Video: 'SYND 20 8 74 FORD NOMINATES VICE PRESIDENT'

(Tuesday, August 20, 1974, 10:04 a.m. EDT; during the 1974 United States vice presidential confirmation) — Nelson Rockefeller, the 66-year-old former Governor of New York, was nominated by President Gerald Ford today to become the 41st vice president of the United States.

Ford, making the announcement this morning on television and radio with Rockefeller at his side, said that the prominent multimillionaire political figure would be “a good partner for me and I think a good partner for our country and the world.”

Rockefeller, expressing his honor at the nomination, praised the new president for reawakening “faith and hope” in the American people. He added, “I am optimistic about the long-term future.”

The simple announcement ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House occurred just over 10 months after Ford, in a similar but more ostentatious occasion, was nominated by Richard M. Nixon on Oct. 12 to be the 40th vice president.

Video: 'SYND 20 8 74 NELSON ROCKEFELLER HOLDS A PRESS CONFERENCE'

Ford, who succeeded to the presidency after Nixon’s resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, reportedly chose Rockefeller because he considered the New Yorker the best-qualified Republican in the nation to “step into the Presidency should that need arise.”

Rockefeller was selected despite a poll of Republican leaders showing a preference for Republican National Committee chairman George H. W. Bush. In compensation, Ford offered Bush the chance to be a major U.S. diplomat and Bush would ask to be the first representative to Communist China.

The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives would confirm Rockefeller in December.

Under the terms of the 25th Amendment, a vice presidential vacancy is filled when the president nominates a candidate who is confirmed by both houses of Congress, which were controlled by the Democrats.