Federal Presidential Pardon» Ford, 1974-1977

Vietnam Draft Dodgers

Brian J. Zeiger — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:46:23 +0000

Many American’s were against the Vietnam War. At the time of the draft, the baby boomers were at the center of the draft. Sentiment was that the draft was unfair because the rich and the well educated could escape the draft. Many young people left to go to Canada. The United States prosecuted people who avoided the draft.

President Ford issue conditional amnesty to draft dodgers once the war ended. In 1977, President Carter issued full amnesty to all Vietnam era draft dodgers.

According to experts at the time, some 50,000 draft dodgers remained in Canada even after Carter’s full amnesty.

UH-1D Helicopter used to deploy men in the Vietnam War

Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder

Brian J. Zeiger — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:58:19 +0000

Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder, was convicted of interstate gambling by giving a tip on a college football game while in Nevada to someone in other state about a game in Utah. He was convicted of a type of illegal interstate gambling. Imagine if he had FullTilt.

Unable to work in the mainstream of gambling in Las Vegas, if you can believe it, he opened a public relations firm in Vegas and made a living. Eventually, he was pardoned by Ford. That allowed him to go to CBS Sports and be the first true gambler to make gambling mainstream. He never talked about point spreads on television. Instead he would respond to Brent Musburger, and say that he thought one team would win by 3, then look at the camera with a knowing look.

His ultimate demise came not from his conviction, but from racist comments he made about African Americans. No one could commute that sentence.

Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder

Ford's Pardon of Nixon

Brian J. Zeiger — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:45:47 +0000

Probably the most infamous pardon in our history is Ford’s Pardon of Nixon. The Watergate scandal lead to Nixon’s fall. What makes this pardon noteworthy is why Ford would pardon Nixon at all. A question remains whether the pardon was a quid pro quo; i.e. that Nixon agreed to make Ford president if Ford agreed to pardon tricky dick.

We will never know.

The people did not elect Ford to a second term. After his presidency, Ford cited to Burdick. Ford’s rationale was that by Nixon accepting the pardon, he implicitly acknowledged his illegal acts in Watergate.