By Summary
- Beat Ford in the 1976 presidential election, lost by landslide to Reagan in 1980.
- Egypt-Israel peace was top diplomatic achievement.
- Iran hostage crisis consumed last 444 days of presidency.
- In 1979, he bemoaned America’s ‘crisis of confidence.
- Won 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for peacemaker work.
WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (AfrikTimes) – Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
Judge Robert H. Jordan administers the oath of office to Gov. Jimmy Carter at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, Jan. 12, 1971. Next to the judge is former Gov. Lester Maddox, who will take over as lieutenant governor of Georgia.
A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981, after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. general election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president – a status he readily acknowledged.
His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office.
In recent years, Carter experienced several health issues, including melanoma that had spread to his liver and brain. He decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on November 19, 2023, at the age of 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair.
Jimmy Carter speaks to a crowd at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1976. Library of Congress/Thomas J. O’Halloran/Handout via REUTERS
Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Jimmy Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Gerald Ford from vice president.
“I’m Jimmy Carter, and I’m running for president. I will never lie to you,” he declared during his campaign, delivering the line with his trademark ear-to-ear smile.
Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: “The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader.”
Former U.S. presidents Gerald Ford, left, and Jimmy Carter share a private moment during a symposium on ‘New Weapons Technologies and Soviet-American Relations’ at the University of Michigan in this Nov. 14, 1984.
A devout Southern Baptist and Sunday school teacher since his teenage years, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency – walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade.
The Middle East was the focus of Carter’s foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David Accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The agreement led to Israeli’s withdrawal from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.
President Jimmy Carter, flanked by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, right, and foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, left, walks toward a waiting helicopter to fly to nearby Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Feb. 14, 1979.
By the time of the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter’s presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term.
HOSTAGE CRISIS
On November 4, 1979, revolutionaries loyal to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, capturing Americans and demanding the return of ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert.
Carter’s final ignominy came when Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office on January 20, 1981, to replace Carter. Only then were the planes carrying them to freedom released. In another crisis, Carter protested the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms treaty with Moscow. Unmoved, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, left, President Jimmy Carter, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasp hands to symbolize their agreement after signing the Middle East Peace Treaty at the White House in Washington, March 27, 1979.
“After listening to the American people, I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America,” he said in his televised address. 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. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.”
Carter’s presidency also faced personal challenges. His younger brother, Billy Carter, embarrassed the strait-laced president with his hard-drinking antics and infamous quip: “I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue-Ribbon beer.”
“THERE YOU GO AGAIN”
Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary.
President Jimmy Carter, left, and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., greet Biden supporters at a reception in Wilmington, Del., Feb. 20, 1978.
Ronald Reagan, a conservative who exuded strength and optimism, kept Carter on the defensive during their debates before the November 1980 election. At one point, when Carter appeared to misrepresent Reagan’s positions, Reagan famously retorted, “There you go again,” delivering the line with a mix of humor and dismissal that resonated with viewers.
Carter ultimately lost the 1980 election in a landslide. Reagan won 44 out of 50 states and secured a commanding victory in the Electoral College.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children in a family of modest means. His father was a farmer and shopkeeper, and his upbringing in rural Georgia shaped his values and worldview. Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and served in the nuclear submarine program. He later left the Navy to manage his family’s peanut farming business.
In 1946, Carter married his wife, Rosalynn Smith, a union he often described as “the most important thing in my life.” They had three sons and a daughter.
After becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 1976, Carter raises hands with running mate Walter Mondale at the Democratic National Convention in New York. Standing to Carter’s left is his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter, Amy. Carter ran as a Washington outsider and someone who promised to shake up government.
Carter’s post-presidential years were marked by extensive humanitarian and diplomatic work, though not all his initiatives were appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter’s freelance diplomacy in Iraq and other regions.
President Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd while walking with his wife, Rosalynn, right, and their daughter, Amy, along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington following his inauguration in 1977.
In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most “gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made.” He called George W. Bush’s administration “the worst in history” and said Vice President Dick Cheney was “a disaster for our country.”
In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump’s legitimacy as president, saying “he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” Trump responded by calling Carter “a terrible president.”
Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialogue with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant’s spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton’s administration by announcing the deal with North Korea’s leader without first checking with Washington.
Democratic presidential hopeful, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, right, holds a poster as he mingles with the crowd during a campaign visit in Williamsport, Pa., April 24, 1976.
In 2010, Carter won the release of an American citizen sentenced to eight years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korea, further demonstrating his commitment to diplomacy.
An accomplished author, Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children’s book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book “Faith: A Journey for All,” was published in 2018.
President Jimmy Carter waved during a visit to New England circa 1978.
