news source which quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga. Administered by the non-governmental and non-profit Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), the annual program of 2009 would build and repair 166 homes in Vietnam and some other Asian countries with the support of nearly 3,000 volunteers around the world, the organization said on its website. HFHI has worked in Vietnam since 2001 to provide low-cost housing, water, and sanitation solutions for the poor. It has worked in provinces like Tien Giang and Dong Nai as well as Ho Chi Minh City.

Criticism of US policy

In 2001, Carter criticized President Bill Clinton's controversial pardon of Marc Rich, calling it "disgraceful" and suggesting that Rich's financial contributions to the Democratic Party were a factor in Clinton's action.

Carter has also criticized the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War. In a 2003 ''New York Times'' editorial, Carter warned against the consequences of a war in Iraq and urged restraint in use of military force. In March 2004, Carter condemned George W. Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war "based upon lies and misinterpretations" to oust Saddam Hussein. In August 2006, Carter criticized Blair for being "subservient" to the Bush administration and accused Blair of giving unquestioning support to Bush's Iraq policies. In a May 2007 interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, he said, "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," when it comes to foreign affairs. Two days after the quote was published, Carter told NBC's Today that the "worst in history" comment was "careless or misinterpreted," and that he "wasn't comparing this administration with other administrations back through history, but just with President Nixon's." The day after the "worst in history" comment was published, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that Carter had become "increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments."

On May 19, 2007, Mr. Blair made his final visit to Iraq before stepping down as British Prime Minister, and Carter used the occasion to criticize him once again. Carter told the BBC that Blair was "apparently subservient" to Bush and criticized him for his "blind support" for the Iraq war. Carter described Blair's actions as "abominable" and stated that the British Prime Minister's "almost undeviating support for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world." Carter said he believes that had Blair distanced himself from the Bush administration during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it might have made a crucial difference to American political and public opinion, and consequently the invasion might not have gone ahead. Carter states that "one of the defenses of the Bush administration ... has been, okay, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us. So I think the combination of Bush and Blair giving their support to this tragedy in Iraq has strengthened the effort and has made the opposition less effective, and prolonged the war and increased the tragedy that has resulted." Carter expressed his hope that Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, would be "less enthusiastic" about Bush's Iraq policy.

In June 2005, Carter urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba, which has been a focal point for recent claims of prisoner abuse.

In September 2006, Carter was interviewed on the BBC's current affairs program ''Newsnight'', voicing his concern at the increasing influence of the Religious Right on US politics.

Due to his status as former President, Carter was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Carter announced his endorsement of Senator (now president) Barack Obama. This occurred on June 3, 2008, near the end of the primary season.

Speaking to the English Monthly Forward magazine of Syria, Carter was asked to give one word that came to mind when mentioning President George W. Bush. His answer was: the end of a very disappointing administration. His reaction to mentioning Barack Obama was: honesty, intelligence, and politically adept.

In 2009 he put weight behind allegations by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, pertaining to United States involvement in the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt by a civilian-military junta, saying that Washington knew about the coup and may have taken part.

Death penalty

Carter continues to speak out against the death penalty in the US and abroad. Most recently, in his letter to the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, Carter urged him to sign a bill to eliminate the death penalty and institute life in prison without parole instead. The bill has already been passed by the state House and Senate. Carter wrote: ''As you know, the United States is one of the few countries, along with nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba, which still carry out the death penalty despite the ongoing tragedy of wrongful conviction and gross racial and class-based disparities that make impossible the fair implementation of this ultimate punishment''.

Carter also called for commutations of death sentences for many death-row inmates, including Brian K. Baldwin (executed in 1999 in Alabama), Kenneth Foster (sentence in Texas commuted in 2007) and Troy Anthony Davis (Georgia, case pending).

Torture

In a 2008 interview with Amnesty International, Carter criticized the alleged use of torture at Guantanamo Bay, saying that it "contravenes the basic principles on which this nation was founded." He stated that the next President should publicly apologize upon his inauguration, and state that the United States will "never again torture prisoners."

Author

Carter has been a prolific author in his post-presidency, writing 21 of his 23 books. Among these is one he co-wrote with his wife, Rosalynn, and a children's book illustrated by his daughter, Amy. They cover a variety of topics, including humanitarian work, aging, religion, human rights, and poetry.

''Palestine Peace Not Apartheid''

In a 2007 speech to Brandeis University, Carter stated: "I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, based on justice and righteousness for the Palestinians. These are the underlying purposes of my new book."

In his book ''Palestine Peace Not Apartheid'', published in November 2006, Carter states: He declares that Israel's current policies in the Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights." In an Op-Ed titled "Speaking Frankly about Israel and Palestine," published in the ''Los Angeles Times'' and other newspapers, Carter states: While somesuch as a former Special Rapporteur for both the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission, as well as a member of the Israeli Knessethave praised Carter for speaking frankly about Palestinians in Israeli occupied lands, othersincluding the envoy to the Middle East under Clinton, as well as the first director of the Carter Centerhave accused him of anti-Israeli bias. Specifically, these critics have alleged significant factual errors, omissions and misstatements in the book.

The 2007 documentary film, ''Man from Plains'', follows President Carter during his tour for the controversial book and other humanitarian efforts.

In December 2009, Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often tense relationship. He said he was offering an ''Al Het'', a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Involvement with Bank of Credit and Commerce International

After Carter left the presidency, his interest in the developing countries led him to having a close relationship with Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder of Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Abedi was a Pakistani, whose bank had offices and business in a large number of developing countries. He was introduced to Carter in 1982 by Bert Lance, one of Carter's closest friends. (Unknown to Carter, BCCI had secretly purchased an interest in 1978 in National Bank of Georgia, which had previously been run by Lance and had made loans to Carter's peanut business.) Abedi made generous donations to the Carter Center and the Global 2000 Project. Abedi also traveled with Carter to at least seven countries in connection with Carter's charitable activities. The main purpose of Abedi's association with Carter was not charitable activities, but to enhance BCCI's influence, in order to open more offices and develop more business. In 1991, BCCI was seized by regulators, amid allegations of criminal activities, including illegally having control of several U.S. banks. Just prior to the seizure, Carter began to disassociate himself from Abedi and the bank.

Faith, family, and community

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are also well known for their work as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based philanthropy that helps low-income working people to build and buy their own homes.

He teaches Sunday school and is a deacon in the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. In 2000, Carter severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, saying the group's doctrines did not align with his Christian beliefs. In April 2006, Carter, former-President Bill Clinton and Mercer University President Bill Underwood initiated the New Baptist Covenant. The broadly inclusive movement seeks to unite Baptists of all races, cultures and convention affiliations. Eighteen Baptist leaders representing more than 20 million Baptists across North America backed the group as an alternative to the Southern Baptist Convention. The group held its first meeting in Atlanta, January 30 through February 1, 2008.

Carter's hobbies include painting, fly-fishing, woodworking, cycling, tennis, and skiing.

The Carters have three sons, one daughter, eight grandsons, three granddaughters, and two great-grandsons. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in July 2011, making them the second-longest wed Presidential couple after George and Barbara Bush, a position they have held since passing John and Abigail Adams on July 10, 2000. Their eldest son Jack was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada in 2006, losing to incumbent John Ensign. Jack's son Jason was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 2010.

Honors and awards

Carter has received honorary degrees from many American and foreign colleges and universities. They include:

LL.D. (''honoris causa'') Morehouse College, 1972; Morris Brown College, 1972; University of Notre Dame, 1977; Emory University, 1979; Kwansei Gakuin University, 1981; Georgia Southwestern College, 1981; New York Law School, 1985; Bates College, 1985; Centre College, 1987; Creighton University, 1987; University of Pennsylvania, 1998

D.E. (''honoris causa'') Georgia Institute of Technology, 1979

PhD (''honoris causa'') Weizmann Institute of Science, 1980; Tel Aviv University, 1983; University of Haifa, 1987

D.H.L. (''honoris causa'') Central Connecticut State University, 1985; Trinity College, 1998; Hoseo University, 1998

Doctor (''honoris causa'') G.O.C. University, 1995; University of Juba, 2002

Honorary Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 2007

Honorary Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford, 2007

Among the honors Carter has received are the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Others include:

Freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 1977

Silver Buffalo Award, Boy Scouts of America, 1978

Gold medal, International Institute for Human Rights, 1979

International Mediation medal, American Arbitration Association, 1979

Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize, 1979

International Human Rights Award, Synagogue Council of America, 1979

Conservationist of the Year Award, 1979

Harry S. Truman Public Service Award, 1981

Ansel Adams Conservation Award, Wilderness Society, 1982

Human Rights Award, International League of Human Rights, 1983

World Methodist Peace Award, 1985

Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, 1987

Edwin C. Whitehead Award, National Center for Health Education, 1989

Jefferson Award, American Institute of Public Service, 1990

Liberty Medal, National Constitution Center, 1990

Spirit of America Award, National Council for the Social Studies, 1990

Physicians for Social Responsibility Award, 1991

Aristotle Prize, Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, 1991

W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, 1992

Spark M. Matsunaga Medal of Peace, US Institute of Peace, 1993

Humanitarian Award, CARE International, 1993

Conservationist of the Year Medal, National Wildlife Federation, 1993

Rotary Award for World Understanding, 1994

J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, 1994

National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award, 1994

UNESCO Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, 1994

Great Cross of the Order of Vasco Nunéz de Balboa, Panama, 1995

Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Award, Africare, 1996

Humanitarian of the Year, GQ Awards, 1996

Kiwanis International Humanitarian Award, 1996

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, 1997

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Awards for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, 1997

United Nations Human Rights Award, 1998

The Hoover Medal, 1998

The Delta Prize for Global Understanding, University of Georgia, 1999

International Child Survival Award, UNICEF Atlanta, 1999

William Penn Mott, Jr., Park Leadership Award, National Parks Conservation Association, 2000

Zayed International Prize for the Environment, 2001

Jonathan M. Daniels Humanitarian Award, VMI, 2001

Herbert Hoover Humanitarian Award, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 2001

Christopher Award, 2002

Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, 2007

Berkeley Medal, University of California campus, May 2, 2007

International Award for Excellence and Creativity, Palestinian Authority, 2009

Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award, Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, James Madison University (to be awarded September 21, 2009, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and to be shared with his wife, Rosalynn Carter)

Recipient of 2009 American Peace Award along with Rosalynn Carter

International Catalonia Award 2010

In 1998, the US Navy named the third and last Seawolf-class submarine honoring former President Carter and his service as a submariner officer. It became one of the first US Navy vessels to be named for a person living at the time of naming.

World Justice Project

President Jimmy Carter serves as an Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

Participation in ceremonial events

Carter has participated in many ceremonial events such as the opening of his own presidential library and those of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. He has also participated in many forums, lectures, panels, funerals and other events. Carter delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Coretta Scott King and, most recently, at the funeral of his former political rival, but later his close, personal friend and diplomatic collaborator, Gerald Ford.

Race in politics

Carter ignited debate in September 2009 when he stated, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is African-American." Obama disagreed with Carter's assessment. On CNN Obama stated, "Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are...that's not the overriding issue here."

Funeral and burial plans

Carter intends to be buried in front of his home in Plains, Georgia. In contrast, most Presidents since Herbert Hoover have been buried at their presidential library or presidential museum, with the exception of John F. Kennedy, who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who is buried at his own ranch. Both President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were born in Plains. Carter also noted that a funeral in Washington, D.C. with visitation at the Carter Center is being planned as well.

See also

Electoral history of Jimmy Carter

Jack Carter (politician) (born 1947; eldest son of former US President Jimmy Carter)

Jason Carter (politician)

Raymond Lee Harvey assassination conspirator

Jimmy Carter rabbit incident

History of the United States (1964-1980)

History of the United States (1980-1988)

References

Further reading

Primary sources

Califano, Joseph A., Jr. ''Governing America: An insider's report from the White House and the Cabinet''. 1981

Jordan, Hamilton. ''Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency''. 1982

Lance, Bert. ''The Truth of the Matter: My Life in and out of Politics''. 1991

External links

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum

The Carter Center: Advancing Human Rights and Alleviating Suffering

Oral History Interview with Jimmy Carter from Oral Histories of the American South

PBS American Experience Video Biography of Jimmy Carter

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation

Text and Audio of Carter's Crisis of Confidence (Malaise) Speech

Text and Notes to Carter's Undelivered Energy Speech

Simon & Schuster Audio homepage for Jimmy Carter

Interpretive essay in New Georgia Encyclopedia

Website about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

Jimmy Carter's Visit to Cuba – May 12–17, 2002

Extensive essay on Jimmy Carter and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Wit and Wisdom of Jimmy Carter – slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Extensive collection of Oral History Transcripts on the Carter Administration from the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)

Oral History Interview with President Jimmy Carter, May 4, 1993 Georgia's Political Heritage Program, Digital Library of Georgia

Biographical pages

Biography, via whitehouse.gov

Biography, via Britannica.com – Jimmy Carter

Biography via ourgeorgiahistory.com

Navy Years, via submarinehistory.com

Other links

Interview about the SALT II negotiations for the WGBH series

War and Peace in the Nuclear Age

Inaugural Address of Jimmy Carter via re-quest.net

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jimmy Carter

State of the Union Addresses: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 (written message) at UCSB's American Presidency Project

Audio recordings of Carter's speeches, via Michigan State University

Nobel lecture, Oslo, Norway (December 10, 2002)

* Nobel Prize for Carter

About the malaise speech, via PBS

* The malaise speech text, via PBS

The 1980 October Surprise

about Carterpuri, a village in Haryana, India named after President Carter">"The US President was here" about Carterpuri, a village in Haryana, India named after President Carter

Instruments of Statecraft: US Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940–1990 Chap. 3 The Carter Years

Korea Society Podcast: A Moment of Crisis: Jimmy Carter's 1994 Mission to Pyongyang

Jimmy Carter's thoughts on Earth Day 2006

Jimmy Carter's op/ed commentaries for Project Syndicate

Interview with Jimmy Carter (August 2006)

Interview with Jimmy Carter on Current Campaign (April 2007)

Interview with Jimmy Carter (April 2007) on Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett

Jimmy Carter on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

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Coordinates	52°0′54″N4°21′24″N
Name	Gerald Ford
Alt	President Gerald Ford, arms folded, in front of a United States Flag and the Presidential seal.
Office	38th President of the United States
Vicepresident	Nelson Rockefeller
Term start	August 9, 1974
Term end	January 20, 1977
Predecessor	Richard Nixon
Successor	Jimmy Carter
Office2	40th Vice President of the United States
President2	Richard Nixon
Term start2	December 6, 1973
Term end2	August 9, 1974
Predecessor2	Spiro Agnew
Successor2	Nelson Rockefeller
Office3	16th United States Minority Leader of the House of Representatives
Deputy3	Leslie Arends
Term start3	January 3, 1965
Term end3	December 6, 1973
Predecessor3	Charles Halleck
Successor3	John Rhodes
State4	Michigan
District4	5th
Term start4	January 3, 1949
Term end4	December 6, 1973
Predecessor4	Bartel Jonkman
Successor4	Richard Vander Veen
Birth date	July 14, 1913
Birth name	Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
Birth place	Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Death date	December 26, 2006
Death place	Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Party	Republican Party
Spouse	Betty Bloomer (1948–2006)
Children	MichaelJohnStevenSusan
Alma mater	University of MichiganYale Law School
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Episcopal
Signature	Gerald Ford Signature.svg
Signature alt	Gerald R. Ford
Branch	United States Navy
Rank	Lieutenant Commander
Serviceyears	1942–1946
Battles	World War II
Awards	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign MedalAmerican Campaign MedalWorld War II Victory Medal }}

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. As the first person appointed to the vice-presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment (after Spiro Agnew had resigned), when he became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, he became the only President of the United States who was never elected President nor Vice-President. Before ascending to the vice-presidency, Ford served nearly 25 years as the Representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district, eight of them as the Republican Minority Leader.

As President, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, marking a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in Vietnam essentially ended. Domestically, Ford presided over arguably the worst economy since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. One of his more controversial acts was to grant a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. During Ford's incumbency, foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the President. In 1976, Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party. After experiencing health problems and being admitted to the hospital four times in 2006, Ford died in his home on December 26, 2006. He lived longer than any other U.S. president, dying at 93 years and 165 days.

Early life

Childhood

Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. His mother was Dorothy Ayer Gardner, and his father was Leslie Lynch King, Sr., a wool trader and son of prominent banker Charles Henry King and Martha King. Dorothy separated from King just sixteen days after her son's birth. She took her son with her to the Oak Park, Illinois home of her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law, Clarence Haskins James. From there, she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and Adele Augusta Ayer in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dorothy and King divorced in December 1913; she gained full custody of her son. Ford's paternal grandfather Charles Henry King paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.

Ford later said his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. James M. Cannon, a member of the Ford administration, wrote in a Ford biography that the Kings' separation and divorce were sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King threatened Dorothy with a butcher knife and threatened to kill her, Ford, and Ford's nursemaid. Ford later told confidantes that his father had first hit his mother on their honeymoon for smiling at another man.

After two and a half years with her parents, on February 1, 1916, Dorothy married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company. They then called her son ''Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr.'' The future president was never formally adopted, however, and he did not legally change his name until December 3, 1935; he also used a more conventional spelling of his middle name. He was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half brothers by his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison Ford (born 1924), and James Francis Ford (1927–2001).

Ford also had three half-siblings from his father's second marriage: Marjorie King (1921–1993), Leslie Henry King (1923–1976), and Patricia Jane King (born 1925). They never saw one another as children and he did not know them at all. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth. That year his father Leslie King, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King, Sr.'s death.

Ford maintained his distance emotionally, saying, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."

Scouting and athletics

Ford was involved in The Boy Scouts of America, and earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. In later years, Ford received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in May 1970 and Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He is the only U.S. president who was an Eagle Scout. Scouting was so important to Ford that his family asked that Scouts participate in his funeral. About 400 Eagle Scouts were part of the funeral procession, where they formed an honor guard as the casket went by in front of the museum. A few selected scouts served as ushers inside the National Cathedral.

Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School and was a star athlete and captain of his football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League. He also attracted the attention of college recruiters.

Attending the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, Ford played center and linebacker for the school's football team and helped the Wolverines to undefeated seasons and national titles in 1932 and 1933. The team suffered a steep decline in his 1934 senior year, however, winning only one game. Ford was the team's star nonetheless, and after a game during which Michigan held heavily favored Minnesota (the eventual national champion) to a scoreless tie in the first half, assistant coach Bennie Oosterbaan later said, "When I walked into the dressing room at half time, I had tears in my eyes I was so proud of them. Ford and [Cedric] Sweet played their hearts out. They were everywhere on defense." Ford later recalled, "During 25 years in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, I often thought of the experiences before, during, and after that game in 1934. Remembering them has helped me many times to face a tough situation, take action, and make every effort possible despite adverse odds." His teammates later voted Ford their most valuable player, with one assistant coach noting, "They felt Jerry was one guy who would stay and fight in a losing cause."

During the same season, in a game against the University of Chicago, Ford "became the only future U.S. president to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down running back Jay Berwanger, who would win the first Heisman the following year." In 1934, Ford was selected for the Eastern Team on the Shriner's East West Crippled Children game at San Francisco (a benefit for crippled children), played on January 1, 1935. As part of the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team, Ford played against the Chicago Bears in an exhibition game at Soldier Field. By virtue of Ford's later career as President of the United States, the University of Michigan retired Ford's No.48 jersey in 1994.

Ford remained interested in football and his school throughout life, occasionally attending games. Ford also visited with players and coaches during practices, at one point asking to join the players in the huddle. Ford often had the Naval band play the University of Michigan fight song, ''The Victors'', before state events instead of ''Hail to the Chief''. He also selected the song to be played during his funeral procession at the U.S. Capitol. On his death in December 2006, the University of Michigan Marching Band played the fight song for him one final time, for his last ride from the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Ford was also an avid golfer. In 1977, he shot a hole in one during a Pro-am held in conjunction with the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at Colonial Country Club in Memphis, Tennessee. He received the 1985 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor.

Education

At Michigan, Ford became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Omicron chapter) and washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money for college expenses. Following his graduation in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, he turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League to take a coaching position at Yale and apply to its law school. Ford continued to contribute to football and boxing, accepting an assistant coaching job for both at Yale in September 1935.

Ford hoped to attend Yale's law school beginning in 1935 while serving as boxing coach and assistant varsity football coach. Yale officials at first denied his admission to the law school, because of his full-time coaching responsibilities. He spent the summer of 1937 as a student at the University of Michigan Law School and was eventually admitted in spring 1938 to Yale Law School. Ford earned his LL.B. degree in 1941 (later amended to Juris Doctor), graduating in the top 25 percent of his class. His introduction to politics came in the summer of 1940 when he worked in Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign. While attending Yale Law School, he joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for the America First Committee, a group determined to keep the U.S. out of World War II.

Ford graduated from law school in 1941, and was admitted to the Michigan bar shortly thereafter. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip Buchen, who would later serve as Ford's White House counsel. But overseas developments caused a change in plans, and Ford responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor by enlisting in the Navy.

Naval service in World War II

Ford received a commission as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 13, 1942. On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary navigation skills, ordnance, gunnery, first aid and military drill. In addition, he coached in all nine sports that were offered, but mostly in swimming, boxing and football. During the one year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on June 2, 1942, and to Lieutenant in March 1943.

Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier , at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. From the ship's commissioning on June 17, 1943, until the end of December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board the ''Monterey''. While he was on board, the carrier participated in many actions in the Pacific Theater with the Third and Fifth Fleets in late 1943 and 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, New Ireland in 1943. During the spring of 1944, the ''Monterey'' supported landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participated in carrier strikes in the Marianas, Western Carolines, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After overhaul, from September to November 1944, aircraft from the ''Monterey'' launched strikes against Wake Island, participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukyus, and supported the landings at Leyte and Mindoro.

Although the ship was not damaged by Japanese forces, the ''Monterey'' was one of several ships damaged by the typhoon that hit Admiral William Halsey's Third Fleet on December 18–19, 1944. The Third Fleet lost three destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. The ''Monterey'' was damaged by a fire, which was started by several of the ship's aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding on the hangar deck. During the storm, Ford narrowly avoided becoming a casualty himself. As he was going to his battle station on the bridge of the ship in the early morning of December 18, the ship rolled twenty-five degrees, which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge of the deck. The two-inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier slowed him enough so he could roll, and he twisted into the catwalk below the deck. As he later stated, "I was lucky; I could have easily gone overboard."

Because of the extent of the fires, Admiral Halsey ordered Captain Ingersoll to abandon ship. Instead Captain Ingersoll ordered Ford to lead a fire brigade below. After five hours he and his team had put out the fire.

After the fire the ''Monterey'' was declared unfit for service, and the crippled carrier reached Ulithi on December 21 before continuing across the Pacific to Bremerton, Washington where it underwent repairs. On December 24, 1944, at Ulithi, Ford was detached from the ship and sent to the Navy Pre-Flight School at Saint Mary's College of California, where he was assigned to the Athletic Department until April 1945. One of his duties was to coach football. From the end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois as the Staff Physical and Military Training Officer. On October 3, 1945, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January 1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Great Lakes to be processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable conditions on February 23, 1946. On June 28, 1946, the Secretary of the Navy accepted Ford's resignation from the Naval Reserve.

For his naval service, Gerald Ford earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the Gilbert Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Marshall Islands, Asiatic and Pacific carrier raids, Hollandia, Marianas, Western Carolines, Western New Guinea, and the Leyte Operation. He also received the Philippine Liberation Medal with two bronze stars for Leyte and Mindoro, as well as the American Campaign and World War II Victory Medals.

Ford was a member of several civic organizations, including the American Legion, AMVETS, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Sons of the Revolution, and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Gerald R. Ford was initiated into Freemasonry on September 30, 1949. He later said in 1975, "When I took my obligation as a master mason—incidentally, with my three younger brothers—I recalled the value my own father attached to that order. But I had no idea that I would ever be added to the company of the Father of our Country and 12 other members of the order who also served as Presidents of the United States."

Marriage and children

On October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Ford married Elizabeth Bloomer Warren (1918–2011), a department store fashion consultant. Warren had been a John Robert Powers fashion model and a dancer in the auxiliary troupe of the Martha Graham Dance Company. She had previously been married to and divorced from William G. Warren.

At the time of his engagement, Ford was campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. The wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, as ''The New York Times'' reported in a 1974 profile of Betty Ford, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."

The couple had four children:

Michael Gerald, born in 1950

John Gardner, known as Jack, born in 1952

Steven Meigs, born in 1956

Susan Elizabeth, born in 1957

House of Representatives

After returning to Grand Rapids, Ford became active in local Republican politics, and supporters urged him to take on Bartel J. Jonkman, the incumbent Republican congressman. Military service had changed his view of the world; "I came back a converted internationalist", Ford wrote, "and of course our congressman at that time was an avowed, dedicated isolationist. And I thought he ought to be replaced. Nobody thought I could win. I ended up winning two to one." During his first campaign in 1948, Ford visited voters at their doorsteps and as they left the factories where they worked. Ford also visited local farms where, in one instance, a wager resulted in Ford spending two weeks milking cows following his election victory. Ford was known to his colleagues in the House as a "Congressman's Congressman".

Ford was a member of the House of Representatives for twenty-five years, holding the Grand Rapids congressional district seat from 1949 to 1973. It was a tenure largely notable for its modesty. As an editorial in ''The New York Times'' described him, Ford "saw himself as a negotiator and a reconciler, and the record shows it: he did not write a single piece of major legislation in his entire career". Appointed to the House Appropriations Committee two years after being elected, he was a prominent member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Ford described his philosophy as "a moderate in domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in fiscal policy".

In the early 1950s, Ford declined offers to run for both the Senate and the Michigan governorship. Rather, his ambition was to become Speaker of the House.

Warren Commission

In November 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission, a special task force set up to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ford was assigned to prepare a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin. The Commission's work continues to be debated in the public arena.

In the preface to his book, ''A Presidential Legacy and The Warren Commission'', Ford said the CIA destroyed or kept from investigators critical secrets connected to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He said the commission's probe put "certain classified and potentially damaging operations in danger of being exposed". The CIA's reaction, he added, "was to hide or destroy some information, which can easily be misinterpreted as collusion in JFK's assassination".

According to a 1963 FBI memo released in 2008, Ford secretly provided the FBI with information about two of his fellow commission members, both of whom were doubtful about the FBI's conclusions about the assassination. The FBI position was that President Kennedy was shot by a single gunman firing from the Texas Book Depository. Another 1963 memo released in 1978 stated that Representative Ford volunteered to advise the FBI regarding the content of the commission's deliberations if his involvement with the bureau was kept confidential, a condition which the bureau approved. Ford was an outspoken proponent of the single-assassin theory. According to the same reports, Ford had strong ties to the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover.

House Minority Leader

In 1964, Democratic President Lyndon Johnson led a landslide victory for his party, securing another term as president and taking 36 seats from Republicans in the House of Representatives. Following the election, members of the Republican caucus looked to select a new Minority Leader. Three members approached Ford to see if he would be willing to serve; after consulting with his family, he agreed. After a closely contested election, Ford was chosen to replace Charles Halleck of Indiana as Minority Leader.

The Republicans had 140 seats in the House compared with the 295 seats held by the Democrats. Consequently, the Johnson Administration proposed and passed a series of programs termed by President Johnson as the "Great Society". During the first session of the Eighty-ninth Congress alone, the Johnson Administration submitted eighty-seven bills to Congress, and Johnson signed eighty-four, or 96%, arguably the most successful legislative agenda in U.S. Congressional history.

Criticism over the Johnson Administration's handling of the Vietnam War began to grow in 1966, with Ford and Congressional Republicans expressing concern that the United States was not doing what was necessary to win the war. Public sentiment also began to move against Johnson, and the 1966 midterm elections saw a 47-seat swing in favor of the Republicans. This was not enough to give Republicans a majority in the House, but the victory did give Ford the opportunity to prevent the passage of further Great Society programs.

Ford's private criticism of the Vietnam War became public following a speech from the floor of the House, in which he questioned whether the White House had a clear plan to bring the war to a successful conclusion. The speech angered President Johnson, who accused Ford of playing "too much football without a helmet".

As Minority Leader in the House, Ford appeared in a popular series of televised press conferences with famed Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, in which they proposed Republican alternatives to Johnson's policies. Many in the press jokingly called this "The Ev and Jerry Show". Johnson said at the time, "Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time." The press, used to sanitizing LBJ's salty language, reported this as "Gerald Ford can't walk and chew gum at the same time."

Ford's role shifted under President Nixon to being an advocate for the White House agenda. Congress passed several of Nixon's proposals, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Tax Reform Act of 1969. Another high-profile victory for the Republican minority was the State and Local Fiscal Assistance act. Passed in 1972, the act established a Revenue Sharing program for state and local governments. Ford's leadership was instrumental in shepherding revenue sharing through Congress, and resulted in a bipartisan coalition that supported the bill with 223 votes in favor (compared with 185 against).

During the eight years (1965–1973) he served as Minority Leader, Ford won many friends in the House because of his fair leadership and inoffensive personality. An office building in the U.S. Capitol Complex, House Annex 2, was renamed for Gerald Ford as the Ford House Office Building.

Vice Presidency, 1973–74

On October 10, 1973, Vice President Agnew resigned and then pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme in which he accepted $29,500 in bribes while governor of Maryland. According to ''The New York Times'', "Nixon sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement. The advice was unanimous. 'We gave Nixon no choice but Ford,' House Speaker Carl Albert recalled later".

Ford was nominated to take Agnew's position on October 12, the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the 25th Amendment had been implemented. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27. Only three Senators, all Democrats, voted against Ford's confirmation: Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, Thomas Eagleton of Missouri and William Hathaway of Maine. On December 6, the House confirmed Ford by a vote of 387 to 35. One hour after the confirmation vote in the House, Ford took the oath of office as Vice President of the United States. Ford's brief tenure as Vice-President was little noted by the media as reporters were preoccupied by the continuing revelations about crimes committed during the 1972 presidential election and allegations of cover-ups within the White House.

Following Ford's appointment, the Watergate investigation continued until Chief of Staff Alexander Haig contacted Ford on August 1, 1974, and told him that "smoking gun" evidence had been found. The evidence left little doubt that President Nixon had been a part of the Watergate cover-up. At the time, Ford and his wife, Betty, were living in suburban Virginia, waiting for their expected move into the newly-designated vice president's residence in Washington, D.C. However, "Al Haig [asked] to come over and see me," Ford later related, "to tell me that there would be a new tape released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, 'I'm just warning you that you've got to be prepared, that things might change dramatically and you could become President.' And I said, 'Betty, I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house.

Presidency, 1974–77

Accession

When Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency, making him the only person to assume the vice-presidency and the presidency without having been voted into either office. Immediately after taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech broadcast live to the nation. Ford noted the peculiarity of his position: "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers." He went on to state:

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He also stated: }}

A portion of the speech would later be memorialized with a plaque at the entrance to his presidential museum.

On August 20, Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the vice presidency he had vacated. Rockefeller's top competitor had been George H. W. Bush. Rockefeller underwent extended hearings before Congress, which caused embarrassment when it was revealed he made large gifts to senior aides, such as Henry Kissinger. Although conservative Republicans were not pleased that Rockefeller was picked, most of them voted for his confirmation, and his nomination passed both the House and Senate. Some, including Barry Goldwater, voted against him.

Pardon of Nixon

On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." When he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford also introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. Unconditional amnesty, however, did not come about until the Jimmy Carter Presidency.

The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed, a "corrupt bargain" had been struck between the men. They claimed Ford's pardon was granted in exchange for Nixon's resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency. According to Bob Woodward, Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig proposed a pardon deal to Ford. He later decided to pardon Nixon for other reasons, primarily the friendship he and Nixon shared. Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the election in 1976, an observation with which Ford agreed. In an editorial at the time, ''The New York Times'' stated that the Nixon pardon was "a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act" that in a stroke had destroyed the new president's "credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence".

Ford's first press secretary and close friend Jerald Franklin terHorst resigned his post in protest after President Nixon's full pardon. Ford also voluntarily appeared before Congress on October 17, 1974 to give sworn testimony—the only time a sitting president has done so—about the pardon.

After Ford left the White House in 1977, intimates said that the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of ''Burdick v. United States'', a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt. In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon. In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon of Nixon, but later stated that history had proved Ford to have made the correct decision.

Administration and cabinet

Upon assuming office, Ford inherited Nixon's cabinet. During Ford's brief administration, only Secretary of State Kissinger and Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon remained. Ford appointed William Coleman as Secretary of Transportation, the second African American to serve in a presidential cabinet (after Robert Clifton Weaver) and the first appointed in a Republican administration.

{| cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float:right; margin:10px; background:#fafafa; border:1px solid #aaa; font-size:85%; border-spacing:4px; float:right;" |- ! style="background:#dcdcdc;" colspan="3"|The Ford Cabinet |- |align="left"|OFFICE||align="left"|NAME||align="left"|TERM |- !colspan="3"| ---- |- |align="left"|President||align="left" |Gerald Ford||align="left"|1974–1977 |- |align="left"|Vice President||align="left"|Nelson Rockefeller||align="left"|1974–1977 |- !colspan="3"| ---- |- |align="left"|State||align="left"|Henry Kissinger||align="left"|1974–1977 |- |align="left"|Treasury||align="left"|William E. Simon||align="left"|1974–1977 |- |align="left"|Defense||align="left"|James R. Schlesinger||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Donald Rumsfeld||align="left"|1975–1977 |- |align="left"|Justice||align="left"|William B. Saxbe||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Edward Levi||align="left"|1975–1977 |- |align="left"|Interior||align="left"|Rogers Morton||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Stanley K. Hathaway||align="left"|1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Thomas S. Kleppe||align="left"|1975–1977 |- |align="left"|Agriculture||align="left"|Earl Butz||align="left"|1974–1976 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|John Albert Knebel||align="left"|1976–1977 |- |align="left"|Commerce||align="left"|Frederick B. Dent||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Rogers Morton||align="left"|1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Elliot Richardson||align="left"|1975–1977 |- |align="left"|Labor||align="left"|Peter J. Brennan||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|John Thomas Dunlop||align="left"|1975–1976 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|William Usery, Jr.||align="left"|1976–1977 |- |align="left"|HEW||align="left"|Caspar Weinberger||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|F. David Mathews||align="left"|1975–1977 |- |align="left"|HUD||align="left"|James Thomas Lynn||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|Carla Anderson Hills||align="left"|1975–1977 |- |align="left"|Transportation||align="left"|Claude Brinegar||align="left"|1974–1975 |- |align="left"| ||align="left"|William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.||align="left"|1975–1977 |}

Other cabinet-level posts:

White House Chief of Staff

*Alexander Haig (1974)

*Donald Rumsfeld (1974–1975)

*Dick Cheney (1975–1977)

Director of the Office of Management and Budget

*Roy Ash (1974–1975)

*James T. Lynn (1975–1977)

United States Trade Representative

*William D. Eberle (1974–1975)

*Frederick B. Dent (1975–1977)

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

*Russell E. Train (1974–1977)

United States Ambassador to the United Nations

*John A. Scali (1974–1975)

*Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1975–1976)

*William Scranton (1976–1977)

Other important posts:

United States National Security Advisor

*Henry Kissinger (1974–1975)

*Brent Scowcroft (1975–1977)

Director of Central Intelligence

*William E. Colby (1974–1976)

*George H. W. Bush (1976–1977)

Ford selected George H.W. Bush as Chief of the US Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China in 1974, and then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in late 1975.

Ford's transition chairman and first Chief of Staff was former congressman and ambassador Donald Rumsfeld. In 1975, Rumsfeld was named by Ford as the youngest-ever Secretary of Defense. Ford chose a young Wyoming politician, Richard Cheney, to replace Rumsfeld as his new Chief of Staff and later campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign. Ford's dramatic reorganization of his Cabinet in the fall of 1975 has been referred to by political commentators as the "Halloween Massacre".

Midterm elections

The 1974 Congressional midterm elections took place fewer than three months after Ford assumed office and in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The Democratic Party turned voter dissatisfaction into large gains in the House elections, taking 49 seats from the Republican Party, and increasing their majority to 291 of the 435 seats. This was one more than the number needed (290) for a two-thirds majority, necessary to override a Presidential veto (or to propose a constitutional amendment). Perhaps due in part to this fact, the 94th Congress overrode the highest percentage of vetoes since Andrew Johnson was President of the United States (1865–1869). Even Ford's old, reliably Republican seat was taken by Democrat Richard Vander Veen, defeating Republican Robert VanderLaan. In the Senate elections, the Democratic majority became 61 in the 100-seat body.

Domestic policy

The economy was a great concern during the Ford administration. One of the first acts the new president took to deal with the economy was to create the Economic Policy Board by Executive Order on September 30, 1974. In response to rising inflation, Ford went before the American public in October 1974 and asked them to "Whip Inflation Now". As part of this program, he urged people to wear "WIN" buttons. At the time, inflation was believed to be the primary threat to the economy, more so than growing unemployment. They felt as though controlling inflation would work to fix unemployment. To rein in inflation, it was necessary to control the public's spending. To try to mesh service and sacrifice, "WIN" called for Americans to reduce their spending and consumption. On October 4, 1974, Ford gave a speech in front of a joint session of Congress and as a part of this speech kicked off the "WIN" campaign. Over the next nine days 101,240 Americans mailed in "WIN" pledges. In hindsight, this was viewed as simply a public relations gimmick without offering any means of solving the underlying problems. The main point of that speech was to introduce to Congress a one-year, five-percent income tax increase on corporations and wealthy individuals. This plan would also take $4.4 billion out of the budget bringing federal spending below $300 billion. At the time, inflation was approximately seven percent.

Ford was confronted with a potential swine flu pandemic. In the early 1970s, an influenza strain H1N1 shifted from a form of flu that affected primarily pigs and crossed over to humans. On February 5, 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix mysteriously died and four fellow soldiers were hospitalized; health officials announced that "swine flu" was the cause. Soon after, public health officials in the Ford administration urged that every person in the United States be vaccinated. Although the vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, some 25% of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was canceled in December of that year. The vaccine was blamed for twenty-five deaths; more people died from the shots than from the swine flu.

Ford was an outspoken supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, issuing Presidential Proclamation 4383.

As president, Ford's position on abortion was that he supported "a federal constitutional amendment that would permit each one of the 50 States to make the choice". This had also been his position as House Minority Leader in response to the 1973 Supreme Court case of ''Roe v. Wade'', which he opposed. Ford came under criticism for a ''60 Minutes'' interview his wife Betty gave in 1975, in which she stated that ''Roe v. Wade'' was a "great, great decision". During his later life, Ford would identify as pro-choice.

Budget

The federal budget ran a deficit every year Ford was President. Despite his reservations about how the program ultimately would be funded in an era of tight public budgeting, Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which established special education throughout the United States. Ford expressed "strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children" according to the official White House press release for the bill signing.

The economic focus began to change as the country sank into a mild recession. The focus of the Ford administration became fixing the increase in unemployment, which hit 7.2 percent in December 1974. In January 1975, Ford proposed a 1 year tax reduction of $16 billion to stimulate economic growth, along with spending cuts to avoid inflation. Ford was criticized greatly for quickly switching from advocating a tax increase to a tax reduction. In Congress, the proposed amount of the tax reduction increased to $22.8 billion in tax cuts and lacked spending cuts. In March 1975, Congress passed, and Ford signed into law, these income tax rebates as part of the Tax Reduction Act of 1975. This resulted in a federal deficit of around $53 billion for the 1975 fiscal year and $73.7 billion for 1976.

When New York City faced bankruptcy in 1975, Mayor Abraham Beame was unsuccessful in obtaining Ford's support for a federal bailout. The incident prompted the New York ''Daily News''' famous headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead", referring to a speech in which "Ford declared flatly ... that he would veto any bill calling for 'a federal bail-out of New York City. The following month, November 1975, Ford changed his stance and asked Congress to approve federal loans to New York City.

Foreign policy

Ford continued the détente policy with both the Soviet Union and China, easing the tensions of the Cold War. Still in place from the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). The thawing relationship brought about by Nixon's visit to China was reinforced by Ford's December 1975 visit to the communist country. In 1975, the Administration entered into the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union, creating the framework of the Helsinki Watch, an independent non-governmental organization created to monitor compliance that later evolved into Human Rights Watch.

Ford attended the inaugural meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations (initially the G5) in 1975 and secured membership for Canada. Ford supported international solutions to issues. "We live in an interdependent world and, therefore, must work together to resolve common economic problems," he said in a 1974 speech.

Middle East

In the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, two ongoing international disputes developed into crises. The Cyprus dispute turned into a crisis with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, causing extreme strain within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. In mid-August, the government withdrew Greece from the NATO military structure; in mid-September 1974, the Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to halt military aid to Turkey. Ford, concerned with both the effect of this on Turkish-American relations and the deterioration of security on NATO's eastern front, vetoed the bill. A second bill was passed by the house, and vetoed, although a compromise was accepted to continue aid until the end of the year. As Ford expected, Turkish relations were considerably disrupted until 1978.

In the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict, although the initial cease fire had been implemented to end active conflict in the Yom Kippur War, Kissinger's continuing shuttle diplomacy was showing little progress. Ford considered it "stalling" and wrote, "Their [Israeli] tactics frustrated the Egyptians and made me mad as hell." During Kissinger's shuttle to Israel in early March 1975, a last minute reversal to consider further withdrawal, prompted a cable from Ford to Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, which included:

On March 24, Ford received congressional leaders of both parties and informed them of the reassessment of the administration policies in the Middle East. "Reassessment", in practical terms, meant to cancel or suspend further aid to Israel. For six months between March and September 1975, the United States refused to conclude any new arms agreements with Israel. Rabin notes it was "an innocent-sounding term that heralded one of the worst periods in American-Israeli relations". As could be expected, the announced reassessments upset the American Jewish community and Israel's well-wishers in Congress. On May 21, Ford "experienced a real shock", seventy-six senators wrote him a letter urging him to be "responsive" to Israel's request for $2.59 billion in military and economic aid. Ford felt truly annoyed and thought the chance for peace was jeopardized. It was, since the September 1974 ban on arms to Turkey, the second major congressional intrusion upon the President's [foreign policy] prerogatives. The following summer months were described by Ford as an American-Israeli "war of nerves" or "test of wills", and after much bargaining, the Sinai Interim Agreement (Sinai II), was formally signed on September 1 and aid resumed.

Vietnam

One of Ford's greatest challenges was dealing with the continued Vietnam War. American offensive operations against North Vietnam had ended with the Paris Peace Accords, signed on January 27, 1973. The accords declared a cease fire across both North and South Vietnam, and required the release of American prisoners of war. The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for national elections in the North and South. The Paris Peace Accords stipulated a sixty-day period for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The accords had been negotiated by United States National Security Advisor Kissinger and North Vietnamese politburo member Le Duc Tho. South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu was not involved in the final negotiations, and publicly criticized the proposed agreement. However, anti-war pressures within the United States forced Nixon and Kissinger to pressure Thieu to sign the agreement and enable the withdrawal of American forces. In multiple letters to the South Vietnamese president, Nixon had promised that the United States would defend his government, should the North Vietnamese violate the accords.

In December 1974, months after Ford took office, North Vietnamese forces invaded the province of Phuoc Long. General Trần Văn Trà sought to gauge any South Vietnamese or American response to the invasion, as well as to solve logistical issues before proceeding with the invasion.

As North Vietnamese forces advanced, Ford requested aid for South Vietnam in a $522 million aid package. The funds had been promised by the Nixon administration, but Congress voted against the proposal by a wide margin. Senator Jacob Javits offered "...large sums for evacuation, but not one nickel for military aid". President Thieu resigned on April 21, 1975, publicly blaming the lack of support from the United States for the fall of his country. Two days later, on April 23, Ford gave a speech at Tulane University. In that speech, he announced that the Vietnam War was over "...as far as America is concerned". The announcement was met with thunderous applause. 1,373 U.S. citizens and 5,595 Vietnamese and third country nationals were evacuated from the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon during Operation Frequent Wind. Military and Air America helicopters took evacuees to U.S. Navy ships off-shore during an approximately 24-hour period on April 29 to 30, 1975, immediately preceding the fall of Saigon. During the operation, so many South Vietnamese helicopters landed on the vessels taking the evacuees that some were pushed overboard to make room for more people. Other helicopters, having nowhere to land, were deliberately crash landed into the sea, close to the ships, their pilots bailing out at the last moment to be picked up by rescue boats.

Many of the Vietnamese evacuees were allowed to enter the United States under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. The 1975 Act appropriated $455 million toward the costs of assisting the settlement of Indochinese refugees. In all, 130,000 Vietnamese refugees came to the United States in 1975. Thousands more escaped in the years that followed.

Mayaguez and Panmunjom

North Vietnam's victory over the South led to a considerable shift in the political winds in Asia, and Ford administration officials worried about a consequent loss of U.S. influence there. The administration proved it was willing to respond forcefully to challenges to its interests in the region on two occasions, once when Khmer Rouge forces seized an American ship in international waters and again when American military officers were killed in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

The first crisis was the Mayaguez Incident. In May 1975, shortly after the fall of Saigon and the Khmer Rouge conquest of Cambodia, Cambodians seized the American merchant ship ''Mayaguez'' in international waters. Ford dispatched Marines to rescue the crew, but the Marines landed on the wrong island and met unexpectedly stiff resistance just as, unknown to the U.S., the ''Mayaguez'' sailors were being released. In the operation, two military transport helicopters carrying the Marines for the assault operation were shot down, and 41 U.S. servicemen were killed and 50 wounded while approximately 60 Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed. Despite the American losses, the operation was seen as a success in the United States and Ford enjoyed an 11-point boost in his approval ratings in the aftermath. The Americans killed during the operation became the last to have their names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.

Some historians have argued that the Ford administration felt the need to respond forcefully to the incident because it was construed as a Soviet plot. But recent work by Andrew Gawthorpe, based on an analysis of the administration's internal discussions, shows that Ford's national security team understood that the seizure of the vessel was a local, and perhaps even accidental, provocation by an immature Khmer government. Nevertheless, they felt the need to respond forcefully to discourage further provocations by other Communist countries in Asia.

The second crisis, known as the axe murder incident, occurred at Panmunjom, a village which stands in the DMZ between the two Koreas. At the time, this was the only part of the DMZ where forces from the North and the South came into contact with each other. Encouraged by U.S. difficulties in Vietnam, North Korea had been waging a campaign of diplomatic pressure and minor military harassment to try and convince the U.S. to withdraw from South Korea. Then, in August 1976, North Korean forces killed two U.S. officers and injured South Korean guards who were engaged in trimming a tree in Panmunjom's Joint Security Area. The attack coincided with a meeting of the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at which Kim Jong-il, the son of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, presented the incident as an example of American aggression, helping secure the passage of a motion calling for a U.S. withdrawal from the South.

At administration meetings, Kissinger voiced the concern that the North would see the U.S. as "the paper tigers of Saigon" if they did not respond, and Ford agreed with that assessment. After mulling various options the Ford administration decided that it was necessary to respond with a major show of force. A large number of ground forces went to cut down the tree, while at the same time the air force was deployed, which included B-52 bomber flights over Panmunjom. The North Korean government backed down and allowed the tree-cutting to go ahead, and later issued an unprecedented official apology.

Assassination attempts

Ford faced two assassination attempts during his presidency, occurring within three weeks of each other: while in Sacramento, California, on September 5, 1975, Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, pointed a Colt .45-caliber handgun at Ford. As Fromme pulled the trigger, Larry Buendorf, a Secret Service agent, grabbed the gun and managed to insert the webbing of his thumb under the hammer, preventing the gun from firing. It was later found that, although the semi-automatic pistol had four cartridges in the magazine, the weapon had not been chambered, making it impossible for the gun to fire. Fromme was taken into custody; she was later convicted of attempted assassination of the President and was sentenced to life in prison; she was paroled on August 14, 2009.

In reaction to this attempt, the Secret Service began keeping Ford at a more secure distance from anonymous crowds, a strategy that may have saved his life seventeen days later: as he left the St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore, standing in a crowd of onlookers across the street, pointed her .38-caliber revolver at him. Just before she fired, former Marine Oliver Sipple grabbed at the gun and deflected her shot; the bullet struck a wall about six inches above and to the right of Ford's head, then ricocheted and hit a taxi driver, who was slightly wounded. Moore was later sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled on December 31, 2007, having served 32 years.

Judicial appointments

In 1975, Ford appointed John Paul Stevens as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to replace retiring Justice William O. Douglas. Stevens had been a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, appointed by President Nixon. During his tenure as House Republican leader, Ford had led efforts to have Douglas impeached. After being confirmed, Stevens eventually disappointed some conservatives by siding with the Court's liberal wing regarding the outcome of many key issues. Nevertheless, President Ford paid tribute to Stevens. "He has served his nation well," Ford said of Stevens, "with dignity, intellect and without partisan political concerns."

In addition to the Stevens appointment, Ford appointed 11 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 50 judges to the United States district courts.

1976 presidential election

Ford reluctantly agreed to run for office in 1976, but first he had to counter a challenge for the Republican party nomination. Then-former Governor of California Ronald Reagan and the party's conservative wing faulted Ford for failing to do more in South Vietnam, for signing the Helsinki Accords and for negotiating to cede the Panama Canal (negotiations for the canal continued under President Carter, who eventually signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties). Reagan launched his campaign in autumn of 1975 and won several primaries before withdrawing from the race at the Republican Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The conservative insurgency convinced Ford to drop the more liberal Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in favor of Kansas Senator Bob Dole.

In addition to the pardon dispute and lingering anti-Republican sentiment, Ford had to counter a plethora of negative media imagery. Chevy Chase often did pratfalls on ''Saturday Night Live'', imitating Ford, who had been seen stumbling on two occasions during his term. As Chase commented, "He even mentioned in his own autobiography it had an effect over a period of time that affected the election to some degree."

President Ford's 1976 election campaign had the advantage that he was an incumbent president during several anniversary events held during the period leading up to the United States Bicentennial. The Washington, D.C. fireworks display on the Fourth of July was presided over by the President and televised nationally. On July 7, 1976, the President and First Lady served as hosts at a White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, which was televised on the Public Broadcasting Service network. The 200th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts gave Ford the opportunity to deliver a speech to 110,000 in Concord acknowledging the need for a strong national defense tempered with a plea for "reconciliation, not recrimination" and "reconstruction, not rancor" between the United States and those who would pose "threats to peace". Speaking in New Hampshire on the previous day, Ford condemned the growing trend toward big government bureaucracy and argued for a return to "basic American virtues".

Democratic nominee and former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter campaigned as an outsider and reformer, gaining support from voters dismayed by the Watergate scandal and Nixon pardon. After the Democratic National Convention, he held a huge 33-point lead over Ford in the polls. However, as the campaign continued, the race tightened, and, by election day, the polls showed the race as too close to call. There were three main events in the fall campaign. Most importantly, Carter repeated a promise of a "blanket pardon" for Christian and other religious refugees, and also all Vietnam War draft dodgers (Ford had only issued a conditional amnesty) in response to a question on the subject posed by a reporter during the presidential debates, an act which froze Ford's poll numbers in Ohio, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Mississippi. (Ford had needed only to shift 11,000 votes in two of those four states in order to win.) Americans viewed the pardon as an essential moral act and as the true end to a bitterly hated war. It was the first act signed by Carter, on January 20, 1977. Earlier, ''Playboy'' magazine had published a controversial interview with Carter; in the interview Carter admitted to having "lusted in my heart" for women other than his wife, which cut into his support among women and evangelical Christians. Also, on September 24, Ford performed well in what was the first televised presidential debate since 1960. Polls taken after the debate showed that most viewers felt that Ford was the winner. Carter was also hurt by Ford's charges that he lacked the necessary experience to be an effective national leader, and that Carter was vague on many issues.

Presidential debates were reintroduced for the first time since the 1960 election. While Ford was seen as the winner of the first debate, during the second debate he blundered when he stated, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford Administration." Ford also said that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union". In an interview years later, Ford said he had intended to imply that the Soviets would never crush the ''spirits'' of eastern Europeans seeking independence. However, the phrasing was so awkward that questioner Max Frankel was visibly incredulous at the response. As a result of this blunder, and Carter's promise of a full presidential pardon for political refugees from the Vietnam era during the presidential debates, Ford's surge stalled and Carter was able to maintain a slight lead in the polls.

In the end, Carter won the election, receiving 50.1% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes compared with 48.0% and 240 electoral votes for Ford. The election was close enough that had fewer than 25,000 votes shifted in Ohio and Wisconsin – both of which neighbored his home state – Ford would have won the electoral vote with 276 votes to 261 for Carter. Though he lost, in the three months between the Republican National Convention and the election Ford managed to close what was once a 34-point Carter lead to a 2-point margin.

Had Ford won the election, the provisions of the 22nd amendment would have disqualified him from running in 1980, because he had served more than two years of Nixon's remaining term.

Post-presidential years, 1977–2006

Activity

The Nixon pardon controversy eventually subsided. Ford's successor, Jimmy Carter, opened his 1977 inaugural address by praising the outgoing President, saying, "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."

Ford remained relatively active in the years after his presidency and continued to make appearances at events of historical and ceremonial significance to the nation, such as presidential inaugurals and memorial services. In January 1977, he became the president of Eisenhower Fellowships in Philadelphia then served as its chairman of the board of trustees from 1980 to 1986. Later in the year, he reluctantly agreed to be interviewed by James M. Naughton, a ''New York Times'' journalist who was given the assignment to write the former President's advance obituary, an article that would be updated prior to its eventual publication. In 1979, Ford published his autobiography, ''A Time to Heal'' (Harper/Reader's Digest, 454 pages). A review in ''Foreign Affairs'' described it as, "Serene, unruffled, unpretentious, like the author. This is the shortest and most honest of recent presidential memoirs, but there are no surprises, no deep probings of motives or events. No more here than meets the eye."

During the term of office of his successor, Jimmy Carter, Ford received monthly briefs by President Carter's senior staff on international and domestic issues, and was always invited to lunch at the White House whenever he was in Washington, D.C. Their close friendship developed after Carter had left office, with the catalyst being their trip together to the funeral of Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. Until Ford's death, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visited the Fords' home frequently. Ford and Carter served as honorary co-chairs of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2001 and of the Continuity of Government Commission in 2002.

Like Presidents Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton, Ford was an honorary co-chair of the Council for Excellence in Government, a group dedicated to excellence in government performance, which provides leadership training to top federal employees.

Ford considered a run for the Republican nomination in 1980, foregoing numerous opportunities to serve on corporate boards to keep his options open for a grudge match with Carter. Ford attacked Carter's conduct of the SALT II negotiations and foreign policy in the Middle East and Africa. Many have argued that Ford also wanted to exorcise his image as an "Accidental President" and to win a term in his own right. Ford also believed the more conservative Ronald Reagan would be unable to defeat Carter and would hand the incumbent a second term. Ford was encouraged by his former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger as well as Jim Rhodes of Ohio and Bill Clements of Texas to make the race. On March 15, 1980, Ford announced that he would forgo a run for the Republican nomination, vowing to support the eventual nominee.

After securing the Republican nomination in 1980, Ronald Reagan considered his former rival Ford as a potential vice-presidential running mate, but negotiations between the Reagan and Ford camps at the Republican National Convention were unsuccessful. Ford conditioned his acceptance on Reagan's agreement to an unprecedented "co-presidency", giving Ford the power to control key executive branch appointments (such as Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary). After rejecting these terms, Reagan offered the vice-presidential nomination instead to George H.W. Bush. Ford did appear in a campaign commercial for the Reagan-Bush ticket, in which he declared that the country would be "better served by a Reagan presidency rather than a continuation of the weak and politically expedient policies of Jimmy Carter".

After his presidency, Ford joined the American Enterprise Institute as a distinguished fellow. He founded the annual AEI World Forum in 1982. Ford was awarded an honorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University on March 23, 1988.

In 1977, he established the Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Policy at Albion College in Albion, Michigan, to give undergraduates training in public policy. In April 1981, he opened the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the north campus of his alma mater, the University of Michigan, followed in September by the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. In 1999, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton. In 2001, he was presented with the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon to stop the agony America was experiencing over Watergate. In retirement Ford also devoted much time to his love of golf, often playing both privately and in public events with comedian Bob Hope, a longtime friend.

In October 2001, Ford broke with conservative members of the Republican party by stating that gay and lesbian couples "ought to be treated equally. Period." He became the highest ranking Republican to embrace full equality for gays and lesbians, stating his belief that there should be a federal amendment outlawing anti-gay job discrimination and expressing his hope that the Republican Party would reach out to gay and lesbian voters. He also was a member of the Republican Unity Coalition, which ''The New York Times'' described as "a group of prominent Republicans, including former President Gerald R. Ford, dedicated to making sexual orientation a non-issue in the Republican Party".

On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Ford and the other living former Presidents (Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

In a pre-recorded embargoed interview with Bob Woodward of ''The Washington Post'' in July 2004, Ford stated that he disagreed "very strongly" with the Bush administration's choice of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as justification for its decision to invade Iraq, calling it a "big mistake" unrelated to the national security of the United States and indicating that he would not have gone to war had he been President. The details of the interview were not released until after Ford's death, as he requested.

Health problems

As Ford approached his 90th year, he began to experience health problems associated with old age. He suffered two minor strokes at the 2000 Republican National Convention, but made a quick recovery after being admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital. In January 2006, he spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center near his residence at Rancho Mirage, California, for treatment of pneumonia. On April 23, President George W. Bush visited Ford at his home in Rancho Mirage for a little over an hour. This was Ford's last public appearance and produced the last known public photos, video footage and voice recording. While vacationing in Vail, Colorado, he was hospitalized for two days in July 2006 for shortness of breath. On August 15 Ford was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for testing and evaluation. On August 21, it was reported that he had been fitted with a pacemaker. On August 25, he underwent an angioplasty procedure at the Mayo Clinic, according to a statement from an assistant to Ford. On August 28, Ford was released from the hospital and returned with his wife Betty to their California home. On October 13, he was scheduled to attend the dedication of a building of his namesake, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, but due to poor health and on the advice of his doctors he did not attend. The previous day, Ford entered the Eisenhower Medical Center for undisclosed tests; he was released on October 16. By November 2006, he was confined to a bed in his study. In reality, President Ford had end-stage coronary artery disease and severe aortic stenosis and insufficiency, caused by calcific alteration of one of his heart valves.

Death

Ford died on December 26, 2006, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, of arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis. His age at the time of his death was 93 years and 165 days, making Ford the longest-lived U.S. President. On December 30, 2006, Ford became the 11th U.S. President to lie in state. The burial was preceded by a state funeral and memorial services held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on January 2, 2007. After the service, Ford was interred at his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Ford died on the 34th anniversary of President Harry Truman's death, thus becoming the second U.S. President to die on Boxing Day. He was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission. His wife, Betty Ford, died peacefully on July 8, 2011. Like her husband, Betty also died at age 93. They are the longest lived Presidential couple.

Longevity

Ford was the longest-lived U.S. President, his lifespan being 45 days longer than Ronald Reagan's. He was the third-longest-lived Vice President, falling short only of John Nance Garner, 98, and Levi P. Morton, 96. Ford had the third-longest post-presidency (29 years and 11 months) after Herbert Hoover (31 years and 7 months) and Jimmy Carter (30 years 7 months and counting)

On November 12, 2006, upon surpassing Ronald Reagan's lifespan, Ford released his last public statement: }}

Public image

Ford was the only president never elected to be either president or vice-president. The choice of Ford to fulfill Agnew's vacated role as vice president was based on his reputation for openness and honesty. "In all the years I sat in the House, I never knew Mr Ford to make a dishonest statement nor a statement part-true and part-false. He never attempted to shade a statement, and I never heard him utter an unkind word," said Martha Griffiths.

The trust the American people had in him was severely and rapidly tarnished by his pardon of Nixon. Nonetheless, many grant in hindsight that he had respectably discharged with considerable dignity a great responsibility that he had not sought. His subsequent loss to Carter in 1976 has come to be seen as an honorable sacrifice he made for the nation.

In spite of his athletic record and remarkable career accomplishments, Ford acquired a reputation as a clumsy, likable and simple-minded Everyman. An incident in 1975 when he tripped while exiting the presidential jet in Austria, was famously and repetitively parodied by Chevy Chase, cementing Ford's image as a klutz. Pieces of Ford's common Everyman image have also been attributed to Ford's inevitable comparison to Nixon, as well as his perceived Midwestern stodginess and self-deprecation. Ridicule often extended to supposed intellectual limitations, with Lyndon Johnson once joking, "He's a nice fellow but he spent too much time playing football without a helmet."

Named after Gerald Ford

Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Nebraska)

Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Michigan)

Gerald Ford Memorial Highway, I-70 in Eagle County, Colorado

Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, Colorado, in Ford Park, also named after him

Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Policy, Albion College

USS ''Gerald R. Ford'' (CVN-78)

Gerald R. Ford Elementary School, Indian Wells, California

Gerald Ford Boys and Girls Club, La Quinta, California

Gerald Ford Drive, Coachella Valley, California (Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert)

Gerald R. Ford Council, Boy Scouts of America The council where he was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. (Includes the following Michigan counties: Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana and Ottawa). Council Headquarters is located in Walker, Michigan.

See also

US Presidents on US postage stamps

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

, by speechwriter , by chief of staff by Secretary of State

Secondary sources

full-scale biography full-scale biography Conley, Richard S. "Presidential Influence and Minority Party Liaison on Veto Overrides: New Evidence from the Ford Presidency". ''American Politics Research'' 2002 30(1): 34–65. Fulltext: in Swetswise , the major scholarly study

Hersey, John Richard. The President: A Minute-By-Minute Account of a Week in the Life of Gerald Ford. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1975.

Hult, Karen M. and Walcott, Charles E. ''Empowering the White House: Governance under Nixon, Ford, and Carter''. University Press of Kansas, 2004.

Jespersen, T. Christopher. "Kissinger, Ford, and Congress: the Very Bitter End in Vietnam". ''Pacific Historical Review'' 2002 71(3): 439–473. Fulltext: in University of California; Swetswise; Jstor and Ebsco Jespersen, T. Christopher. "The Bitter End and the Lost Chance in Vietnam: Congress, the Ford Administration, and the Battle over Vietnam, 1975–76". ''Diplomatic History'' 2000 24(2): 265–293. Fulltext: in Swetswise, Ingenta, Ebsco Maynard, Christopher A. "Manufacturing Voter Confidence: a Video Analysis of the American 1976 Presidential and Vice-presidential Debates". ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'' 1997 17(4): 523–562. Fulltext: in Ingenta

External links

Published works

.

First State of the Union Address.

Second State of the Union Address.

Third State of the Union Address.

Libraries and museums

Gerald R. Ford Foundation.

Ford Library and Museum.

National Archives materials.

Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies in President Ford's hometown.

Gerald Ford: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress.

Biographies

Extensive essay on Gerald Ford and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

White House biography

Multimedia and other

Audio recordings of Ford's speeches

April 23, 2006, Gerald Ford's visit with George W. Bush, the last known public photos, video footage and voice recording taken of Ford alive

Portrait of Gerald Ford by Margaret Holland Sargent

Category:1913 births Category:2006 deaths Category:American anti-communists Category:American Episcopalians Category:American football centers Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of the Vietnam War Category:American shooting survivors Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Cold War leaders Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:Distinguished Eagle Scouts Gerald Ford Category:Gerald Ford family Category:History of the United States (1964–1980) Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan Category:Members of the Warren Commission Category:Michigan lawyers Category:Michigan Republicans Category:Michigan Wolverines football players Category:Minority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives Category:Nixon administration personnel Category:People from Grand Rapids, Michigan Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Rancho Mirage, California Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Presidents of the United States Category:Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class Category:Republican Party Presidents of the United States Category:Republican Party Vice Presidents of the United States Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States presidential candidates, 1976 Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:U.S. Presidents surviving assassination attempts Category:Watergate figures Category:Yale Bulldogs football coaches Category:Yale Law School alumni

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The following is a list of significant men and women known for being the father, mother, or considered the founders mostly in Western socities in a field, listed by category. In most non-science fields, the title of being the "father" is debatable.

Church

Games

Subject	Father/Mother	Reason
Miniature wargaming	H.G. Wells
	Shigeru Miyamoto	Creator of many successful Nintendo franchises
PlayStation	Ken Kutaragi
Role-playing game	Gary Gygax	Creator of ''Dungeons & Dragons''
Stealth game	Hideo Kojima
Video game	Ralph H. Baer	Inventor of the video game console
Wargaming	Charles S. Roberts

Humanities

Military

Subject	Father/Mother	Reason
Aerial warfare	Oswald Boelcke	The first to formalize rules of air fighting, which he presented as the Dicta Boelcke, also credited as being the first pilot to shoot down an aircraft.
Atomic bomb	Robert OppenheimerLeó SzilárdEnrico Fermi
Blitzkrieg	Heinz Guderian
	Edward Teller
Atomic submarine and "nuclear navy"	Hyman G. Rickover
Fourth Generation Warfare	William S. Lind
	Jean-Baptiste Colbert	Built on the fleet of France inherited from Cardinal Richelieu.
Naval Special Warfare	Phil H. Bucklew	US Naval Officer and First Commanding Officer of Navy SEAL Team One
Naval tactical studies	Paul Hoste	Jesuit Professor of Mathematics at the Royal College of the Marine in Toulon; wrote ''L'Art des Armées Navales'' (1697)
Luftwaffe and Luftstreitkräfte	Oswald Boelcke
The Soviet Union's Hydrogen Bomb	Andrei Sakharov
	William C. Lee	First commander of the parachute school at Fort Benning, Georgia.
	Kazimierz Pułaski	Brigadier-general and commander of the cavalry of the Continental Army (1770s).
United States Navy
Subject	Father/Mother	! Reason
[[American Football">John Barry (naval officer)

Nations

Natural and social sciences

Sports

Subject	Father/Mother	! Reason
[[American Football	Walter Camp
		Godfather, created the New York Cosmos soccer team and imported a number of well known international footballers to the team in an attempt to bring interest to soccer in the US.
Angling	Izaak Walton	author of ''The Compleat Angler''
Association football	Ebenezer Cobb Morley
	Charles William Miller
Baseball
Basketball	James Naismith
	Scot Breithaupt
	Eugen Sandow
Harold Zinkin	Called so by Arnold Schwarzenegger during a press statement on his passing in 2004. Inventor of the modern exercise machines.
	James Figg
James J. Corbett
	Jim Downing	Built a racecar a season before it became the basis of a new lightweight prototype class in .
Canadian rodeo		coined the rodeo term ''Stampede'' and was world's first rodeo producer/rodeo stock contractor/rodeo champion in 1902
	Wally Parks
Don Garlits	Considered to be one of the innovators of drag racing safety.
Eddie Hill	Regarded as the Forefather of Drag Racing.
	Kunimitsu Takahashi
Modern figure skating	Jackson Haines
The Football Association	Ebenezer Cobb Morley	Founder
rowspan="2"	James Richardson Spensley
William Garbutt	Laying the foundations of skilled coaching in Italian football
Freestyle BMX	Bob Haro
Freestyle Motocross	Mike Metzger	Godfather
Funny Car	Dick Landy
	Frank Chirkinian	Personally responsible for much of the production conventions of modern golf broadcasting.
rowspan="2"		Credited for introducing baseball in Japan
Hiroshi Hiraoka	Credited for establishing the first baseball team
Jogging	Jim Fixx	Founding father
Karting	Art Ingels	Developed the world's first kart (1956)
Lacrosse	William George Beers	Codified the sport
Mixed martial arts	Bruce Lee	Called so by Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. For his experimentation into other styles and invention of Jeet Kune Do.
American motocross	Edison Dye	Introduced motorcross to American riders
NASCAR	Bill France, Sr.	Foundation of the sanctioning body for stock car racing
Road racing in the United States	Cameron Argetsinger
Rugby union	A. G. Guillemard	William Webb Ellis			(William Webb Ellis)"WHO WITH A FINE DISREGARD FOR THE RULES OF FOOTBALL AS PLAYED IN HIS TIME FIRST TOOK THE BALL IN HIS ARMS AND RAN WITH IT THUS ORIGINATING THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF THE RUGBY GAME"
	Italo Santelli
Florida Skateboarding	Bruce Walker
East Coast Skateboarding	Vinny Raffa
	Skip Engblom
Tony Hawk
Snowboard	Jake Burton
Supercross	Mike Goodwin	Organized the first supercross race
Modern surfing	Duke Kahanamoku

Technology

Fields

Subject	Father/Mother	Reason
Aerodynamics (modern)	Sir George Cayley	Founding father of modern Aerodynamics. The first to identify the four aerodynamic forces of flight—weight, Lift (force)
[[Architecture	Imhotep	Built the first pyramid
Astronautics	Konstantin Tsiolkovsky	Robert H. GoddardHermann Oberth
Aviation		Book: ''Prodromo alla Arte Maestra'' (1670). First to describe the geometry and physics of a flying vessel.
	Thomas Tompion
Clinical trials	James Lind	Conducted the first Scientific control
[[Computing	Charles Babbage	Inventor of the Analytical Engine which was never constructed in his lifetime.
Cybernetics	Norbert Wiener
	William F. Moran	Founder of the American Bladesmith Society
	Bob Loveless	Founder of the Knifemakers' Guild
Photography

Inventions

Subject	Father/Mother	Reason
Air conditioning	Willis Carrier
Chronograph
Compact Disc
Compiler	Grace Hopper
	Konrad Zuse	Invented world's first functional program-controlled computer.
Alan Turing	Was a secret code breaker during WWII and invented the Turing machine (1936).
John von Neumann	Became "intrigued" with Turing's universal machine and later emphasised the importance of the stored-program concept for electronic computing (1945), including the possibility of allowing the machine to modify its own program in useful ways while running.
	Invented the digital computer in the 1930s
Computer Program	Ada Lovelace	Recognized by historians as the writer of the world's first computer program which was for the Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, but was never complete within either her or his lifetime.
Ekranoplan	Rostislav Alexeev
Helicopter	Igor Sikorsky	Invented the first successful helicopter, upon which further designs were based.
Internet	Vint CerfBob Kahn
Instant noodle	Momofuku Ando	Inventor of the instant noodle, also founder of Nissin Foods to produce and market them.
Japanese television	Kenjiro Takayanagi
Jet engine	Frank Whittle
Karaoke	Daisuke Inoue	Inventor of the machine as a means of allowing people to sing without the need of a live back-up.
Laser	Charles Hard Townes
Lightning prediction system	Alexander Stepanovich Popov	The first lightning prediction system, the Lightning detector, was invented in 1894 by Alexander Stepanovich Popov.
Marine chronometer	John Harrison
Microprocessor	Marcian Hoff Masatoshi Shima
Mobile phone		He is the main brainchild of hand-held phone and with the help of Motorola team he developed the first handset in 1973 weighing in at two kilos.
	Vinod Dham	The original Pentium (P5) was developed by a team of engineers, including John H. Crawford, chief architect of the original 386, and Donald Alpert, who managed the architectural team. Dror Avnon managed the design of the FPU. Dham was general manager of the P5 group. Some media sources have called him the "father of the Pentium".
	Chuck Peddle	Developed the 6502 microprocessor, the KIM-1 and the Commodore PET
Programmable logic controller	Dick Morley
Radio	Alexander Stepanovich Popov Lee De Forest Guglielmo Marconi Jagdish Chandra Bose Nikola Tesla
Radio (Radio broadcasting)	Reginald Fessenden David Sarnoff	Fessenden is credited as the first to broadcast radio signals on Christmas Eve, 1906. Sarnoff proposed a chain of radio stations to Marconi's associates in 1915.
Radio (FM radio)	Edwin H. Armstrong	Obtained the first Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to operate an FM station in Alpine, New Jersey at approximately 50 megahertz (1939)
Radiotelephony	Reginald Fessenden
SGML	Charles Goldfarb
Telephone	Antonio Meucci	Alexander Graham Bell	See Invention of the telephone
Television	Philo T. Farnsworth			Vladimir Zworykin			John Logie Baird	Co-Inventors of the Electronic Television. Farnsworth invented the Image dissector while Zworykin created the Iconoscope, both fully electronic forms of television. Logie Baird invented the world's first working television system, also the first electronic color television system.
Tokamak	Lev Artsimovich
	Fazlur Khan	Invented the tube structural system and first employed it in his designs for the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartments, John Hancock Center and Sears Tower.
World Wide Web	Tim Berners-Lee
Visual Basic	Alan Cooper
XML	Jon Bosak

Towns and cities

Subject	Father/Mother	! Reason
Lan Kwai Fong	Allan Zeman	Noted for turning a small square of streets in
Subject	Father/Mother	! Reason
	[[Henry Ford">Central, Hong Kong

Transport

Subject	Father/Mother	! Reason
	[[Henry Ford	Noted for introducing a simple and affordable car for the ordinary American masses.
American Interstate Highway System	Dwight D. Eisenhower
	Gene Berg
Hot rod	Ed Winfield
	RJ DeVera	Influential for popularising the import car scene in the mid-1990s.
Kustom Kulture
Monster truck
Mountain bike	Gary Fisher
Rotary engine	Felix Wankel
	Cyrus Avery
Tailfin	Harley Earl
Traffic safety	William Phelps Eno
	Frank W. Cyr

See also

List of inventors

Father of medicare

Founders of statistics

References

Father or mother of something Father or mother of something, List of people known as

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