Nixon pardon

This essay, by Anna Pomper, MPP '24, was awarded third place in the Ford50 essay contest. I. BackgroundOn August 1st, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford received a visit from the President’s Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig. The “smoking gun tape,” a...

Fifty years ago, at a time of great division and turbulence in the U.S., Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States. As part of our Ford50 commemoration, the Ford School challenged students to draft original essays on the...

50 years ago, in a nation wracked by scandal and uncertainty, President Gerald R. Ford made the controversial decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon. How do we think about the implications of that historic pardon in a modern political...