Ford Versus Carter 799Ford identified inflation as the chief economic cul-
prit and asked patriotic citizens to signify their willing-
ness to fight it by wearing WIN (Whip Inflation Now)
buttons. Almost immediately the economy slumped.
Production fell and the unemployment rate rose above
9 percent, about twice the postwar average. The presi-
dent was forced to ask for tax cuts and other measures
aimed at stimulating business activity. This made infla-
tion worse and did little to promote employment. The
economic problems were difficult, and Ford was hand-
icapped by the fact that the Democrats had solid con-
trol of Congress, but his performance was at best inept.
The Fall of South Vietnam
Depressing news about the economy was compounded
by disheartening events in Vietnam. In January 1975,
after two years of a bloody “cease-fire” (Hanoi charged
Saigon with 301,000 violations; and Saigon charged its
adversary with 35,673), North Vietnam attacked just
south of the seventeenth parallel, commencing its two-
year plan to conquer South Vietnam. The South
Vietnamese army retreated, then fled, and finally dis-
solved with a rapidity that astonished their attackers.
Ford had always supported the Vietnam War. As
the military situation deteriorated, he urged Congress
to pour more arms into the South to stem the North
Vietnamese advance. The legislators flatly refused to
do so, and on May 1, 1975, the Viet Cong and
North Vietnamese entered Saigon, which they
renamed Ho Chi Minh City. The long Vietnam War
was finally over.Ford versus Carter
Ford’s uninspiring record on the economy and foreign
policy suggested that he would be vulnerable in 1976.
That year the Democrats chose Jimmy Carter, a former
governor of Georgia, as their candidate. Carter’s rise
from almost total obscurity was even more spectacular
than that of George McGovern in 1972 and was made
possible by the same forces: television, the democrati-
zation of the delegate-selection process, and the
absence of a dominant leader among the Democrats.
Carter had been a naval officer and a substantial
peanut farmer and warehouse owner before entering
politics. He was elected governor of Georgia in 1970.
While governor he won something of a reputation as a
southern public official who treated black citizens fairly.
(He hung a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr., in his
office.) Carter’s political style was informal. During the
campaign for delegates he turned his inexperience in
national politics to advantage, emphasizing his lack of
connection with the Washington establishment ratherThe rapid collapse of the South Vietnamese army in 1975 caught many by surprise. Here evacuees form a line on the roof of the U.S. embassy in
Saigon, hoping to crowd into the last helicopters leaving the country before the North Vietnamese took over.