President Gerald Ford's Assassination Analysis

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President Gerald Ford was the first president to limit the military and other organizations from assassinations in the American government’s name. This has far reaching consequences and has an increasing political significance in today’s world. But if it were an inconvenience for the United States to be limited like this why would president Ford endorse such an order? Furthermore, how have subsequent presidents interpreted and reacted to this restriction? This question will be answered by researching various political actions and opinions throughout the time span effected by the Executive Order. During the mid 1970s the New York Times’ investigative journalists were reporting on underhand operations performed by the CIA. This is when they found evidence of domestic spying, which was contrary to the CIA’s 1947 charter statement, which stated…show more content…
Terrorists are considered military thr4eats to the security of the United States and would therefore be fair targets. Unfortunately, the word “terrorist” is not clearly defined. But how does the rest of the worldview America’s ban on assassinations? Some see it as finally upholding the Geneva Convention, which it has helped ratify and endorsed in 1947 (SOURCE). Others are skeptical or outright don’t believe America would uphold the Order and finally it is viewed by some as an attempt to regain some integrity after the Watergate scandal and failed assassination attempts of previous administrations. President Ronald Reagan was the last president to officially address the ban on assassinations. However, he set a precedent for interpretations of the ban that did allow individuals to be targeted without deeming it “assassination”. In 1986 the Libyan President Muammar Quaddafi bombed a Berlin club that was often frequented by American troops. In response to this Reagan ordered an air attack on the Palace of Quaddafi justifying it as

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