Jimmy Carter

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James Earl Carter, Jr.
39th President of the United States
In office January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981
Vice President(s)	Walter Mondale
Preceded by	Gerald Ford
Succeeded by	Ronald Reagan
76th Governor of Georgia
In office January 12, 1971 – January 14, 1975
Lieutenant(s)	Lester Maddox
Preceded by	Lester Maddox
Succeeded by	George Busbee
Born	October 1, 1924 (age 82) Plains, Georgia, USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Rosalynn Carter
Religion	Baptist
Signature

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) was the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and the Nobel Peace laureate of 2002. Prior to becoming president, Carter served two terms in the Georgia Senate, and was the 76th Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.

Carter's presidency saw the creation of two cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy ^[1], removed price controls from domestic petroleum production ^[2], and advocated for less American reliance on foreign oil sources. He bolstered the Social Security system by introducing a staggered increase in the payroll tax. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. He explicitly identified the support of basic human rights as a critical component of American foreign policy ^[3]. The final year of his term was dominated by the Iran hostage crisis, during which the United States struggled to rescue diplomats and American citizens held hostage in Tehran.

After leaving office, Carter founded the Carter Center to promote global health, democracy and human rights. He has traveled extensively to monitor international elections, conduct peace negotiations and establish relief efforts. As of 2007, he is the earliest living president and the second-oldest living president.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Early political career 2.1 State Senate 2.2 Campaign for governor 3 Governor of Georgia 4 1976 presidential campaign 5 Presidency (1977–1981) 5.1 Economic situation 5.2 Energy crisis 5.3 Domestic policies 5.4 Foreign policies 5.4.1 South Korea 5.4.2 Arab-Israeli conflict 5.4.3 Camp David Accords 5.4.4 Rapid Deployment Forces 5.4.5 Human Rights 5.4.6 People's Republic of China 5.4.7 Panama Canal Treaties 5.4.8 Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) 5.4.9 Intervention in Afghanistan 5.4.10 Hostage crisis 5.5 Administration and cabinet 5.6 Other matters 5.7 1980 election 6 Post-presidency 6.1 Humanitarian work 6.2 U.S. politics 6.3 Diplomacy 6.4 Palestine Peace Not Apartheid 6.5 Accolades 6.6 Legacy 7 Books by Carter 8 Notes 9 Bibliography 10 External links 10.1 Biographical pages 10.2 Other links 11 See also

[edit] Early years

Jimmy Carter descended from a family that had resided in Georgia for several generations. His great-grandfather Private L.B. Walker Carter (1832–1874) served in the Confederate States Army in the Sumter Flying Artillery, seeing considerable action at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Jimmy Carter, the first President born in a hospital^[4], was the oldest of four children of James Earl and Lillian Gordy Carter. He was born and grew up in the tiny southwest Georgia hamlet of Plains near the larger town of Americus. Carter was a gifted student from an early age who always had a fondness for reading. By the time he attended Plains High School, he was also a star in basketball and football. He was greatly influenced by one of his high school teachers, Julia Coleman. Ms. Coleman was handicapped by polio. She had encouraged young Jimmy to read War and Peace; he was disappointed to find that there were no cowboys or Indians in the book. Carter mentioned his beloved teacher in his inaugural address as an example of someone who beat overwhelming odds. Carter had three younger siblings. His brother, Billy (1937–1988), caused some political problems for him during his administration. His sister, Gloria (1926–1990), was low-key and was famous for collecting and riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles. His other sister, Ruth (1929–1983), became a well-known Christian evangelist.

He attended Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Institute of Technology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. ^[5] Carter was a gifted student and finished 59th out of his Academy class of 820. Carter served on submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. He was later selected by Captain (later Admiral) Hyman G. Rickover for the U.S. Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program, where he became a qualified command officer. Rickover was a demanding officer, and Carter was greatly influenced by him. Carter later said that next to his parents, Admiral Rickover had the greatest influence on him. There was a story he often told of being interviewed by the Admiral. He was asked about his rank in his class at the Naval Academy. Carter said "Sir, I graduated 59th out of a class of 820". Rickover only asked "Did you always do your best?" Carter was forced to admit he had not, and the Admiral asked why. Carter later used this as the theme of his presidential campaign, and as the title of his first book, "Why Not The Best?" Carter loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations. Carter did some post-graduate work, studying nuclear physics and reactor technology for several months at Union College starting in March 1953. He married Rosalynn Smith in 1946. They had three sons, (John William "Jack" Carter, born in 1947; James Earl "Chip" Carter III, born in 1950; and Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" Carter, born in 1952), and a daughter (Amy Lynn Carter, in 1967). Upon the death of his father in July 1953, however, Lieutenant Carter immediately resigned his commission and was discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953.^[6][7] This cut short his nuclear power training school and he was never able to command a nuclear submarine, as the first of the fleet was launched January 17, 1955, over a year after his discharge from the Navy. ^[8]

He then took over and expanded his family's peanut farming business in Plains. There he was involved in a farming accident which left him with a permanently bent finger.

From a young age, Carter showed a deep commitment to Christianity, serving as a Sunday School teacher throughout his life. Even as President, Carter prayed several times a day, and professed that Jesus Christ was the driving force in his life. Carter had been greatly influenced by a sermon he had heard as a young man, called, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"^[9]

[edit] Early political career

[edit] State Senate

Jimmy Carter started his career by serving on various local boards, governing such entities as the schools, hospital, and library, among others. In the 1960s, he served two terms in the Georgia Senate from the fourteenth district of Georgia.

His 1962 election to the state Senate, which followed the end of Georgia's County Unit System (per the Supreme Court case of Gray v. Sanders), was chronicled in his book Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age. The election involved corruption led by Joe Hurst, the sheriff of Quitman County; system abuses included votes from deceased persons and tallies filled with people who supposedly voted in alphabetical order. It took a challenge of the fraudulent results for Carter to win the election. Carter was reelected in 1964, to serve a second two-year term.

[edit] Campaign for governor

In 1966, at the end of his career as a state senator, he flirted with the idea of running for the United States House of Representatives. His Republican opponent dropped out and decided to run for Governor of Georgia. Carter did not want to see a Republican governor of his state and, in turn, dropped out of the race for Congress and joined the race to become governor. Carter lost the Democratic primary, but drew enough votes as a third place candidate to force the favorite, Ellis Arnall, into a run-off, setting off a chain of events which resulted in the election of Lester Maddox.

For the next four years, Carter returned to his agriculture business and carefully planned for his next campaign for governor in 1970, making over 1,800 speeches throughout the state.

During his 1970 campaign, he ran an uphill populist campaign in the Democratic primary against former Governor Carl Sanders, labeling his opponent "Cufflinks Carl." Although Carter had never been a segregationist—he had refused to join the segregationist White Citizens' Council, prompting a boycott of his peanut warehouse; and he had been one of only two families which voted to admit blacks to the Plains Baptist Church^[10] —he "said things the segregationists wanted to hear," according to historian E. Stanly Godbold. Carter did not condemn Alabama firebrand George Wallace, and Carter's campaign aides handed out photographs of his opponent, showing Sanders associating with black basketball players.^[11] He also chastised Sanders for not inviting Wallace to address the State Assembly during his tenure as Governor. Following his close victory over Sanders in the primary, he was elected governor over Republican Hal Suit.

[edit] Governor of Georgia

Carter declared in his inaugural speech that the time of racial segregation was over, and that racial discrimination had no place in the future of the state. He was the first statewide office holder in the Deep South to say this in public. Afterwards Carter appointed many African Americans to statewide boards and offices.

Carter made government efficient by merging about 300 state agencies into 30 agencies. One of his aides recalled that Governor Carter "was right there with us, working just as hard, digging just as deep into every little problem. It was his program and he worked on it as hard as anybody, and the final product was distinctly his." He also pushed reforms through the legislature, providing equal state aid to schools in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia, set up community centers for mentally handicapped children, and increased educational programs for convicts. Carter took pride in a program he introduced for the appointment of judges and state government officials. Under this program, all such appointments were based on merit, rather than political influence.

In 1972, as U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was marching toward the Democratic nomination for President, Carter called a news conference in Atlanta to warn that McGovern was unelectable. Carter criticized McGovern as too liberal on both foreign and domestic policy, yet when McGovern's nomination became a foregone conclusion Carter lobbied to become his vice-presidential running mate. The remarks attracted little national attention, and after McGovern's huge loss in the general election, Carter's attitude was not held against him within the Democratic Party.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Georgia's death penalty law in 1972, Carter signed new legislation to authorize the death penalty for murder, rape and other offenses and to implement trial procedures which would conform to the newly-announced constitutional requirements. In 1976 the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's new death penalty for murder; the death penalty was subsequently held unconstitutional as applied to rape.

In 1974, Carter was chairman of the Democratic National Committee's congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.

[edit] 1976 presidential campaign

Main article: United States presidential election, 1976

When Carter entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1976, he was considered to have little chance against nationally better-known politicians. He had a name recognition of only 2 percent. When he told his family of his intention to run for President, he was asked by his mother, "President of what?" However, Nixon's Watergate scandal was still fresh in the voters' minds, and so his position as an outsider, distant from Washington, D.C., became an asset. The centerpiece of his campaign platform was government reorganization. He chose Senator Walter F. Mondale as his running mate. He attacked Washington in his speeches, and offered a religious salve for the nation's wounds, which was necessary following the Watergate scandal.^[12]

Carter became the front-runner early on by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He used a two-prong strategy. In the South, which most had tacitly conceded to Alabama's George Wallace, Carter ran as a moderate favorite son. When Wallace proved to be a spent force, Carter swept the region. In the North, Carter appealed largely to conservative Christian and rural voters and had little chance of winning a majority in most states. But in a field crowded with liberals, he managed to win several Northern states by building the largest single bloc. Initially dismissed as a regional candidate, Carter proved to be the only Democrat with a truly national strategy, and he eventually clinched the nomination.

The media discovered and promoted Carter. As Lawrence Shoup noted in his 1980 book The Carter Presidency And Beyond:

"What Carter had that his opponents did not was the acceptance and support of elite sectors of the mass communications media. It was their favorable coverage of Carter and his campaign that gave him an edge, propelling him rocket-like to the top of the opinion polls. This helped Carter win key primary election victories, enabling him to rise from an obscure public figure to President-elect in the short space of 9 months."

As late as January 26, 1976, Carter was the first choice of only 4% of Democratic voters, according to the Gallup Poll. Yet "by mid-March 1976 Carter was not only far ahead of the active contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he also led President Ford by a few percentage points," according to Shoup.

Carter began the race with a sizable lead over Ford, who was able to narrow the gap over the course of the campaign, but was unable to prevent Carter from narrowly defeating him on November 2, 1976. Carter won the popular vote by 50.1% to 48.0% for Ford and received 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. This made him the first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote since 1964. He became the first contender from the Deep South to be elected President since 1848. In his inaugural address he said: "We have learned that more is not necessarily better, that even our great nation has its recognized limits, and that we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems."^[13] His first steps in the White House were to reduce the size of the staff by one third, and order cabinet members to drive their own cars.

[edit] Presidency (1977–1981)

[edit] Economic situation

Productivity in the United States had declined to an average annual rate of 1 percent, compared to 3.2 percent of the 1960s. There was also a growing federal budget deficit which increased to 66 billion dollars. The 1970s are described as a period of stagflation, meaning economic stagnation coupled with price inflation, as well as higher interest rates. Price inflation (a rise in the general level of prices) creates uncertainty in budgeting and planning and makes labor strikes for pay raises more likely. In 1973, during the Nixon Administration, OPEC (The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) agreed to reduce supplies of oil available to the world market. This sparked an oil crisis and forced oil prices to rise sharply, spurring price inflation throughout the economy, and slowing growth. Significant government borrowing for items such as the Vietnam War and the nuclear weapons stockpile helped keep interest rates high relative to inflation. Jawboning and price freezes had proved ineffective.

[edit] Energy crisis

Main article: 1979 Energy Crisis

When the energy market exploded — an occurrence Carter desperately tried to avoid during his term — he was planning on delivering his fifth major speech on energy. However, he felt that the American people were no longer listening. Instead, he went to Camp David and for ten days met with governors, mayors, religious leaders, scientists, economists, and general citizens. He sat on the floor and took notes of their comments and especially wanted to hear criticism. His pollster told him that the American people simply faced a crisis of confidence because of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and Watergate. On July 15, 1979, Carter gave a nationally-televised address in which he identified what he believed to be a "crisis of confidence" among the American people. This has come to be known by critics as his "malaise" speech because Carter used the word "malaise" in his televised speech, even though the word "malaise" did not appear anywhere in the officially released text transcript:

I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.... I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.^[14]

Carter's speech, written by Chris Matthews, was well-received by some.^[15] But the country was in the midst of a weak economy dominated by OPEC-influenced double-digit inflation, and many citizens were directly affected by this, causing concern about the federal government's response. Three days after the speech, Carter asked for the resignations of all of his Cabinet officers, and ultimately accepted five. Carter later admitted in his memoirs that he should have simply asked only those five members for their resignation. By asking the entire Cabinet, it gave the appearance that the White House was falling apart.

The economy suffered double-digit inflation, coupled with very high interest rates, oil shortages, high unemployment and slow economic growth. In 1977 Carter had convinced the Democratic Congress to create the United States Department of Energy. Now, promoting its recommendations to conserve energy, Carter wore sweaters, installed solar power panels on the roof of the White House, installed a wood stove in the living quarters, ordered the General Services Administration to turn off hot water in some facilities, and requested that Christmas decorations remain dark in 1979 and 1980. Nationwide controls were put on thermostats in government and commercial buildings to prevent people from raising temperatures in the winter (above 65 degrees Fahrenheit) or lowering them in the summer (below 78 degrees Fahrenheit).

Price inflation caused interest rates to rise to unprecedented levels (above 12% per year). The prime rate hit 21.5% in December 1980, the highest rate in U.S. history under any President.^[16] Investments in fixed income (both bonds and pensions being paid to retired people) were becoming less valuable. With the markets for U.S. government debt coming under pressure, Carter appointed Paul Volcker as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; Volcker replaced G. William Miller who left to become Secretary of the Treasury. Volcker pursued a tight monetary policy to bring down inflation, which he considered his mandate. He succeeded, but only by first going through an unpleasant phase during which the economy slowed and unemployment rose, prior to any relief from inflation.

[edit] Domestic policies

Jimmy Carter's reorganization efforts separated the Department of Health, Education and Welfare into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. Efforts were also made to reduce the number of government departments and employees as Carter had done when he was governor of Georgia. He signed into law a major Civil Service Reform, the first in over a hundred years. Despite calling for a reform of the tax system in his presidential campaign, once in office he did very little to change it.^[17]

On Carter's first day in office, January 21, 1977, he fulfilled a campaign promise by issuing an Executive Order pardoning Vietnam-era draft-dodgers. [15][16].

Initially, Carter was fairly successful in getting legislation through Congress, such as canceling the B-1 bomber program (mainly production of the B-1 Lancer), but then he met with opposition from the leadership of the Democratic Party when he characterized a rivers and harbors bill as "pork barrel" spending. In apparent retaliation, Congress responded by refusing to pass major provisions of his consumer protection bill and his labor reform package. Carter then vetoed a public works package calling it "inflationary", as it contained what he considered to be wasteful spending. Congressional leaders sensed that public support for his legislation was weak, and took advantage of it. After gutting his consumer protection bill, they transformed his tax plan into nothing more than spending for special interests, after which Carter referred to the congressional tax committees as "ravenous wolves."

Carter signed legislation greatly increasing the payroll tax for Social Security, and appointed record numbers of women, blacks, and Hispanics to government and judiciary jobs. He also initiated a comprehensive urban policy. His Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act created 103 million acres (417,000 km²) of national park land in Alaska. He was also successful in somewhat deregulating the trucking, rail, airline, communications, oil and finance industries.

[edit] Foreign policies

[edit] South Korea

During his first month in office Carter cut the defense budget by $6 Billion. One of his first acts was to order the unilateral removal of all nuclear weapons from South Korea and announce his intention to cut back the number of US troops stationed there. Other military men confined intense criticism of the withdrawal to private conversations or testimony before congressional committees, but in 1977 Major General John K. Singlaub, chief of staff of U.S. forces in South Korea, publicly criticized President Carter's decision to lower the U.S. troop level there. On March 21, 1977, Carter relieved him of duty, saying his publicly stated sentiments were "inconsistent with announced national security policy".^[18][19] Carter planned to remove all but 14,000 U.S. air force personnel and logistics specialists by 1982, but after cutting only 3,600 troops, he was forced to abandon the effort in 1978. [17]

[edit] Arab-Israeli conflict

Carter's Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski paid close attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Diplomatic relations between both Israel and Egypt were significantly increased after the Yom Kippur War and the Carter administration felt that the time was right for comprehensive solution to the conflict.

[edit] Camp David Accords

One of Carter's most important accomplishments as President were the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978. They were a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt negotiated by President Carter, which followed up on earlier negotiations conducted in the Middle East. In these negotiations King Hassan II of Morocco acted as a negotiator between Arab interests and Israel, and Nicolae Ceauşescu of Romania acted as go-between for Israel and the PLO (the Palestinian Liberation Organization, unofficial representative of the Palestinian people). Once initial negotiations had been completed, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat approached Carter for assistance. Carter then invited Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Sadat to Camp David to continue the negotiations. The Camp David Accords produced two frameworks for peace between Egypt and Israel, and a peace treaty was later signed on March 26, 1979.

[edit] Rapid Deployment Forces

On October 1, 1979, President Carter announced before a television audience the existence of the Rapid Deployment Forces (RDF), a mobile fighting force capable of responding to worldwide trouble spots, without drawing on forces committed to NATO. The RDF was the forerunner of CENTCOM.

[edit] Human Rights

President Carter initially departed from the long-held policy of containment toward the Soviet Union. In its place Carter promoted a foreign policy that placed human rights at the forefront. This was a break from the policies of several predecessors, in which human rights abuses were often overlooked if they were committed by a nation that was allied with the United States. The Carter Administration ended support to the historically U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua and gave aid to pro-U.S. factions of the Sandinista National Liberation Front Revolution after Somoza had been overthrown. However, Carter ignored a plea from El Salvador's Archbishop Óscar Romero not to send military aid to that country. Romero was later assassinated for his criticism of El Salvador's violation of human rights.

Carter continued his predecessors' policies of imposing sanctions on Rhodesia, and, after Bishop Abel Muzorewa was elected Prime Minister, protested that the Marxists Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo had been excluded from the elections. Strong pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom prompted new elections in what was then called Zimbabwe Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Carter was also known for his criticism of Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, Augusto Pinochet (who was forced to grant Chile a constitution providing for a transition back into democracy), the apartheid government of South Africa and other traditional allies.

[edit] People's Republic of China

See also Sino-American relations

Carter continued the policy of Richard Nixon to normalize relations with the People's Republic of China by granting full diplomatic and trade relations, thus ending official relations and the mutual defense pact with Taiwan (though the two nations continued to trade and the U.S. unofficially recognized Taiwan through the Taiwan Relations Act). In the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations dated January 1, 1979, the United States transferred diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The U.S. reiterated the Shanghai Communiqué's acknowledgment of the Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is a part of China; Beijing acknowledged that the American people would continue to carry on commercial, cultural, and other unofficial contacts with the people of Taiwan.

[edit] Panama Canal Treaties

One of the most controversial moves of President Carter's presidency was the final negotiation and signature of the Panama Canal Treaties in September 1977. Those treaties, which essentially would transfer control of the American-built Panama Canal to the nation of Panama, were bitterly opposed by a segment of the American public and by the Republican Party. A common argument against the treaties was that the United States was transferring an American asset of great strategic value to an unstable and corrupt country led by a brutal military dictator (Omar Torrijos). After the signature of the Canal treaties, in June 1978, Jimmy Carter visited Panama with his wife and twelve U.S. Senators, amid widespread student disturbances against the Torrijos dictatorship. Carter then began urging the Torrijos regime to soften its policies and move Panama towards gradual democratization. This treaty ultimately helped relations with Panama and Latin America.

[edit] Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT)

A key foreign policy issue Carter worked laboriously on was the SALT II Treaty, which reduced the number of nuclear arms produced and/or maintained by both the United States and the Soviet Union. SALT is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks, negotiations conducted between the US and the USSR. The work of Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon brought about the SALT I treaty, which had itself reduced the number of nuclear arms produced, but Carter wished to further this reduction. It was his main goal (as was stated in his Inaugural Address) that nuclear weaponry be completely banished from the face of the Earth.

Carter and Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, reached an agreement to this end in 1979 — the SALT II Treaty, despite opposition in Congress to ratifying it, as many thought it weakened US defenses. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan late in 1979 however, Carter withdrew the treaty from consideration by Congress and the treaty was never ratified (though it was signed by both Carter and Brezhnev). Even so, both sides honored the commitments laid out in the negotiations.

[edit] Intervention in Afghanistan

In December 1979, the USSR invaded Afghanistan, after the pro-Moscow Afghanistan government (put in power by a 1978 coup) was overthrown. Some believed the Soviets were attempting to expand their borders southward in order to gain a foothold in the region.

After all, the Soviet Union had long lacked a warm water port, and their movement south seemed to position them for further expansion toward Pakistan and India in the East, and Iran to the West. American politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, feared that the Soviets were positioning themselves for a takeover of Middle Eastern oil. Others believed that the Soviet Union was fearful that the Muslim uprising in Iran and Afghanistan would spread to the millions of Muslims still in the USSR. In a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted that the United States began sending aid to anti-Soviet Afghan Islamist factions on July 3, 1979, nearly six months before the Soviet invasion. Brzezinski told Le Nouvel Observateur that this secretly provoked war gave America "the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war". Full Text of Interview

After the invasion, Carter announced what became known as the Carter Doctrine: that the US would not allow any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf. He terminated the Russian Wheat Deal, which was intended to establish trade with USSR and lessen Cold War tensions. The grain exports had been beneficial to people employed in agriculture, and the Carter embargo marked the beginning of hardship for American farmers. He also prohibited Americans from participating in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and reinstated registration for the draft for young males.

Carter and Brzezinski started a $40 billion covert program of training Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a part of the efforts to foil the Soviets' apparent plans. On the surface as well, Carter's diplomatic policies towards Pakistan in particular changed drastically. The administration had cut off financial aid to the country in early 1979 when religious fundamentalists, encouraged by the prevailing Islamist military dictatorship over Pakistan, burnt down a US Embassy based there. The international stake in Pakistan, however, had greatly increased with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The then-President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, was offered 400 million dollars to subsidize the anti-communist Mujahideen in Afghanistan by Carter. General Zia declined the offer as insufficient, famously declaring it to be "peanuts"; and the US was forced to step up aid to Pakistan.

Reagan would later expand this program greatly to combat Cold War concerns presented by Russia at the time. In retrospect, this contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Critics of this policy blame Carter and Reagan for the resulting instability of post-Soviet Afghan governments, which led to the rise of Islamic theocracy in the region, and also created many of the current problems with Islamic fundamentalism.

[edit] Hostage crisis

Main article: Iran hostage crisis

The main conflict between human rights and U.S. interests came in Carter's dealings with the Shah of Iran. The Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had been a strong ally of America since World War II and was one of the "twin pillars" upon which U.S. strategic policy in the Middle East was built. However, his rule was strongly autocratic, and he went along with the plan of the Eisenhower Administration to depose Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. Though Carter praised the Shah as a wise and valuable leader, when the Iranian Revolution broke out in Iran, which led to the overthrow of the monarchy, the U.S. did not intervene. The Shah was subsequently deposed and exiled.

Despite having previously denied the Shah entry into the United States for medical treatment, on October 22, 1979, Carter finally granted him entry and temporary asylum for the duration of his cancer treatment; the Shah left for Panama on December 15, 1979. In response to the Shah's entry into the U.S., Iranian militants seized the American embassy in Tehran, taking 53 Americans hostage, soldiers as well as diplomats. ^[20] The Iranians demanded (1) the return of the Shah to Iran for trial, (2) the return of the Shah's wealth to the Iranian people, (3) an admission of guilt by the United States for its past actions in Iran, plus an apology, and (4) a promise from the United States not to interfere in Iran's affairs in the future. Though later that year the Shah left the U.S. and died in Egypt, the hostage crisis continued and dominated the last year of Carter's presidency, even though almost half of the hostages were released. The subsequent responses to the crisis—from a "Rose Garden strategy" of staying inside the White House, to the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the hostages—were largely seen as contributing to Carter's defeat in the 1980 election.

After the hostages were taken, President Carter issued, on November 14, 1979, Executive Order 12170 - Blocking Iranian Government property,^[21] which was used to freeze the bank accounts of the Iranian government in US banks, totaling about $8 billion US at the time. This was to be used as a bargaining chip for the release of the hostages.

The Iranians then changed their demand to return of the Shah and the release of the Iranian money. Through informal channels the Iranian government started negotiations with the banks holding the money. The banks took over negotiations for the release of the hostages, not the U.S. State Department. When the Shah died of cancer in the summer of 1980, the Iranians wanted no more to do with the hostages and changed their demands to just the release of the hostages in exchange for the return of their money. Why the deal was not struck at that point is never explained, since it was the same deal that the Iranians received in January 1981. The hostages were finally released with the signing of Executive Orders 12277 through 12285, releasing all assets belonging to the Iranian government and all assets belonging to the Shah found within the United States and the guarantee that the hostages would have no legal claim against the Iranian government that would be heard in U.S. courts. Iran, however, also agreed to place $1 billion dollars of the frozen assets in an escrow account and both Iran and the United States agreed to the creation of a tribunal to adjudicate claims by U.S. Nationals against Iran for compensation for property lost by them or contracts breached by Iran. The tribunal, known as the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, has awarded over $2 billion dollars to U.S. claimaints and has been described as one of the most important arbitration bodies in the history of International Law.^[22]

[edit] Administration and cabinet

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Jimmy Carter	1977–1981
Vice President	Walter Mondale	1977–1981
State	Cyrus Vance	1977–1980
	Edmund Muskie	1980–1981
Treasury	W. Michael Blumenthal	1977–1979
	G. William Miller	1979–1981
Defense	Harold Brown	1977–1981
Justice	Griffin Bell	1977–1979
	Benjamin R. Civiletti	1979–1981
Interior	Cecil D. Andrus	1977–1981
Commerce	Juanita M. Kreps	1977–1979
	Philip M. Klutznick	1979–1981
Labor	Ray Marshall	1977–1981
Agriculture	Robert Bergland	1977–1981
HEW	Joseph A. Califano, Jr.	1977–1979
HHS	Patricia R. Harris	1979–1981
Education	Shirley M. Hufstedler	1979–1981
HUD	Patricia R. Harris	1977–1979
	Moon Landrieu	1979–1981
Transportation	Brock Adams	1977–1979
	Neil E. Goldschmidt	1979–1981
Energy	James R. Schlesinger	1977–1979
	Charles W. Duncan	1979–1981

[edit] Other matters

Amongst Presidents who served at least one full term, Carter is the only one who never made an appointment to the Supreme Court.

During his administration, Carter, his family and all of his White House staff took the first English language speed reading course ever developed. ^{[23] [24]}

[edit] 1980 election

Main article: U.S. presidential election, 1980

Carter lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. The popular vote went approximately 51%, or 43.9 million popular votes, for Reagan and 41%, or 35.5 million, for Carter. However, because Carter's support was not concentrated in any geographic region, Reagan won a landslide 91% of the electoral vote, leaving Carter with only six states and the District of Columbia. Independent candidate John B. Anderson won seven percent, 5.7 million of the vote. Reagan carried a total of 489 votes compared to Carter's 49.

A public perception that the Carter Administration had been ineffectual in addressing the Iranian hostage crisis may have contributed to his defeat. Although the Carter team had successfully negotiated with the hostage takers for release of the hostages, an agreement trusting the hostage takers to abide by their word was not signed until January 19, 1981, after the election of Ronald Reagan. The hostages had been held captive for 444 days, and their release happened just minutes after Carter left office. However, Reagan asked Carter to go to Germany to greet the hostages.

During his campaign, Carter was mocked for an encounter with a rabbit while fishing on a farm pond on April 20, 1979^[25].

[edit] Post-presidency

In 1981, he returned to Georgia to his peanut farm, which unfortunately had left him in debt for 1 million dollars. He devoted his time to building his presidential library.^[26]

Since leaving the presidency, Carter has written 21 books.

Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are the longest-living post-presidential team in American history. On December 11, 2006, they had been out of office for 25 years and 325 days, surpassing the former record established by President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who both died on July 4, 1826.

In ten surveys of historians which ranked US presidents, which included over 1000 scholars, the ranking of Carter's presidency ranged from #19 to #34. These rankings are similar to those of Gerald Ford, Chester Arthur and Herbert Hoover. While at the time he left office Carter's presidency was viewed by many as a failure, his activities since leaving office, especially his many peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts, have led to a more favorable view of him.^[27]

Jimmy Carter is also noted as a fantastic cook: he appeared on the popular Food Network show, Paula's Home Cooking, starring the "spicy" Paula Deen. Carter appeared in two episodes. In one episode, he gave Deen a tour of his hometown of Plains. In another episode, Carter invited her on a tour of his "boyhood" home, and they ended the visit while cooking in his own kitchen.

[edit] Humanitarian work

Carter has been involved in a variety of national and international public policy, conflict resolution, human rights and charitable causes. He established the Carter Center in 1982 in Atlanta to advance human rights and alleviate unnecessary human suffering. The center promotes democracy, mediates and prevents conflicts, and monitors the electoral process in support of free and fair elections. The center also works to improve global health through the control and eradication of diseases such as Guinea worm disease, malaria, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. A major accomplishment of the Carter Center has been the elimination of 99.5% of cases of Guinea worm disease, a debilitating parasite that has existed since ancient times, from more than 3.5 million cases in 1986 to fewer than 11,000 cases in 2005. Mrs. Carter's mental health program at the Center aims to reduce stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses.

He and his wife are also well-known for their work with Habitat for Humanity, a program that helps poor people to afford their first home.

Carter was the third U.S. President, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize award. In his Nobel Lecture, Carter told the European audience that U.S. actions after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the 1991 Gulf War, like NATO itself, was a continuation of President Wilson's doctrine of collective security. ^[28] In addition, President Carter is a recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism.

[edit] U.S. politics

In 2001, Carter criticized President Clinton's controversial pardon of Marc Rich, calling it "disgraceful" and suggesting that Rich's financial contributions to the Democratic Party was a factor in Clinton's action.^[29]

In September 2006, Carter was interviewed on the BBC's current affairs program Newsnight, voicing his concern at the increasing influence of the Religious Right on U.S. politics.^{[citation needed]}

In an article in its 19 January 2007 edition, the New York Sun claimed that it had obtained a copy of a note which the Sun alleges shows that, in 1987, Carter had "interceded" on behalf of Martin Bartesch. Bartesch was deported from the U.S. in 1987 for concealing the fact that he had served as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp. According to the Sun, Carter forwarded a letter he had received from Bartesch's daughter to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations, adding a handwritten note that stated "I hope that, in cases like this, that special consideration can be given to affected families for humanitarian reasons."^[30]

[edit] Diplomacy

In 1994 Carter persuaded President Clinton to send him on a mission to North Korea.^[31] North Korea had expelled investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency and was threatening to begin processing spent nuclear fuel. Carter met with North Korean President Kim Il Sung, resulting in the signing of the Agreed Framework, under which North Korea agreed to stop processing nuclear fuel in exchange for a return to normalized relations, oil deliveries and two light water reactors to replace its graphite reactors.

The Agreed Framework negotiated by Jimmy Carter was widely hailed at the time as a diplomatic achievement, but in 2005 North Korea announced that it had nuclear weapons and on October 9, 2006 backed up this assertion with the underground detonation of a low-yield nuclear device. Carter's supporters attributed the failure of the agreement to continued sanctions by a Republican-controlled Congress. Their opponents claimed the North Korean government never intended to give up its nuclear weapons program.^[32]

Carter visited Cuba in May 2002 and met with Fidel Castro. He was allowed to address the Cuban public on national television with a speech that he wrote and presented in Spanish. This made Carter the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since the Cuban revolution of 1959.

A popular petition resulted in Venezuela holding a recall election on August 15, 2004, and Carter was there to observe it. European Union observers had declined to participate, saying too many restrictions were put on them by the Chávez administration.^[33] A record number of voters turned out to defeat the recall attempt with a 59% "no" vote.^[34] The Carter Center "concluded the results were accurate."^[35] On the afternoon of August 16, 2004, the day after the vote, Carter and OAS Secretary General César Gaviria gave a joint press conference in which they endorsed the preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Council. The monitors' findings "coincided with the partial returns announced today by the National Elections Council" said Carter, while Gaviria added that the OAS electoral observation mission's members had "found no element of fraud in the process". Directing his remarks at opposition figures who made claims of "widespread fraud" in the voting, Carter called on all Venezuelans to "accept the results and work together for the future". ^[36] However, a Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) exit poll had predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%, and when the election results showed him to have won by 20% Schoen commented, "I think it was a massive fraud". ^[37] US News and World Report offered an analysis of the polls, indicating "very good reason to believe that the (Penn, Schoen & Berland) exit poll had the result right, and that Chávez's election officials — and Carter and the American media — got it wrong". The Schoen exit poll and the government's programming of election machines became the basis of claims of election fraud.

In March 2004, Carter condemned George W. Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war "based upon lies and misinterpretations" in order to oust Saddam Hussein. He claimed that Blair had allowed his better judgment to be swayed by Bush's desire to finish a war that George H. W. Bush (his father) had started.^{[citation needed]} In August 2006, Carter criticized Blair for being "subservient" to the Bush administration and accused Blair of giving unquestioning support to any "radical or ill-advised" policy adopted by Bush.^[38]

In June 2005, Carter urged the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba, which has been the center point for recent claims of prisoner abuse.

Presidents Clinton, George H.W. and George W. Bush are said to have been less than pleased with Carter's "freelance" diplomacy in Korea, Iraq and elsewhere.^[39][40]

Carter has also in recent years become a frequent critic of Israel and the US foreign policy in support of Israel.^[41][42] On August 15, 2006, Carter said in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel "I don't think Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon" (referring to the Israel-Hezbollah war of that summer) and in the same interview, "I represent the vast majority of Democrats."^[43] The Republican Jewish Coalition used these two quotes in full-page ads published in major Jewish papers across the US.^[44]

[edit] Palestine Peace Not Apartheid

Main articles: Palestine Peace Not Apartheid and Commentary on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid

In his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (summary), published in November 2006, Carter states that "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land."^[45] While he recognises that Arab citizens in Israel proper have equal rights,^[46] he declares that Israel's current policies in the Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights."^[47] In an Op-Ed entitled "Speaking Frankly about Israel and Palestine", published in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, Carter states: "The ultimate purpose of my book is to present facts about the Middle East that are largely unknown in America, to precipitate discussion and to help restart peace talks (now absent for six years) that can lead to permanent peace for Israel and its neighbors. Another hope is that Jews and other Americans who share this same goal might be motivated to express their views, even publicly, and perhaps in concert. I would be glad to help with that effort."^[48] While some have praised Carter for speaking honestly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a media environment some say is hostile to opposition to support for Israel's policies, others have accused him of anti-Israeli bias and of making significant factual errors and misstatements in the book.^[49]

[edit] Accolades

Carter has received honorary degrees from many American colleges, including Harvard University, Emory University (where he is currently a professor), Bates College and the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2000, Carter received the James A. Van Fleet Award from The Korea Society.

On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Carter and the other then living former Presidents (Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

Because he had served as a submariner (the only President to have done so), a submarine was named for him. The USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) was named on April 27, 1998, making it one of the very few U.S. Navy vessels to be named for a person still alive at the time of the naming. In February 2005, both Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter spoke at the commissioning ceremony for this submarine.

Carter is a University Distinguished Professor at Emory University, and teaches occasional classes there. Every year since the early 1980s he has an open question and answer session with the freshman class at the university.^{[citation needed]} He also teaches a Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. Being an accomplished amateur woodworker, he has occasionally been featured in the pages of Fine Wood Working magazine, which is published by Taunton Press.

Carter has also participated in many ceremonial events such as the opening of his own presidential library and those of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. He has also participated in many forums, lectures, panels, funerals and other events. Carter delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Coretta Scott King and, most recently, at the funeral of his former political rival, but later his close personal friend and diplomatic collaborator, Gerald Ford.

At the 2007 Grammy Awards Carter won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, tying the late actor Ossie Davis and his wife Ruby Dee in that category.

Whether Carter will be included in the Presidential $1 Coin Program depends on whether he is still alive in 2014.

President Carter has received many honors throughout his life. Among the most significant honors were the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Others include:

[edit] Legacy

President Carter may break ties with tradition, and be buried in front of his home in Plains, Georgia, and not at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Every President since Herbert Hoover has been buried at their presidential library (with the exception of John F. Kennedy, who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who is buried at his own ranch). Both President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were born in Plains. Carter also noted that a funeral in Washington, D.C. with visitation at the Carter Center is being planned as well. [18]

[edit] Books by Carter

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

• Extensive essay on Jimmy Carter and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
• Full audio of Carter speeches via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)
• Extensive collection of Oral History Transcripts on the Carter Administration from the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)
• Jimmy Carter Library and Museum
• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation
• Text and Audio of Carter's Crisis of Confidence (Malaise) Speech
• Text and Notes to Carter's Undelivered Energy Speech

[edit] Biographical pages

• Biography, via whitehouse.gov
• Biography, via Britannica.com - Jimmy Carter
• Biography via ourgeorgiahistory.com
• Biography, via geocities.com
• Navy Years, via submarinehistory.com

[edit] Other links

• Interview about the SALT II negotiations for the WGBH series
• War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
• Inaugural Address of Jimmy Carter via re-quest.net
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Jimmy Carter
• State of the Union Addresses: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 (written message) at UCSB's American Presidency Project
• Audio recordings of Carter's speeches, via Michigan State University
• Nobel lecture, Oslo, Norway (December 10, 2002)
  • Nobel Prize for Carter
• About the malaise speech, via PBS
  • The malaise speech text, via PBS
• The 1980 October Surprise
• "The U.S. President was here" — about Carterpuri, a village in Haryana, India named after President Carter
• Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940–1990 Chap. 3 The Carter Years
• Carter's hand written UFO sighting report of 1969
• Carter's church and Sunday school teaching schedule
• More information about the "killer rabbit" incident
• Works by Jimmy Carter at Project Gutenberg
• Jimmy Carter at the Internet Movie Database
• Jimmy Carter's thoughts on Earth Day 2006
• Carter shares insight on peace in Mideast
• Interview with Jimmy Carter (August 2006)

[edit] See also

• U.S. Presidential Election, 1976
• U.S. Presidential Election, 1980
• The Carter Center in Atlanta
• Jimmy Carter Library and Museum
• USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23)
• History of the United States (1964–1980)
• History of the United States (1980–1988)
• 1979 energy crisis
• Jack Carter (politician) (born 1947), the eldest son of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
• 1977 in United States history

Political offices
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Persondata
NAME	Carter, Jimmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Carter, James Earl, Jr.
SHORT DESCRIPTION	President of the United States
DATE OF BIRTH	October 1, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH	Plains, Georgia, United States
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH	n/a