[Maelstorm]

It doesn’t change the fact he could’ve taken some action outside of ordering a full deployment. He didn’t.

[JasonC]

He asked Congress with $722 million for emergency military assistance to South Vietnam. They told him to get lost. He asked for clarification of his authority to use force to protect the lives of American servicemen still in country e.g. at the embassy. They gave him none. When there are already 10 NVA divisions inside the country and ARVN was collapsing, he asked for $300 million to fund evacuation efforts. They said no.

Nor was this an aberration. The following year, after already seeing the consequences, they passed another law preventing any discretionary use of funds by Ford to prevent a communist takeover in Angola. Communists took over Angola.

It was not Ford's fault, it was all the congress, and before that Nixon having the bad sense to break laws and get caught.